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New rail connections between Baltic and Bosporus
05 Sep 2022 12:22 Economy
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG's (HHLA) subsidiary Metrans is offering new rail connections between the Baltic Sea, Central Europe and Turkey. As another terminal in the northern hemisphere, Gdansk is now served by Metrans trains. In addition, in the far southeast, already a few kilometres into Asia, the Halkali Terminal close to Istanbul was connected with the Metrans Network. Therefore, the complete rail network is now stretching from Gdansk, Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven and Rotterdam in northern Europe to Koper, Trieste, Piraeus and Istanbul in the south.
Peter Kiss, CEO of Metrans-Group: "The new relations fit well into the philosophy of our dynamic group. We are connecting an increasing number of ports with our strategically positioned hub terminals for the transhipment of containers across Europe. More relations mean a more attractive service for our customers, operationally as well as in terms of costs."
The new connection with Turkey was made possible by a cooperation with the Turkish logistic provider Omsan Logistics. The first train with containers left the Metrans Hub Terminal Dunajska Streda (Slovakia) on the 3rd of September in direction to Istanbul terminal Halkali. In the beginning, two round trip weekly train connections are planned.
More than other rail services, the connection with Turkey with its long rail distance contributes to the reduction of road traffic and underlines HHLA's commitment to sustainability. Together with Omsan Logistics, it is a chance to reduce the carbon footprint on this important relation. The company has a strong background on the Turkish market. As an inhouse logistics provider of OYAK group, they will support Metrans with their deep market knowledge.
In Poland, Metrans is closing a missing link on its European network map with a connection to the Baltic Sea. From 5th of September 2022, regular trains between the Czech Metrans terminal Ostrava and DCT container terminal in Gdansk are starting on a promising relation. Now the boxes of Metrans customers can cross Poland from the south to the north three times every week in each direction, with a stopover in Dabrowa Gornicza near Katowice.
"We enable our customers in Central and Eastern Europe to get regular connections to the port of Gdansk", Peter Kiss is adding. "This is a welcomed, long awaited connection, which brings new opportunities to the customers and the market. As you would expect from Metrans, we are presenting a sustainable innovation: The block trains between Gdansk and Ostrava are optimised in length which can reach up to 750 meters. That is increasing capacity of a single train to 112 standard containers and helps to consume less energy per box."
About HHLA
Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) is one of Europe's leading logistics companies. With a tight network of seaport terminals in Hamburg, Odessa, Tallinn and Trieste, excellent hinterland connections and well-connected intermodal hubs in Central and Eastern Europe, HHLA represents a logistics and digital hub along the transport flows of the future. Its business model is based on innovative technologies and is committed to sustainability. www.hhla.de/en
Celebrating the first train departure from Dunajska Streda to Halkali
Karolin Hamann
HHLA Press Spokesperson


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[Note: This post is based on a few notes first published in Notes on Notes 1]
For my 100th post in September I wrote a haiku summarizing each of those 100. One was my 2017 review of the 1000-page modern classic novel Infinite Jest.
I read a long book
It was an experience
Better afterwards
Not a lot to look at, granted. It's just 11 words, most of them quite short. However, like a haiku should, it's a good encapsulation of what I thought of the book. It was indeed better afterwards; despite an at-best mixed review I look back fondly on it five years later2.
It's not surprising, necessarily. Nostalgia is a well known thing. We edit out unpleasantness (and most of all boredom) from our memories, give the rest a moodful soundtrack, and boom! — those certainly were the days. But I don't think it's just nostalgia that makes me appreciate having read it. Infinite Jest had themes that made an impact and that I keep coming back to, and the question I've been asking myself is this: would that have been the case had it been less of a struggle to read in the first place?
I'm curious because my experiences with some other "serious literature" has been similar. Richard Powers's The Gold Bug Variations, Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, and Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game all felt way better afterwards (not sure about Crime and Punishment since I never finished it, but probably that too). Each was thought-provoking, clever, impressive, and rich, but also kind of a slog. Nothing made me eager to pick up and continue reading. They were about as far from The Da Vinci Code as a book can be.
"Well, good! It's only natural that writing with substance is the complete opposite of cheap schlock."
I understand the sentiment, I do, but it's not obviously that simple. I don't buy that "enjoyable in the moment" and "rich and thought-provoking" need to be opposites. I can easily imagine Infinite Jest or any of the others being as complex, profound, and full of details while also being easier to get through.
Or can I? Maybe I'm fooling myself. I can imagine the 100th decimal of pi being a 3 but it isn't. It's a 9. It was always completely, 100% impossible, for it to be anything else and my intuition that it "could just as well have been a 3" is a complete illusion. Is it also an illusion that profound, impactful books could just as well be easy to get through?
Let's get one option out of the way: it could just be me. These books may not be arduous and boring to their target audience. Maybe some do find them riveting on a page-by-page basis. I don't know. But since many posters on the book forums I visited who said they loved Infinite Jest still found it a struggle to get through, I doubt it. And conventional wisdom is on my side: everyone understands the joke "a classic is a book everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read", suggesting there's either 1) an inverse relationship between classic-worthiness and enjoyability, or 2) a bias towards the unenjoyable when granting books the status of classic3.
And another one: I don't buy that "deep" ideas has to be a struggle because they contain advanced, difficult ideas. I've read about difficult ideas in many texts that were not boring at all, and if you think you cannot possibly write about complex things in an engaging, comprehensible way you're either lying to yourself or not a very good writer. I'm also not convinced fiction writers are trying to do this and fail. If they did the problem would be more of "this is boring because it reads like a philosophical tract" and I wouldn't make that complaint because I like philosophical tracts.
Now, let me ruminate on this for thousands of words. I'll do my best to make it worth it.
If the lasting value of these book are the ideas, the themes, the overarching message, then couldn't you just deliver that more efficiently? They don't need hundreds of pages of decidedly non-pageturner narrative to be expressed. Short stories would do in most cases — and, for example, Jorge Luis Borges did communicate fascinating ideas in that format.
The Glass Bead Game4 in particular felt to me like a Borges short story inexplicably inflated into a full novel. Interestingly I read that it was supposed to be a short story at first, but grew bigger and bigger as Hesse worked on it. While I can identify with that (the same happens to most of my posts) I struggle to understand this particular case since the material he was unable to resist putting in felt to me like filler.
"Literature isn't about just getting the point, it's about the journey!"
Right, ok, absolutely. But then make the journey enjoyable! Why make it arduous and boring?
Well, I can think of a few reasons.
It's supposed to make you feel like that!
Sometimes struggle or discomfort is an intended part of a work of art. Art is about inducing experiences — unique and interesting ones if the art is any good — in clever, stylish, and effective ways. If we limit ourselves to only the pleasant, we leave whole continents of artistic possibility unexplored. It could be that books treating "heavy" ideas must also feel heavy, or it comes off as insubstantial, incongruous, and fake.
The middle line of the haiku ("it was an experience") has a meaning on its own, besides leading in to "better afterwards". The reading experience was the point, even more than the story or the philosophical content. I've read somewhere that Wallace intentionally told major parts of Infinite Jest in endnotes, sometimes many pages long, in order to simulate the fragmented attention characteristic of modern media. That's obviously grown far worse since then, and he should be credited for his prescience.
I also read that his unfinished (he died in 2008) book The Pale King is about boredom. That doesn't exactly make me itching to read it, to be honest, but it is a legitimate artistic achievement if he managed to illustrate boredom in a nontrivial way.
Hell, I hear some people even enjoy certain kinds of unpleasantness, which explains the popularity of horror movies and "misery porn". I guess such enjoyment is the emotional equivalent of your body producing endorphins in response to pain when you eat spicy foods. It's likely part of the answer to my question, but I'm not feeling it. I don't like neither horror movies nor misery porn, or even those gloomy murder mysteries where the weather is bad. At most I can ~enjoy being moved to tears by emotional songs, but they're not as long as novels (or movies). A few minutes is about as much as I want.
I'm worth listening to
Like depression and ~ADHD are inherent parts of Infinite Jest, you can argue that the weariness and confusion caused by an overload of medieval conspiracy lore that made my eyes glaze over during Foucault's Pendulum5 is part of the point Umberto Eco wants to make about conspiracy theories and how they screw with your sense of reality6. That's not the only reason for it, though. It's also about Eco wanting to show off his encyclopedic knowledge of medieval history and secret societies. It's definitely impressive, but does it legitimately make Pendulum a better book? Maybe it's simply that Eco proving how much he knows about the subject gives it a hard-to-fake mark of authority that, while technically irrelevant to the purely subjective quality of the reading experience, elevates it to a higher level by making it a generally impressive achievement — a major facet of art.
By demonstrating skill and expertise, Eco makes establishes himself as a person to take seriously and listen to carefully, and a message, any message, coming from him will appear more profound by virtue of that. The effect is general, as we can see with the popularity of otherwise banal quotes attributed to Einstein, the Dalai Lama or whomever, borrowing heft from them. Wallace impressing by mastering a variety of tones and idioms, making obscure references to physics and mathematics, and writing labyrinthine sentences requiring the use of a dictionary, does make us prick up our ears and await his musings on Life, the Universe and Everything with eager anticipation. Richard Powers carefully going through how DNA and its translation into proteins work over the course of The Gold Bug Variations likely does a bit of the same.
Struggle is its own reward
Let's say boredom, confusion, or discomfort is not a necessary part of the artistic vision. Then why would something good, written by a master writer, be boring? No matter how much I appreciated The Glass Bead Game I found it (and The Gold Bug Variations to an extent) dull in terms of story. I barely remember most of what happened, and that seems so unnecessary. Wouldn't a more engaging plot have worked even better to bring out the interesting ideas?
Maybe struggle just does something for us. If emotional discomfort grants us the equivalent of painkilling endorphins, maybe a reading experience that requires pushing through despite a lack of tangible reward is like getting worn out by strenuous exercise. I hear some people enjoy that. I don't, and maybe we're getting, piece by piece, an idea of why I'm asking these questions.
Doing hard things can make you feel good because it makes you better at something, and focusing on not-very-engaging texts for long periods of time likely improves your self-control and concentration. Generalized and perhaps overstated, the rule becomes "if it's a struggle it must be good for you". It's obvious how the rule can be abused (intentionally, unintentionally, or semitentionally). For starters, it renders any complaints of the type "this is needlessly boring" easily dismissible, even when valid. It's not supposed to be "fast food"!
Here lie the most cynical theory of the connection between being a slog and apparent profundity: only books off-putting to casual readers may earn the "serious and profound" label in the first place, because social status is based on exclusion. For a book to be serious literature it must be impossible for the plebs to enjoy, otherwise liking it wouldn't mark you as a person of taste and intellect. The cynical theory makes me think of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's complex and with significant musings on the human condition if you care to look for them7, but it's not seen as serious and I think a big part is that it's fun and popular.
Ok, I should give the "it's not supposed to be fast food" viewpoint a fair shake. If we make something enjoyable on the surface, does it distract us, like a shiny trinket? Does it make it harder for us to discern the subtler but ultimately more rewarding qualities underneath?
I did write this in Rant on Arrival, about tugging on emotional strings:
It's become a shortcut for adding "depth" to a story, but emotions aren't deep just because they're strong. Physical pain is also strong but similarly straightforward and uninteresting. Powerful but uncomplicated feelings are cheap tools, overused because they're easy and reliable, the storytelling equivalent of sugar and butter. Use them to bring out flavors, sure, but they can't be the main ingredient and drowning food in them to make it taste better is rightly considered vulgar.
Discovering the unknown and coming face to face with an alien intelligence is emotionally subtle, like a flute melody above slow-moving string harmonies. Arrival's first half made us feel awe in the face of something vast and alien. It showed us the thrill of discovery, of finding out there is intention behind something inexplicable. /—/
The blunt force of a dying child story was like adding a thumping bass drum over the flute or pouring a pound of sugar and cream onto a dessert with rare exotic fruits. Power and subtlety are hard to mix right.
Immediately engaging story elements8 can be annoying and feel like they're in the way if you're there for the less obvious stuff. That's especially true if content on different levels clash in terms of message, theme, aesthetic, or sensibility. Truly great works have coarser and subtler meanings that don't interfere with each other and thus manage to be enjoyable on first run and then gradually deepen for every subsequent revisit.
Time makes the head grow fonder
Sure there are reasons why you wouldn't want to pack The Glass Bead Game with an exciting action-adventure plot. But we have to return to the question of why pack it with all the filler, then? Why all the story that mostly seem to drag on, that isn't just "not exciting" but doesn't seem to add much to the subtler themes either?
"Maybe you just don't get it?"
Again, maybe. But I don't think so, not for the most part. I feel I do get what these books are going for, on the whole, and reading reviews hasn't convinced me there's a lot there I haven't noticed9.
No, there's something else. I said that The Hitchhiker's Guide isn't taken that seriously because it's funny (and the wrong people like it). And humor, in general, tends to hide its serious content. Cartoonists and comics make observations and spin meditations on the human condition, similarly to what many novelists and artists do. The packaging is less intimidating but it's far from obvious that they're less accurate, valuable, or profound as a rule. For instance, the total wisdom referenced in the archive of the Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal webcomic dwarfs any great work of literature in the canon (a good hill for me to die on) but it's all camouflaged as crude and silly jokes.
Aren't I just retreading the cynical theory? Yeah, but there's another point: the SMBC comics are short. Most take less than a minute to read and then you go about your day. And that matters because while some books could've been much shorter without losing any important content, I imagine they wouldn't have as big a psychological impact without the filler.
Length — including filler — makes you to spend more time with a text. Big books become a part of your life for an extended period, and so their worlds, ideas and moods take up more space in your head and make a stronger imprint. In People Are Different I wrote:
'Words of wisdom' go into one ear and out the other, and I suppose this is a reason why a novel, a painting or a song can be more effective than a philosophical tract. Successful idea-driven art doesn't simply supply us with ideas to use whenever we want to (which isn't necessarily when we ought to), it burns them into our minds through repetition, elaboration and strong emotion. That way they won't fade away like fragments of the last dream before you wake up and we won't have the option to not use them.
Maybe those famous Borges short stories — Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis, Tertius, The Lottery of Babylon, The Library of Babel, and Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote — would have made an even bigger impact had they been full length novels instead? Now that I think about it I'm almost sure of it. Maybe wisdom needs to be titrated and not downed like a shot of tequila. Things need to be mulled over — slept on, for many nights — and this is a legitimate reason for even strictly speaking meaningless filler, and specifically for filler boring enough to not hog all the attention.
The exception that proves the rule (and I used that phrase correctly) might be Dave Eggers's Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?10 that I read right before Foucault's Pendulum and tellingly didn't think to mention here. It's a thought-provoking book and has a lot to say about society and humanity, but it's 200-ish pages of very readable pure dialogue (like a play) and I finished it in two days. I spent six months carrying Infinite Jest around, literally feeling its heft. Of course the second is going to have an order of magnitude greater staying power with me, even if its ideas aren't, fundamentally, an order of magnitude more profound (my best estimate is "about the same").
Tell me without telling me
Like many others I read more nonfiction than fiction and I'm accustomed to writers being relatively straightforward about what they want to say. It's necessary when you have to communicate precise, detailed, and complex ideas that aren't always right next to what the reader already thinks and feels. Vague hints and prods aren't enough for that, you need high-fidelity transmission. But fiction isn't like that. Its wisdom isn't meant to be transmitted as information, but communicated as the psychological imprint of a significant experience.
It's supposedly a rule for confidence tricksters that the victim should propose the key transaction themselves. Make them take the initiative and they'll be more committed and less suspicious. There's something similar going on with ideas: you want the pieces to fall into place in the mind of the reader themselves, not just spoon-feed them, because that isn't as effective. It's an overused expression, but "show, don't tell".
However, those of us used to the lucidity of good nonfiction often experience the indirectness of artful, philosophically ambitious fiction as making needless and irritating demands on our mental resources. I was also sometimes irritated back at school when they tried to be pedagogical and teach us things through live demonstrations, lab exercises, and group tasks. "No thanks, seeing electrolysis, buffer solutions, or the periods of pendulums with my own eyes doesn't help it make more sense to me than it already did. I believe you, you don't have to show me. Just explain it and I will understand. I'm perfectly happy to be helicoptered to the shoulders of giants. Just tell me right away so we can get somewhere! This is taking forever."
…at the same time I appreciate indirectness a lot when it works on me. That is, when a writer is pushing just the right buttons to make me follow along with a minimum of steering. Reading is like dancing: you want communication to be as subtle as possible to not ruin the flow. Perhaps we get irritated when gentle pushes aren't working quite right and it's making you bounce around mental space irregularly and jerkily instead of smoothly gliding along the intended path11. Failure here isn't the same thing as "not getting it", exactly, but rather not having it come together as nicely as it's meant to.
This becomes a problem for me, who's curious about and want to read books by people very different from me, but can't enjoy them correctly because of this sort of mismatch. Communicating over greater mental distances means you need to be more explicit and literal, but that's frowned upon12 (because it makes it worse for those who don't need it).
For every valuable thing there's a cheap imitation
Then cynical theory suggests that making something off-putting weeds out the riffraff, making it appear sophisticated without necessarily being so. The somewhat less cynical theory suggests that certain ingredients (emotional power, struggle, length, indirectness) help give whatever insight they deliver an air of wisdom, regardless of how much it deserves it. Like the addition of salt or sugar to food it may be used either to bring out flavor or to cover up the lack of it.
For example, we struggle for worthwhile achievements, but once this understanding is established it can be used to create counterfeit worth. "Oh here's a mediocre story, let's make it difficult to read so people who finish it feel they've achieved something and thus think of it as valuable."
Counterfeit emotional power is melodrama. I remember thinking during Infinite Jest that Wallace was painting some seriously shocking pictures. The book is on occasion nauseating; it is frequently absurd, and even more frequently tragic. Sometimes it all seems excessive, almost (almost) bordering on the melodramatic practice of adding more emotional intensity to a story than it can carry. In good drama, strong emotions helps hardening new understanding in a flash of fire. But to lend heft legitimately, the emotional content has to be intimately tied up with and justified by the message it supports. Melodrama merely turns up the dramatic volume to make the audience think they're having a meaningful experience (and therefore that the message they're receiving is meaningful13).
Similarly, padding a text with filler to make you spend more time with it works. But if the filler content isn't intimately and inherently tied up with the message, I'd argue it's as fake and hacky as melodrama. The same goes for impressiveness.
Given this, at least part of any books's reputation for profundity can be counterfeit, because for every good reason difficulty/struggle and profundity are connected, there's a fake version. In theory you can put in "slog factors" as additives to whatever crap you've got and make it look worth taking seriously.
But there's one factor left, the indirectness factor. And here I think there's isn't just one way to fake it but two, and they're each other's inverses.
Convergent fake insight
In the good version of indirect storytelling you make the reader fully comprehend an idea by having them come to it themselves. Couldn't you do the same thing with that as you can do with emotion? Evoke an experience and redirecting it towards an idea, implying it was the idea that caused the experience?
Yes, a reader will have an "insight experience" of things falling into place and making sense when reading something genuinely insightful about the world, but can also have one by just solving a puzzle14. If we wrap a mundane observation in writing so convoluted that it becomes a puzzle to extract its meaning we'll have an insight experience when we finally do, and we might easily think it was the content of the observation itself that caused it15.
It's not just literary indirectness that can be exploited this way. Making something opaque so it seems more interesting is a common trick16. I remember an ad once that was just plain text written upside-down. Of course that makes you wonder what it says, so I wound up carefully reading some boring ad copy about a new yoghurt brand or whatever. Well played. And I'm sure we're all aware of the trope of hiding important information to make a story seem more interesting17.
Divergent fake insight
A puzzle is a set of clues set up to be put together in a certain way to reveal a given, specific solution. The meaning of the pieces converge towards an intended target. What if you set up a bunch of pieces whose meaning diverge? I.e. they point in all kinds of poorly defined directions and don't come together to reveal a particular, clearly intended message?
You can do this by exploiting the habit of literary indirectness. You bring up symbols and concepts and stir them around the reader's mind a little bit and see what they come up with. Even doing it randomly or semi-randomly gives decent results, like the artistic version of banging the side of the TV (TV:s used to have sides). People do tend to find art more meaningful when given some random conceptual prodding, and for a mind sufficiently prepared and receptive, any prod at all, even the smallest possible one, will produce an interpretation that feels significant, even if there's no intent on the other side and thus no communicated content at all18. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think this was a major reason for the popularity of weird and incongruous images in art and literature.
Art is wholeness
Where do we end up? I'm not sure. I doubt there's a sharp line dividing helpful from obfuscatory difficulty. You can use various difficulties to make an idea feel bigger in the mind of a reader, and whether this is deceptive or not depends on how valuable the underlying idea actually is. If it's as wise as its presentation suggests, it's legitimate art, but if it's not it's pretentious bullshit and the means used to "dress up" the idea are fake and tacked on.
That doesn't leave us a lot to go on. What ideas are "actually" profound??? Perhaps the phrase "tacked on" is the key. In good literature there's an underlying wisdom to be communicated, and to bring it home (and make it art rather than a lecture), one or more of the methods are used and they combine naturally with the subject matter. The defining quality of artistic merit, as I see it, is not any one thing but the skillful and harmonious combination of elements — intellectual, emotional, and stylistic. In other words, wholeness19. In a great work the various components and dimensions imply each other, fuse and form a whole, where nothing feels superfluous or contingent, almost as if it had been discovered somewhere in the fabric of the universe rather than made up.
I was just going to put a few notes together with a minimum of connective tissue (free quick new post!) but of course I thought of more ideas, ooh and let's develop this… wait I think there's a system here… and a Grand Unifying Theory yada yada yada now it's suddenly six times as long and some of the starting material doesn't even fit that well with the new narrative and gets relegated to notes… again. ↩
I kind of predicted that. I even predicted I might be tempted to read it again. I am, very slightly, but I probably won't. ↩
There is a third option. Classics tend to be old and may have been enjoyable when they were new but for various reasons aren't any more. I'm sure this, like everything else, explains some but not all. It's not relevant for most of this post since the books I focus on are all fairly new. ↩
If you haven't read it, the premise of book is (per Wikipedia):
The Glass Bead Game takes place at an unspecified date centuries in the future. Hesse suggested that he imagined the book's narrator writing around the start of the 25th century. The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, which was reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools, and to cultivate and play the Glass Bead Game, whose exact nature remains elusive and whose devotees occupy a special school in Castalia known as Waldzell. The rules of the game are only alluded to—they are so sophisticated that they are not easy to imagine. Playing the game well requires years of hard study of music, mathematics, and cultural history. The game is essentially an abstract synthesis of all arts and sciences. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics.
The premise, according to Wikipedia:
Foucault's Pendulum is divided into ten segments represented by the ten Sefiroth. The satirical novel is full of esoteric references to Kabbalah, alchemy, and conspiracy theory — so many that critic and novelist Anthony Burgess suggested that it needed an index. The pendulum of the title refers to an actual pendulum designed by French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate Earth's rotation, which has symbolic significance within the novel.
[T]he novel may be viewed as a critique, spoof, or deconstruction of the grand overarching conspiracies often found in postmodern literature, and indeed its very title may well allude to one of post-modernism's key exponents, Michel Foucault. Although the main plot does detail a conspiratorial "Plan", the book focuses on the development of the characters, and their slow transition from skeptical editors, mocking the Manutius manuscripts to credulous Diabolicals themselves. In this way the conspiracy theory provided is a plot device, rather than an earnest proposition.
And you could argue that the confusion and disorientation that results from losing track of characters, story, and parallel realities sometime in the third and fourth Hitchhiker's Guide books is also part of the (chaotic and nonsensical) artistic intent. ↩
I'd for example argue that it excellently illustrates the postmodern condition in both form and content (and published two years before the book with that name). ↩
Whatever those elements might be. Personally I don't find pasted-on, cookie-cutter tragedy or romance engaging but the market suggests I'm in the minority. ↩
There's an exception: I found in a review that the two love stories in The Gold Bug Variations are structured like the melodic lines in a canon, i.e. repeating at a distance. That was neat. ↩
This book has the worst title of anything I've ever come across. Yes, its a Bible quote but still, it's a sentence so uniquely, magnificently awkward that every single time I've tried to remember it (including when I wrote it down here) I've struggled to get it right. ↩
To appreciate artistic "effects" you need to read writers that share your own sensibilities and associations. ↩
The hatred and disdain towards "spoon-feeding the reader" is palpable in writing forums. I do get it. To have something further explained to you when you already get it is remarkably irritating. And, crucially, it makes it feel like what you're reading is beneath you. ↩
It's like noting that music tends to get louder at its climactic moments, and then write your own songs to be maximally loud all the time, thinking that will make it feel climactic from start to finish. This ~exact thing does happen, and it's not a mark of artistic excellence. ↩
David Chapman has a post called "fake insight" that's about ~this. It points out the problem with puzzles, which are arranged to have neat solutions but mislead us about how real problems are solved:
It was fake because the problem had been set up to be artificially easy, not artificially difficult. Most similar problems could not be solved the same way. It was possible only because exact details made that substitution possible.
My friend and I had been trying to solve it using the general methods that should work for any problem of that class. I think we were right to do so. In the real world, hard problems rarely collapse into trivial ones because constants happen to fit together. /—/
Some personal development seminars are carefully crafted to produce fake insights of this sort. They deliver an aha moment that feels really good at the time and makes you think you accomplished something significant. You believe then that the insight will totally transform your life—but it doesn't. The actual scope of the insight was quite limited—perhaps even only to the context of the seminar.
It works for jargon-heavy nonfiction too. Pack your simple thesis (or unconvincing argument) in complicated verbiage or an opaque presentation, and presto, it's profound (or much harder to refute). The counterpoint is that unusual jargon can cause defamiliarization, which I agree can be valuable. The golden mean is combining new jargon with relatively clear explication. ↩
There's a whole genre built on the "insight high". Mystery novels exploit it like a drug. I don't mean they're bad, like melodrama they can be good at what they are, but without strong meaningful ideas at the core they're not exactly high art, just good craft. But without such pretensions they're more honest for NOT trying to project the insight feel onto some pet idea. They should also get credit for actually delivering the hit in the end, as we always find out who the murderer is. The worst of both worlds is the currently popular "mystery box" storytelling where it doesn't come together at the end because the (hack) writer doesn't care, and the dangling promise of payoff is just there to get you excited for the journey and stay on it (don't ever talk to me about Lost). It's like going a restaurant where you just get to smell the food. ↩
And occasionally overdoing it. I'm looking at you, Westworld season 2. ↩
Everybody remembers that teacher who insisted that everything was symbolic. ↩
Incidentally, this is also the qualities of a good glass bead game. ↩
artculturedavid foster wallacedifficultyHerman HesseinsightliteraturereadingRichard PowerssnobberyUmberto Ecowriting
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8 thoughts on "The Importance of Being a Slog"
lesliebyvivrebrooks says:
Always a fan of discussions of 'difficulty' in art. You might like my piece on Rain World, where I explain in detail why the game had to be meaningfully unfair in order to tell the story it tells: https://experiencedmachine.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/rain-world-reaching-enlightenment-through-unfairness-introduction/
Thanks! I'll have a look.
orthonormal says:
This doesn't resonate with me.
I've finished many a classic doorstopper, but never anything that felt like a slog to me. If anyone isn't having fun reading The Brothers Karamazov or Foucault's Pendulum, I endorse them dropping it and finding something else.
(As I did with The Name of the Rose, which is more tractable than Foucault's Pendulum but less interesting to me.)
And there are books I treasure, like The Unbearable Lightness of Being*, which read so smoothly that I can't really imagine a person who likes it but sees it as a slog. (I can always imagine someone disliking any particular work, but that's different.)
Infinite Jest is a slog, I'll grant you that. But I'm also doubtful in retrospect that it was actually worth those hours.
*I note with amusement that this book is my best example of developing heavy ideas in a non-heavy way.
Interesting. So, you don't really experience this? When you read, say FP or BK, do they feel like page-turners? I've been looking for things I enjoy in the moment and find substantial and interesting (and that has some cultural recognition, crucially, because that matters to me, I want to be hooked up to the weltgeist) for quite some time but it's harder than I feel it should be. Hence this post.
Maybe I should look up The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Bizarre question, but do H-bombs (specifically, the Teller-Ulam type) feel like art?
By this I mean, they have several parts that serve multiple functions, in ways that seem like a coincidence. The primary provides both the energy to compress the secondary, and a shower of medium-energy neutrons. The lithium is both a very practical way to store deuterium, and it releases tritium when showered by the neutrons coming from the primary. Depleted uranium turns out to be an excellent choice to make the casing of the whole assembly out of, since that both needs to be heavy, and the scary-high-energy neutrons produced by D-T fusion can split the U-238 nuclei, so much so that a large majority of the yield comes from the depleted uranium casing's fission.
existential-vertigo says:
This essay was thought provoking, thank you! I don't have anything to say regarding your main point yet. Instead, here are some random comments.
First, The Pale King. I've read all of DFW's work. (I really like his essays and some of his short stories, though I wasn't that fond of Infinite Jest). The Pale King is definitely really boring at times. Yet somehow it's still… fun?… to read the boring parts. Maybe this is possible because these parts are boring in a sort of impressionistic way. By 'impressionistic' I mean, to use your words, that it communicates "the psychological imprint of a significant experience" — namely, a particular genre of boredom. I feel like the boring sections of Pale King gave me some new appreciation both for boredom and the lack therof. That's super vague, I know, but I'd have to think for a while to be able to put it better. (It's also worth noting that Pale King contains some veritably un-boring sections as well!) (Just thinking about DFW makes me slip into some of his weird stylistic quirks, like the parenthetical and self-consciousness. Fun!)
Second: "For a book to be serious literature it must be impossible for the plebs to enjoy, otherwise liking it wouldn't mark you as a person of taste and intellect."
My favorite media — books, movies, music — is that which is both artistically good* and superficially enjoyable. This 'superficial' aspect (which is of course important for its own sake) is dependent on the medium. Approximately speaking, music is enjoyable if it sounds good; movies are enjoyable if they are entertaining; and books are enjoyable if they are engaging ('page-turners').
My favorite author is David Mitchell, who writes what I would call 'literary genre fiction'. His books have super compelling action-y/coming-of-age-y/mild-supernatural-y plots, which make them entertaining and easy to pay attention to. At the same time, he does some cool, unconventional literary stuff; his stories say a lot about 'the human condition' in the same way that James Joyce's do; and also he just has so many delightful sentences. Anyways, I think his books don't get taken as 'seriously' as they deserve, which is a point in support of your theory.
Third: "I said that The Hitchhiker's Guide isn't taken that seriously because it's funny (and the wrong people like it). And humor, in general, tends to hide its serious content."
I think 'serious'/'intellectual' people take certain stand-up comedians seriously. The best example of this is probably Dave Chapelle; [being black in America] is really what most of his comedy is about, and I get the sense that people find what he says about this insightful. (I agree that Hitchiker's Guide is really good, isn't taken very seriously, and should be.)
Relonidek says:
Your mention of confidence tricksters reminds me strongly of this bit from John W. Campbell Jr.'s criticism of Starship Troopers:
I feel that Bob's departing from the principles he himself introduced in science fiction —"Don't tell the reader about the background; let him gather it from what happens." In this yarn, there are several sections of multi-page preachments of his thesis. Some of the preachments I agree with fully; they still strike me as being ineffective because of the technique of direct-statement presentation.
The real suasion power of fiction lies, and always has lain, in the non-logical solution to the old logical paradox, "Epaminondas, the Cretan, says `All Cretans always lie.'"
The more fiction is kept at the level of fiction, the more the reader is forced to accept that any conclusions he reaches from the words of a professed liar are his own, personal conclusions, and that he, not the author, has reached that conclusion.
Jesus used parables –fictions— because what any listener derives from a fiction is the listener's own thought. And that sticks far deeper and tighter than the ideas of an external mind.
Taken from: https://www.heinleinsociety.org/2004/06/campbell-on-heinlein-selections-from-the-john-w-campbell-letters-2/
It's that second-to-last paragraph which gets at the same issue. If you are using writing to communicate an idea, you can state it plainly, but you face problems. One is that your readers may not hold your idea very tightly, as Campbell mentions. Another is that the readers will see only the words, not the idea, and the words are not the idea. The idea is communicated better if you can foster the environment in which the reader will have the idea. In some sense this is what you're trying to do by stating the idea plainly in words, and I guess it just becomes a question of effectiveness of different styles. It would make sense to me if some fields (as in, literature) had developed an aversion to plain expression out of a mix of belief in reduced effectiveness and aesthetic preference.
For what it's worth, I read the first page of Foucault's Pendulum, thought "what the heck is this impenetrable mess", and set it down for a couple years. Picked it back up in a different mood and then was disappointed that the rest of the book didn't have the same breathless-incoherent style as the first couple pages. I don't recall ever thinking of it as a slog. As I remember (it's been a few years), it was the sort of book where I enjoyed the writing on the page (the way sentences are laid out, the way words are used, that sort of thing) in addition to the story.
I think this is a case of the classic "not understanding that others are different than yourself". Personally I don't mind clear explication, I largely prefer it, in part because it allows for more detailed transmission as I said. I've been very affected by nonfiction writing and I don't quite see why others wouldn't. However, it seems to be the case that a lot of people ("the literary crowd") has a to me weird aversion to explication, and basically considers "explain" a dirty word. I struggle with respecting that because it seems so limiting and intentionallt woolly-headed.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Traveling often involves sitting for extended periods of time. Sitting with little or no movement tightens muscles and stiffens joints. This discomfort can last for several days after the trip.
Get Up And Move at Least 5 Minutes Every Hour. If possible, walk and stretch during this time.
Do some slow easy stretches.
Walk slowly, then walk or march briskly in place.
Stretch your back by placing your palms on your lower back and arching your back slightly.
Stretch your lower back by lifting one knee high; repeat with the other knee. Repeat the whole exercise five times.
Stretch the back of your thigh by placing one heel on an object elevated about 12 inches above the floor or ground. Bend forward slightly from the hips keeping your knees straight. Hold 15 seconds; then stretch the other leg in the same manner.
Stretch your calf muscles by placing your hands at chest height on something firm. Place one foot forward with your knee bent and the other foot back with the knee straight. Press your back heel to the floor. Hold the stretch for 15 seconds. Stretch the other leg. Repeat the exercise.
Do hand exercises. Curl and open your hands; make Os with your thumb and another finger. Circle a finger with your thumb in both directions. Invent other hand exercises.
Keep a 3- to 4-inch foam ball handy to knead and squeeze with your hands.
Stretch your legs if possible; add a heel press and then point your toes.
Use your hands to draw a knee up toward your shoulder; repeat with the other leg.
Squeeze one buttock (and thigh muscle), and then the other.
Arch your spine; next round your spine by tilting your pelvis, pressing the small of your back into the seat, and squeezing your abdominals.
Reach (and press) your arm forward, up against the roof, behind your head and down your spine, across the front and over your other shoulder.
Turn your spine and shoulders slowly; look over behind your right shoulder, then over your left shoulder.
Lift your shoulders up; press them down; curl them forward and backward, then circle them.
Do neck exercises: look slowly to your right and left; draw your chin in, then relax; slowly tilt your head from side to side; draw your chin to one side of your collarbone, then to the other; tuck your chin and draw your head straight down. Sit tall as you do these.
Sit with your legs uncrossed and with both thighs and feet fully supported.
Sit tall with a long neck and with firm, upright back support.
Let go of tension in your shoulders, abdomen, jaw, and hands.


The Associazione L'Uomo Libero is the creator and project leader of Ta Pum.
The association was born in 1991 as a non-profit organization, without electoral purpose and promotes concrete initiatives in the social, cultural, environmental, solidarity and voluntary sectors, giving special attention to the problems of childhood.
The association organizes and attends initiatives in defence of community and solidarity and territory ties, against the degradation, the exploitation and the wear caused by hedonistic, consumerist and materialistic logics.


Bregovic's conceptual framework for development of world film soundtracks was largely extrapolated from recontextualisation of the techniques applied in composition for Kusturica's films that share many similarities despite their historical and geographic setting. Comparative observation of Time of the Gypsies and Arizona Dream shows many such examples.
Both film locations are similar because of their isolation from the outside society. The Macedonian Roma ghetto Suto Orizari appears just as cut off from the rest of the world as does the little farm in the Arizona desert. In both cases we hardly ever see the characters interacting with the dominant ideology.
Perhan is a young Gypsy dreamer, Axel is his American equivalent. Perhan has a pet turkey and Axel works with fish. Both turkey and fish become more than the character's theatrical devices, these are the most powerful visual symbols in the given films. Axel's fish wanders through his imaginary Alaskan landscape, just like Perhan's immaculately white turkey flies into the highest spheres during the last moments of his life.
The connection of Perhan's wife Azra and Axel's second lover (and his first lover's daughter) Grace is not as obvious, but is still strong. Both Azra and Grace stand by Perhan and Axel through most of their difficulties and are in many ways the strength and courage that is waiting for them on the other side of their turbulent reality. Both Azra and Grace die, and they are the purest most innocent losses in these films.
Kusturica uses many similar theatrical devices for these two characters; they are both in white in their death scene, they die on a stormy night and their white veils or hats fly symbolically across the sky.
Elaine is a strange female version of the mafia boss Ahmed. Although she is not involved in the mafia as wee see it in Time of the Gypsies, her weak neurotic character is contributing to the destruction of Axel, just like Ahmed is slowly destroying Perhan.
Although Perhan's grandmother Hatidza is a much stronger symbol of stability than Axel's uncle Leo, they are both equally representative of the previous generation and their love and warmth towards the children/grandchildren. Grandmother and Leo connect in their relationship towards the destructive characters (grandmother's lack of trust towards Ahmed and Uncle Leo's strong dislike for Elaine).
Axel's best friend Paul and Perhan's uncle Merdzan are both portrayed as similarly neurotic womanisers. Although Axel and Paul are much friendlier than Perhan and Merdzan are, in both instances the dynamics between the given characters are highly reliant on the outlandish vibrancy of their turbulent love-hate, support-rejection relationship. It is almost as if those supporting characters capture the essence of the socio-conceptual principles behind the complexities of both Yugoslav and particularly Bosnian (and Sarajevan) societies.
Finally, one of Kusturica's most important re-appearing theatrical devices is the presence of live musicians. This is also an important contributing factor for the soundtrack composer as it signifies that the cultural traditions are supported through the appropriate source music. The Mariachi of Arizona appear in a similar fashion to the Gypsy brass band in Suto Orizari. These live musicians follow the joys and pains of the characters; they are the ever-ready musical commentary to the given dramatic development. Besame mucho (Many Kisses), an old Mexican traditional song from Arizona Dream has its theatrical equivalent in the Roma number Alo mange liloro (Black Train) from Time of the Gypsies.
The main characters of both films have interesting skills or at least unusual hobbies. Perhan spends most of his time practising his tele-kinetic skills, while in Arizona Axel becomes obsessed with making his lover Elaine a flying machine. Both Axel and Perhan also have a huge intuitive internal world. The symbolism of their dreams creates the most powerful messages in these films.
In the final scene of Arizona Dream we see Axel and his uncle as two Alaskan Eskimos. The fish from Axel's dreams slowly descends into the sky, accompanied by the soft sounds of In the Deathcar in the background and signifies the end of growing up – the nightmare that separates children from adults. Contrary to the dream in the closing scene in Axel's opening scene dream we see a young Eskimo who barely survives crossing the frozen lake – signifying that Axel has not yet made it through the dark nightmare that separates children from adults.
In one of Perhan's dreams during his stay with Ahmed and his mafia we see his pet turkey appearing on the window as if it was trying to warn him. Hatidza, Perhan's grandmother plays with a blood-red ball on the main square in Milan while next to her wee see a moving petrol tank. In the next scene we are back in Perhan's house where both Danira and Hatidza don't seem to be able to see Perhan. There is a little statue of the church from the main square in Milan on the kitchen table. Danira is circling around it with a ball of twine that is tied around the little statue. The ball of twine is a guiding symbol that leads the hero back home as suggested in the Greek mythology. Perhan walks into the house followed by the moving petrol tank and grandmother hugs the tank without any notice of her actual grandson. We also see the house and the whole yard burning down together with the image of Perhan's burning white shirt hanging on the washing-line. The petrol tank stands next to the burning house that is slowly ascending tied on a rope.
The first time that we see the house tied on a rope is in the scene of Perhan's uncle Merdzan begging his mother to help him pay the debt from gambling. As the family tries to explain that there is no money Merdzan ties the roof of the house to a thick rope that he connects with his little van and drives until the house is suspended in mid air. In Perhan's dream wee see a similar suspension only the house is also burning – signifying that this type of blood money earned from stealing and child-trade brings even more destruction than gambling. Perhan's internal world is musically portrayed by his favourite tune –The Italian Song.
Another interesting theatrical device that also creates a lot of the source music for both films is Kusturica's use of the piano accordion. In Arizona Dream we frequently see and hear Grace playing the so-called Snake Charmer's Tune while Perhan's accordion performance is the introduction to the Italian Song (which he also plays on the piano, in the scene of the house robbery).
Bregovic's adapted and recontextualised music, very much like Popa's translated poetry gains bluntness of expression that is propelled even further in translation.
If we take into account that explicit emotionalism is a cultural quality in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, is it possible to say that such musical characteristic in the soundtrack heightens the realism of the given film?
Balkanisation of the Arizona Dream soundtrack heightens the realism about the issues of tolerance and equality in any society. The director's use of fantasy elements and the violent emotionalism of the soundtrack music push these issues into some painfully appealing dimension because of their bold qualities.
Popa's poetic formula is not very different from Bregovic's musical concepts that heighten the conflicts portrayed in Kusturica and other director's films to the point of brutal emotionalism.
It's a formula that melts Bartok and jazz, tango and Slavic folk, Turkish suggestions and Bulgarian vocals, Orthodox sacred polyphony and modern pop beats.
The brutality of the Queen Margot story line is replayed in its violently emotional soundtrack utilising the described elements. Bregovic musically portrays everything to the extremes – ranging from the gentle sadness of Margot's love and loneliness, through Henri and La Mole's courage to the cruelty of the Medici family.
Even in the local Yugoslav production Time of the Gypsies the Roma and Gadje soundtrack principles heighten the character duplicity and replay the conflict in its own cultural and ethnic musical idiom.
Bregovic's music does not only "support" the given dramaturgy, it replays (or perhaps more appropriately "resounds") the given circumstances its own creative medium – this is why the ethno-cultural associations related to any traditional music are not restrictive. Instead of restrictions these qualities provide solid framework for development of musical analogies that appropriate the dramatic conflict into musical concepts. If we consider that a large body of soundtrack music is of programmatic nature because of its relationship to the depicted dramaturgy it is possible to say that Bregovic's programmatic approach is established through specific conceptual and metaphoric principles.
Stathis Gourgouris discusses Balkan soundtracks with comparative reference between the Greek director/composer duo Theo Angelopoulos/Eleni Karaindrou and the Yugoslav-born Kusturica and Bregovic.
According to Gourgouris the main difference between the two collaborative duos is that Angelopoulos' films together with soundtracks by Karaindrou refuse to embrace history according to one's ideological expectations which is precisely what opens history wide within oneself.
Contrary to this, Gourgouris discusses Kusturica and Bregovic describing their films and music as connected to the most brutal realism. He suggests that even in Kusturica's Yugoslav productions, such as Underground "the indigenous culture renders the invading culture in its own idiom"(p.340).
In Queen Margot Bregovic creates musical metaphors for Chereau's portrayal of historical facts about the French history, while in Arizona Dream he aligns the musical metaphors of his soundtrack writing with the director's analogies of a particular socio-dramatic problem.
Are we in the era of "Neo-Nationalism" or in the era of "Nationalism" as a metaphor?
Bulgarian academic Ivaylo Ditchev discusses the Balkans an example for his research about "National Identity in the Post National World".
Ditchev discusses reversal of interest in the modernist figures of universalism from the Balkan region, such as dramatist Ionesco, literary theorist Kristeva or director Angelopoulos and composer Karaindrou, in favour of exclusive resellers and re-tellers of the local culture and colour such as Kusturica and Bregovic.
When you watch TV you'd say that we were never as colonised by the West as we are now. But, believe me that the Western culture has never been under greater influence of the small culture than it is now. I know this from personal examples of my music.
Closer to home, Macedonian-Australian artist Robert Sazdov (a.k.a. Maxim) works with the idea of the continuation and evolution of the traditional Macedonian music. His concepts address further development of traditional Macedonian music through creative use of tools/instruments of the current time.
Sazdov talks about his beginnings, from the discovery of music that he heard while studying at the Sydney Conservatorium to crystallising his interest in electronic evolution of the traditional Macedonian music. Further research and creative applications led Sazdov to believe that any sound or any instrument can be customised.
During the initial stages of his research in this field the world was already swept with the idea of technology being culturally non-specific regardless of which part of the world it was developed in. This creates no issue as Sazdov and other musicians in similar field use technology simply as an auxiliary transition tool – computers become musical instruments for such artists.
My interview questions to Sazdov are similar to those I would have asked Bregovic. They address the evolution of the artist's signature-style with regards to the technique and development of any particular compositional formulae with specific attention to the altered and preserved musical elements used as source materials.
Sazdov's signature style and the compositional formulae derive from the researched traditional music. He even describes the process using the expression "deliberate formula" to accentuate his interest and desire in the evolution and preservation of the traditional music.
Sazdov explains that he aims to avoid writing in the Western styles, but admits that none of us can fight certain subconscious influences of today's environment and its contributing factors. He continues to research, write and rewrite in order to preserve the traditional flavour.
Bregovic still remains the most intricate "re-teller and re-seller" as he has taken the local culture over the precipice of the exclusively indigenous production and into an international sphere. His music is applicable in wider dramatic contexts because of the conceptual exploitation of the multi-layered ethnic structure of the Balkan population.
Sazdov on the other hand, conceptually synthesises the ideas of one part of the Balkans, and exposes its individuality and independence. This concept of "Neo-Nationalism" is not new and is particularly exposed in the multi-ethnic ex-Communist societies such as the former Soviet Union and ex-Yugoslavia.
Bregovic is propelled by his uncompromisingly Yugoslav vision, acknowledgment and understanding of the perpetual absurdities and inspirations of the Balkan conflict which he uses a metaphor in his cross-disciplinary work.
Sazdov's evolution of tradition is aligned with the latest developments in the world of music and creative technology, while in his soundtrack opus Bregovic takes tradition forward on a more perceptual and conceptual level.
The controversial ambassador's more current creative work, his retrospective outlook on the transition from rock to Balkan ethnic music and development of hybrid genres are portrayed through "Bregovic about Bregovic" framework that is constructed from his descriptions and explanations about the evolution of his musical processes.
Significant aspects that are valuable to both my theoretical research and development of creative projects address Bregovic's acknowledgment of the relationship between emotional, cultural and artistic connections with the homeland and his creative output.
He discusses the Yugoslav war and loss of homeland, on an emotional, artistic and creative, but not political level. Some of this discussion explains his choices to recycle music even in foreign productions. Bregovic even talks about his laziness. His discussion about the importance of mother tongue (specifically for songwriters and other text-based musicians) is particularly important.
The loss of homeland and of the opportunity to express his artistry in his mother tongue led Bregovic to collaborate with other musicians and appropriate his text-based works according to different project requirements.
Bregovic talks about all these aspects of his post-"White Button" career with funny, yet sentimental honesty.
I never liked working. My biography is a typical biography of a lazy man. As a pensioner I discovered that I liked working. I never worked in my life, except for the past two years, and that came as the result of the war. The consequence of the war is that I also do not have a homeland.
When I talk of homeland, for someone who writes songs that has different connotations then for those who simply left their houses. Of course, I left my house too, but that does not matter. In any case, I am left without homeland. That is a disability for those who write songs, because I can no longer write songs, can no longer write in my language.
That is why I only recycle songs now. I live abroad and when I give Iggy "On the Backseat Of My Car" he makes "In the Deathcar" as a result of it. I am forced to make compromised derivations; I can no longer control my materials from beginning to end.
I am extracted from my homeland, culturally, mentally and emotionally and in the beginning I was frightened and repulsed by it, but now I am enjoying it. If I look back now I feel my city and my country as some sort of a frame, and objectively a small frame, but the one I enjoyed back then.
Both Arizona Dream and Queen Margot soundtracks show many examples of musical recycling. In the Arizona Dream soundtrack Bregovic displays several of his "White Button" songs as appropriated in collaboration with Iggy Pop.
In the Deathcar is an arrangement of Na zadnjem sjedistu moga auta (On the Backseat of my Car) from the 1979 album Bitanga i princeza (A Thug and a Princess). TV Screen was recycled from Da te Bogdo ne volim (I Wish to God I Didn't Love You) that was on the band's self titled album from 1984. The provocative 1986 album Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo (Spit and Sing My Yugoslavia) seems to be the most resourceful source of materials that were recycled for the two soundtracks. Get the Money from Arizona Dream is an arrangement of Haj'mo u planine (Let's Go to the Mountains).
There are several examples of recycled works from this album on the Queen Margot soundtrack. The most famous theme from this soundtrack is Elo Hi performed by Ofra Haza – this is an arrangement of the song Te noci (On That Night). The track titled La nuit that is heard in the opening film scene is an arrangement of the song Ruzica (Little Rose). La chasse – music for the hunting scene is developed from the recontextualised instrumental section of Nocas je k'o lubenica pun mjesec iznad Bosne (The Moon Over Bosnia Tonight is As Big and Round As a Watermelon).
Bregovic also recontextualises his use of various ensemble configurations.
Dreams from Arizona Dream and Le matin and Margot from Queen Margot exploit vocal writing in a similar fashion – large vocal ensembles accompany a solo female voice. In both cases the melodies are evocative of traditional Balkan and even of sacred Orthodox music –this musical quality highlights their conceptual importance and places them in the overall ideological structure of both the film and its accompanying soundtrack.
In his portrayal of the conceptual "otherness" Bregovic accentuates the traditional elements in original composition and diminishes the rock influences of his pre-existing materials. In Queen Margot we are audio conceptually brought to understand the "Orientalism" of Margot's position through the power of her accompanying musical motives. The depth and importance of dreams and fantasy for the film characters in Arizona Dream are amplified through the quasi-liturgical qualities of Dreams.
The recycling of old materials have resulted in the recurrence of musical forms in Bregovic's soundtrack opus. Elo Hi from Queen Margot and In the Deathcar from Arizona Dream have a similar structure. Both works are recycled from Bregovic's pre-existing rock materials. The melodies of the verses are as similar to the old versions in Serbo-Croatian as possible because the new texts are written in other languages. Bregovic also develops the second melody that sometimes serves as the counter-part to the sung one or as an instrumental bridge between verses.
Bregovic – the controversial Balkan musical ambassador also discuses those less flattering aspects of his creative history. Using informal Serbo-Croatian full of colourful expressions that describe his lack of formal musical training Bregovic talks of his work, of the democratisation of music and its accessibility to people with different levels of ability and educational background.
Fortunately we always had enough money, to pay someone who knew what I needed - I always had the best musicians and conductors. And my role was to have it all blowing around me.
Bregovic's work with different aspects of traditional music has not only led him to expose the Balkan music in cross-genre collaborations, but has also provided solid ground for many other artists with similar interests and led to various further collaborations. It is also interesting that many of Bregovic's partners from film projects have some collaborative past among themselves. One of such collaborative partnerships is between Iggy Pop and Ofra Haza.
Haza also remains one of the key musicians that inspired Bregovic to continue the work with traditional music. He frequently talks about the impact she had on his understanding of the importance of traditional music both on the world music scene and in the development of any individual musician's creative consciousness.
I remember the first intense emotion on the MTV awards night. Can you imagine what it looks like, what a parade of stars? Ofra Haza appeared in the middle of it all. She came on all alone, dressed in a traditional costume and performed a traditional song. The night had been full of good music up until that point, but what made me say "God why haven't we got this?" was the pride and conviction with which she performed that song. Proud that she sings a song from Yemen, the country that is difficult to find on the map, but she believed that what she had sung is valuable, worth singing that night – that is something we have always missed.
The beautiful voice behind the most famous Queen Margot soundtrack number Elo Hi remains one of the contributing forces that inspired Bregovic to make a new creative beginning built upon recycling of his old materials. International success has not changed Bregovic's views on the importance of traditional music. He discusses his choices through various quirky metaphors.
It's like going for a quick bite in Macdonald's. When you are eating seriously, you eat your food, the same with music. You listen to MTV quickly, but seriously you listen to your own music.
Iggy Pop (Bregovic's main Arizona Dream collaborator) appears on Ofra Haza's album Kirya, as the narrator in Daw Da Hiya, an ethno-pop number about traditional life-style in the Middle East. For further details access: Haza, O., (1992) Kirya Shanachie Entertainments Corp./East West Records, Germany.


text:
Last Words, The Pit's Weekly Heavy-Metal Talk Show, is Back!
HomeNewsSystem of a Down's Serj Tankian Will Release A New EP This Fall
System of a Down's Serj Tankian Will Release A New EP This Fall
August 13, 2020 News
Photo by Carlos Tischler/Getty Images
While the possibility of live System of a Down shows hangs in the balance, the band's members are all busying themselves with other projects. Earlier this month, bassist Shavo Odadjian dropped a new track with his rap-rock act North Kingsley. Now, frontman Serj Tankian has announced that he'll be releasing a new EP this fall.
According to Blabbermouth, the EP will be called Elasticity, and will apparently have a heavy synth pressence.
"As far as the EP, these were primarily songs that I wanted to do with System," said Tankian in an interview with Grammy.com. "When we weren't able to see eye to eye I just went ahead and finished them. They have more synth flavors than most System songs do, more arpeggiated stuff like that, but they still have the heavy groove and also a lot of beautiful ballady stuff that is more like Elect The Dead and some of my earlier solo stuff. It's a really good EP."
He also told SPIN, "I've got a lot of other stuff in the pipeline. I've got an EP of rock songs that's gonna be out this year. Once I score another film I'll probably put out some more soundtracks next year as well."
Whatever it sounds like, one might expect Tankian's new EP to be a frustrated one. When asked what bothers him most about what's going on in the world right now by SPIN, the singer had plenty to comment on.
"The U.S. form of corruption is more refined," he told SPIN. "It's legalized. Super delegates; the electoral college, these are all instruments by which the powerful can keep their power and influence a leadership for generations to come with billions of dollars being traded. Right now over the last 15, 20 years, the government of Turkey has spent 40, 50 million dollars on K Street lobbying firms that have lobbied Congress not to recognize the genocide. And luckily the U.S. Congress recognized the genocide in November of 2019, which was a huge victory for justice and the Armenian-American community and the truthful side of history. So yeah the U.S. is very fucking corrupt, on the top. Not on the bottom. Your average person is not dealing with that type of corruption. But on the top, we're talking billions of dollars for running for president.
"So we need a peaceful revolution like the one in Armenia in the U.S. to topple this type of stupidity. And I say stupidity because it comes from ignorance, from the lack of education. During the Reagan time, they started cutting funding for public education and we've created a dumber population in the U.S. than we had previous to that. And that is dangerous because we're getting dumb fucking leaders because of it."
Words by Chris Krovatin
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Last week, System Of A Down shocked music fans around the world by premiering their first new music in 15 years. The tracks in question, "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz," were released to protest […]
System Of A Down Take You Behind The Scenes of Their "Protect The Land" Video
Earlier this month, System Of A Down released two new songs to benefit Artsakh during their current conflict with Azerbaijan and Turkey. One of those tracks, "Protect The Land," was accompanied by a music video […]
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Home Sports Dreams FC Picks June 14 for Homecoming Match
Dreams FC Picks June 14 for Homecoming Match
Ghana Premier League side, Dreams FC will organise a homecoming match on June 14, at the Ashaley Botwe Park, in Accra.
The match forms part of activities lined up to mark the 10th anniversary of the club.
According to the Planning Committee, the match would be between current team of Dreams FC and former players, who are plying their trade outside Ghana, but are on holidays in the country.
This year's event would begin with a donation towards the construction of the Ashaley Botwe Mosque, a food bazaar where Dreams FC players abroad would serve and fete members of the Ashaley Botwe community.
The club had already held an anniversary launch and commissioned a Club House as part of the Dreams @10 activities.
Ashaley Botwe Mosque
Ashaley Botwe Park
Dreams FC
Dreams FC Picks June 14
Dreams FC players
Edna A. Quansah
Ghana Premier League side
Homecoming Match
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http://www.ghananewsagency.org/
The Ghana news Agency (GNA) was established on March 5, 1957, i.e. on the eve of Ghana's independence and charged with the "dissemination of truthful unbiased news". It was the first news agency to be established in Sub-Saharan Africa. GNA was part of a comprehensive communication policy that sought to harness the information arm of the state to build a viable, united and cohesive nation-state. GNA has therefore been operating in the unique role of mobilizing the citizens for nation building, economic and social development, national unity and integration.


The brand-new trailer for the upcoming sequel "Men in Black 3" debuted Monday (March 5) and gave us a look at the time-traveling shenanigans that Earth's alien police force will be up to once the movie opens in May.
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back as J and K, respectively, but this time J is headed back in time to meet up with the younger version of his partner, played extremely convincingly by Josh Brolin.
We've taken a look at the new trailer and broken down the five key scenes that you need to pay attention to.
We caught a glimpse of one-half of Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement, as the main baddie in "MIB3" in the teaser trailer, but with his face partially transformed to alien mode. The newest trailer only gives us a quick shot of Clement facing away from the camera in a prison cell. We don't know much about his character yet ... Pictures from the set, however, have confirmed Clement sports a bearded biker look while in his human form.
"MIB3" revolves heavily around the idea of time travel and alternate timelines. The last trailer revealed that something goes wrong somewhere in the space-time continuum to place K in a Doc Brown-esque situation. In this clip, Tommy Lee Jones as K opens up a rift in reality, partially explaining the origins of the time paradox.
With a time-travel comedy comes the inevitable in-jokes about historical figures, and with a "Men in Black" movie comes inevitable in-jokes about who's an alien (see Michael Jackson in "MIB2"). For J's trip back to the 1960s, he has the pleasure of running into one of the most iconic artists of the time, Andy Warhol, played by a perfectly cast Bill Hader of "Saturday Night Live." Unfortunately, J has to chime in by saying "Shiznit."
J may have traveled roughly 50 years into the past, but that doesn't mean the MIB of the '60s didn't have gadgets of their own. The one on display here is a motorcycle set inside a giant wheel, the kind you see in YouTube videos where people crash horribly. Josh Brolin asks in his best Tommy Lee Jones impersonation, "You have these in the future?" No, K, and for good reason.
Like we said, we know that Clement is playing the main bad guy, but we have no idea what he's up to. As per usual with the series, there's got to be a larger threat to stop, headed up by a single alien villain. Near the end of the trailer, UFOs reminiscent of those from "War of the Worlds" show up and give us a better idea of what to expect.


Description: Style: Trendy Weight: About 9.5g Type: Hoop Earrings Main Color: Gold, Silver Size: About 4.5cm * 4cm / 1.77 * 1.57 Material: Zinc Alloy, Gold Plated, Silver Plated Package Includes: 1 Pair of Earrings Notice: 1. Please understand the product might have some colour difference due to different monitors and scenes. 2. Please allow slight deviation for the measurement data.


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Ben Franklin Place is a building complex in the Centrepointe area of Ottawa which houses the Centrepointe Branch of the Ottawa Public Library, the Centrepointe Theatre, and a satellite office for the City of Ottawa. It also includes an outdoor skating rink. Ben Franklin Place also houses an Ottawa By-Law Enforcement Office and the West Bureau of Investigations and Prevention for the Ottawa Fire Service.

Built to house the former city of Nepean's city hall, the complex was named for the first mayor of Nepean, Ben Franklin.

The Royal Canadian Legion, Bells Corners Branch and the City of Nepean dedicated a granite War Memorial obelisk on Sunday, September 20, 1992 to those who made the supreme sacrifice, in many world conflicts.

The building also houses the offices for the city councillor for College Ward, currently Rick Chiarelli.

History
Ben Franklin Place was built in 1980 for a cost $ 24 million

References

Buildings and structures in Ottawa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


GutterMaid offers the residents of Bowie Maryland quick and complete relief from clogged gutters and downspouts. Our expert gutter cleaning service technicians receive regular education and training, so that we can provide the residents of Bowie with a comprehensive gutter cleaning service, safely and efficiently, all at the area's most affordable rates. We are fully licensed & insured, and all of our work is back by our 100% satisfaction guarantee.
For most Bowie Maryland residents, your home is the biggest investment you will make in your lifetime. Proper maintenance is essential to upkeep your property and maintain its value. The biggest threat to your investment comes from water related damage. There are obvious concerns such as missing/damaged roof shingles or siding, but one very important (often overlooked) issue, comes from a clogged gutter system. Clogged gutters and downspouts prevent your home from properly diverting water away from your home and its foundation. Trapped water will not only damage your gutters, but it can also damage your home's exterior trim, fascia boards, and landscaping. GutterMaid provides a prompt and efficient gutter cleaning service to ensure your gutters and downspouts stay clear and functional, and your home is protected from these types of water related damage. Our gutter cleaning service should be considered often as part of your homes regular maintenance needs.
If you are in need of multiple gutter cleanings every year, then you should consider adding a leaf protection system. A base type leaf protection system can be very affordable, and overtime will pay for itself as the need for gutter cleanings will diminish. We can assist you in purchasing a system that is suitable for your house type, the types of trees around your home, and most importantly, your budget. In addition, we offer the Bowie area great gutter installation services. Contact us today for your FREE consultation and estimate.
When you disregard the health of your gutters, you are putting the rest of your house at serious risk. To avoid damages from water, gutters, in tandem with your roof, lead water away from your home's foundation. Sometimes, gutters are installed incorrectly or become packed with debris, forcing the water to spill out prematurely. The leakage usually falls around the foundation and forces its way into the lower levels of your home, resulting in very expensive repairs. From gutter cleaning to gutter installation, we offer Bowie, Maryland, with plenty of affordable services that keep gutters clean, operational, and safe.


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Despite Analyst Fears, PlayStation VR Sales On Track for Sony Plans
Ana Valens | Nov 30, 2016
The latest SuperData forecast for VR sales has downgraded PlayStation VR units for less than 750,000 total sales in 2016. Compared to their original 2.6 million estimate, that's quite the jump. But there may be more to Sony's VR plans than SuperData's initial panic suggests, despite strong criticism of Sony's PlayStation VR release by analysts.
SuperData Head of VR/AR Strategy Stephanie Llamas argues that Sony should have marketed the PlayStation VR in the same way that the entertainment giant advertised the PlayStation 4 Pro. "Had Sony pushed the PSVR the way they've been pushing their other new hardware, the demand would have certainly fulfilled a supply of over 2 million," she argued. "However, given its quiet release it's clear they're being cautious before fully investing in the tech."
This cautiousness may be part of Sony's initial plan for PlayStation VR sales. According to Sony Chief Financial Officer Kenchiro Yoshida, Sony's projected PlayStation VR sales are doing quite well. "The sales of PS VR, which was launched in October, are on track," Yoshida noted in an earnings briefing from Nov. 1. Furthermore, SuperData still believes the PlayStation VR is outpacing its competitors. According to a report from Business Insider, SuperData still believes that the PlayStation VR will hit 745,434 sales, whereas the HTC Vive will only earn 450,083 and the Oculus Rift a meager 355,088. Combine that with a report from September which suggested HTC Vive and Oculus Rift usage on Steam was declining, and the PlayStation VR is performing extremely well relative to its high-end competitors.
Llamas suggested that Sony should have pushed out a "killer app" of some sort to meet the projected 2.6 million sales, but Sony may have avoided doing so from the start. In light of Media Create's PlayStation VR sales, CGMagazine reported in October that Sony may have purposefully planned a limited launch for early adopters. As Daniel Ahmad pointed out, 2017 will be PlayStation VR's big year, as "with new software + features, [PlayStation VR] will see growth." It seems more likely that Sony wished to plant the seeds for PlayStation VR capabilities in order to plan for major releases in 2017.
Time will tell how the PlayStation VR performs, but for now, Sony appears pleased with the headset's success. Check back as more news develops.
File Under: PlayStation, Sony, Virtual Reality
↠ Chris Columbus Will Direct a Five Nights at Freddy's Movie
↠ Battles in Vacuum: Galactica vs. Enterprise-D
↠ Infamous Needs to be Reinvented
↠ Absolver: A Solitary RPG Experience
↠ Pixels and Ink Podcast: Episode 209 – The Tale of Two RPGs


When events in your life provoke fear or anger or any number of other difficult feelings, it's tempting to turn away. It's tempting to think that you can or should just withdraw, or put up a wall, or do your best to dismiss the things you can't understand. However, the history of mankind has shown that these responses do not work. For thousands of years, people have experienced pain and dissatisfaction as a result of their efforts to separate from others.
A fundamental teaching of Buddhism is emptiness, the fact that nothing comes into being permanently or independently. All things and all people must come into being, momentarily, in dependence on other people and things. That is to say, emptiness also means inseparability. There is no way to be separate. This is consistent with the laws of physics, as well as the Buddha's teachings.
Yet the illusion of separation is deep and pernicious. It begins with our sense of our own bodies, which develops during infancy. And it continues into adolescence and beyond, as we develop an identity, a fixed view of self. Often times our identity is based on who we are not. We remind ourselves that we are not our parents, we are not our friends, and we are not our spouses. We remind ourselves, over and over again, that we are a certain kind of person, one that is defined at least in part by our skin. Is this really true?
Ultimately, there is no escaping the fact that this sense of difference is flawed and that it leads to difficulty. For example, when you see a star at night, that is a wave or a particle of light contacting your sense organs, the eyes. According to the Buddha, this creates a moment of eye consciousness. Then your brain sets out to identify it and to construct thoughts and feelings about it. So this tiny particle, which has traveled billions of miles and many years to reach your eye, effects both your body and mind in tangible ways. Thus, you are physically and mentally connected with, inter-being with that star across space and time. And due to the length of time that it takes for that light to reach your eye, the star may not even exist anymore. Yet, you are aware of its presence. How could you be separate from the stars?
And so it is with your relationship to all other beings on this Earth. You may think that reinforcing the separation is going to help, that it will lessen the pain and loss. You may think that building a mental or physical wall, or withdrawing from the situation will improve the situation. However, in the long run walls must come down, and withdrawal only compounds our loss.
It is for this reason that the early Mahayana sutras teach about emptiness and the path of compassion together. Take the Diamond Sutra, for example. When Subhuti asks the Buddha how to control his thoughts, the Buddha replies that he should make a vow to save all beings, even while acknowledging that there are no beings to be saved. That is, we train the mind through compassionate activity that is in accord with the fact of emptiness. We know that to be human is to appear, in any given form, only for a flicker of an instant. One who deeply understands the implications of that will work to help others see it, so that they might have less confusion and suffering too.
Thus, when the events of life make you want to withdraw, it's the best time to step forward into the divide. It's the best time to remember that we are all human, and we are all more or less confused about how life really works. Despite that confusion, we are all also part of the vast fabric of reality, and therefore part of one family. Like the stars, we have a finite time to shine. So let's shine while we can.


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Q: d3.js parallel coordinate with one different scale I'm trying to generate a parallel coordinate using d3.js
My problem is that the first scale should display different strings.
with the original code it looks like this:

and with my test it looks like this (no lines):

the error code is:

Error: Invalid value for  attribute d="M33,NaNL99,161.37817638266068L165,6.543121881682145L231,16.962488563586458L297,180"

here is my code:
function parallelChart (id, size) {

  if(size == 'small') {
    var margin = {top: 20, right: 80, bottom: 30, left: 50},
        width = 460 - margin.left - margin.right,
        height = 230 - margin.top - margin.bottom;
  } else {
    var margin = {top: 20, right: 80, bottom: 30, left: 50},
        width = 960 - margin.left - margin.right,
        height = 500 - margin.top - margin.bottom;
  }

  var x = d3.scale.ordinal().rangePoints([0, width], 1),
      y = {},
      dragging = {};

  var line = d3.svg.line(),
      axis = d3.svg.axis().orient("left"),
      background,
      foreground;

  var svg = d3.select(id).append("svg")
    .attr("class", 'center-block')
    .attr("width", width + margin.left + margin.right)
    .attr("height", height + margin.top + margin.bottom)
    .append("g")
    .attr("transform", "translate(" + margin.left + "," + margin.top + ")");

  // Original
  d3.csv("dataNew.csv", function(error, healthdata) {
    x.domain(dimensions = d3.keys(healthdata[0]).filter(function(d) {
      return d != "Datum" && (y[d] = d3.scale.linear()
        .domain(d3.extent(healthdata, function(p) { return +p[d]; }))
        .range([height, 0]));
    }));

    // this did not work
    // d3.csv("dataNew.csv", function(error, healthdata) {
    //   x.domain(dimensions = d3.keys(healthdata[0]).filter(function(d) {
    //     if(d == "Datum") {
    //       return d == "Datum" && ( (y[d] = d3.time.scale()
    //         .domain(d3.extent(healthdata, function(p) { return +p[d]; }))
    //         .range([height, 0])));
    //     }
    //     return d != "Datum" && ( (y[d] = d3.scale.linear()
    //       .domain(d3.extent(healthdata, function(p) { return +p[d]; }))
    //       .range([height, 0])));
    //   }));

      // Add grey background lines for context.
      background = svg.append("g")
        .attr("class", "background")
      .selectAll("path")
        .data(healthdata)
      .enter().append("path")
        .attr("d", path);

      // Add blue foreground lines for focus.
      foreground = svg.append("g")
        .attr("class", "foreground")
      .selectAll("path")
        .data(healthdata)
      .enter().append("path")
        .attr("d", path);

      // Add a group element for each dimension.
      var g = svg.selectAll(".dimension")
        .data(dimensions)
      .enter().append("g")
        .attr("class", "dimension")
        .attr("transform", function(d) { return "translate(" + x(d) + ")"; })
        .call(d3.behavior.drag()
          .origin(function(d) { return {x: x(d)}; })
          .on("dragstart", function(d) {
            dragging[d] = x(d);
            background.attr("visibility", "hidden");
          })
          .on("drag", function(d) {
            dragging[d] = Math.min(width, Math.max(0, d3.event.x));
            foreground.attr("d", path);
            dimensions.sort(function(a, b) { return position(a) - position(b); });
            x.domain(dimensions);
            g.attr("transform", function(d) { return "translate(" + position(d) + ")"; })
          })
          .on("dragend", function(d) {
            delete dragging[d];
            transition(d3.select(this)).attr("transform", "translate(" + x(d) + ")");
            transition(foreground).attr("d", path);
            background
                .attr("d", path)
              .transition()
                .delay(500)
                .duration(0)
                .attr("visibility", null);
          }));

    // Add an axis and title.
    g.append("g")
      .attr("class", "axis")
      .each(function(d) { d3.select(this).call(axis.scale(y[d])); })
      .append("text")
      .style("text-anchor", "middle")
      .attr("y", -9)
      .text(function(d) { return d; });

    // Add and store a brush for each axis.
    g.append("g")
      .attr("class", "brush")
      .each(function(d) {
        d3.select(this).call(y[d].brush = d3.svg.brush().y(y[d]).on("brushstart", brushstart).on("brush", brush));
      })
      .selectAll("rect")
      .attr("x", -8)
      .attr("width", 16);
  });

  function position(d) {
    var v = dragging[d];
    return v == null ? x(d) : v;
  }

  function transition(g) {
    return g.transition().duration(500);
  }

  // Returns the path for a given data point.
  function path(d) {
    return line(dimensions.map(function(p) { return [position(p), y[p](d[p])]; }));
  }

  function brushstart() {
    d3.event.sourceEvent.stopPropagation();
  }

  // Handles a brush event, toggling the display of foreground lines.
  function brush() {
    var actives = dimensions.filter(function(p) { return !y[p].brush.empty(); }),
        extents = actives.map(function(p) { return y[p].brush.extent(); });
    foreground.style("display", function(d) {
      return actives.every(function(p, i) {
        return extents[i][0] <= d[p] && d[p] <= extents[i][1];
      }) ? null : "none";
    });
  }
}

A: Here goes one example where the author manage string and numbers in the same parallel coord:
http://bl.ocks.org/syntagmatic/4020926
Create an array of dimensions that will be further used...
var dimensions = [
  {
    name: "name",
    scale: d3.scale.ordinal().rangePoints([0, height]),
    type: "string"
  },
  {
    name: "economy (mpg)",
    scale: d3.scale.linear().range([0, height]),
    type: "number"
  },
...
]

...before load the data, define the domains by mapping your previous dimensions definition...
var x = d3.scale.ordinal()
    .domain(dimensions.map(function(d) { return d.name; }))
    .rangePoints([0, width]);

...define a variable dimension (pay attention, dimensions != dimension) with the locations of each axis...
var dimension = svg.selectAll(".dimension")
    .data(dimensions)
    .enter().append("g")
    .attr("class", "dimension")
    .attr("transform", function(d) { return "translate(" + x(d.name) +    ")"; });

...once the data is loaded, execute a for each to define the domain of each dimension...
d3.csv("cars.small.csv", function(data) {

  dimensions.forEach(function(dimension) {
    dimension.scale.domain(dimension.type === "number"
        ? d3.extent(data, function(d) { return +d[dimension.name]; })
        : data.map(function(d) { return d[dimension.name]; }).sort());
  });

...
}

... axis lines and foreground are still loaded in the same way...
svg.append("g")
      .attr("class", "background")
      .selectAll("path")
      .data(data)
      .enter().append("path")
      .attr("d", draw);

  svg.append("g")
      .attr("class", "foreground")
      .selectAll("path")
      .data(data)
      .enter().append("path")
      .attr("d", draw);

... this code will load the text of each axis, observe that it is now using properties from the dimensions that we defined in the beggining.
    dimension.append("g")
          .attr("class", "axis")
          .each(function(d) { d3.select(this).call(yAxis.scale(d.scale)); })
          .append("text")
          .attr("class", "title")
          .attr("text-anchor", "middle")
          .attr("y", -9)
          .text(function(d) { return d.name; });

that`s all =).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


How is your garden doing this summer?
Gardening has been popular in the La Crosse area over the years, and a number of gardening clubs have existed (including many that are currently active) to assist gardeners in increasing gardening knowledge, while also serving as a social outlet for green-thumbers to gather.
The height of popularity for garden club membership occurred in La Crosse in the 1950s and 1960s. Several clubs were formed during that time period, and club rosters show dozens--and, at times, hundreds--of individuals actively enrolled. While the by-laws of many of these clubs do not explicity define membership along gender lines, an overwhelming percentage of club members were women. In response--or, preemptively, perhaps?--the Coulee Region Men's Garden Club was formed in 1955, and open to men only.
Of the many gardening clubs that have been formed in the La Crosse area (for several of which the Archives holds records--come in and check them out sometime), perhaps some of the most unique items were created by the Floral Arts Garden Club (formed in 1964). For many years, the yearbooks of these clubs were decorated in beautifully hand-painted watercolor motifs, sketches, or other crafty designs. Take a peek below at some of these yearbook covers, and stop into the Archives to see the full collection.