Why I love Magritte - All the people...

All the people was written before i got to learn about rene magritte. I do not know if I had before saw in any image the picture of a mermaid with a fish head and human legs. but it was not hard to imagine. Any defiant kid should have conjured up that image when they heard the answer to "what's a mermaid/merman?"

So, when I saw the picture collective invention (1934) by rene magritte, shown below, I wasn't surprised by the image per-se. But I was surprised at the remarkable similarity between the mood of the picture and the mood of my piece. As in it's so similar that people may conclude that I based the piece on the painting, but actually I hadn't done so, consciously at least. If he painted the picture after me, maybe they'll say that he based it on my piece. I think that's the disadvantage of being born later, and not in Europe/US/westerners' place, and in a time of over-population and etc...


Collective invention is a play on the concept of collective imagination. I couldn't find ready explanations of these concepts, but I think it sorta means that the concept, say the mermaid, is product of collective imagination, everyone imagines woman plus fish = mermaid. Collective invention is everyone invents it together? Gee, see the onlinedictionary.com definitions below. Anyone's got a definition in your textbooks please email me. Thanks.

i·mag·ine

v. i·mag·ined, i·mag·in·ing, i·mag·ines

v.tr.

1. To form a mental picture or image of.

2. To think; conjecture: I imagine you're right.

3. To have a notion of or about without adequate foundation; fancy: She imagines herself to be a true artist.

v.intr.

1. To employ the imagination.

2. To make a guess; conjecture.

in·vent

tr.v. in·vent·ed, in·vent·ing, in·vents

1. To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.

2. To make up; fabricate: invent a likely excuse.

Anyway, the original title "all the people" was from the lyrics of song park life by a british group called Blur that rings in my head every now and then cos i listened to it a lot when I was a teenager. (Actually, a recent commercial on tv uses the tune.) Anyway, it's a coincidence that "all the people" alludes to "collective".

So I think it's quite suitable that I change the title now to all the people invent. I debated about calling it all the people's invention. That sounds more concrete with less drama, so no. Calling it all the people imagine, will remind me of john lennon (also british)'s imagine all the people - world peace song. though I have my theory that imagination will bring about world peace and all... maybe that link is too far-fetched for this piece. Calling it all the people invent - will allude more directly to magritte's picture and thus, help to illuminate how to read the piece - in the surrealist fashion.

Thought very hard if I wanted to correct the punctuations on the piece, but decided not to, since some of the full stops are used as commas. and it shows the breaking down of the language quite authentically. All written with free association. I don't remember if I had made any edits, but I think minimal. For trivials' sake, I also spent about half an hour pacing around the house if I should change "type" to "write", but I didn't. Is this interesting for you to read at all? Didn't change the "either" too, cos i thought that was funny. Really like this piece, feel it's very original, consciously at least. Been called for it to be paragraphed properly, but i really don't know how to break it up further, maybe cos I like it that the text flows faster without paragraphs.

Just went also to read on London bridge if the water is indeed fresh water, turns at that River Thames is both salt and fresh-watered. Dunno how that works but what are the chances anyway. How ironic and apt to the piece then.

Albert! here refers to Albert Camus, whose the myth of sisyphus was promised to me to contain the argument against suicide. He's french though.

From rats to bats - Untitled 19/7/07

Untitled 19/7/07 is just a frivolous thing based on how my grandmother told me that rats become bats. Not as in evolution, but more like as in a life cycle. Like how tadpoles become frogs.

Science will disagree. But science disagrees with itself all the time. Maybe they're special and different from frogs and they change only when nobody is looking. So no transformation's been observed.

Truth is over-rated. It is important. But over-rated.

Man copy 26 Feb 2003 - Untitled

Untitled post on 25 Aug 08 features a picture (which I try to at least occasionally include on ChaMOTOM to break up the visual monotony of words) which I conjured in some photoshop in 2003.

Vaguely remembered not being much work, just playing with the brush and drew a couple of lines. Quite minimalistic, but so what. I like it. Not deliberately posted for any vague resemblance to the Olympic logo. Though perhaps relevance can be made if we stretch it a bit.

Any relevance can be made if we stretch things.

Just digging through my old files. Found interesting things. Maybe even about you. :)

Edward Gorey - Neville

Neville is based on a character in Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies.


"N is for Neville who died of Ennui."

I like the word ennui because it's the closest thing ever to the word "sian" in hokkien. And I like the word "sian" because I am.

想你 series

The 想你 series expresses general insecure sentiments of missing and thinking of somebody. Sappy mandarin things...that are left deliberately vague. Because 1) my Chinese is not so good and 2) it's better for imaginations to fill in the rest of the details.

Though mostly not about, or inspired by ex-lovers or even persons, they're written like they're about ex-lovers or crushes. For example, 16 came about from how saying hi to acquaintances are troublesome, 15 was when I was trying to write 想你 and nothing came to the pen, 14 is about wanting to use the puns "海的浪漫" meaning the waves of the sea (海的浪) are slow (漫) and also the romance(浪漫) of the sea... etc.

12 is for my friend priscillia.

Hadn't written for a long time, but the recent surge (i.e. 2 entries in 2008) is because of my friend, Lee En. (hello.)

Mystery - There is Heidi

There is Heidi was written in 2007 loosely after my trip to the museum looking at the an exhibition of old greek (god's) statues from the louvre.

Frankly, I don't know what this piece is about. *shrugs*

The leaf sweeper - Modern Rodin

Modern Rodin is just a picture of the leaf sweeper, in a curious posture. I did not ask for his permission for the picture. The title references to Rodin who is the guy who sculpted the thinker (as featured). Apparently, he was poor/working class.


There may be contemplation here as, the viewer may wonder at the photo-taker wonders at what the sweeper wonders at. blah blah. so much thought and wonder.

Did you zoom in to the picture to look at his expression? I like his coy look. Whose? Whoever.

Reference:
1. On who is Rodin's Thinker?

The eye - The false mirror

The false mirror is also the name of a 1935 magritte's painting as featured.


" 'The eye is the mirror of the soul within' according to one version of the proverb. Magritte is playing his game of reversal again here, one of questioning what is outside, what inside. THe overdimensional human eye, instead of providing a view into what lies within, into man's soul, reflects what lies without, namely a sky with clouds in it."
Paquet, Marcel. (2006) Magritte. Germany: Taschen GmbH. p.10.