Interesting. Issue 005. Dec 2019. It's so dark.
Photo by Mike Lerch, from the Cloud Appreciation Society
I’ve got three for you.
The Age of Instagram Face is an article I’ve thought about a lot. Beyond covering the facial manipulation we’re increasingly seeing online, the writer also reflects more generally on social media and specifically Instagram — founded at the beginning of the decade we’re now closing — as powerful engines of sameness, making “hundreds of millions of people learn to ‘see and feel and want the same things.’” I’m looking at you, fiddle leaf fig.
For those more concerned with meteorological trends, a note on a clouds. Most of us are experiencing cloudier skies these days, and sometimes that can make the world feel like a low-ceilinged room (to me it does). The Cloud Appreciation Society has a different take on clouds. + some great photos.
Lastly, for those who don’t love Christmas, and for those who do, I’m sharing the podcast that made me appreciate this holiday as an adult. Christmas has a history worth knowing, I think, one based on, among other things, an honest admission that clouds - beautiful as they can be - are also depressing.
And! A bonus. A note that fluttered into your yard.
Happy Holidays,
Lindsey
Ideas
Three that made me pause this month.
The Age of Instagram Face
There was something strange, I said, about the racial aspect of Instagram Face—it was as if the algorithmic tendency to flatten everything into a composite of greatest hits had resulted in a beauty ideal that favored white women capable of manufacturing a look of rootless exoticism.
“Absolutely,” Smith said. “We’re talking an overly tan skin tone, a South Asian influence with the brows and eye shape, an African-American influence with the lips, a Caucasian influence with the nose, a cheek structure that is predominantly Native American and Middle Eastern.” Did Smith think that Instagram Face was actually making people look better? He did. “People are absolutely getting prettier,” he said. “The world is so visual right now, and it’s only getting more visual, and people want to upgrade the way they relate to it.”
This was an optimistic way of looking at the situation. I told Smith that I couldn’t shake the feeling that technology is rewriting our bodies to correspond to its own interests—rearranging our faces according to whatever increases engagement and likes. “Don’t you think it’s scary to imagine people doing this forever?” I asked.
“Well, yeah, it’s obviously terrifying,” he said.
- Excerpted from The Age of Instagram Face, The New Yorker
Read the rest
Nature’s best poetry of 2019: Clouds
“It’s always a good year for clouds,” said Melyssa Wright, a meteorologist living in York, England, and member 23,652 of the Cloud Appreciation Society.
The group’s mission is to “fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it.”
Clouds, their manifesto says, are not signs of negativity and gloom, but rather “nature’s poetry” and “the most egalitarian of her displays.”
… “Of course everyone aspires for a cloudless day. But not us cloud watchers.”
- Excerpted from Nature’s Best Poetry of 2019: Clouds, New York Times
See the pictures and read the rest
The Christmas Radiance at Night
I’ve recommended this podcast to approximately nine million people. One has actually listened to it (Annie). In case you’re one of the 8,999,999 others, here’s a summary:
Early Christians had one holiday: Easter. Then they moved north, where they met the Celts, and also the depressing realities of an even wintery-er winter. The Celts had a wonderful celebration on the darkest night of the year, and rituals around it, mostly centered on LIGHT, of course. They lit up the night with infinite candles. They hung fruits on barren trees. These were acts of optimism and resiliency. They were calls for grace and mercy and hope at a time when these felt to be in too short supply.
The early Christians thought, Hey, we recognize that story. They connected the birth of Jesus to this festival, their light in the darkness. Christmas was originally celebrated on the solstice, which was originally the 25th of December. When we moved to the Gregorian Calendar, the solstice was three days before Christmas, but the Christians kept Christmas on the 25th. It takes three days for the longer days to become discernible, after three days he rose, etc. It was good poetry to have Christmas three days after the solstice, so here we are.
The spirit of Christmas is hope. It’s a series of rituals to help us deal with the darkness, and its message extends to any moments of darkness of the soul. Lights — grace, hope, mercy, everything good — can be best seen, known and felt on the darkest nights.
We give gifts because, when you’re depressed and sad, the best way to feel better is to help someone else.
This podcast, a conversation between two theologians, explores other things, like the origination of the 12 days of Christmas, etc., all of which is interesting and worth your time, I think.
- From The Christmas Radiance at Night with Alexander Shaia, The Robcast
Listen
Bonus
FoundMagazine.com
We collect found stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, doodles– anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life. Anything goes.
From the finder of this one: “This fluttered into our front yard today. Not sure who wrote it, but I’m pretty sure it was meant for me.” These finds are worth a browse.
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