Sunday, 23 August 2015
Experiments and Practice
I have been tidying up a few of my better, more current blogs and culling and killing a few of my old ones that never really got going. I'm also thinking about creating a repository for a really old blog from 1999/2000 that's still hanging redundant and not editable,by cutting it up and republishing it into a new platform so that I will always have it (it could disappear anytime and it's been hacked to pieces by spammers). But a lot of that is to do with creating a writing legacy which is fine, but no one ever got rich playing with nostalgia I have to look forwards as well. So this is what I shall use this blog for. It has survived but has some half decent work on it. It's not public (which is a relief) and I will continue to be private because what I would like to do is keep it on for experimental writing using the Future Learn writing examples I like as openings for possible stories. Yes, it's another one of those little practice areas - but this one could be very different.
The idea will be to draw from the thousands of examples posted and try to develop them. many of them won't go anywhere. hardly any of them will be traceable back to their source such is the nature of editing. But as inspiration and ideas I can't think of a better way to practice. I'll try a few and if one gets me going i'll stick with it. Those that run out of steam will be shelved. Is this a good idea? We shall see.
Mirror Riff
A mirror is an object that reflects light in such a way that the reflected light preserves many or most of the detailed physical characteristics of the original light. This is different from other light-reflecting objects that do not preserve much of the original wave signal other than colour and diffuse reflected light.
The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror which has a flat screen surface. Curved mirrors are also used, to produce magnified or diminished images or focus light or simply distort the reflected image.
Mirrors are commonly used for personal grooming or self-admiration (in which case the archaic term looking glass is sometimes still used,) decoration, and architecture. Mirrors are also used in scientific apparatus such as telescopes, lasers, cameras,and industrial machinery. Most mirrors are designed for visible light however, mirrors designed for other wavelengths of electromagnet radiation are also used.
Throughout history they have been composed of different materials. From polish stone to volcanic glass. Copper or iron polished up would constitute a mirror for some. Anything that could generate a reflection. As the manufacturing process became ever more sophisticated - certain alloys were used to make a flat surface with appropriate backings applied to screen out what would otherwise be seen through the glass ensuring that the reflective process rather than transparency is achieved.
The concept of the mirror is an interesting subject for examination. An item designed and made for the specific purpose of reflecting a reverse but otherwise exact image of whatever appears in it. A looking glass, as it was once termed and to an extent memorialized by the Reverend Charles Ludwidge Dodson's (writing of course under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll) in the children's classic sequel to Alice in Wonderland in 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'. Both, incidentally are considered creatively symbolic stories full of clever playful logic yet wrapped up within the genre of seeming literary nonsense.
In through the story of the looking glass Alice climbs through the mirror and discovers a world of bizarre occurrences and eccentric characters perhaps indicative of what might be expected given the reversing perceptions of the looking glass or mirror. The book is a major piece of children's literature and we can thank Dodson's creative mind behind the idea that a world inside a looking glass or mirror can feasibly provide the out of kilter material for a story based in a fantasy world of illogicality. That's what the notion of mirrors can do. It was such a great idea it's not surprising that other creative minds have sought to emulate something of this. This includes a 1936 Disney Micky Mouse film called 'Thru the Mirror' where the enterprising rodent also climbs through a mirror has a crazy adventure based on some of the exploits written about Alice, only to wake up realizing that he had been dreaming. It was always going to be a crazy adventure, I doubt that anyone would expect a sane story to develop from the inside of a mirror with it's seeming other-worldliness reflected from it.
Mirrors played a big part in the German Brothers Grimm fairy tale 'Snow White' of course. Here we have the mirror taking on its own character - a living entity capable of speech and reasoning. The reflection of the person looking into it (a wicked witch) is assessed first to favour the questioner 'who is the fairest in the land?' Then (and this is crucial given that the 'magic mirror never lies) to the disfavor of the questioner which brings significant consequences and makes the story.
Before mirrors of course anything that provided a reflection serves technically as a mirror. Narcissus was an early exponent. Son of the river god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope Narcissus was praised so much for his beauty it appeared to have affected his ability to show humility or gratitude, and could only really think highly of himself, shunning the love of his parents and becoming obsessed with his own face which he had seen reflected in a pool. And that's what mirror's or reflections might do according to story tellers and myth makers, they can be suggestive, can feed vanity as well as depict obverse worlds,
There are two things that spring to my mind when I read or hear the expression Hall of Mirrors. One is the Victorian fairground attraction or end of pier entertainment of a room full of mirrors that are specifically constructed to produce distorted images for the entertainment. Viewers might see a grotesque caricature reflection of themselves - squashed together into a demonic dwarf or elongated into a unfeasible thin giant, or with the bulging head and deadened of Munches' Scream or feet bigger than any clown could muster. This is reflection as a source of humour - playing on the notion of vanity but your worst dreams realized with sometimes hilarious, other times frightening results. The other Hall of Mirrors of course - in terms of popular conception anyway - is 17th century Louis 14th one at the Palace of Versailles which as might be expected more concentrated on opulence than humour.
The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror which has a flat screen surface. Curved mirrors are also used, to produce magnified or diminished images or focus light or simply distort the reflected image.
Mirrors are commonly used for personal grooming or self-admiration (in which case the archaic term looking glass is sometimes still used,) decoration, and architecture. Mirrors are also used in scientific apparatus such as telescopes, lasers, cameras,and industrial machinery. Most mirrors are designed for visible light however, mirrors designed for other wavelengths of electromagnet radiation are also used.
Throughout history they have been composed of different materials. From polish stone to volcanic glass. Copper or iron polished up would constitute a mirror for some. Anything that could generate a reflection. As the manufacturing process became ever more sophisticated - certain alloys were used to make a flat surface with appropriate backings applied to screen out what would otherwise be seen through the glass ensuring that the reflective process rather than transparency is achieved.
The concept of the mirror is an interesting subject for examination. An item designed and made for the specific purpose of reflecting a reverse but otherwise exact image of whatever appears in it. A looking glass, as it was once termed and to an extent memorialized by the Reverend Charles Ludwidge Dodson's (writing of course under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll) in the children's classic sequel to Alice in Wonderland in 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'. Both, incidentally are considered creatively symbolic stories full of clever playful logic yet wrapped up within the genre of seeming literary nonsense.
In through the story of the looking glass Alice climbs through the mirror and discovers a world of bizarre occurrences and eccentric characters perhaps indicative of what might be expected given the reversing perceptions of the looking glass or mirror. The book is a major piece of children's literature and we can thank Dodson's creative mind behind the idea that a world inside a looking glass or mirror can feasibly provide the out of kilter material for a story based in a fantasy world of illogicality. That's what the notion of mirrors can do. It was such a great idea it's not surprising that other creative minds have sought to emulate something of this. This includes a 1936 Disney Micky Mouse film called 'Thru the Mirror' where the enterprising rodent also climbs through a mirror has a crazy adventure based on some of the exploits written about Alice, only to wake up realizing that he had been dreaming. It was always going to be a crazy adventure, I doubt that anyone would expect a sane story to develop from the inside of a mirror with it's seeming other-worldliness reflected from it.
Mirrors played a big part in the German Brothers Grimm fairy tale 'Snow White' of course. Here we have the mirror taking on its own character - a living entity capable of speech and reasoning. The reflection of the person looking into it (a wicked witch) is assessed first to favour the questioner 'who is the fairest in the land?' Then (and this is crucial given that the 'magic mirror never lies) to the disfavor of the questioner which brings significant consequences and makes the story.
Before mirrors of course anything that provided a reflection serves technically as a mirror. Narcissus was an early exponent. Son of the river god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope Narcissus was praised so much for his beauty it appeared to have affected his ability to show humility or gratitude, and could only really think highly of himself, shunning the love of his parents and becoming obsessed with his own face which he had seen reflected in a pool. And that's what mirror's or reflections might do according to story tellers and myth makers, they can be suggestive, can feed vanity as well as depict obverse worlds,
There are two things that spring to my mind when I read or hear the expression Hall of Mirrors. One is the Victorian fairground attraction or end of pier entertainment of a room full of mirrors that are specifically constructed to produce distorted images for the entertainment. Viewers might see a grotesque caricature reflection of themselves - squashed together into a demonic dwarf or elongated into a unfeasible thin giant, or with the bulging head and deadened of Munches' Scream or feet bigger than any clown could muster. This is reflection as a source of humour - playing on the notion of vanity but your worst dreams realized with sometimes hilarious, other times frightening results. The other Hall of Mirrors of course - in terms of popular conception anyway - is 17th century Louis 14th one at the Palace of Versailles which as might be expected more concentrated on opulence than humour.
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