Call me Johnny-Come-Lately.
I've had a few reminders in my young life that I don't have all the time in the world to get my head straight. The most recent was a dream week before last where a group of guys were investigating a "stupid gas" about to land and ruin everyone's brain, but got hung up in the process before it came. Last thought: "And then it was hard to understand anything."
I've been reading The Boomer Bible and InstaPunk for years now, and I just haven't been smart enough, educated enough, disciplined enough to get it. I don't have the brains to just piece it together in a cold read, I didn't get the education to understand even half the referents, and I've been in no hurry to do the required reading and thinking to catch up. I stalled, and time marches on. So this is me getting up to speed.
Actual design coming soon.
5 comments:
Man I know where you're coming from. Every time I think I get BoomberBible and InstaPunk , he throws a curve-ball and I'm back at square one (well maybe two or three).
The archives on InstaPunk throw out some tantalizing clues, but I have yet to be satisfied with any analysis of my own so far. So much for public education in the 70's & 80's.
Tell me more, dorkvs. I have a few pieces of the puzzle, maybe you have some I don't. Let me know what you've come up w/ so far.
(you've gone through Shuteye Town, right?)
I did make it partially through shuteye town, but I found the Word 97 medium to be tedious. I'd love to relive it in flash or html. Laird was truly ahead of his time in terms of hyper-linked memes.
My best guess is that Laird was trying to tell us that living in a world where having everything spoon-fed to us would lead to the downfall of western civilization...and we'd happily nudge it along with equal doses of hedonism and nihilism. We were left with generations of people who expect everything to be delivered in a convenient pre-digested form. The complete lack of critical thinking seems to be exemplified by everyone in Harry's entourage. Well at least by anyone who lived. Those who stopped to really think about things usually met a horrible end. In Shuteye, virtually everything in the mall complex takes on a pre-digested persona.
Another one of Laird's messages is that hardship and sacrifice (something we know NOTHING about) are the building blocks of a meaningful life and civilization. The Boomer's proved to us, however, that hardship can and should be avoided, or at least numbed-out in a haze of recreational drugs and self-actualizing rationalizations. The equation of "triumph over adversity" needs a new emphasis on adversity and less emphasis on triumph, especially if the triumph is gained at no cost, or worse, in a video game.
That's all that strikes me now. I'm sure I've got more...I should go back through the boomerbible.com archives to jog my memory. There were a couple of commentators that Laird said were very close to 'getting it'. Lake and AlphaGrey were their handles as I recall.
vs:
Shuteye Town's Word art reminds me of steampunk, or the Memex: almost like trying to force the future. I remember one or two forum members were working on an XML version of ST99, but I don't know the status.
I only got Word 97 a couple months ago-- Word '03 didn't load the graphics right, which took me a few days to figure out, 4 years back. If I had the means, I'd spend a couple weeks plowing through it, front to back, 12 hours a day.
As far as I can tell, you have the message swapped: The downfall of Western civilization (more a real civilization than any alternative) makes spoon-fed, vapid world. Nihilism leads to hedonism (Book of Andrew).
You're onto something w/ the hardship thing, but I'm not qualified to address the particulars. As for the "video game" comment, I'll point you towards the old Laird interview, unless you were alluding to that on purpose.
Also, one of the big messages of The Work is the effects of being cut off from history.
Boss:
You're right. Comment posted.
Is the Forum official closed, or just in neglect?
Point taken on the message swap. I'll have to try on that perspective for a while.
My allusion to video games was more general than specific. I was not referencing Shuteye Town, just video game culture.
Thanks for the link to the Shuteye Town article. I hadn't seen it yet. I found it interesting that Laird turned to the video game format out of frustration over the irrelevance of literature. That meme has been driven home during this week's Vonnegut-fest (no comparison intended).
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