Have I defined Weird and Wonderful before? I talk a lot about Weird, but why Wonderful?
Weird is what is juxtaposed against the known and normal. It is a feeling, unsettling, or like the appeal of poking a stinging blister. It is something for which you lack frame of reference, or is beyond frame of reference. It can also be an anachronism, an uncanny valley. It's a kind of spiritual openness. Weird has been explained elsewhere better, but this is where I'm coming from.
Wonder is when the known and normal are exceeded and redefined. It is eureka and understanding and doing. It is the scientific method and systems and information theory, coding, math, linguistics. It's like the Dunning Kreuger Effect; the more you know, the more you realize there is to be known.
"Weird & Wonderful" is a common enough phrase, but actually, they are often placed at odds. Spiritualism vs. Materialism, Ancient vs. Modern; these limiting false binaries.
Statistics and probabilities, germs, genetics, atoms, control systems, are all really Weird. They are not necessarily intuitive, and for all the Wonder that comes from understanding them, it reveals more Weird unknowns that never quite reconcile with our sensory-perception of the world.
The majesty of nature, the interconnectedness of collaborative spiritualism, the introspection that can come from ritual, are all Wonderful; they reveal hidden aspects of the self and the world, without diminishing what else can be.
Wonder in the absence of Weird is like an addiction, an unsustainable compulsion to squeeze more out of the finite. It's wanting answers in the absence of questions, wanting not for Wonder but just to get back to baseline.
Weird in the absence of Wonder is meandering and circular. A kiddie pool can be mistaken for the infinite expanse of ocean if you refuse to measure its bounds.
Wonder creates the space for a far more vast and rich Weird, and Weird asks the questions and demands the slow contemplation to keep Wonder from spiraling out unsustainably.
I've been meaning to explain my blog name for years, nothing as meaningful as your own however.
ReplyDeleteI was not necessarily consciously thinking of it this way when I named the blog haha, but I do think it was unconsciously motivated. I also liked the play on words of www as in world wide web.
DeleteI love the reflection here. I think you are quite right: if you have no tolerance for the Weird, you never get to Wonder. You comparing to Spiritualism vs Materialism and the Ancient vs the Modern is quite compelling in light of your body of work. Your blending, comparing, and contrasting of these elements has been a pretty consistent element in what I have seen of your work. You do so with impressive boldness and wild precision that I have always found impressive
ReplyDeleteThanks man, very much appreciated :).
DeleteGood thoughts
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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