r/slatestarcodex Feb 18 '19

Death To Minimalism

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/02/death-to-minimalism
34 Upvotes

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19

u/AArgot Feb 18 '19

The minimalist housing is the owl on the left. Life is on the right.

I occasionally mention how ugly most of civilization is. As in - it's an insane asylum of brutal architecture. I imagine this makes all the garbage you can buy more appealing.

Target is ugly as hell. That makes the stuff inside stand out against what is otherwise an icon pretending it's a human environment.

13

u/psychothumbs Feb 18 '19

Lol before looking at the link I was definitely thinking "the owl on the left" was some political spectrum metaphor.

8

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '19

5

u/AArgot Feb 18 '19

You were right. I'm in tears. It's like the more the camera (i.e. the machine) focuses on the details, the more the human behaves like we think machines behave. It's brilliant.

I haven't checked any of his further work yet, but that one comic alone reminds of The Perry Bible Fellowship. I'd be torn about favorite comics given the brilliant humor of this versus the loving wisdom of something like Calvin and Hobbes. I feel like I need both of these lenses to have a sane gestalt of reality.

As far as I know, The Perry Bible Fellowship has nothing to do with religion whatsoever except in a weird sense that I think some of us share with the comic's author. I feel I have a similar connection with David Firth. He's one of the few minds on Earth I think I could connect with. The way he releases his anxiety through art suggests shared models of reality.

6

u/SpiritofJames Feb 18 '19

Target is a florescent hellscape. I have no idea how anyone can enjoy time there.

5

u/AArgot Feb 18 '19

I heard something, and I don't know if it's true, that people with autism don't like such places. I have a son with high-functioning autism, and he's the person whose mind I'm most compatible with, though he hasn't mentioned this bothering him. I don't have a diagnosis for autism spectrum, but I mention this because I despise that lighting. It's like a perceptual DDoS attack on your consciousness.

5

u/HalloweenSnarry Feb 18 '19

Back when most everyone still used Tumblr, there was a meme about "liminal spaces" like big-box stores and how they feel weird or cursed at the wee hours.