Conversation with capnjaqisparrow at Sun 13 Apr 2008 08:03:23 PM EDT on aimsmirk (aim)
(08:04:52 PM) Me: do you think there is any unifying theme connecting, say, the character designs in Tim Burton films like Nightmare Before Christmas, and the attire of "hipsters" or "punks?"
(08:05:49 PM) Sasha: not off hand
(08:09:34 PM) Me: i have a vague sense that there is an underlying theme of contraryness, that subconsciously it is about creating something unexpected, or something that systematically violates established aesthetic boundaries of existing decors
(08:10:33 PM) Me: i don't at this point believe in most cases it is conscious or deliberate, however what's interesting about this is that it contradicts something i previously held to be true, that many things commonly held to be forms of self expression are in fact shallow and express nothing
(08:11:39 PM) Me: is it possible that getting a certain piercing or tattoo, or wearing your hair a certain way, communicates something more interesting than what is immediately apparent? something that the wearer may be all but entirely unaware of? something intangible and nameless/
(08:12:14 PM) Sasha: I think so.
(08:12:35 PM) Me: look at tim burton's character designs -- every character is constructed with overt geometric simplicity and deliberately exaggerated proportions
(08:13:14 PM) Me: i suppose i maintain my stance that if the person doing the alleged self expression is unaware of how interesting their expression is, they ought'n be given full credit for it
(08:13:50 PM) Me: i mean given a million monkeys on a million type writers, none of them are shakespeare even if they produce his work
(08:14:02 PM) Me: in fact
(08:15:00 PM) Me: from an existentialist perspective, it isn't shakespeare's work until someone who can appreciate it as such -- and i agree that such a condition is inevitably nebulous and untestable -- actually reads it, because up until that point, it's just random letters that monkeys typed out
(08:15:18 PM) Me: you know the saying, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it...
(08:15:41 PM) Sasha: it makes a sound that no body hears.
(08:15:48 PM) Me: yes, but
(08:15:56 PM) Sasha: brb
(08:16:00 PM) Me: isn't a sound that nobody hears is very different from a sound that someone does hear?
(08:19:35 PM) Me: a sound that someone does hear doesn't even require the cold mechanical embodiment of sound that exists only as waves of particles crashing against each other. a sound is a vibration. a SOUND is a experiential. the SOUNDS that people hear come to be both with and without the help of a corporial manifestation.
(08:20:55 PM) Sasha: okay.. my head hurts to much to think about this right now heh
(08:21:10 PM) Me: :(
(08:21:29 PM) Sasha: I can barely read through it