Archive for October, 2009

The Hazy Borderland: Communication vs. The Eloquent Tongue

By Jonathan Morgan, October 19, 2009, 10:20 am in Language, Past

moleskine

The English language is changing rapidly. During the last 15 years our focus has shifted from ‘traditional’ channels of communication (newspapers, books, television, radio) and we’ve found ourselves saturated by a whole array of new media (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, online magazines, podcasts).  This shift has been something of a democratisation process.  It’s no longer necessary to have a publishing contract or the ‘right connections’ for your words to become available to the world (or at least the world wide web).

As residents of capitalist societies, we are consumers being marketed to.  Advertisers know that information has to be more concise, more eye catching and more appealing than their last efforts.  There is always competition for our attention.

Added to this is the growing number of people speaking English as a second language.  Linguist David Crystal estimates that non-native English speakers outnumber native speakers 3 to 1.  They not only learn the language, but shape it, dictating norms for how sentences should be structured that we once viewed as mistakes.  Of course, language is organic, it’s alive.  Academic text books and dictionaries do not dictate how English is used, but evolve and are shaped in an attempt to chart current usage (at time of publication).

However, these changes come at a price.  When the channels of communication are no longer dominated by artists and their skillful mastery of well crafted verse, but ordinary people and their un-edited, generic pronouns (“great”), we lose sight of the potential for language as art-form.  When communication becomes more about efficiency than beauty, we find ourselves losing the playfulness and creativity of our words.  Suppose we meet a person at a party with a finely honed tongue, we are dismissive, viewing them as “poncey” or a relic from a long forgotten world.

My own journey places me on some hazy borderland.  As a first language English speaker, raised on the delights of English Literature, I Iearned to marvel at the well chosen word and the careful shading of a finely tuned metaphor.  I get annoyed when reading Shakespeare parodies on Twitter. While watching the movie Shadowlands (the life story of writer C.S. Lewis) recently, I found myself nostalgic for a time I barely knew, a time when language was charming and elegant, when people made speeches, not sound-bites.  On the other hand, as a world citizen (and resident of Sweden) I benefit daily from being able to speak English wherever I go and have learned the value of communication.  I’m also aware of the enormous privilege of having a global pedestal from which to broadcast my ideas at a whim.

Is it possible for artful language to survive in a fast paced world of brevity?

Moleskine image by Amir K.

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Dark Keepsakes – Napoleon’s Penis

By Amy Thibodeau, October 19, 2009, 3:01 am in Collectables, History, Past

napoleon

In the Spring of 2007 a urologist named N.J. John K. Lattimer died in California. According to the New York Times, what made this man’s death interesting were the strange collectibles he left behind, including Napoleon’s penis, “Lincoln’s blood-stained collar and Hermann Göring’s cyanide ampoule.” Yes, that’s right. Napoleon’s penis.

Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the southern Atlantic island of Saint Helena on May 5, 1821. The following day an autopsy was conducted by the emperor’s doctor … [who] removed Napoleon’s heart (the deceased had requested that it be given to his estranged wife, the empress Marie-Louise, though it was never delivered) …

In 1916 … [the] collection of Napoleonic artifacts [was sold] to a British rare book firm, which in 1924 sold the lot for about $2,000 to a Philadelphia bibliophile, A.S.W. Rosenbach. Among the relics was “the mummified tendon taken from Napoleon’s body during the post-mortem.” A few years later Rosenbach displayed the putative penis, tastefully couched in blue morocco and velvet, at the Museum of French Art in New York. According to a contemporary news report, “In a glass case [spectators] saw something looking like a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel.” The organ has also been described as a shriveled sea horse, a small shriveled finger, and “one inch long and resembling a grape.” (source)

Ouch!

Napoleon Bonapart image by Dunechaser.

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100 Years of Fears

By Dan Zambonini, October 16, 2009, 9:24 pm in History, Language, Present

A graph showing the volume of New York Times 'fear' articles from 1900-2009

Fear is a powerful psychological concept that politicians, activists and the media have used to their advantage since time immemorial. Although we might like to blame the modern media on a worsening condition of fearful press, it may not be wholly accurate.

The graph above, from the Google News Archive, shows the volume of New York Times articles mentioning ‘fear’ since 1900. Perhaps we have become so oversaturated with fear that it is no-longer newsworthy.

Matching articles from each decade were passed into Wordle to extract the most fearful topics of each decade. A war-torn century was briefly broken by fears of politicians during the 20′s prohibition, communism and civil rights in the 60s, and AIDS in the 80s.

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Rainbow Brite 2.0

By Amy Thibodeau, October 16, 2009, 4:55 pm in Past, Toys

rb

Rainbow Brite was a childhood fixture for most girls who grew up in the 80s in North America. She was cheerful and colourful, had a pony, a sprite friend called Twink, her own animated television show and best of all, there were fabulous Rainbow Brite toys. She was the Punky Brewster of cartoons and I thought she was very cool.

Though I am always excited to see old toys come back into fashion, the makeover that often accompanies them is usually baffling, as toy companies scramble to remix old icons with what they imagine today’s kids want. In the case of Rainbow Brite, who recently turned 25, maker of syrupy sweet movies-of-the-week and greeting cards Hallmark is the culprit (they were also her original creator). About the makeover:

Still magical, but with a modern flair, [Rainbow Brite] has a look that fits with today’s tween market. Playmates Toys has been given the master toy license and a whole series of toys; including fashion dolls, plushies and horses that will hit shelves this fall! (source)

The results of their re-visioning are innocuous and bland (here to see). They have turned Rainbow Brite into an acid-trippy, less sexy version of Bratz dolls. I am imagining a group of middle-age executives huddled in a beige board room somewhere trying to answer the question of ‘what does the all important tween market want?’

I think they have failed, but then again, I was a child of the 80s. I am also probably just as out of touch.

What do you think?

Raibow Brite image by Sterin

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The Shrinking Woman in Fashion

By Amy Thibodeau, October 15, 2009, 8:41 pm in Fashion, Photography, Present

skeleton

Recently, fashion company Ralph Lauren took a lot of heat because of some overzealous Photoshopping they did that resulted in an already thin model looking like a bobble head. I would show you the image but, apparently Ralph Lauren and Co. have taken issue with other websites posting the image (next to critiques) and have sent the likes of Boing Boing and Photoshop Disasters letters warning them to either take down the offending image or face legal action. Photoshop Disasters has complied, but Boing Boing is calling their bluff. You can see the offending image here.

While attacking the above mentioned websites, Ralph Lauren simultaneously issued an ‘apology’ for it’s overzealous retouching:

For over 42 years, we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body.

We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the calibre of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.

Lauren is basically saying that this incident amounts to a technical glitch and is in no way representative of how the fashion industry in general (or Ralph Lauren in particular) understands or considers the female form. There is a long, documented history of tension between the ‘ideal’ woman regularly featured in the fashion and entertainment world and reality, where not everyone is a porcelain skinned size zero.

Although  tools like Photoshop have made it easier for the fashion industry to create unrealistic and unattainable images of the human physique, contrary to what Lauren claims, it isn’t the poor use of a tool that resulted in this image but rather evolving perceptions about what constitutes beauty:

[Findings] show that from the turn of the century throughout the 1970s, the standard of physical attractiveness for women presented in the mass media became much thinner and less curvaceous … During the period from 1979 to 1988, Miss America contestants continued to decrease in body size and Playboy models maintained their already low body sizes … [This] has serious implications for women’s well-being. During the period from 1979 to 1988, 69% of Playboy models and 60% of Miss America contestants weighed 15% or more below the expected weight for their age and height category. The researchers note that according to the DSM III-R, maintaining body weight of 15% below one’s expected weight is a criterion for anorexia nervosa. Other researchers have also noted the prevalence of disordered eating among fashion models (e.g., Brenner & Cunningham, 1992) and the severe health risks associated with achieving a very thin body type. Women whose body fat falls below 22% are much more susceptible to infertility, amenorrhea, ovarian and endometrial cancer, and osteoporosis (Seid, 1989). (source)

Skeleton image by Perpetualplum.

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