May 2013
5 posts
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Still Eating Oranges round-up #4
Back to Still Eating Oranges round-up #3
In only one year, Still Eating Oranges has achieved more success than we ever anticipated. Our members offer their deepest thanks to our followers. Below, our posts from the last several months have been organized for convenient browsing. The last such compilation may be found above.
Essays
An alternative way to live
BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider and...
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Return of the Frog Queen
As the frontman of the “emo” band Sunny Day Real Estate, Jeremy Enigk helped to create two classic albums—Diary and LP2—in the mid-1990s. After the band’s temporary breakup in 1995, however, Enigk created a classic of his own: the tragically obscure Return of the Frog Queen (1996). Here, Enigk abandons hardcore punk in favor of pop and folk music backed by a small...
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How we have progressed
As George Orwell’s famous maxim goes, “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past”. Unless one accepts the most bizarre and nihilistic conclusions of Nietzschean logic, one must grant at least a moderate version of Orwell’s point. Consider first that we are what we repeatedly do; and that our possible actions are limited by our...
April 2013
7 posts
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Him on the warmlight park bench he scritched his head—and out from the scalp alteration tiny birds flew out, blue and red tinybirds flowing out in spirals and in every-directionals out of his head, certain large birds also popping out and going to the fishtree branch, and he sat through this eruption. It stopped after awhile.
Still Eating Oranges
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Toward an experiential art
We have said that art does not exist. However, those works which are called “art” do exist; and, when we are immersed in them, we have experiences. The most honest aesthetic theory does not go beyond these immediate surface experiences, in which the viewer connects to the work intuitively, without attempting to take control via the ironic, critical eye. That is, every work is an...
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March 2013
12 posts
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“Now listen! Can’t you see that when the language was new — as it was...”
– Taken from a speech by Gertrude Stein at the University of Chicago. Recorded by Thornton Wilder in the introduction to Four in America (1947).
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The mechanical philosophy
In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
With the above...
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“Recovery (which includes return and renewal of health) is a re-gaining —...”
– Taken from “On Fairy-Stories” (1939) by J. R. R. Tolkien.
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hellisforcowards asked: You article on the Moe phenomenon was interesting and insightful. What is your take on a game like "Walking Dead" which makes heavy use of similar tropes except with a non-sexualized, yet adorable 8 year old girl whom the protagonist protects?
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BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider and exploitation
The video game industry has a history of being attacked for its portrayals of women. This is not without warrant: female characters in games are much of the time unrealized and poorly written, and their body proportions are often frighteningly exaggerated. Brights spots like Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2 and Faith from Mirror’s Edge notwithstanding, things are bleak. But few seem to realize...
February 2013
7 posts
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breathinginsilence asked: hello! I was wondering if you have any examples of books/tv/films that play out with a Kishōtenketsu narrative?
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An alternative way to live
As certain children’s films of the last few decades have taught us, we must always be “true to ourselves”. This is a fundamental rule of human life, disregard of which ends in unhappiness. To live according to the wish of another or to assume a “false self” is to invite disaster. In The Little Mermaid, the protagonist is beset by the forces of tradition and parental...
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January 2013
9 posts
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Shugo Tokumaru
As we mentioned earlier, indie musicians of the highest calibre have been springing up in Japan for over a decade. It is rare to find one, however, who matches the talent of Shugo Tokumaru. His work is dream-like: experimental pop built out of countless layers of instruments and non-musical sounds, such as mops swishing in buckets and forks tapping on ashtrays. Over these audio collages Tokumaru...
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Simple single beat, what a sound, what a look. The floor was moving pulsing with the people and outside she had flower in her hair, cigarette aged style. A watercress sandwich was exchanged with a passing strangerbeggar. A man was motioned away. Flower hair girl left in a taxi cab alone back to her apart.
Still Eating Oranges
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Still Eating Oranges round-up #3
Back to Still Eating Oranges round-up #2
To our many new followers: welcome. We hope that you will enjoy the site. As for our older followers, we thank you for your continued support. In the coming year, we hope to bring our readers even better and more diverse content; but, for now, please enjoy this list of our notable updates from the past months. Our last two round-ups may be accessed through...
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Generation Y
Generation Y has problems.
Generation Y cannot find a job. Generation Y cannot break in. Generation Y has discovered that cash is the key to every door. Generation Y feels pressured to “make it” but cannot endure the rat race. Generation Y is starting to realize that it shouldn’t try to “make it”. Generation Y has seen the man behind the curtain. Generation Y knows...
December 2012
12 posts
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5F issue #1 round-up
The first issue of Fantastic Figurations Face Fearsome Foes (5F) introduced the world to Man, Woman, Girl and Boy—superheroes without prefixes and, consequently, without powers or identities. In the space between the real and the symbolic, our pictogrammatic protagonists do battle with history’s deadliest enemies. A deconstruction of deconstruction; a throwback to Golden and Silver Age...
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Gutevolk
For over ten years, top-quality acts have been emerging from the Japanese indie music scene; but Gutevolk stands out even among this group. She debuted in the late ’90s as Hirono Nishiyama (her real name) and has worked as Gutevolk since 2002, beginning with The Humming of Tiny People. Aside from these details, little information about her exists in this language. Only one of her albums,...
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Dale Beran reports that A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible has returned after a hiatus of more than five years. The new episode may be viewed at alessonislearned.com. Those seeking context may find it in one of our past articles.
Still Eating Oranges
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hnntr asked: others, or more vapid, or lacking in a solid concept, but it is still what it is and there is no reason to claim it any less than it is. Even though I personally hate Damien Hurst, he is still creating in whatever sense of the word that he is translating for himself. Traditional art, as seen in prior movements has to move from reality. There is so much more to draw on than that is...
