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Sundries

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel:
I try to avoid any book that I see people reading on the train. It's not so much a stance against popular culture as it is an egomaniacal need to feel above whatever it is others are interested in (I should probably take this up with a therapist sometime). When Susanna Clark's massive tome made its US debut, dozens of readers lugged it around for months. I wrote it off as an extension of the Harry Potter phenomenon and thought nothing more of it. A pity, really, as now that I'm lugging the book around myself, I find it quite engaging. With lots of characters, side-stores and footnotes (that go on for pages) Clark has crafted a pleasant world to get lost in.

A Young Adult Novel that I Cannot Mention:
A dear friend just signed a two book deal with a respected publisher. I was honered to read the first draft and offered lots of suggestions and notes. Fortunately, the book really is good. There's nothing worse than having to tell a friend that their book, band, artwork, poetry, or similar expression is . . . really great! No, really, you're totally talented!

I've been in that position more than once. It's hard to maintain a pleasant countenance when, deep down, you feel rather nauseous about the whole thing. This experience was pleasantly different. I'll plug it when it's actually in book stores. For now, I've been sworn to secrecy.

Chris Thomas King
In college, I spent countless hours listening to old, scratchy recordings of blues and folk music. I'd scores of albums, many of them from the amazing Smithsonian Folkways catalog. Sadly, in the days before albums were easily ripped to hard drive, I sold the entirety of my collection to (a very happy) used record store. I needed the cash to support an incredibly stupid relationship. Chris Thomas King, with his extraordinary rendition of the classics, has reunited me with the music that once meant so much to me. I've more or less forgotten about the girl.

His Name is Alive
Fuzzy, geek-synth, electronica from Michigan. With sexy vocals. I downloaded Detrola the other day but have yet to listen to it extensively. I think it's good, but it requires a certain situation (and headphones) to be properly appreciated.

Information Aesthetics
I've been on the job interview circuit for the last couple of months. In countless conversations I'm asked "What sites to you read regularly? Where do you draw inspiration?" The answer, inevitably, is Information Aesthetics. It's the sort of site that looks great to prospective employers and has the benefit of actually being a source of great inspiration.

Journal

Tuesday, September 19

THE LAST DORODANGO ENTRY
Though it probably isn’t.

My Massively Multiplayer Shiny Balls of Mud entry of a couple of weeks ago generated more attention than this site is used to. It fostered two articles at Terra Nova. Researchers and academics far more learned than I discussed the role of social status in play while others strongly disagreed with my hastily written opinions.

And I received a message from a master of the Dorodango, Bruce Gardner. He took issue with my assertion that the balls of mud have any relationship with the repetitive grinding and social status issues in World of Warcraft. “I don’t agree with you when you say the process itself becomes repetitive and meaningless. The process is never the same, especially if you’re constantly looking for and working with different types of soil as I do. As you might have guessed, I’m not a Japanese preschooler - I’m 41.”

He’s entirely right, of course. The process of creating art is inherently meaningful - perhaps the direct opposite of the Warcraft grind. I replied to his message by shifting my position a bit. I didn’t mean to imply that any activity is meaningless (I don’t think humans are capable of such actions) only that the motivation for playing a game like World of Warcraft for hours on end is more about reputation than anything approaching fun. In my response to Bruce I wrote:

“There is a sort of meditative quality to playing WoW. I compare it to knitting, but I suspect it’s much the same as what you experience throwing pottery on a wheel or working on a durodango. But this tranquil activity combined with the status that comes with creating something that’s better than what others have, makes for a killer combination. It’s the fuel for the Massively Multiplayer fire.

See, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor in solitude if you want to. As can any artist. But games like WoW require that you be involved in a broader community. You are forced to be visible. So outward signs of that success is huge part of the game. You can’t be modest and succeed at the game.”

A dorodango crafted by Bruce Gardner This discussion aside, Bruce sent me one of his beautiful dorodango. It’s an astonishing object. Heavy and cool to the touch it’s impossible not to hold; to roll about in the hands. Just thinking about it makes me want to pause in my writing for a few moments so I can heft it for a while. It possesses a tactile quality that I’ve never encountered before. Indeed, I suspect the visually impaired would find it just as attractive a work of art as I do.

And yet it remains a ball of mud. There’s something profound about that. That it can serve as a metaphor for a computer game is merely incidental. What it really is - and I hope I’ll be forgiven this bit of cliche - is a metaphor for the human condition.