(Untitled)

[hydrobromic]

I had two evenings recently that were magically nice but also followed an aesthetically cohesive (but spontaneous) trajectory. Max and I have been talknig about this sort of thing regarding xkcd; the thrust of those comics (in addition to nerdy jokes) is the idea that your life will be magical if only you take the correct approach

Comments

[anotherthink]

magic may require n people where n > 0 and (number of people in magical attitude) > n/2. in my current circumstance, this means that i almost only experience that sensation alone (but alone is nice!).
i am looking forward to this event though; it is less than two miles from my house.

what psychedelic art? when i was taking art class at chicago i was wondering if there were visual art productions from the 60s/70s analogous to the directly trip-inspired musical innovations, but couldn't find very much that seemed to fit that niche.

[hydrobromic]

you can see the Whitney exhibit page here: http://whitney.org/www/exhibition/SOL_exhib.jsp

there were magazines, photos, and album covers, which I expected. There were also sculptures, collages, paintings, and videos; these ranged between "definitely produced while tripping," and "probably conceived while tripping but definitely completed sober." Of course, many ambiguous ones (including some large-scale oil paintings by Isaac Abrams, which looked like Georgia O'Keefe exploded).

[talentedmrraber]

Prima facie, the not-magical times are not so different from the magical ones. There are objective differences, but it might be a matter of mood anyway. Either way, it might be a matter of living appropriately---either to cultivate those superior details, or to remain in a proper frame of mind.

"Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion. Life is a train of moods like a string of beads, and, as we pass through them, they prove to be many-colored lenses which paint the world their own hue, and each shows only what lies in its focus. From the mountain you see the mountain. We animate what we can, and we see only what we animate. Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man, whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. There are always sunsets, and there is always genius; but only a few hours so serene that we can relish nature or criticism. The more or less depends on structure or temperament. Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are strung." - Ralph Waldo

[semioticist]

I often find myself expecting a dose of magic, because that would be appropriate, given my attitude and general set-up of the situation. At these times, I experience my life remotely, mechanically watching it happen and vaguely waiting for it to be over. Occasionally I jolt back into myself---similar to the feeling of waking up on the train and wondering what stop you're at---and confirm that, yes, this is all that's happening.I usually describe magical moments as being just the opposite-- instead of feeling like I'm just going through an encounter I've gone through many times before, instead of being hyper-aware of all of the little contingencies and choices I have to make, I find the moments that I describe as magical are the ones where I feel so squarely in my body, so not remote, that everything I do feels like the most natural thing to do I can think of. I guess it's like being ``in the zone

[talentedmrraber]

Two of Emerson's further remarks on temperament, from the same essay, "Experience

[waterfountain]

There are objective differences, but it might be a matter of mood anyway.I think is true of myself at least. Or at least, it is impossible to experience magic without being in the right frame of mind. I'm not sure if the inverse is true. I suspect it might be, but it might also be that an especially non-magical external world/experience may lead one out of a magical mood