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Tag Archives: Analogies
Sunwards Sandwards
Concurrent reading makes certain passages glow more. Take for example Stewart Brand’s The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility (advertised on its cover as “The Ideas Behind the World’s Slowest Computer”) still fresh in mind when encountering these … Continue reading
Two Basket Cases
This from a long 2006 missive to my friend Willard: The horn basket [cornucopia] is emptied and usually in its emptying it does not suffer damage. The container subject to dehiscence loses its capacity to act as a container in … Continue reading
Central Heating and Cloud Computing
Where is “hearth”? Kenneth Frampton. The Status of Man and the Status of His Objects: A Reading of The Human Condition. (1979) Furthermore, the word “edifice” relates directly to the verb “to edify,” which not only carries within itself the … Continue reading
Little Fish Big Fish
John Varley Wizard […] and Nox, the Midnight Sea. It shimmered in the silvery light. Embedded in the water were nebular drifts of luminescence, cold blue beneath the brighter surface reflections. There were harder, more compact light sources, some a … Continue reading
Smothered
Étouffée: A method of cooking food in a tightly closed vessel with very little liquid or even without liquid, often called à l’étuvée. Étuver: To cook food in covered pan, without moistening. This method of cooking is suitable for all … Continue reading
liminal deployments
An exhibition gave rise to an editorial. Stanley Schmidt in “Technology and Taste” takes his cue from a travelling exhibition about the life and work of William Morris. The Earthly Paradise: Arts and Crafts by William Morris and His Circle … Continue reading
A Fine Swine Time
Conceit is more than aggrandized ego; it is also a figure of speech, extended metaphor. Take for instance these concluding lines to “Please Can I Have a Man” Who, when I come trotting in from the bathroom like a squealing … Continue reading
The Mechanics of Sentiment
Mark Haddon has the autistic narrator of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time meditate on the nature of computers and feelings. Also people think they’re not computers because they have feelings and computers don’t have feelings. But … Continue reading