Perfect score

In episode 18 of the 9th season of Seinfeld, while visiting Mario’s, a soon to be closed pizza parlour and old high school hangout, George Costanza discovers he still has the high score on the restaurant’s Frogger video game with 860,630 points. Fearing the achievement will be lost once Mario’s goes out of business and in order that the score be preserved as a monument to his unbettered glory, he decides to buy the machine. However, this poses a problem: how to move the machine while keeping it plugged in so that the high score is preserved? On September 24, 2005, Twin Galaxies, the organization that tracks video game world records offered a $1,000 cash prize to anyone who could beat Costanza’s fictional record. The prize went unclaimed; no one was able to improve on his score already of more than 10 years standing before the December 31st deadline.  Nearly 4 years later, on December 22, 2009, Pat Laffaye of Westport, Connecticut, achieved a Frogger world record high score of 896,980 points. No other Frogger game has been verified as having beaten the fictional George Costanza Seinfeld score.

A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, energizer, fruit, and ghost) without losing a single life then scoring as many points as possible in the last level. At which point, a glitch in the original game code that corrupts the bottom of the screen and right half of the maze results in an unplayable stage, effectively ending the game with a score of 3,333,360.

A short fiction about a wannabe militant office worker

He had worked at similar positions in different places doing much the same thing. Now here, although still relatively new, no one doubted he would continue doing them. Colleagues knew he was a lifer. Redundancy was the only reason he left his previous job. No one knew much about what that was, besides it not being dissimilar to this one; no one really cared to ask for details, but it was in the public sector and there were cuts. This time he was in the slightly more senior position that years of experience and minimal – but just enough – ambition deemed necessary to afford some kind of narrative. It was clear he knew what he was doing and doing it well powered in him the value of being a worker. Management’s bigger picture never accounted for the detail he was so skilled in, and while not in any conventional sense a meticulous man – his appearance, save for the type of hair with such natural spring that it refused to be swept in even the strongest wind, confirmed that – he could never reconcile their philosophy with his. While he possessed the education and qualities needed to be a good manager himself, removing himself from the front line mechanics of the job seemed something of a betrayal to his years of experience. Seniority and dominance amongst his colleagues afforded by those years seemed an unfair trade against being junior elsewhere. Certainly it was now. Colleagues though could never take him as seriously as he took himself which troubled them slightly because they were never sure if he was aware that his increasingly vocal protestations about his disagreements with management were aimed at the ears of a room that was trying desperately to un-hear. To their minds, or most of them anyway, the problem was that he picked the wrong targets. There was sympathy to his cause, to an extent; but his inability to unpick the web of middle management meant anyone more senior than him was fair game. There were definitely some who encouraged him, but most treated his statements of exasperation – announced by an intake of breath, mouth paused in an O shape and eyes up and to the right – as comic relief. People would imitate it at drinks after work in the bar across the street. Being so close it was the bar where everyone went, some middle management too, and they would join in the fun. There was no real malice, things just became social, and laughing at his expense would fill a void in the conversation. Which makes it somehow more poignant that he would sign off his emails –

– in solidarity.

Pancakes for the saint of Broadway

The halo represents an aura or glow of sanctity. The most iconic halo – plain, round and in outline only has over the of the history of art been drawn encircling the heads of the Virgin Mary, Old Testament prophets, the Four Evangelists as well as numerous saints and angels to distinguish them as the main identifiable figures within a painting. In the earliest Christian art, the halo was the reserve of the Christ figure, but during the Byzantine era, they were also afforded to emperors and empresses. The stipulation however was that the halo be in outline only. The solid halo, often in gold and with a cross extending beyond it, by way of hierarchy, was to be reserved only for persons of the Holy Trinity, especially Jesus.

The Catholic interpretation is that the halo represents the light of divine grace suffusing the soul, which is perfectly united and in harmony with the physical body. However it was also widely believed in popular piety that rather than a device of metaphorical representation, saints had visible haloes around their heads. This stemmed from the belief that haloes, like the aura of some Eastern religions, are visible to those with perception.

During the renaissance, as the development of highly realistic linear perspective opened up the 3rd dimension and allowed for greater compositional flexibility in art, painting came to be regarded as a window into space and the depiction of haloes became increasingly problematic for artists. The flatness of previous religious iconography determined that the halo be depicted as an aura surrounding the head; now with perspective, they were re-imagined as rings or flat golden disks floating above the heads of saints.

Looking for a tool to assist the navigation of the pseudo-spaces of Street View, Google developed a lightly shaded cursor geometry known affectionately as the “pancake”. The pancake is rectangular when moving across the façades of buildings and oval when following a road. Both shapes contort to fit the perspective of the scene giving an extra sense of depth as the mouse is moved around. This, like the painting of the renaissance, serves to emphasise the window into space metaphor of the embed that holds the panorama.

Double clicking the pancake takes you directly to the best panorama in that particular direction. Sometimes a little magnifying glass will appear in the bottom right corner, this is to indicate that double clicking will zoom in on the current image rather than transport you to another location. This happens when Google determine that the current view is the best for the selected location.

The pancake floats independently and democratically above the heads of everyone and everything. It is both a navigational tool and a metaphorical representation disappearing after 3 seconds of mouse inactivity. It rewards those that it hovers above with a glow of sanctity for about as long as it takes to read this sentence.

Excerpt from Subculture: the meaning of style / Dick Hebdige (1979, p. 103)

…the concept of bricolage can be used to explain how subcultural styles are constructed. In the Savage Mind Levi-Strauss shows how the magical modes utilized by primitive peoples (superstition, sorcery, myth) can be seen as implicitly coherent, though explicitly bewildering, systems of connection between things which perfectly equip their users to ‘think’ their own world. These magical systems of connection have a common feature: they are capable of infinite extension because basic elements can be used in a variety of improvised combinations to generate new meanings within them. Bricolage has thus been described as a ‘science of the concrete’ in a recent definition which clarifies the original anthropological meaning of the term:

[Bricolage] refers to the means by which the non-literate, non-technical mind of so-called ‘primitive’ man responds to the world around him. The process involves a ‘science of the concrete’ (as opposed to our ‘civilised’ science of the ‘abstract’) which far from lacking logic, in fact carefully and precisely orders, classifies and arranges into structures the minutiae of the physical world in all their profusion by means of a ‘logic’ which is not our own. The structures, ‘impoverished’ or made up (these are rough translations of the process of bricoler) as ad hoc responses to an environment, then serve to establish homologies and analogies between the ordering of nature and that of society, and so satisfactorily ‘explain’ the world and make it able to be lived in. (Hawkes, 1977)

The physicality of beige

This is the way it used to work: computers were housed in a rough, beige plastic casing. They got grubby. They were boxy, they were clunky, they were heavy. Clusters of dead skin would coagulate on the corners of the CPU, large grey/brown smears would radiate from the CD eject button and the letters of each key on the keyboard would be circled by a ring of finger dirt. As the hardware grew older, the retardants in the plastic grew darker and yellower. Years of use were recorded on them as well as in them. My life was being involuntarily being recorded on to it. Every so often, I would inspect the underside of my mouse and scrape several full fingernail’s worth of gunk away from the area around the roller ball. It was like it was slowly becoming a cyborg – part human, part machine; a synthesis of organic and synthetic parts. It was immensely satisfying. There were traces of me everywhere, my life on my computer was physical.

This is the way it works now: computers are housed in shiny black plastic or brushed metal casings with incredibly smooth surfaces. They are sleek and light-weight. They don’t get grubby. They reflect my image back rather than collect fragments from it. My reflected image can become distorted in the high gloss by a build up of greasy finger marks, but these can be wiped off with the end of a sleeve and they constantly are. And doing so is immensely satisfying. It’s smoothness is designed to repel. It’s shape has become ornament. My life now is voluntarily recorded within it and through it. My preoccupations and procrastinations are chronicled across the web, every trace of me exists deep within my hard drive or remotely in the cloud.

Ritual

Turn on the computer yourself. Turn it on from a complete shutdown, not a restart from standby or hibernation. It is important that you journey with the computer from an offline state. This allows for complete synchronization and determines your rhythm. It gives you ownership. Start a new session on your browser, do not restore. If you have saved tabs, close them. Your browser’s homepage should be the only thing you are welcomed with. Think of this as the trunk of a tree. Everything you do from now on will branch from here.

Observe each webpage in its entirety and do not read in an F-shaped pattern. If you must skim, do so in a figure of 8. Do not run an ad blocker. Ads are an important part of the page, they provide a context and are an important decoration. They tell you as much about the content as reading does. Investigate every link; hover over them and look to the bottom left of your screen for their destination. Remember the url’s. Absorb them. A naked url reveals more than its anchor text; it provides an abstract of the forthcoming page. Investigate every link, but don’t follow every link. Following every link is a distraction, it prevents you from building up momentum. Momentum is important. Surfing is about decision making, decisions are best made with momentum.

Do not repeat old or memorised searches. If you are stuck, take your time; reflect. Search within yourself first and the search engine second. Enjoy this moment. Have no destination in mind, only a place to start, you will soon forget your initial curiosity and be invigorated instead by its offspring. There is no destination, only a series of resting places. Record these.

Weight all results from a search engine equally. Ignore all rankings, imagine the results are displayed randomly. The results on the 17th page are just as important as those on the 1st. Search engines do not provide you with what you are looking for, at best they are springboards. As you progress through the pages so does the disconnect from your original search term; you are looking for the disconnect. The disconnect is where you are consumed by someone else’s interpretation of what you originally meant when you started your search. What you meant when you started your search is no longer important. Investigate image searches as thoroughly as web ones; the disconnect happens sooner. Links laid out in “hand crafted” pages however are immeasurably more valuable than those found in a search engine. Follow these with more vigour. Anyone who has laid out a links page or hyperlinked text from their article has done so lovingly and knowingly. These links come readily endorsed, researched and verified. Respect this. They will take you to places you couldn’t get to on your own. Enjoy broken links and embrace holding pages, examine these with the same intensity as you would any page. They are wonderfully lost souls that can’t be found through searching alone. There are no dead-ends on the web, but they are as close as you will come.

The scale of search

search In reverse order of scale: a man with a magnifying glass; the earth; information.

In the picture to the left, the header image for a search results page of an instantly forgettable global IT solutions company I happened upon while looking for something else, little cirrocumulus cloudlets of binary data float above the earth. They surround it like a blanket and cover it like a surrogate layer of ozone. Information is everywhere, omnipotent, part of the ecosystem – we breathe information! Information is big. It is not as big as search though. Search is bigger. Search is an enormous heavenly magnifying glass trying to zap through the clouds of information by concentrating the inquisitive gaze of a celestial corporate being onto each 0 and each 1, burning through them like ants.

Excerpt from the Grammar of Ornament, p.40, Pompeian Ornament

                  ___           ___
      ___        /__/\         /  /\
     /  /\       \  \:\       /  /:/_
    /  /:/        \__\:\     /  /:/ /\
   /  /:/     ___ /  /::\   /  /:/ /:/_
  /  /::\    /__/\  /:/\:\ /__/:/ /:/ /\
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      ___           ___           ___                         ___
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  _\_ \:\ \:\   ___ /  /::\   /  /:/  \:\  /__/\   /  /\  /  /:/ /:/_
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     \__\/                                               \__\/
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     /__/\         /  /\         /__/\         /  /\          ___
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 \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\ \:\/:/ \  \:\/:/ /:/ /__/\ |  |:|
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    \  \:\        \  \::/       \  \::/       \  \::/      \__\::::/
     \__\/         \__\/         \__\/         \__\/           ~~~~
      ___           ___                    ___           ___
     /  /\         /  /\                  /  /\         /  /\
    /  /:/_       /  /::\                /  /::\       /  /:/_
   /  /:/ /\     /  /:/\:\              /  /:/\:\     /  /:/ /\
  /  /:/ /:/_   /  /:/~/:/             /  /:/  \:\   /  /:/ /:/
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 \  \:\/:/ /:/ \  \:\/:::::/          \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:/
  \  \::/ /:/   \  \::/~~~~            \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/
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    \  \::/       \  \:\                 \  \::/       \  \:\
     \__\/         \__\/                  \__\/         \__\/
                  ___           ___
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    /  /:/        \__\:\     /  /:/ /\
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     _____          ___           ___           ___           ___
    /  /::\        /  /\         /  /\         /  /\         /  /\
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  /  /:/  \:\    /  /:/ /\     /  /:/        /  /:/\:\     /  /:/\:\
 /__/:/ \__\:|  /  /:/ /:/_   /  /:/  ___   /  /:/  \:\   /  /:/~/:/
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    \  \::/      \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/     \  \:\
     \__\/        \  \::/       \  \::/       \  \::/       \  \:\
                   \__\/         \__\/         \__\/         \__\/
      ___                                   ___           ___
     /  /\          ___       ___          /  /\         /__/\
    /  /::\        /  /\     /  /\        /  /::\        \  \:\
   /  /:/\:\      /  /:/    /  /:/       /  /:/\:\        \  \:\
  /  /:/~/::\    /  /:/    /__/::\      /  /:/  \:\   _____\__\:\
 /__/:/ /:/\:\  /  /::\    \__\/\:\__  /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/::::::::\
 \  \:\/:/__\/ /__/:/\:\      \  \:\/\ \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\~~\~~\/
  \  \::/      \__\/  \:\      \__\::/  \  \:\  /:/   \  \:\  ~~~
   \  \:\           \  \:\     /__/:/    \  \:\/:/     \  \:\
    \  \:\           \__\/     \__\/      \  \::/       \  \:\
     \__\/                                 \__\/         \__\/
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    ___          /  /\                  /  /\         /  /\
   /  /\        /  /:/_                /  /:/_       /  /::\
  /  /:/       /  /:/ /\              /  /:/ /\     /  /:/\:\
 /__/::\      /  /:/ /::\            /  /:/ /::\   /  /:/  \:\
 \__\/\:\__  /__/:/ /:/\:\          /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/:/ \__\:\
    \  \:\/\ \  \:\/:/~/:/          \  \:\/:/~/:/ \  \:\ /  /:/
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     /__/:/    \__\/ /:/              \__\/ /:/     \  \:\/:/
     \__\/       /__/:/                 /__/:/       \  \::/
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     /  /\         /  /\         /  /\       /  /\        ___
    /  /:/        /  /::\       /  /::\     /  /::\      /  /\
   /  /:/        /  /:/\:\     /  /:/\:\   /  /:/\:\    /  /:/
  /  /:/  ___   /  /:/~/::\   /  /:/~/:/  /  /:/~/:/   /__/::\
 /__/:/  /  /\ /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/:/ /:/  /__/:/ /:/___ \__\/\:\__
 \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\/:/   \  \:\/:::::/    \  \:\/\
  \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/       \  \::/     \  \::/~~~~      \__\::/
   \  \:\/:/     \  \:\        \  \:\      \  \:\          /__/:/
    \  \::/       \  \:\        \  \:\      \  \:\         \__\/
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     /  /\        ___          /  /\         /__/\         /  /\
    /  /:/       /  /\        /  /::\        \  \:\       /  /:/_
   /  /:/       /  /:/       /  /:/\:\        \  \:\     /  /:/ /\
  /  /:/  ___  /__/::\      /  /:/  \:\   ___  \  \:\   /  /:/ /::\
 /__/:/  /  /\ \__\/\:\__  /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/\  \__\:\ /__/:/ /:/\:\
 \  \:\ /  /:/    \  \:\/\ \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:/~/:/
  \  \:\  /:/      \__\::/  \  \:\  /:/   \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/ /:/
   \  \:\/:/       /__/:/    \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/     \__\/ /:/
    \  \::/        \__\/      \  \::/       \  \::/        /__/:/
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      ___        /__/\         /  /\          ___
     /  /\       \  \:\       /  /::\        /  /\
    /  /:/        \__\:\     /  /:/\:\      /  /:/
   /  /:/     ___ /  /::\   /  /:/~/::\    /  /:/
  /  /::\    /__/\  /:/\:\ /__/:/ /:/\:\  /  /::\
 /__/:/\:\   \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\/:/__\/ /__/:/\:\
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      \  \:\   \  \:\        \  \:\           \  \:\
       \__\/    \  \:\        \  \:\           \__\/
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    ___           ___                ___          /  /\
   /  /\         /  /\              /  /\        /  /:/_
  /  /:/        /  /:/             /  /:/       /  /:/ /\
 /__/::\       /  /:/             /__/::\      /  /:/ /::\
 \__\/\:\__   /  /::\             \__\/\:\__  /__/:/ /:/\:\
    \  \:\/\ /__/:/\:\               \  \:\/\ \  \:\/:/~/:/
     \__\::/ \__\/  \:\               \__\::/  \  \::/ /:/
     /__/:/       \  \:\              /__/:/    \__\/ /:/
     \__\/         \__\/              \__\/       /__/:/
                                                  \__\/
                    ___                       ___           ___
     _____         /  /\          ___        /  /\         /__/\
    /  /::\       /  /:/_        /__/|      /  /::\        \  \:\
   /  /:/\:\     /  /:/ /\      |  |:|     /  /:/\:\        \  \:\
  /  /:/~/::\   /  /:/ /:/_     |  |:|    /  /:/  \:\   _____\__\:\
 /__/:/ /:/\:| /__/:/ /:/ /\  __|__|:|   /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/::::::::\
 \  \:\/:/~/:/ \  \:\/:/ /:/ /__/::::\   \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\~~\~~\/
  \  \::/ /:/   \  \::/ /:/     ~\~~\:\   \  \:\  /:/   \  \:\  ~~~
   \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/        \  \:\   \  \:\/:/     \  \:\
    \  \::/       \  \::/          \__\/    \  \::/       \  \:\
     \__\/         \__\/                     \__\/         \__\/
     _____                               ___           ___
    /  /::\                  ___        /__/\         /  /\
   /  /:/\:\                /  /\       \  \:\       /  /:/_
  /  /:/  \:\              /  /:/        \__\:\     /  /:/ /\
 /__/:/ \__\:|            /  /:/     ___ /  /::\   /  /:/ /:/_
 \  \:\ /  /:/           /  /::\    /__/\  /:/\:\ /__/:/ /:/ /\
  \  \:\  /:/           /__/:/\:\   \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\/:/ /:/
   \  \:\/:/            \__\/  \:\   \  \::/       \  \::/ /:/
    \  \::/                  \  \:\   \  \:\        \  \:\/:/
     \__\/                    \__\/    \  \:\        \  \::/
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     /  /\         /  /\         /__/\         /  /\         /  /\
    /  /::\       /  /::\        \  \:\       /  /:/_       /  /:/_
   /  /:/\:\     /  /:/\:\        \  \:\     /  /:/ /\     /  /:/ /\
  /  /:/~/:/    /  /:/~/::\   _____\__\:\   /  /:/_/::\   /  /:/ /:/_
 /__/:/ /:/___ /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/::::::::\ /__/:/__\/\:\ /__/:/ /:/ /\
 \  \:\/:::::/ \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\~~\~~\/ \  \:\ /~~/:/ \  \:\/:/ /:/
  \  \::/~~~~   \  \::/       \  \:\  ~~~   \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/ /:/
   \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/
    \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \::/       \  \::/
     \__\/         \__\/         \__\/         \__\/         \__\/
      ___           ___
     /  /\         /  /\
    /  /::\       /  /:/_
   /  /:/\:\     /  /:/ /\
  /  /:/  \:\   /  /:/ /:/
 /__/:/ \__\:\ /__/:/ /:/
 \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:/
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   \  \:\/:/     \  \:\
    \  \::/       \  \:\
     \__\/         \__\/
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      ___        /  /\         /__/\         /  /\
     /  /\      /  /::\        \  \:\       /  /:/_
    /  /:/     /  /:/\:\        \  \:\     /  /:/ /\
   /  /:/     /  /:/~/:/    ___  \  \:\   /  /:/ /:/_
  /  /::\    /__/:/ /:/___ /__/\  \__\:\ /__/:/ /:/ /\
 /__/:/\:\   \  \:\/:::::/ \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:/ /:/
 \__\/  \:\   \  \::/~~~~   \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/ /:/
      \  \:\   \  \:\        \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/
       \__\/    \  \:\        \  \::/       \  \::/
                 \__\/         \__\/         \__\/
      ___           ___
     /  /\         /  /\          ___
    /  /::\       /  /::\        /  /\
   /  /:/\:\     /  /:/\:\      /  /:/
  /  /:/~/::\   /  /:/~/:/     /  /:/
 /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/:/ /:/___  /  /::\
 \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\/:::::/ /__/:/\:\
  \  \::/       \  \::/~~~~  \__\/  \:\
   \  \:\        \  \:\           \  \:\
    \  \:\        \  \:\           \__\/
     \__\/         \__\/
      ___           ___          _____
     /  /\         /__/\        /  /::\
    /  /::\        \  \:\      /  /:/\:\
   /  /:/\:\        \  \:\    /  /:/  \:\
  /  /:/~/::\   _____\__\:\  /__/:/ \__\:|
 /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/::::::::\ \  \:\ /  /:/
 \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\~~\~~\/  \  \:\  /:/
  \  \::/       \  \:\  ~~~    \  \:\/:/
   \  \:\        \  \:\         \  \::/
    \  \:\        \  \:\         \__\/
     \__\/         \__\/
      ___                       ___                       ___
     /  /\          ___        /  /\        ___          /  /\          ___
    /  /:/_        /  /\      /  /::\      /  /\        /  /:/         /  /\
   /  /:/ /\      /  /:/     /  /:/\:\    /  /:/       /  /:/         /  /:/
  /  /:/ /::\    /  /:/     /  /:/~/:/   /__/::\      /  /:/  ___    /  /:/
 /__/:/ /:/\:\  /  /::\    /__/:/ /:/___ \__\/\:\__  /__/:/  /  /\  /  /::\
 \  \:\/:/~/:/ /__/:/\:\   \  \:\/:::::/    \  \:\/\ \  \:\ /  /:/ /__/:/\:\
  \  \::/ /:/  \__\/  \:\   \  \::/~~~~      \__\::/  \  \:\  /:/  \__\/  \:\
   \__\/ /:/        \  \:\   \  \:\          /__/:/    \  \:\/:/        \  \:\
     /__/:/          \__\/    \  \:\         \__\/      \  \::/          \__\/
     \__\/                     \__\/                     \__\/
      ___           ___                                               ___
     /  /\         /  /\        ___           ___       ___          /  /\
    /  /:/        /  /::\      /  /\         /  /\     /  /\        /  /:/
   /  /:/        /  /:/\:\    /  /:/        /  /:/    /  /:/       /  /:/
  /  /:/  ___   /  /:/~/:/   /__/::\       /  /:/    /__/::\      /  /:/  ___
 /__/:/  /  /\ /__/:/ /:/___ \__\/\:\__   /  /::\    \__\/\:\__  /__/:/  /  /\
 \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:::::/    \  \:\/\ /__/:/\:\      \  \:\/\ \  \:\ /  /:/
  \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/~~~~      \__\::/ \__\/  \:\      \__\::/  \  \:\  /:/
   \  \:\/:/     \  \:\          /__/:/       \  \:\     /__/:/    \  \:\/:/
    \  \::/       \  \:\         \__\/         \__\/     \__\/      \  \::/
     \__\/         \__\/                                             \__\/
                  ___           ___
    ___          /  /\         /__/\
   /  /\        /  /:/_       |  |::\
  /  /:/       /  /:/ /\      |  |:|:\
 /__/::\      /  /:/ /::\   __|__|:|\:\
 \__\/\:\__  /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/::::| \:\
    \  \:\/\ \  \:\/:/~/:/ \  \:\~~\__\/
     \__\::/  \  \::/ /:/   \  \:\
     /__/:/    \__\/ /:/     \  \:\
     \__\/       /__/:/       \  \:\
                 \__\/         \__\/
      ___           ___           ___           ___           ___
     /  /\         /  /\         /__/\         /__/\         /  /\
    /  /:/        /  /::\        \  \:\        \  \:\       /  /::\
   /  /:/        /  /:/\:\        \  \:\        \  \:\     /  /:/\:\
  /  /:/  ___   /  /:/~/::\   _____\__\:\   _____\__\:\   /  /:/  \:\
 /__/:/  /  /\ /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/::::::::\ /__/::::::::\ /__/:/ \__\:\
 \  \:\ /  /:/ \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\~~\~~\/ \  \:\~~\~~\/ \  \:\ /  /:/
  \  \:\  /:/   \  \::/       \  \:\  ~~~   \  \:\  ~~~   \  \:\  /:/
   \  \:\/:/     \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \:\/:/
    \  \::/       \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \:\        \  \::/
     \__\/         \__\/         \__\/         \__\/         \__\/
                                         ___
      ___                 _____         /  /\
     /  /\               /  /::\       /  /:/_
    /  /:/              /  /:/\:\     /  /:/ /\
   /  /:/              /  /:/~/::\   /  /:/ /:/_
  /  /::\             /__/:/ /:/\:| /__/:/ /:/ /\
 /__/:/\:\            \  \:\/:/~/:/ \  \:\/:/ /:/
 \__\/  \:\            \  \::/ /:/   \  \::/ /:/
      \  \:\            \  \:\/:/     \  \:\/:/
       \__\/             \  \::/       \  \::/
                          \__\/         \__\/
      ___           ___         ___                                   ___
     /  /\         /  /\       /  /\                    ___          /  /\
    /  /::\       /  /::\     /  /::\                  /  /\        /  /:/_
   /  /:/\:\     /  /:/\:\   /  /:/\:\  ___     ___   /  /:/       /  /:/ /\
  /  /:/~/::\   /  /:/~/:/  /  /:/~/:/ /__/\   /  /\ /__/::\      /  /:/ /:/_
 /__/:/ /:/\:\ /__/:/ /:/  /__/:/ /:/  \  \:\ /  /:/ \__\/\:\__  /__/:/ /:/ /\
 \  \:\/:/__\/ \  \:\/:/   \  \:\/:/    \  \:\  /:/     \  \:\/\ \  \:\/:/ /:/
  \  \::/       \  \::/     \  \::/      \  \:\/:/       \__\::/  \  \::/ /:/
   \  \:\        \  \:\      \  \:\       \  \::/        /__/:/    \  \:\/:/
    \  \:\        \  \:\      \  \:\       \__\/         \__\/      \  \::/
     \__\/         \__\/       \__\/                                 \__\/
     _____                               ___
    /  /::\                  ___        /  /\
   /  /:/\:\                /  /\      /  /::\
  /  /:/  \:\              /  /:/     /  /:/\:\
 /__/:/ \__\:|            /  /:/     /  /:/  \:\
 \  \:\ /  /:/           /  /::\    /__/:/ \__\:\
  \  \:\  /:/           /__/:/\:\   \  \:\ /  /:/
   \  \:\/:/            \__\/  \:\   \  \:\  /:/
    \  \::/                  \  \:\   \  \:\/:/
     \__\/                    \__\/    \  \::/
                                        \__\/    

    ___           ___
   /  /\         /  /\
  /  /:/        /  /:/
 /__/::\       /  /:/
 \__\/\:\__   /  /::\
    \  \:\/\ /__/:/\:\
     \__\::/ \__\/  \:\
     /__/:/       \  \:\
     \__\/         \__\/
                        

Excerpt from Auto-da-Fé, p.14-15


His eyes grew accustomed to the darkness. But he could not read; that was a great pity. He pulled down one volume after another, turned over pages, contrived to make out many of the names. Later on he scrambled up on to the ladder. He wanted to know if the upper shelves had any secrets to hide. He tumbled off it and said: I haven’t hurt myself! The floor is hard. The books are soft. In a book shop one falls on books. He could have made a castle of books, but he regarded disorder as vulgar and, as he took out each new volume, he replaced the one before. His back hurt. Perhaps he was only tired. At home he would have been asleep long ago. Not here, excitement kept him awake. But his eyes could not even make out even the largest titles any more and that annoyed him. He worked out how many years he would be able to spend reading in this shop without ever going out into the street or to that silly school. Why could he not stay here always? He could easily save up to buy himself a small bed. His mother would be afraid. So was he, but only a little, because he was so very quiet. The gas lamps in the street went out. Shadows crept along the walls. So there were ghosts.During the night they came flying here and crouched over the books. Then they read.

Selected propositions of Owen Jones

Proposition 4. True beauty results from that repose which the mind feels when the eye, the intellect, and the affections, are satisfied from the absence of any want.
Proposition 5. Construction should be decorated. Decoration should never be purposely constructed. That which is beautiful is true; that which is true must be beautiful.
Proposition 7. The general forms being first cared for, these should be subdivided and ornamented by general lines; the interstices may then be filled in with ornament, which may again be subdivided and enriched for closer inspection.
Proposition 13. Flowers or other natural objects should not be used as ornaments, but conventional representations founded upon them sufficiently suggestive to convey the intended image to the mind, without destroying the unity of the object they are employed to decorate. Universally obeyed in the best periods of Art, equally violated when Art declines.
Proposition 14. Colour is used to assist in the development of form, and to distinguish objects or parts of objects one from another.
Proposition 15. Colour is used to assist light and shade, helping the undulations of form by the proper distribution of the several colours.
Proposition 16. These objects are best attained by the use of the primary colours on small surfaces and in small quantities, balanced and supported by the secondary and tertiary colours on the larger masses.
Proposition 17. The primary colours should be used on the upper portions of objects, the secondary and tertiary on the lower.