I first discovered the science fiction novels by Ray Bradbury when I was 10 or 11 years old. In retrospect I’m certain that many of the themes of his books went way over my head. But when I read Fahrenheit 451 I got it immediately. In some ways, Bradbury helped to radicalize me very early on.
The novel imagines a future where “firemen” don’t extinguish blazes, but burn books instead. The short animated TED-Ed video below from the University of Wisconsin explains the dystopian world of Fahrenheit 451 in which Bradbury presented an eerily prescient vision of a culture governed by an intrusive surveillance state, censorship, frightening robotics, and scary AI. For a novel published in 1953, it still raises alarms for our dangerous times.
I am a huge fan of the Little Free Library movement and I am also a life-long Doctor Who devotee, so I couldn’t resist this amazing neighborhood library in Minneapolis.
You can discover more of John Atkinson’s clever stuff right here.
The magazine Vanity Fair commissioned the wonderful 12-minute video tour below of places mentioned in Beatles’ songs. The video trip from Liverpool to Moscow is a treat for Beatles fans even with some errors and misinterpretations.
The Indian artist known as Daku created this wonderful installation for the Start Goa Festival in the state capital Panaji. Suspended netting with inverted lettering used sunlight to project text onto the streets of the old colonial city. The project was alternately titled “Theory of Time”, “Time is an illusion”, and “Time Changes Everything”. You can discover more on Daku’s Instagram page.
Most of us happily read text each day giving little thought to the complex anatomy of the typography on the page or screen. The excellent infographic below created by Micah Bowers will help to demystify the intricacies of letter and font design terminology.
Even if you are not a regular reader of poetry, it’s likely that you have run across the work of Mary Oliver. Her writing is so simple, straightforward and accessible that it has found its way onto posters, mugs, and greeting cards. That in no way diminishes the extraordinary connection she has with the reader or the inherent truths in her work. When she died last week at the age of 83, many heard about her writing for the first time, but for many of us who deeply admired her poetry it was a reminder to return to the work and connect again.
| You do not have to be good. |
| You do not have to walk on your knees |
| for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. |
| You only have to let the soft animal of your body |
| love what it loves. |
| Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. |
| Meanwhile the world goes on. |
| Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain |
| are moving across the landscapes, |
| over the prairies and the deep trees, |
| the mountains and the rivers. |
| Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, |
| are heading home again. |
| Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, |
| the world offers itself to your imagination, |
| calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – |
| over and over announcing your place |
| in the family of things |
Travel Between The Pages 