Found objects @approximation - Tumblr Blog

Stylish parisiennes in The Love Parade (1929).

I don't mourn you this disruption; it is a rare thing to feel the collapse of the calcification of our certainty. Those we believe strong build edifices in which they sequester ourselves, ever fortifying their positions while secretly longing for something so powerful that it will manage to destroy them. But they are not careless builders, and the fortresses become prisons of their own devising where they remain, in perfect order, craving a messiness that they will fight to the doors of death itself, should they ever encounter such a powerful force. And yet -- what greater act of humanity is there but that which forces us to stand silent with our doubt, with our fear, with our most ill-conceived desires?

If you don't want people to know, don't do it online.

That little saying has always annoyed me. It's a comfortable answer for people who don't fear violence or discrimination in their "real" lives as a result of having desires, identities and presentations that don't fit society's vision of what's acceptable. For those who don’t, the internet isn't simply a place to do and see things, but a lifeline -- the only space where they feel safe enough to actually interface with aspects to themselves that they know would be violently policed in their "real" lives. Those of us who do happen to fit into society's vision of what's acceptable can conceive of no legitimate reason people might do something so stupid as download a porn app that will leave no trail on their browsing history, for example, or some other threat model originating not from malicious hackers or the surveillance state, but from people in their "real" lives, looking over their shoulders. Those of us whose desires and identities fit the mold don't have this problem; as a result, we don't see our own privilege. We don't see how for many, the internet has functioned as a powerful avenue for expression, exploration and community. We don't understand that an app -- which, as a third-party app, isn't tied to a user's Play account and can be installed and uninstalled as needed, thus appearing to leave no trail -- can seem like a much better solution than surfing Tumblr or engaging in the seemingly riskier act of inputting "dangerous" words on a keyboard that belongs solely to us and offers no plausible deniability. Increasingly, however, as more of life moves online, even the most privileged of us will be unable to see that tenet as feasible. I only wish we had understood it sooner, and not because we eventually saw past our smugness and discovered that we had been living in a glass house all along.

Photo by Sergey Popoff.

sabrinamorgan

We need to stop using “real” as shorthand for “people I can relate to.” We already have a word for that. It’s relatable. All of those people you view as richer, poorer, fatter, thinner, celebrities, the infamous, younger, older… All of those people are real. They all have real problems. ...

observando

He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two.

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (via observando)

observando

Remember: the time you feel lonely is the time you most need to be by yourself. Life’s cruelest irony.

Douglas Coupland, Shampoo Planet (via observando)

observando

Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.

Joan Crawford (via observando)

blamestyle

Sweet Escape by Nick Knight

awritersruminations-deactivated

She trembled a great deal, as though cold or afraid; she cried, suddenly and noiselessly, and the tears would fall and she would not wipe them away. She’d cry paralytically, sitting rigid in a chair or walking the street or in a market, cry without knowing she was crying, and not touch her eyes, but continue walking or continue sitting or continue shopping.

—Alfred Hayes, My Face For The World To See