depths and mysteries
on the promise of a potential More
this week’s Thought (singular)
everybody seems to have had some very strong memory from childhood associated with badminton class
a very warm welcome to all new readers. i love new readers so much that whenever i get an email about a new reader, i manifest that their train to work is just late enough for them to catch but no later than that. thank you for joining us. may your mad dash through the station to the platform not be in vain.
hi
this issue has been inspired by this edition of
that discusses AI-generated art and what makes it unsettling to view, among other things. the essay is great and definitely a must-read, but one paragraph from it in particular has spawned this edition of thodi.
this phrase - depths and mysteries - is such a lovely way of describing people. layers that even i don’t know about exist within me. isn’t that the most comforting thing? that there’s more of yourself to explore, to get to know, to slowly coax out? that the feeling of ‘not enough’ can be slightly convoluted into that of ‘not deep enough’? that every interaction, every situation, every small or life-changing event is subtly modifying you to reveal more of that depth?
as i’m thinking about it now, it’s a little shocking how many pieces of media refer to this depth, to these layers in a person.
exhibit a - this paragraph from The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett, that refers to ‘hidden depths’ with a lovely watery surface metaphor, makes me shift the angle of what i’m saying a bit. things float in your depths, and only something external - a metaphorical fish hook, a tsunami - can make them come up to the surface.
exhibit b - the final verse of ‘You see, I want a lot’ by Rilke, that introduces another incredible perception to this, that your depths are not something that can be revealed as much as they can be consciously, deliberately reached. that you can dive into yourself, and discover all there is to discover. i also love the inclusion of the word ‘increasing’ here. a level of depth is accessed, a level of depth is added, until you are in constant flux, growing shrinking changing mutating.
You have not grown old, and it is not too late to dive into your increasing depths where life calmly gives out its own secret.
exhibit c - the evergreen onion metaphor from shrek - “ogres have layers, onions have layers.” - that implies that to get to a certain depth, the effort of peeling must be undertaken. i could, of course, take this one further and talk about how each layer is different, the outer cover is brittle and soft, the inner core takes teary pains to reach - all far-fetched and high-handed metaphors, but perfectly relevant to the context at hand.
when we’re on the topic, i also want to make mention of the phrase - ‘out of one’s depth’, like it isn’t something to go to or discover or reveal at all, but a space of comfort and familiarity. i know my depth? i feel at home in my depth.
we’re right in the middle of a ‘this one is all over the place’ patch here at thodi, so please bear with me as i try conclude this with some coherence. above, eva brann said that people are serious when they have a surface that arouses the desire to know them, and depth and mysteries induce viable desire. the notion of ‘exhausting another person’s inside’ implies that there is more, more, more in everybody, buried under layers, or simply floating somewhere deep down and out of sight. it takes effort - internal or external - to uncover those layers or to summon whatever is there to the surface. your depth can be a home or it can be a foreboding place you’d rather not visit, and it is constantly changing with every second that you’re alive. there, that tied a very neat bow on a very haphazard gift wrap, i think.
ps: happy may!
English Recitation Competition
A Dream Within a Dream, Edgar Allan Poe
I stand amid the roar Of a surf-tormented shore, And I hold within my hand Grains of the golden sand — How few! yet how they creep Through my fingers to the deep, While I weep — while I weep! O God! Can I not grasp Them with a tighter clasp? O God! can I not save One from the pitiless wave? Is all that we see or seem But a dream within a dream?
Here Together, W. S. Merwin
These days I can see us clinging to each other as we are swept along by the current I am clinging to you to keep you from being swept away and you are clinging to me we see the shores blurring past as we hold each other in the rushing current the daylight rushes unheard far above us how long will we be swept along in the daylight how long will we cling together in the night and where will it carry us together
Summer Haibun, Aimee Nezhukumatathil
And this is how I will always remember you when we are covered up again: by the pale mica flecks on your shoulders. Some thrown there from your own smile. Some from my own teeth. There are not enough jam jars to can this summer sky at night. I want to spread those little meteors on a hunk of still-warm bread this winter. Any trace left on the knife will make a kitchen sink like that evening air the cool night before star showers: so sticky so warm so full of light
I am not shaving, but I will tell you about the mornings with a full beard and the blade in my hand, when my eyes don’t recognize themselves in a mirror echoed with a hundred faces I have washed and shaved—it is in that split second, when perhaps the roses drink and the clouds form, when perhaps the spider spins and rain transforms, that I most understand the invisibility of life and the intensity of vanishing, like steam at the slick edges of the mirror, without a trace.
What One Approves, Another Scorns, Arthur Guiterman
What one approves, another scorns, and thus his nature each discloses. You find the rosebush full of thorns, I find the thornbush full of roses.
A Picture!
The Good Side of the Internet
(subscribe to my standalone publication The Good Side of the Internet for consolidated and extra links at the end of each month!)
Ocean Vuong on Taking the Time You Need to Write
"Live your life but tend to the work mentally."
The Physical Traits that Define Men and Women in Literature (illustration)
Do authors really mention particular body parts more for men than for women? Are women’s bodies described using different adjectives than those attributed to men?
Celebrity Culture as a Status System
Celebrities have been analyzed from a number of viewpoints. In addition to the multitude of journalistic accounts, scholars have considered celebrities from the perspectives of history, cultural criticism, power elites, contemporary politics, cultural sociology, religion, and cultural studies. Nearly all of these discussions at least allude to the fact that celebrities are part of a status or prestige system. While some draw parallels between celebrities and other kinds of phenomena, no one systematically relates celebrities and celebrity culture to a more general analysis of status systems. That is the purpose of this essay. A key aspect of this task will be to indicate how contemporary celebrity culture is similar to or different from other status systems.
Poet Mary Oliver: a Solitary Walk
When Mary Oliver talks about her work - something she is quite reluctant to do, fending off interviews and media proposals - there is an austerity, a quiet determination to her thought that brings to mind an earlier century. The discipline of her writing life might seem more natural in a time before every living room was plugged into the perpetual tide of images and ideas, when an individual cultivated the solitude and curiosity of the inner life.
How India's lattice buildings cool without air con
For centuries, India’s architecture featured intricate lattice structures. Now, as modern architects search for better ways to keep buildings cool, it’s making a comeback.
Middle School Book Review
your regularly scheduled book recommendation has been temporarily halted. watch this space over the coming weeks so you don’t miss the next one!
find all shared books here.
this week’s Song
The “I” In Lie by Patrick Stump
find all shared songs here.
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3
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