Friday, November 18, 2011

Day 334

Again and I'm gone from here for days. I've been working and the work has been good. I'm still struggling to balance the long-term projects with the daily 'have-to' list. It's a process.

It seems it's time for the Neil Gaiman and me to make something. We talked over some possibilities the other day. I'm thinking you'd probably enjoy a new collaboration. I've got some ideas that have been pestering me to no end. I'll keep you posted.

I burned my finger on a poppet. Ask me how many times I've done that. I've decided that multi-tasking was invented by someone who hates women. Men can't do it. They're just not hard-wired that way. Man must focus on one thing at a time: Kill food. Mate. Shit.
Woman must not let the fire go out, the Neanderthal-ings toddle out of sight, the skins go unscraped, etc.
Multitasking is bad for the brain and causes burned fingers and cussing.

I'm obviously still thinking of early humans. I look at these bones on my shelf, waiting for paint and other thoughts to turn them into something else. Indeed bones must've been toys for early Earth children. Early humans were constantly in contact with Death. Death was everywhere. Present at all the events of everyday life. Welcomed and accepted as part of life.
Until, of course, religions were invented. But that's another post. It's eleven thirty and I don't even mean to be up. I'm waiting for laundry to pack for leaving tomorrow.

Currently, we play video games and watch cartoons and movies and Death is no longer welcome. In fact, its very existence is often denied. When we run out of lives, we earn more. We die over and over again. We have fewer reminders, generally speaking, as health care is better and people live longer. And are less often killed by bears. On the one hand, the information age brings us instant news of far away disasters. But that news is on screens just like the games and shows. It's not real. Does tragedy have to hit us in our own back yards for us to acknowledge Death? Have we un-friended Death?

If this is so, is there an underlying sociological movement behind this shunning of our once-beloved Grim?

It's what I'm thinking of tonight, waiting for laundry, which has just buzzed. I'm outta here for now. Hope you have a great weekend.
g'night

8 comments:

rusk said...

I loved that! Have we unfriended Death? Of course not! Death gets a bad rap. Check it out:
http://dirtcube.blogspot.com/2010/12/world-beyond.html

J.W.B. said...

New Gaiman collab?! Excited to see what you two come up with! I'm reading American Gods for the first time right now. Love it.

And about death...had a similar thought about that thsi morning. Copy and paste facebook posts were going around about soldiers who died in a helicopter crash. I haven't looked it up yet but my very first thought was "it's probably not real" because of how unrealiable those posts can be. Death really does seem to have been shunned in comparison to older times..

spacedlaw said...

Neil sent a note saying he loved your little Amanda poppet. I hope he will take pictures of it. I shall retrieve the few I took in June and post them to Flickr too.

Jen said...

Neil Gaiman is awesome. The two of you collaborating is also awesome.

And speaking of Death, my absolute favorite envisioning of Death is his, from Sandman --- the calm, and cool, Goth chick with the ankh.

yemamaya said...

you and mr. Gaiman... my two favourite artists. Sigh. i wish i were a fly on a wall.... greetings from the land of less-gifted-wishing-thez-were... ah well, having a lovely cold, with a runny nose and out-of-the-grave cough will have to make my day instead.
but if you have any need for assistance from someone in ex socialist countries, just whistle.

Unknown said...

I wanted to give you a "Happy-Amber's-Birthday" Cookie today, but then I remembered that I can't send cookies over the Internet. Sorry.Hopefully it'll make you smile to know that a cookie was made for you, too.

Na said...

in the English-speaking world, our need to chat with Death from time to time is why Halloween has persisted, i s'pect.

what we resist, persists.

spacedlaw said...

Have you see this tweet?