little bits of stuff you read and want to share

[thecatamites]

It may be as well to add one other particular, which is, that for fear of obstructing the circulation of the blood, he [Kant] would never wear garters; yet, as he found it difficult to keep up his stockings without them, he had invented for himself a most elaborate substitute, which I shall describe. In a little pocket, somewhat smaller than a watch-pocket, but occupying pretty near the same position on each thigh, there was placed a small box, something like a watch case, but smaller; into this box was introduced a watch-spring in a wheel, round bout which was wound an elastic cord, for regulating the force of which there was a separate contrivance. To the ends of this cord were attached hooks, which hooks were carried through a small aperture in the pockets, and so passing down the inner and the outer side of the thigh, caught hold of two loops which were fixed on the off and near side of each stocking. As might be expected, so complex an apparatus was liable, like the Ptolemaic system of the heavens, to occasional derangements.

“the last days of immanuel kant” trans. thomas de quincey

[thecatamites]

from a collection of derek mccormack’s fashion writing

[thecatamites]

Breton also tended to attach inordinate importance to details that no one else ever noticed. When he returned from visiting Trotsky in Mexico City, I asked him what the great man is like.

“He’s got a dog he absolutely adores,” Breton replied. “One day the dog was standing next to Trotsky and staring at him, and Trotsky said to me, ‘He’s got a human look, wouldn’t you say?’ Can you imagine how someone like Trotsky could possibly say such a stupid thing?” Breton demanded. “A dog doesn’t have a human look! A dog has a dog’s look!”

Breton was genuinely angry when he told me that story.

luis bunuel’s autobiography is great

Now we’re so used to film language, to the elements of montage, to both simultaneous and successive action, to flashbacks, that our comprehension is automatic; but in the early years, the public had a hard time deciphering this pictorial grammar […] I’ll never forget, for example, everyone’s terror when we saw our first zoom. There on the screen was a head coming closer and closer, growing larger and larger. We simply couldn’t understand that the camera was moving nearer to the head, or that because of trick photography the head only appeared to grow larger. All we saw was a head coming toward us, swelling hideously out of all proportion.

[LaurelSoup]

Thong-clad hot dog girls once ruled Florida streets. Where did they go?

[vodselbt]

[vodselbt]

these last two are from Darius James’ Negrophobia

[thecatamites]

All creation works by the conjunction of the northern or boreal fluid, which is male, with the southern fluid, which is female. A planet is a being which has two souls and two sexes, and which procreates like animal or vegetable beings by the meeting of the two generative substances
[…]
Yet the earth is in violent upheaval with the need to create. This can be seen from the frequent appearances of the aurora borealis, which are a symptom of the planet’s being in rut, a useless effusion of creative fluid, which cannot conjoin with the southern fluid as long as the human race has not carried out its preparations

charles fourier’s “theory of the four movements”

[thecatamites]

sequel: four years later, breton still annoyed by trotsky’s dog

@Andre Breton - Prolegomena to a Third Surrealist Manifesto

The brand of rationalist thought that is the most self possessed, the most penetrating, the most apt to overcome all the obstacles in the field to which it is applied has always seemed to me to tolerate the strangest kind of self indulgence outside this field. My surprise at this always crystallizes around a conversation I had with a man whose mind was exceptionally wide-ranging and powerfu1. It was in Patzcuaro, Mexico: I shall always see us walking back and forth along the gallery overlooking a flowering patio from which there rose the cry of mocking birds from twenty cages. The fine nervous hand that had controlled some of the greatest events of our time was relaxing by petting a dog wandering about around us. He spoke of dogs, and I noticed that his language became less precise, his thought less exacting than it usually was. He let him self be carried away by his love, went so far as to attribute natural goodness to an animal, and even spoke, as every one else does, of devotion. I tried at this juncture to get it across to him that there is doubtless something arbitrary about attributing to animals feelings which have no discernible sense unless they apply to man, since they would lead one to hold that the mosquito is knowingly cruel and the crayfish deliberately backward. It became clear that he was offended at having to go along with my line of argument: he insisted-and this weakness becomes poignant as I look back on it, because of the tragic fate men doubtless have in store for him in return for his total gift of himself to their cause-that the dog felt friendship for him, in every sense of the word.

But I persist in believing that this anthropomorphic view of the animal world betrays a regrettable facile way of thinking.

[thecatamites]

The goal of this system was “universal harmony,” a near-hallucinatory level of sensual creation and gratification that would emerge from intentional communities. The paths toward Harmony would inevitably lead to the evolutionary overcoming of industrial capitalism: animals would learn to play musical instruments, stars will copulate and spray us all with their sexual fluids, weather patterns will shift, new moons will revolve around the earth, the chemical composition of the oceans would change, and human bodies begin to mutate.

fragment from an essay on fourier. desperate to find out more about “animals would learn to play musical instruments”. i think if any single utopian vision had the power to unite humanity it’s that one.

[strangelilfella]

Immediate mental image of a cow in a field somehow plucking a banjo… In other words, paradise.

[thecatamites]

i think if you told people we could live in a world not built on torture and death they’d kinda shrug but if they knew in the new world dogs would walk around playing music from little trumpets and animals would be friendly and rock out w you like in that bigfoot guy’s videos no regime on earth would last the week

42nd Fretless Stratocaster Jam With A Bigfoot - Real Characters

[strangelilfella]

Shocked I haven’t seen this before… “Thanks for watching our stupid videos” - what a lovely sentiment

[Father.Torque]

@thecatamites

desperate to find out more about “animals would learn to play musical instruments”

- YouTube

- YouTube

[Mothra]

Dude… the era of naval exploration was a carnival of horrors:

From Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.

[Father.Torque]

Ren and Stimpy -space madness

[thecatamites]

A side-scrolling action game in which two main characters (he and her) arrive at the church to have a wedding while defeating a mummy man, werewolf, a thief, a mysterious thief, and a ghost who disturbs you. Mummy men, etc. take the heart on the way, touch it and defeat it, or kick and defeat the football on the street. (Wedding Bells)

An action game for dwarfs with the dial of the phone in the background. (Dial Number)

An action game in which a rabbit Pinky eats his favorite vegetables while digging a hole and fighting the enemy. (Pinky Chase)

This is a world similar to the natural world. If you look to the left, there are only snakes. When you look at yourself, yes, you have become a snake. It is a town that is eaten unless you eat it in the midst of severe competition for survival. (Snakes and Snakes)

You are the only drunk in town. He takes one child around the bar and continues to fight with his wallet in his hand. They are yakuza, violent taxis, etc. (Drunk Trek)

This isn’t just a simple game of strip poker, but a game in which you pester a computer lady while taking into account psychological coefficients, biorhythms, and so on. (Playboy)

A game in which you rescue a princess who has been kidnapped by a spider, the embodiment of evil. (Spider Rescue)

This adult adventure game focuses on the sexual techniques of Hatsue, who became a hot spring geisha to repay her debts, and Danpei, a professional in the field. The matches take place in various locations, including the bathtub, the washroom, the bedroom, and under the futon. The player plays Hatsue. Use secret techniques such as bubble dancing to get Danpei to work and you win. Can you block Danpei’s special move, the screwdriver? (Hot Spring Worm Geisha)

In this game, Smile-kun jumps onto a hanging ring and crushes a monkfish that emits shock waves from its mouth. The shock waves emitted by the monkfish are laughing gas, and if you are exposed to them, you will faint. (Smile)

When you move MAN, ladders and paths will appear naturally. In this game, you must navigate these paths and ladders skillfully while being careful not to hit enemies, and collect all the red poles. (Dark World)

Linda is the best pig-rabbit in the world, and her special skill is imitating the ugly rabbit. People always call her pig-rabbit, so one day she finally decides to lose weight by jogging… But things don’t go well, and she falls into a hole and gets lost in the underground world. A mysterious monster is after her… That’s the story. Written by the famous Toshio Tabeta. (Linda Linda)

copying game descriptions i like from the gamepres.org pc88 library as run through google translate. i think this one from a pearl harbor themed simulation game is my favourite

A simple war game released as an introduction to computer simulation. The game progresses through a text screen. Pearl Harbor is just about setting targets, but it takes some skill and it’s hard to achieve better results than in real life.

[schroeder]

How Mahmood Mamdani was introduced to Marx

Two or three weeks later, I was in my room. There was a knock at the door. Two gentlemen in trench coats and hats said, “FBI.” I thought, “Wow, just like on television.” They sat down. They were there to find out why I had gone – because this turned out to be big – it is after Montgomery that King organized his march on Selma. They wanted to know who had influenced me. After one hour of probing, the guy said, “Do you like Marx?”

I said, “I haven’t met him.”

Guy said, “No, no, he’s dead.”

“Wow, what happened?”

“No, no, he died long ago.”

I thought the guy Marx had just died. So then, “Why are you asking me if he died long ago?”

“No, he wrote a lot. He wrote that poor people should not be poor.”

I said, “Sounds amazing.”