#this is inspired by junji ito's illustrations for no longer human

[kaitcake1289]

love of my life. // follow up to yesterday's claudia post

[bluemooniegif]

hi! this is very random so please feel free to dismiss this but i really admire the way you discuss bsd and the works associated with the characters and i want to ask your opinion on something!

i am an art student majoring in illustration, and for one of my classes we've been assigned to create a full book sleeve for a classic book. we had to choose a few from a list to thumbnail out but we were also allowed to pick one or two books off of the list. normally, we aren't allowed to do fanart pieces for any of our classes but naturally i was like this is the perfect oppurtunity to do subtle bsd fanart!

i ended up deciding on wanting to no longer human since i just finished reading it not too long ago

i dont have any bsd friends irl or mutuals on here, so i wanted to see if you may have any ideas on a potential book cover (thats also just thinly vieled dazai fanart),, again no worries if not this is a pretty random request so i get it

anon I am so sorry to have let you down with my reply, I kinda forgot tumblr asks existed again ;-; I hope you did well with your assignment, I would've chosen NLH too! now let me try to make it up to you and respond as if I got this ask a few hours ago!

when I hear "No Longer Human illustration" my mind immediately goes to Junji Ito's manga adaptation. without knowing what your style looks like or how you go through the process of making art, I think of Ito's full-page spreads straight away. something about the chaos, the fine detail, and the balance of it all really draws me in. I think it beautifully captures the subtle horrors of this story and draws them to the attention of the reader in that classic style of his.

in terms of what to actually include on the cover, I have a few ideas that walk the line between dazai fanart and nlh-inspired:

needles: a nod to Mersault and Yozo's addiction. indicates dark themes and a story of one's life told via addiction (to which you could argue, Yozo was always addicted to something. I'm sorry, aot will always be within me now)

a glass of whiskey: incites buraiha, both fictional and real, and again, one of Yozo's addictions.

cigarettes and/or matches; match boxes (say it with me... addiction!)

a gravestone: odasaku; the general vibe of death

it'd also be cool to make the cover look like one of Yozo's comics, but instead of depicting his characters, depict Yozo (or even Dazai!), though this runs the risk of looking too cartoonish. or maybe a rendition of his most perfect self-portrait?

perhaps a portrait that reflects not only Yozo, Dazai (fictional) or Dazai (real), but whoever looks at it? a portrait to reflect the reader, and humanity?

I ramble. I hope this will make up for my late reply, at least!

[k1716553tombates]

Bloog Entire   Entry2

Alright so here we go another instalment of talking about stuff I like. It’s been a little while since the first entry in my second attempt at blogging and since then I finished a couple of things I was reading, and I’ve made further developments with my summer film which I will talk about this time.

First off, I finished reading A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. While I was reading this book I thought it was what someone refers to when they say “pulp fiction”, it’s really not pushing any boundaries in the sci-fi genre, it doesn’t flesh out it’s characters and the hero saves the world and gets the girl with very little difficulty. As the protagonist John Carter is from Earth, once upon Mars the lesser gravity grants him super strength, not only this but the telepathic means of communication used by the martians is no obstacle for him, as he seems to be fully capable of using the ability to a higher level than the martians the moment he arrives on the planet. You never really feel like he is in any true peril, and if the book was much longer it may have gotten a little boring, however as is the theme with pulp fiction the book is a fun read for the short time it takes to read it. A Princess of Mars doesn’t provide grand new ideas or a deeper look human realtionships, but it does give a very dungeons and dragons feeling approach to sci-fi, with monsters, duels, a war between species, dungeons, princesses, tyrants and handsome Conan style protagonist. Now, upon finishing this book I wanted to send a friend a picture of the cover, I looked at the inside cover to find an artist’s name and was frankly shocked to see that this book was first published in 1912, and what I though to be a fairly rudimentary sci-fi was actually crazy ahead of it’s time. Props Edgar.

Just recently I have finished a series I mentioned in my last entry, Akira. Katsuhiro Otomo’s mastapeece spans 6 large books each costing around £15-£20 and can be easily read in one or two sittings, so it’s fair to say Akira is not particularly cheap to read unless you want to read it online which unfortunately grosses me out just thinking about. Frankly I’m glad I splurged and bought the books, Otomo’s work is in my opinion unrivalled in terms of it’s appeal and a must have for any weeb’s manga collection. It never ceases to amaze me when reading any manga that most of what is produced is created by a single person. It seems with most manga, the artists have spent their entire lives becoming intensely skilled in illustration, and a lack of ability in writing good narratives is occasionally present. As I was saying about A Princess of Mars, not every story has to be an incredible feat in storytelling, but in more mangas that not, the narrative comprises of a protagonist who walks around and fights a guy, then finds a stronger guy and beats him, then finds a stronger guy and beats him, and so on. It clearly doesn’t deter me from reading it as there are lots or other elements of creativity outside the overarching narrative, along with incredible artwork, however Akira is the first manga I’ve read that has strayed so far from the norm, juggling many different characters with integral roles in the story, protagonists who’s moral compass is far from perfect, and antagonists with complex motivations. Not one person is solely responsible for any big plot points, and at no point does a character fully understand what has happened or will happen. This juggling of information is reflected in action sequences, often having many different groups, all with different goals colliding together in huge set pieces, there is so much going on at one time that you can’t help but read quickly, and at times it feels like such a clusterfuck, but really that’s probably how it would be in real life. The amount of information in Akira is just handled so well that I never felt lost, it doesn’t fail to answer questions then call it abstract, it is a wholly satisfying read and deserves it’s title of one of the greatest manga ever made...

The film’s pretty good too.

Finally I’ll talk a little bit about my summer project. I decided to make an adaptation of the ending of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, as a whole the book is good, obviously with historical context this book was a huge jumping off point for story telling, however objectively it doesn’t delve into the possibilities of time travel as much as other more modern stories have done. Effectively a turn of the century scientist in London invents a time machine, travels forward to a point where humans have evolved (or devolved) to a point of being vastly different, he farts around a bit then go’s home. However just before he does so he travels further forward to the Earth’s last years, it’s drifted out of orbit and nothing grows except an algae like plant on the surface of rocks. The sun now only drifts above the horizon, and for some reason there are giant crabs and moths. The description given of the dying Earth was really appealing to me, something about it being at the very end of the story and was unintentionally witnessed by the time traveller made it feel beautiful but a little bit spooky. The evolution of my adaptation has proceeded into the production stages. Quite a few of my visual ideas have just come from making it and things coincidentally happening then deciding to go for it. I am about of third of the way through animating and haven’t made an animatic which I know is a terrible idea but I’m going with it. The found that the longer I’ve gone not sticking to any sort of plan the further away from the original text I’ve gotten, however the key things I liked about it are still there and to be honest I like that it doesn’t look like any other adaptations. From what I’ve done so far there are influences from everywhere, my time machine looks like the monolith from 2001, the rocks look like Junji Ito’s work, the time machine controls are inspired by my keyboard. I know what I still have to do and I have about a month to finish it. The only issue I see in the foreseeable future is sound, as I haven’t done an animatic I have no idea if I’m having any music or not, and what sound effects to use. I’ll probably just wing it in Premier.

[studioacs-blog]

Kant's Aesthetics & Simmel's Theory of Fashion

Kant’s Aesthetics & Simmel’s Theory of Fashion

Introduction

Pictured: Kant on top & Simmel on the bottom. Notice how similar their pictures are; is there some type of fashion convention behind how scholars should look to be taken seriously?

George Simmel was a sociologist whose philosophy was made from a nonpositivist view, and presupposed cultural plurality. Simmel, together with other sociologists such as Webber and Durkheim, were the fathers of critical theory and the Frankfurt School. Simmel’s writing on aesthetics were inspired by Immanuel Kant’s writings. Even though Kant didn’t put a compelling importance to fashion in comparison to Simmel, he did dive into some important aspects of it, creating a basis to which Simmel could develop his ideas.

In fact, Simmel was part of what Podoksik (2014) has called the neo-Kantian movement, a movement which in part embraced some of Kant’s ideas and simultaneously moved away from other Kantian premises. Simmel saw Kant’s approach to philosophy as having logic as a crucial factor, to which aesthetics, amongst other studied concepts, were subordinated to. However, Simmel’s philosophy asked questions of a different nature than what Kantian epistemology would. Simmel aimed to investigate the phenomenal world, instead of staying true to Kant’s noumenal world and metaphysical foundation. Thusly, what Simmel’s sociological view has added to Kant’s philosophy was basically to explore another side of the same coin; while Kant would propose the question “what is nature?”, the sociologist proposed instead to ponder “what is society?” Both Kant and Simmel are forefathers to some of the groundwork that forms the discourse of nature versus nurture; a topic that we still know little about when comparing it to the breadth of potential knowledge we have still to gain.

On Cern & quantum mechanics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dDlSYl3J6c

On recent discoveries on the deep seas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzIPjLwNgmo

Spinach Leaf Transformed Into Beating Human Heart Tissue: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/human-heart-spinach-leaf-medicine-science/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20170325news-spinachheart&utm_campaign=Content&sf65838089=1

On reversing ageing: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/23/purging-the-body-of-retired-cells-could-reverse-ageing-study-shows (English)

http://www.ad.nl/gezond/rotterdamse-onderzoekers-ontdekken-verjongingskuur~a5aa0441/ (Dutch)

Listed/Pictured: A small collection of recent knowledge gained and knowledge humankind is currently exploring in various areas

Pictured: We have learned and enacted so little in face of what there still is ahead… but tell me, are you feeling the sublime or did that Dunning-Kruger effect not kick in yet?

Connections

Let us get back from the sublime plane and delve back into Kant & Simmel’s theories…per Kant, there is no link between fashion and genuine judgments of taste (Geschmaksurteil), but instead, it is the outcome of ‘blind’ imitation (Gronow, 1993). This means that it is contradictory to what we would call ‘good’ taste.  It comes from human conceit and social competition where everybody competes and tries to increase their social status (Gronow, 1993). It can be argued that, per Kant, the way society behaves towards fashion is an enactment of mass mimesis.

Kant agreed with Simmel that fashion shouldn’t be neglected or avoided but rather acknowledged and followed- a hopeless effort that is also beyond the bounds of possibility.  Kant understood that fashion is temporary because if not, it would result in traditions (Gronow, 1993).  The factor of novelty when it comes to fashion is crucial because that is what encapsulates the whole concept of fashion- its elusiveness.

Simmel argued in his essays that fashion being a phenomenon of modernity, helped increase the distance between the individual and society.  There are two aspects: the need of union and the need of isolation.  One wants to distinguish oneself from others but at the same time not too much to alienate himself from society completely.  On the other hand, Kant’s aesthetics show that an individual can be independent and free without having to estrange himself from the society at large (Gronow, 1993).

Pictured: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) as the original Avant Garde piece (far left) and an alternative model, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé (respectively from the left) committing mimesis.

Our own moment of mimesis: Sing to the tune of Eurhythmics’ Sweet Dreams, but change the lyrics to “Fashion and distinction are made of this, who am I to disagree? I travel through time and multiple theories, everybody needs union and isolation. Some of us wants to distinguish, some of us want to pursue mimesis…” Check it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLmfSvy4rmo

Pictured: Cheeky, aren’t we?

The question Kant asks is: How can something, which is purely based on a subjective feeling of pleasure be universally accepted? The fact that something is universally regarded as beautiful does not mean that we shouldn’t be careful about combining the aesthetic (disinterested) pleasure with sensual pleasure.  There is no way we can stop others from agreeing with our subjective view on aesthetic judgment.  When we call something beautiful we assume it is universal, not that there is a need to convince others of thinking the same.  Just like Kant’s explanation of taste, fashion is constantly being created and disappearing- it doesn’t exist.  Once it stops being fashion, it simply vanishes forever (Gronow, 1993).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ahc-oEFQ7k

Caption: Per Kant, what no longer applies will cease to exist…Ah, but if only this would apply perfectly to the music industry’s oligarchies…Then Adorno would have nothing to complain about eh?

To both Kant and Simmel, fashion doesn’t fulfil any objective criteria, it all boils down to subjective perceptions

Caption: If only some fashions would be considered objectively “bad taste”, we wouldn’t get these back on the market …

Pictured: Fashion is temporary, and indeed boils down to subjective criteria…but the science behind what makes something aesthetically pleasing continues to apply, and perhaps that is why some things never leave fashion, some things never come back to being fashionable and some things come back after a while…Above are some examples of the golden ratio in Da Vinci’s works, golden ratio found in nature and illustrations from Junji Ito’s famous manga Uzumaki, in which a city from countryside Japan becomes obsessed/diseased by the concept of spiral shapes, which follow the golden ratio.

Our own moment of mimesis: Sing to the tune of John Paul Young’s Love Is in The Air, but change the lyrics to “Golden Ratio is everywhere, everywhere I look around, aesthetic rules are everywhere, in every sight and every sound. Check it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVswTfCtwYI

Thinking Further…

Furthermore, here we identify an opportunity for sociology and cultural economy students to make further connections - In lieu of Simmel’s Theory of Fashion and Kant’s aesthetics, we can further see here an opportunity to apply Veblen’s concepts of Flanerie, conspicuous consumption & leisure and Veblen goods. Can you make those connections yourself?

Pictured: Veblen & a related comic

A second opportunity for sociology students can be identified here; can you link Adorno’s concepts of Baby Talk, repetition, pseudo-individualization and his general thoughts on the culture industry to Simmel’s Theory of Fashion and Kant’s aesthetics?

Pictured: Adorno & a related comic

Lastly, media and culture industries students, can you link for example, how Simmel’s Theory of Fashion and Kant’s aesthetics can be applied to contract theory via the concept of information asymmetries and inequality of bargaining power? Adam Smith & Max Weber were some of the first to underlie these concepts, but there are many other more contemporary sources…

Exemplifying the concepts: The no man’s sky fiasco - A story of hype, novelty and disappointment in the video game industry. Current fashion for randomly generated algorithm based games and overly ambitious claims create hype, however the aesthetic promise of the game proves to be subpar. Check it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wsFhv_Kz38

Main References:

Gronow, J. (1993). Taste and Fashion: The Social Function of Fashion and Style. Acta Sociologica,36(2), 89-100. doi:10.1177/000169939303600201

Podoksik, E. (2014). Neo-Kantianism And Georg Simmel’s Interpretation Of Kant. Modern Intellectual History,13(03), 597-622. doi:10.1017/s1479244314000663

Additional References (you can use to answer the thinking further part):

Adorno, T. (1941). On popular music. Cultural theory and popular culture: A reader, 202-214.

Bernstein, J. M. (1992). The fate of art: aesthetic alienation from Kant to Derrida and Adorno. Penn State Press.

Smith, A. (1817). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Vol. 2). Рипол Классик.

Veblen, T., & Banta, M. (2009). The theory of the leisure class. Oxford University Press.

Weber, M. (2009). The theory of social and economic organization. Simon and Schuster.

Pictured: On the left - All right assignment is over, let’s spend money with stuff we don’t need to celebrate the end of an era. On the right -  A disappointed Adorno is judging you.