and hiding it??
some new stuff i am looking into for the emotional future project:
there’s an expert on emotions named paul ekman… a psychologist… who has been publishing books on emotions for fifty plus years. he lives out in northern california and works with his daughter, dr. eve ekman. (that’s a psychological experiment in itself if you ask me.) the doctors ekman have developed something called the atlas of emotions with a techie design group out there. Also they were working with the 14th Dalai Lama. (a topic of deep interest as well. i may be the only person on the planet who has questions about His Holiness. Not criticisms… just questions.)
a whole lotta love went into this Atlas of Emotions …. but it has some big, wide holes in it. For one, where the hell is shame? And where the bejeesus is guilt? the atlas only maps “basic” emotions based on specific, agreed-upon scientific criteria. for example, the feeling must show up on the face… as an expression.
i have a problem with this! there are plenty of angry people who don’t show their rage on the face… passive aggressive angry folks can smile and hate you at the same time.
The second criteria to make an emotion “basic” is that you have to be able to recognize the cause of the emotion…for example, someone jumps through an open door and surprises you so you feel fear. The doctors don’t consider guilt “basic” … I guess because the cause of it might be mysterious and unidentified…
third criteria for an emotion to be basic ….it has to elicit a consistent physiological response in the body… such as, heart beats faster. But my observation is that some people.. not naming names.. walk around in at least a mild form of fear all day every day and you might not be able to track that in the body. Or some people walk around in a mild form of unexpressed rage. It might surface in twenty years as cancer, even if it doesn’t make their hearts beat faster day to day. Or maybe their heart always beats a little faster?
An expression of grief. This is the face of sculptor Jules Talrich (1826-1904). A copy from Duchenne’s volume. found on the WEB somewhere probably wikipedia
moving on, it has come to my attention that charles darwin wrote a book about emotions. he ‘s so famous for on the origin of species that we usually overlook his other writings. i used darwin’s early work on barnacle sexuality (HAHA I LOVE WRITING THAT) in my last big fiction project ….otherwise known as my novel…
i grew up on a brackish saltwater creek next to the atlantic ocean, so barnacles have always fascinated me. and then, when i actually looked into it!!! MEIN GOTT!!!!
the barnacle penis leaves the shell and goes out into the water, casting about for a female barnacle. its the biggest penis in the animal kingdom in proportion to body size… cuz of course barnacles are wee creatures. before i get all porn on you i will just redirect you if you are interested…here:
i did read some parts of on the origin of species and it actually is a huge influence on The Emotional Future because Darwin’s writing and thinking about the human being, evolution, and consciousness is extremely speculative. yes, of course he went down to the galapagos islands and took a lot of notes, in his NOTEBOOK, otherwise known as his diary, and he sent away mail-order to his naturalist friends to have all kinds of specimens sent to his country estate in england… but charles darwin was a dreamer, a man of imagination, as much an artist as a scientist. i wrote down a page of his “speculative” sentence introductions.. they look like this:
from these several considerations i think it inevitably follows that…
nevertheless, according to my view….
we can clearly discern in this case of…
it might have been expected that….
no one ought to feel surprise at…
but we may safely conclude that….
there is reason to believe that..
no doubt it is a very surprising fact that…
we should be extremely cautious in concluding that…
you get the idea! that’s the spirit i want to capture as i explore the EMOTIONAL FUTURE.
colors are gonna be important (SO MUCH INFORMATION IN EVERY COLOR)
i am writing this book on astrobright paper.
look at these color labels: solar yellow, stardust white, galaxy gold, cosmic orange, orbit orange, rocket red, re-entry red, plasma pink, pulsar pink, fireball fuschia, etc..
if you have been following this project at all you know how important outer space is to THE EMOTIONAL FUTURE.also, i have a fetish for school supplies. so this is exciting paper.
i have officially set up my accordion file for this novel.
okay that’s all for today’s report from the emotional future. carry on!
