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It's been a long time hasn't it. I am very sorry about that but I have been very busy with new found employment and the emotional rollercoaster of life itself. I was planning to post more often on this blog but I became very busy and ambitious so I decided to do some more freebie type posts to this blog. Small observations rather than big essays.
This week the little freebie comes from a Soviet Era translation of Ivan Turgenev's "On The Eve" which is strange in the fact that it makes absolutely no effort to introduce Turgenev to the audience. I enjoyed reading this book but it's not the content that I like to discuss but rather the back matter. Usually the back of a novel would contain a short plot synopsis to advertise itself to a potential reader; Raduga Publishing Moscow had a different idea. Instead they would provide us with some insight into the character of Turgenev (who must be so famous as to have his reputation precede himself in even the most nascent infant). So they have a comparison between his answers to a questionnaire presented to him in 1869 and again in 1880.
There are many things I find amusing about this. The layout makes you read his answers in sequence and the fading from naivety to cynicism is quite wild. I do prefer many of his later answers to his earlier answers (besides the questions where he obviously laments the loss of his youth). I too don't like going hunting but I am not sure how much I would prefer taking snuff. I think the most interesting answers are to the questions "favourite historical figures", "Present state of mind", "thing you most detest", "favourite motto" and the questions concerning his "idea of happiness" and "unhappiness"(in that order)
Postscript: I just remembered I have a flatbed scanner and I will be using it way more often now
When I found a Go board in Robert’s Rummage (everything 2/6d) I did not know that I had found my favourite game. It was hidden behind a mountain of novelty teaspoons and Princess Diana plates and it stood out to me instantaneously. My excitement in finding this game set was so obvious that it shocked the titular Robert of Robert’s Rummage and the other perusers in the establishment.
I had been looking for one of these for a while, ever since I had the game explained in a video by “Shut up and sit down” on YouTube. Before seeing this video, I had imagined that it was a very complicated and Chinese game (like what Mahjong is), and I did not think that I would enjoy it one bit. Part of the expectation of this is that I thought it would be really statistical and calculated like chess. Turns out that this is not the case at all; it is an extremely simple game with a wide range of playing styles.
Chess is a game which can be played very well by people who look down on creativity and social skills. It’s usually a game of probabilities and ascertaining which set of moves will lead to victory in a completely mathematical or logical sense. There is a limited set of moves that can be made at any time, and so computers have been able to beat grand masters at chess since the 1980s. Computers have only been able to beat masters of Go for quite a short time, and in order to do this, artificial intelligence has to be employed. The idea of the complex nature of Go is passed around like an orientalist joint which prevents people from playing it. I found a Go board in shabitat (another excellent junk shop) once but was very disappointed to find out that it only had a 5x5 and a 9x9 board instead of the customary 19x19 board. Playing a proper game of Go is hard because it's hard to have fun when you're not playing the real game.
A comparison between Go and chess; even Draughts or Othello is misguided because none of those games come near to expressing the feelings that Go does. The closest, and most inferior, neighbor is tic-tac-toe, which is less of a game and more of a “personality test” to quote Tim Rogers. However it doesn’t ascertain anything besides whether or not you’ve been paying attention, neither does it take long to complete. Go is a better personality test, whose results are entirely subjective. The whole way the board is seen depends on the person. There isn’t really anything indicating as to what you are doing. It’s like the ink blots on a Rorschach test; “why does it look like my parents arguing?” etc.
I’ve had a lot of fun playing this game against people. It takes maybe a minute or two to explain the rules and people are already devising highly personal and fascinating strategies in order to whoop my ass and consume the board. If you know me IRL, hit me up to play Go, I will probably oblige (if I have my board with me that is.)
This feature in my room is probably one of the few created structures in my life which I am fully content with. It’s just a big ass red stack of shelves with a bunch of stuff I like stacked on it. I do not know how I got it, but one day when I was living in germany, this case appeared in my room basically stacked with things I already had, and I did not question its sudden appearance. I like a lot of things about it. It’s relatively sturdy, was painted a shade of wine red by the previous owner and it’s made of a dense pine that has a certain cosiness about it.
The reason I consider this to be good feature of my space is the fact that I have organised it as the central location in my room for frequently accessed media. The top shelf is all film cameras; the shelf below it contains all my VHS tapes and various trinkets; the shelf below that contains a smattering of books and DVDs that I like; The shelf below that contains my playstation 2 games, the CRT television and the playstation 2 itself; The bottom shelf holds the playstation one and a currently dysfunctional VCR.
If I put a bunch of pillows and blankets on the floor, this becomes the perfect setup for playing video games and watching DVDs. I refuse to do this alone, because CRTs just emit gamma rays like crazy and the high pitched hum always gets irritating after a few hours. So the whole console setup is for when friends come round. Even when not in use, the features give off a really functional atmosphere and always makes my room feel a lot more hospitable.
The most notable trinkets are the little figurines I have running around. Mostly the Ayanami Rei figure and box for an EVA gunpla kit. I might write another time why I think Rei is one of my favourite fictional characters full stop another time. Right now I’ll just mention that within like a week of me finishing Evangelion, 15 year old me saw this figure at the place I played Warhammer and bought it, in box, for a very small sum of money. Since then It’s been a feature in my room. At some point I also got a really crappy set of tintin figurines to keep Rei company across the shelf. I think it feels more like a living scene.
Postscript: All in all, this makes up a first post. Nothing too deep here, I just wanted to share this thingy. If you have any questions just ask me and I will update the post :)