Invisible Stories

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[invisiblestories]

Dennis Hlynsky, “small brains en masse”

[invisiblestories]

I have cultivated in myself a sixth sense, an ‘Ararat’ sense: the sense of attraction to a mountain.

Osip Mandelstam

[invisiblestories]

A Hundred Views of the Drowning World: Rising Waters and Madness in the Greensward, by Kahn and Selesnick

[invisiblestories]

2,142 days

I started Invisible Stories on June 29, 2009 (with what I consider still to be one of the most wondrous and memorable passages in literature) and today, I realize after seeing an add for Geico in my feed, it’s time to call it quits. A year ago, this would have been a more difficult decision to make, but as anyone who browses Tumblr’s curated blogs knows, this is a platform that has never aimed much higher than the lowest common denominator. And though it’s possible to be in this space without partaking of it, there comes a point–for instance, when Geico ads interrupt one’s feed–when it’s best to step away rather than grow frustrated at the inevitability of what’s happening and will continue to happen. (People need to eat, I get it.)

My disappointment in the platform is offset by the good fortune I’ve had in connecting with some amazing people over the years, especially in the early days when there was a much stronger sense of community here, and though I won’t be active after this post, I will be paying attention to what those bloggers do because my life has been enriched by their taste and correspondence.

I’m not sure where I’ll end up on the internet, but if you’d like to keep in touch, you can email me: theslightestincident [at] gmail [dot] com; follow me on Twitter: @rs_sparks, where I’ll inevitably be posting content that would have found home on IS; or subscribe to Inventory, my very occasional Tiny Letter.

[Image via Bill Domonkos]

[invisiblestories]

By nature we are creatures of hope, always ready to be deceived again, caught by the marvel that might be wrapped in the grubbiest brown paper parcel.

J.L. Carr, A Month in the Country

[invisiblestories]

Terry Evans, Prairie Specimens

[dame-de-pique]

[invisiblestories]

John Bertram Eaton - Cattle tracks, 1935 (via dame-de-pique)

[invisiblestories]

James Galvin, The Meadow

[invisiblestories]

Per Kristian Nygård, Not Red But Green.

[invisiblestories]

Tamas Dezso, Postcards from the ruins

[skeery]

I know the general outline of despair. Despair has no wings, it doesn’t necessarily sit at a cleared table in the evening on a terrace by the sea.

André Breton’s poem “The Verb to Be” via Paris Review Daily  (via skeery)

[dame-de-pique]

[invisiblestories]

Byron Harmon - Snow formation on the Field Hill, before 1942 (via dame-de-pique)

[invisiblestories]

Joshua Tree

[invisiblestories]

Currently reading.

[mythologyofblue]

Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous delays and wanderings off the track I want to say that they are not what they seem to be. I want to say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are not mistakes, all that seems like error is not error; and it all has to be done. That which seems like a false step is the next step.

Agnes Martin (via mythologyofblue)

[invisiblestories]

Ronald Johnson, Book of the Green Man

[invisiblestories]

Inventions, "Maze of Woods" (A Winged Victory for the Sullen remix)