#TheLuncheonontheGrass2016
n plus one mag:
“For David Hume, increased conversation between men and
women corresponded to “an increase of humanity, from the very habit of
conversing together.” But Hume didn’t know about Gchat, which offers us so many
opportunities for conversation that conversation becomes impossible. We are
distracted from chatting by chatting itself.”
John Harris:
“ In the book, (Nicholas) Carr looks back on
such human inventions as the map, the clock and the typewriter, and how much
they influenced our essential modes of thought (among the people whose writing
was changed by the latter were Friedrich Nietszche and TS Eliot). By the same
token, he argues that the internet's "cacophony of stimuli" and
"crazy quilt" of information have given rise to "cursory
reading, hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning" – in
contrast to the age of the book, when intelligent humans were encouraged to be
contemplative and imaginative...”
Jonathan Franzen, ‘Freedom: A Novel ‘, 2010:
“...“This was what was keeping me awake at night,” Walter
said. “This fragmentation. Because it’s the same problem everywhere. It’s like
the internet, or cable TV—there’s never any center, there’s no communal
agreement, there’s just a trillion little bits of distracting noise. We can
never sit down and have any kind of sustained conversation, it’s all just cheap
trash and shitty development. All the real things, the authentic things, the
honest things are dying off. Intellectually and culturally, we just bounce
around like random billiard balls, reacting to the latest random stimuli.”...”
Vasant Sarwate (वसंत सरवटे) has poked an occasional fun at some great art. An example could be found here: The Persistence of Memory. Vasant Sarwate style!
Here is a similar effort that made me laugh and introspect.
'The Luncheon on the Grass' , 1863
Artist: Édouard Manet
courtesy: Wikipedia
"The painting features a nude woman casually lunching with
two fully dressed men. Her body is starkly lit and she stares directly at the
viewer. The two men, dressed as young dandies, seem to be engaged in
conversation, ignoring the woman. In front of them, the woman's clothes, a
basket of fruit, and a round loaf of bread are displayed, as in a still life.
In the background a lightly clad woman bathes in a stream. Too large in
comparison with the figures in the foreground, she seems to float above them.
The roughly painted background lacks depth – giving the viewer the impression
that the scene is not taking place outdoors, but in a studio..."
Artist: Ward Sutton, 2016
Now watch Sutton's master-parody:
The two men, dressed as young dandies, and the nude woman are all ignoring each other...In the background a lightly clad woman is NOT bathing in a stream but perhaps busy is live streaming something....the scene is probably not taking place outdoors...and if it is, one of the persons is certainly trying to catch Pokemons...
The two men, dressed as young dandies, and the nude woman are all ignoring each other...In the background a lightly clad woman is NOT bathing in a stream but perhaps busy is live streaming something....the scene is probably not taking place outdoors...and if it is, one of the persons is certainly trying to catch Pokemons...