Rach's Spod Space

Evenin' folks!!

After some consideration, I figured that perhaps I'm not the only intellectually oriented spod out there after all...so I thought that I'd set up my very own spod space in here

I've got a head full of lyrics and spoddy "concepts" in mind for album No4, and wondered whether you lovely people would like to post suggestions here for any geeky themes or thoughts that you might like to see transformed into lyrics and set to music.
Contributions containing the word "Stonehenge" will, of course, be removed immediately...

Maybe we could develop this into an online seminar debate...or perhaps I'm getting carried away...



Rach x

"Spod" as in UK geek, is it?

Themey bits ... I love the fantasy novels of Patricia McKillip and a recurring theme is knowledge tied up in riddles. Also, bards and magicians. (But not St*n*h*ng*.) Cryptic clues to life.

If things are too easy, we find harder things to do. If they're too hard, we avoid them Or collapse in a heap). We're always living on the edge of chaos, where we can just, only just, cope.

I wonder how the other me's, all the alternatives there might be in an infinite universe, or forked off by quantum choices, I wonder how they're doing and what kind of life they're leading. I wonder what they're wondering. I'm wondering how much difference it makes to make those other-me's not-me's-at-all.

Like that?

Chris

Will the inevitable "Greatest Hits" album be called "Spod U-like"?

Taff wrote:Will the inevitable "Greatest Hits" album be called "Spod U-like"?

Of course it will, Taff. With a personal dedication to you on the cover...obviously...

chris wrote:"Spod" as in UK geek, is it?

Themey bits ... I love the fantasy novels of Patricia McKillip and a recurring theme is knowledge tied up in riddles. Also, bards and magicians. (But not St*n*h*ng*.) Cryptic clues to life.

If things are too easy, we find harder things to do. If they're too hard, we avoid them Or collapse in a heap). We're always living on the edge of chaos, where we can just, only just, cope.

I wonder how the other me's, all the alternatives there might be in an infinite universe, or forked off by quantum choices, I wonder how they're doing and what kind of life they're leading. I wonder what they're wondering. I'm wondering how much difference it makes to make those other-me's not-me's-at-all.

Like that?

Chris

Hi Chris

Yes: I like it very much. Excellent start!
So - there are several different approaches that are possible here. Quantum physics, firstly, in terms of parallel universes or "multiverses", and the possibility that we all live parallel lives. I'm also really interested in the notion that we function competently as individuals only as a result of our capacity to "bracket off" the chaos in our external worlds. If you haven't yet read any of Scarlett Thomas's novels (especially The End of Mr Y and Our Tragic Universe), then I recommend both.
From a sociological perspective, Anthony Giddens talks about "practical consciousness" as the process upon which we rely to keep our own inner chaos at a manageable distance. Particularly fascinating, this one.

As far as the "other me" idea is concerned, we could think about psychoanalytic paradigms here: Freud's writing on "doubling" (the doppelganger) and the Uncanny are both relevant.

That's at least an album's worth of spodmology already! I'm off to the gym...

R

GEEK!!!!!!!

OK, Mr 3001 Tweets, you know what Sir Terry Pratchett says about that many exclamation marks ...

My "like that" was meant to mean "something like that" rather than "do you like that", but hey, reinterpretation is part of the game ... I shall have to add some Scarlett Thomas to the ever-growing reading list (which has items on it ten years old, and a queue-jumping mechanism).

Even if what's inside us isn't chaos, there's too much of it to handle in our consciousness. Suppose we could hear all the signalling going on within our bodies (or someone else's), we would be overwhelmed with information -- we are all summaries of ourselves. Is that the same notion as Giddens's?

The subject of the story/song wonders: Is that an actual person come to haunt me from an alternate less-parallel life? Or am I imagining them? Or am I becoming them? Or is something becoming me?

OK, time to stop pretending writing scripts for /Angel/ (or Call of Cthulhu) and get lunch.

Chris

I am rather fond of multiversal stories, thanks to a youth lost in Moorcock's creations.

With every decision made, we set off a ripple that spreads across the multiverse. What if I'd never met my wife? What if I'd never moved to New York? Things like this are great fodder for tales, especially with the storyteller trapped in the story, facing again those decisions that brought him or her to this current moment.

Me, while maybe not proud of many decisions made in the past, am rather happy now with my life, and I wouldn't change things in the past overly much (a few I might...). After all, we're merely the sum of all we've experienced.

If those experiences changed, though...

Oh, and if Stonehenge is off the table, might I offer Newgrange in its place? <ducks and runs>

[right]

I've got a stone Hedge at the back of my garden. Mind you I never thought I'd ever find myself announcing the fact.[b]

Das Kapital and the works of Marx is that geeky enough

<ducksastopicfliesoverhead>

Are we still spodding? Rachel, do you want more discussion, or are you full up with spod now?

chris wrote:Are we still spodding? Rachel, do you want more discussion, or are you full up with spod now?

Rach always wants more "spod" talk and will never be full up with it, so unfortunately, keep it coming

You're not allowed to doze off, Matt. Havn't you got video to edit?

chris wrote:You're not allowed to doze off, Matt. Havn't you got video to edit?

Yes I do but I'm converting them from .MOV to .AVI and it's taking an age so dozing off is unfortunately a necessity and compounded by "spod" talk

chris wrote:OK, Mr 3001 Tweets, you know what Sir Terry Pratchett says about that many exclamation marks ...

My "like that" was meant to mean "something like that" rather than "do you like that", but hey, reinterpretation is part of the game ... I shall have to add some Scarlett Thomas to the ever-growing reading list (which has items on it ten years old, and a queue-jumping mechanism).

Even if what's inside us isn't chaos, there's too much of it to handle in our consciousness. Suppose we could hear all the signalling going on within our bodies (or someone else's), we would be overwhelmed with information -- we are all summaries of ourselves. Is that the same notion as Giddens's?

The subject of the story/song wonders: Is that an actual person come to haunt me from an alternate less-parallel life? Or am I imagining them? Or am I becoming them? Or is something becoming me?

OK, time to stop pretending writing scripts for /Angel/ (or Call of Cthulhu) and get lunch.

Chris

Hi Chris

There's no such thing as too much spod, as far as I'm concerned...so please keep it coming!
I particularly like the notion of being haunted by one's parallel "self" - and the idea that it might be impossible to tell who's haunting who. Wait...isn't that (nearly) an Aretha Franklin track?!?

I'm also thinking Baudrillard and simulacra, but will have to cogitate further on that when I have more time to post here. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?.....

Meanwhile, Giddens would seem to be doing something potentially interesting - or potentially controversial, anyway, in Libya... I don't think I'll be writing any lyrics about that, though!

R

daviddurey wrote:[right]

I've got a stone Hedge at the back of my garden. Mind you I never thought I'd ever find myself announcing the fact.[b]

I'd keep that one quiet, if I were you!
R

nathan797 wrote:Das Kapital and the works of Marx is that geeky enough

I've been teaching Marxism and Ideology this semester, as it happens Possibly just a bit too politically oriented for Reasoning lyric-material, however? Bono, I am most certainly not...

R

Kyrion wrote:I am rather fond of multiversal stories, thanks to a youth lost in Moorcock's creations.

With every decision made, we set off a ripple that spreads across the multiverse. What if I'd never met my wife? What if I'd never moved to New York? Things like this are great fodder for tales, especially with the storyteller trapped in the story, facing again those decisions that brought him or her to this current moment.

Me, while maybe not proud of many decisions made in the past, am rather happy now with my life, and I wouldn't change things in the past overly much (a few I might...). After all, we're merely the sum of all we've experienced.

If those experiences changed, though...

Ahh...the butterfly effect? I'd also push the envelope a bit further (as bloody usual!) in terms of the we-are-what-we-experience thing. Our track "14" on Adverse Camber owes a lot to the Gestalt principle, i.e. that our "whole" is more than merely the sum of our parts.
The "what ifs" are always fascinating, of course. In my case, why don't (my husband and) I live in New York?!? Now there's a plan...

Innit.

R

MattBass6 wrote: Rach always wants more "spod" talk and will never be full up with it, so unfortunately, keep it coming

Don't you me, Boyo!!
And anyway, what the f**k is a .MOV? xxx

I remember a Brian Aldiss short story from, ages and ages ago (I'm an SF&F geek [1]) which used
a version of the many-worlds quantum thingy: on timeline A X had married Y rather than Z, not very happily, but the X from timeline B had married Z rather more successfully. Then B's X had used a many-worlds-hopping-thingy to bring himself and his Z to timeline A and interacted with A's X and Y (and Z). Complications ensued (but not that many, see "short story"). That's the earliest SF story I can think of using that trick, but there could easily have been earlier ones. I'm handicapped by not know /which/ short story it is ...

Chris Priest's /The Prestige/ has some interesting playing along dissimilar but related axes; you might find it interesting. If you've seen the film, I'm told that some of the core ideas are (deliberately) different -- I haven't watched it yet, waiting for the right time.

If you lived in New York, it would be tricky getting to the studio.

[1] Also computing, board games, and a smattering of philosophy.

raj087 wrote:

nathan797 wrote:Das Kapital and the works of Marx is that geeky enough

I've been teaching Marxism and Ideology this semester, as it happens Possibly just a bit too politically oriented for Reasoning lyric-material, however? Bono, I am most certainly not...

R

The majority of my A2 year has been spent doing Marxism. . Who mentioned Bono?? I was thinking more Justin sullivan and New model army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Sullivan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Model_Army_(band)

As shown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfdQ5cBp0n8&feature=related

Sorry for invading your topic Rach but i am on a punk thing atm, very stange for me.

raj087 wrote:

MattBass6 wrote: Rach always wants more "spod" talk and will never be full up with it, so unfortunately, keep it coming

Don't you me, Boyo!!
And anyway, what the f**k is a .MOV? xxx

Rach, I think .MOV stands for Men On Viagra. But I could be wrong.