#mattering

[in-tenebris-et-in-solitudine]

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[kntxt]

Metaphysics of Mattering

“Diagnostic questions you can ask to measure how much meaning in life you have:

1. What do you want to exist even if you don't?

2. How real is it? Is it really real?

3. How much of a difference do you make to it now?”

— John Vervaeke

[ofthuinn]

[fidelity to the event]

JH: When did he first come on this language? Was it in the Seven Sermons or was it earlier?

SS: I take it to be in the summer of 1914. The first layer of the text, running from October of 1913 through to February, where he engages in introspective elaboration of his fantasies, the method that he subsequently calls active imagination, is not an elevated language. It’s a precise depiction of what transpires. He maintains in that what I call a fidelity to the event.

JH: Fidelity to the event.

SS: Accurate notation, dates, precision, indicating that something of significance is taking place. There is no attempt to fictionalize it. It’s quite fantastic but it is real.

JH: And he is recording.

SS: He is recording it.

JH: I wanted to ask you about that. Does he record as it happens? Or does he record after he’s had the dialogues? Because when I did active imagination myself long ago most of it was done as it happened. So it was a writing, in a way. Some of it was not. Some of it was a conversation, interior, and then I would write it recapture it—by writing.

SS: This is one of the imponderable questions of which I’ve hit my head against the wall for many a year now in that it’s hard to make a decision on this. Certain segments of the text give the sense that he sees a dramatic sequence and then notes it down, whereas certain other segments of the text appear to unfold in the writing.

JH: Unfold in the writing as a flowing dialogue.

SS: Yes. Or there are certain statements that I like. There’s one point where he says, “I’ve run out of tobacco so I can’t write anymore.”

JH: That’s good.

SS: My intuition leans to this as a writing experience, but again you can’t be sure about this. Just looking at the materiality of the text suggests to me as a writer that he’s writing this out.

JH: Yes. But he does report dreams.

SS: Well actually very few and that’s one striking element of the text-my reading of this is that the dreams and the fantasies are separate layers. There are very few dreams noted, and there’s also very surprisingly little interplay between his dreams during this period and the fantasies that unfold.

JH: So he doesn’t take a figure from a dream and begin to work with that dream, that figure.

SS: No, if anything sometimes the opposite occurs. Characters from his fantasies then reemerge in the dream.

[Response]

Image work, if it is to be recorded, necessitates that there is fidelity to documenting the event (the image). But the act of documenting itself is a material practice, one that is deeply embedded in power structures and shaped by the cultural and social norms of the time and this has to considered when thinking about what fidelity to the event - means. Also I am an artist, this is a weird complication I am struggling with, documenting the image can be art, but it doesn't have to be and I really don't want it to be. But it is an art, a kind of art that I am struggling to find find the language to talk about. 

I am looking at my own desk in my own studio. I have in front of me a computer, as I think of this I now look to the pile of papers and bills on my right-hand side, what pierces immediately is the thought that within this pile is a bill for the debt that enabled me to buy this computer. This pile also has a lot of post-it notes with ideas, fragments written on them, image-words and there is also a postcard from a friend. The bills and the work are all in one pile and now I am beginning to think about this relationship and I can feel the poke of an image, like a tinge of a corner but now I try and stay with what I am physically present with and rather than sink down - or move forward into space with this I am trying to stay present for now and widen the gyre - a horizontal circular boundary around this slice of reality, space and time. 

The image is a thing I think I impulsively work with in a certain way - grab it or hold it? To make it real, am I spinning it - or am I spinning with it each time it becomes something else? When words or things come into place is this an equal exchange or have I exerted a power over something, some being trying to speak?  Maybe it doesn't want to be words or a thing or an idea. What really is the position of the ego as I do this?

To stay true to the facts, to resist the pull of form or aesthetic is challenging, I am wondering if this requires minimalism or maximalism. It is one of these extremes surely?  Do I record everything or nothing? 

I am thinking about boring poetry, poetry that is just a list of thing words. Shopping list, packing list, to-do list. 

Perceptions of events are shaped by the materials and technologies of the documentation, by the social and cultural contexts in which they were produced. Rather than seeking to transcend these material realities, how do I engage with them and grapple with them? How do I record a movement through digital space - freely - authentically - what are the wordable facts behind a drift, can I word them?

Image work is a practice of listening, this means there are voices heard and voices silenced. As such, the act of documenting an image is a political act, one that has the power to challenge dominant narratives and to bring marginalised voices to the forefront - this includes both the human to non-human. It is a practice that demands a deep engagement with materiality and a willingness to embrace complexity and resist the pull of simplistic or fantastical narratives.

To stay true to the facts, to resist the immediate temptation to ‘give form’ (a drawing, a poem, an object) means rethinking what it means to work with an image, a strange art that can mean - no things. This is a decentering of ego - a willingness to make (with) by making nothing. No physical truthy proofy thing.

[image] [vesseling] [spiralling] [mattering] [amplifying]

[road2nf]

I felt a lot more inspired to do things important to me

The Nerdfighter community has helped me realize that I’m not alone. At school, I was a geek, nerd, freak, etc. Sometimes I felt really self conscious, but I usually ignored it.

Then I read Paper Towns. There were some links in the back of the book, so I started watching the Vlogbrothers. That, in turn, led me to the online community.

I’ve made a lot of friends that are really rad. After a while, I also began watching Crash Course. They’ve helped me study for multiple tests. Also, I felt a lot more inspired to do things important to me. Music is one of the most important things in my life, but I didn’t know what to write about. Some of the artists on DFTBA Records reminded me that you should write for yourself. If Doctor Who is the only thing I can relate to, it’s 100% okay to write a song about it, and maybe someone else will like it too. I just want to thank them both for starting this and becoming so relevant to my life.

Marissa (Thehillsarealivewithfangirls.tumblr)

[realityhop]

"Does it matter if women ‘lean in’, to quote Sheryl Sandberg, and get positions of power?  These sorts of ambitions are only open to a small number of women by definition, and increasing the number of women in positions of power doesn’t seem to change much, ultimately.  Succeeding here perhaps only reinforces a particular system of domination and exploitation. [...] Far from possessing great power, men are frequently trapped in systems of other men’s making. […] Patriarchy, if we accept that this term refers to something real, absolutely hurts men too."

— Nina Power, What do Men Want? (2022)

"In the eighteenth century the conviction that man is endowed with certain rights was not a repetition of beliefs that were held by the community, nor even a repetition of beliefs handed down by forefathers.  It was a reflection of the situation of the men who proclaimed these rights; it expressed a critique of conditions that imperatively called for change, and this demand was understood by and translated into philosophical thought and historical actions.  The pathfinders of modern thought did not derive what is good from the law—they even broke the law—but they tried to reconcile the law with the good."

— Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason (1947)

"Men who choose the terrain of reason, as opposed to emotion, place themselves in a position of authority.  Only someone in a position of dominance can permit himself to be calm and reasonable in any circumstance, because he’s not the one who is suffering. [...] The thing is, no one likes emotions spilling over, even less so when they’re from a woman, and so it took a long time to reclaim this anger.  Now it’s begun to find its voice, and the taboos that have stifled it for centuries are being stripped away: people have started to write about it, to reflect on its causes, to compare it to male anger.  It exists.  We must cherish this voice and feed the flames of our anger deep in our breasts, heed its calls for justice and reparations, its insistence that we not lose heart."

— Pauline Harmange, I Hate Men (2020)

"If we are to change, it won’t be through rational knowledge, but through emotionally charged values."

— Paul Verhaeghe, What about Me? (2012/2014)

"Intentions are how we enact values in specific situations.  They’re ways we turn values into action at a specific time and place. […] There is the basic choice in life: doing what matters, doing what you care about, or having your days focused on trying to escape pain.”

— McKay/Greenberg/Fanning, The ACT Workbook for Depression and Shame (2020)

"What matters to us depends on what we care for, and there is no reason that we must all care for the same thing.  Morality should be part of the art of living, not a dictatorial authority ruling over us." — Nietzsche, narwhals and the burden of consciousness (2023)

"When people talk of morality they do not know what it is they are talking about.  At the same time they are unshakably certain in what they say.  This may seem paradoxical.  But it is not, since what they are doing is expressing their emotions.  Apart from any facts they may cite in support of them, there is nothing true or false in their judgements of value.  That is why there cannot be agreement in morality.  If value judgements merely express emotions, there is nothing to agree (or disagree) about." — Feline Philosophy (2020)

— John N. Gray

"The power of rhetorical discourse is often based upon its ability to harness this motivational power of emotions to encourage new beliefs and actions.  A rhetor who wishes an audience to reject something will inspire repelling emotions, while attracting emotions will be attached to the preferred belief or course of action.  However, emotions do not guarantee action.  The larger challenge is to use emotions productively rather than simply arousing them and then leaving them to fester or dissolve away."

— Nathan Crick, Rhetorical Public Speech: The Art of the Engaged Citizen (2007)

"No one has been as effective at mobilizing popular resentment of the [Professional Managerial Class] as Donald Trump.  He merely stepped in to take advantage of decades of successful conservative propaganda positioning PMC liberalism as the enemy of the people and popular interests.  Trump never pretended to be virtuous: his id-driven politics and lack of self-control formed the core of his appeal to those who felt scorned by the liberal superego.  To defeat reactionary politics masquerading as populism, we need anti-PMC class struggle from the Left, not more identity politics, which has become just another vehicle of PMC virtue signaling.  The Democratic Party, however, is not the political organization that will lead us in a struggle against capitalism and its deeply destructive system of exploitation and rent seeking.”

— Catherine Liu, Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class (2021)

"As long as enough people can be convinced to see men as the bourgeosie who have always unjustly benefited from their exploitation of women and women as the proletariat who have always been forced to toil and slave without benefit under the boot-heel of those privileged men, you can justify anything.  It becomes acceptable, justifiable, and appropriate for women to expropriate men's undeserved and unearned power, wealth, and privilege by any means necessary—including state coercion."

— Karen Straughan, Feminism: Socialism in Panties

[111papilio]

brazil miku

[kosmogrl]

the secret to life is always having something to look forward to

[correllian]

[snowstories]

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

[queerstudiesnatural]

some of my favourite sign fails <3

[girlinafairytale]

i genuinely hate how people have to sit and write a post that stands out while boosting a fundraiser because most people won't bat an eye at the misery and inhumane conditions Palestinians are living in.

i see people making art and telling others to use it because fundraisers with art are generally reblogged more often. i see people using colored text in order to make the post more eye catching.

palestinians on instagram are using popular audios and stitch trending reels at the beginning to make the world pay attention to them. imagine having to make something look entertaining in order to survive.

they are living under constant threat of israeli airstrikes, bombing, scarcity of food and disease. many have lost a lot in the past few months.

palestinians on tumblr are posting their pictures and the horrible conditions in which they are living. they travel long distances for internet connection only to be called a scammer by some privileged ass who cannot locate gaza on a map.

here are some verified gfms. please share the linked posts. it's the bare minimum we can do from the comforts of our home.

@amjadshiltawu: link to the post

vetted

@dima96yousef: link to the post

vetted

@tamer200333: link to the post

vetted

@ahmed8311: link to the post

vetted (#161)

@saratahrawi: link to the post

vetted

[blackbearmagic]

Shoutout to the two coworkers today who casually announced that they were voting for Trump, then asked me who I was voting for. I told them "I did early voting, and I voted for the candidate who isn't going to make it harder for me to exist as a trans person" and both of these women had to awkwardly try and assure me that it wasn't personal, and it's not like they hated Harris or anything, they actually do like some things about her, and they definitely don't hate me, of course not, it's just that, you know, well, it's like, well, you know, it's just, like, and no matter how many times they tried to pass the shovel off to me, I just let them hold onto it

[arcanejude]

ARCANE 1.03 || 2.06

[cassassinated]

I miss the days when, no matter how slow your internet was, if you paused any video and let it buffer long enough, you could watch it uninterrupted