30 NOV 2015 by ideonexus

 Specialization is for Insects

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Folksonomies: communism socialism
Folksonomies: communism socialism
  1  notes
 
15 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Life is Like a Sonnet

"In your language you have a form of poetry called the sonnet…It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not? …There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That’s a very strict rhythm, or meter…And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it? …But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn’t he?” “You mean you’re comparing our lives to ...
Folksonomies: metaphor meaning life
Folksonomies: metaphor meaning life
  1  notes

It has a strict formula and structure, but it's what you do within the restrictions that is important.

01 JAN 2010 by ideonexus

 Oulipo - "workshop of potential literature"

Finally elaborated, this definition remains the Oulipo's rule. In his conversations with Charbonnier, Queneau returns to it nearly word for word: The word "potential" concerns the very nature of literature; that is, fundamentally it's less a question of literature strictly speaking than of supplying forms for the good use one can make of literature. We call potential literature the search for new forms and structures that may be used by writers in any way they see fit. Finally, and more recen...
  1  notes
Example: a book of poems, with each line of the poem given its own cut on the page, so that you can flip individual lines and create new poems. An early form of mashup.