Thursday, January 30, 2014

The Ode to Joy Game: Move 4

Apologies for the long gap between posts.  When planning updates to the Glass Bead Game I started last time, I was hoping that each post would provide more than one "move."  But if I keep waiting for the crystalline perfection of multiple interconnected ideas, I'll be waiting forever.  So let's keep things moving by filling in just one more cell in the TenStones HipBone board that I set up in the last post....


In the second cell up from the bottom, I place the concept of Laugh Lines.  These creases between the nose and mouth -- which I've learned have an official medical definition that's nowhere as evocative as their colloquial name -- are said to indicate a life spent smiling and laughing.  I was dismayed that a large fraction of search-engine hits on this term seemed to lead to sites devoted to removing these endearing features, rather than celebrating them.

I colored this new cell in honor of the idiomatic phrase "laugh till you're blue in the face," and I also took advantage of the happy (!?) coincidence in English that the lines themselves kind of resemble their own initials.  Visual onomatopoeia?

Links:  The association with Beethoven's joyous golden Ode, and with Japan's optimistic and evergreen New Year celebration, should be pretty straightforward.  The connection to the scarlet passion of Aerosmith's Dream On should be evident if you remember its opening lines...
Every time when I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer...
But what Steven Tyler sang with mock gravitas (he wrote that in his early 20s, for cryin' out loud!), I say with a slightly more experienced smile.  Honor those lines, especially the ones born while guffawing.

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(I'm still open to ideas on how to continue with this game, and I'm still processing the comments on the previous post.  We'll see how frequently I can update this thing... the next month is going to be a busy one for me, work-wise...)

10 comments:

  1. Stroke of genius. I'm madly in love with your latest choice. I want my laugh lines to deepen until all the sadness in the world can fall into them and be erased. :)

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    1. Thank you. Now there's some salvific grace worthy of the name.

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  2. This is all quite new to me but I love it anyway and am learning here. Delightful!

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    1. Thanks! I still have no idea if things like this will ever become accepted as games or art forms, but they are fun. Also, I'm sure soon I'll be, to borrow your word, bumfuzzled once I've painted myself into a corner and not sure how to make the final moves. :-)

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  3. I didn't know that's what the laugh lines were! I always thought they were the ones at the corners of your mouth, or the outsides of your eyes...you know, what happens when you laugh. :)
    I like this game, it's fun. Even if you are the one doing all the work, LOL.

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    1. I think different people have different definitions. I always thought "frown lines" were the ones that extend down from either side of the mouth into the chin region, but an image search showed that many people think of them as the same thing as forehead "worry lines."

      In any case, I think it's pretty interesting how we naturally associate emotional meaning to physical features like that. :-J (That was my attempt at an emoticon smirk...)

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  4. The world is weird. Why would anyone not want to look like they laugh all the time?

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  5. Looking forward to the next bead. (Would that be the right thing to call it? Sounds a little prettier than cell. :))

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    1. Coming soon. The picture is done, now I just have to stay awake long enough to write the text... :-)

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