From d3919656e6072cb19961dda2f0b87386945aa7a6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lucian Mogosanu Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2015 13:15:32 +0300 Subject: [PATCH] posts: 038, 039 --- posts/y01/038-the-archive.markdown | 100 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ posts/y01/039-aferim.markdown | 96 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 196 insertions(+) create mode 100644 posts/y01/038-the-archive.markdown create mode 100644 posts/y01/039-aferim.markdown diff --git a/posts/y01/038-the-archive.markdown b/posts/y01/038-the-archive.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..53b92ea --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/038-the-archive.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +--- +postid: 038 +title: Humanity's informational archive™ +date: May 3, 2015 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: asphalt +--- + +The following is a loose translation of a short essay published about three +years ago on the [old blog][bricks] in Romanian. Bear with me here, for its +style of writing is, I believe, less succinct and more jocular than what you're +used to reading on The Tar Pit. I would never publish it, however, if I didn't +think the content wasn't relevant in some way or another. + +They say of the Great Library of Alexandria that it was the vastest and most +important repository of knowledge in Ancient history, at least until the Romans +came and burned it. Unfortunately there wasn't a Second Library of Alexandria, +or at least a Second Library of $X$, where $X \neq \text{Alexandria}$, which +would contain backup copies of all the burned books; and if it had existed, +then they would have burned it a second time before the scribes had the time to +make new copies. + +Fortunately for us, modern civilization had something to learn from that and +by mere chance the Internet appeared out of nowhere, an Internet which keeps +on growing seemingly without end. And of course, like monkeys that don't see +the forest because of the trees, we imagine that Internets exist exclusively +to serve our lusts, fetishes and thirst for communication and connection and +other crap. Might be, I'm not arguing that, but the fact is that (another) +important purpose of the Internet is quite similar to that of the library +mentioned above, a function which I dubbed the "humanity's informational +archive™"[^1]. + +It being such an archive, one of the Internet's main purposes is that of +archiving, that is, keeping information as intact as it is possible, that is, +as close to the way it looked when it was initially generated. In order for it +to fulfill this role, the Internet's infrastructure readily comprises fault +tolerance mechanisms at multiple levels, from RAID technologies to higher level +protocols such as BitTorrent[^2]. + +Additionally our internetic library fulfills a purpose that goes two ways: +ensuring free access to information, a function that is successfully +implemented by the Internet in its actual form, and ensuring scalability and +the facilitation of continuous update, so that the network will naturally +evolve and won't crumble under its own weight. Both are necessary conditions +for the existence of the humanity's informational archive™; the first because +a library that does not allow free access cannot be replicated until the +Romans come to burn it, thus it faces the greater risk of disappearing; the +second because as time passes, an incomplete archive would not be worthy of +being called such. + +While ensuring the system's scalability is a purely technical matter which +might prove to bring forth interesting challenges in the future[^3], the +continuous update of Internet happens in a way such that it can be +continuized[^4], as I'm now writing a post, $X$ writes yet another and +meanwhile millions of people publish stuff on various social networks -- let +me humour you by saying that Facebook's Timeline actually serves a +well-defined purpose. + +It might be that you, dear reader, haven't considered this aspect, but it has +huge repercussions on the history of the human race. The properties mentioned +above guarantee that history will be remembered with a degree of accuracy we +haven't seen until now, as the smallest details about the most unimportant +individual will exist somewhere and will be a great sight for the people in the +year 252525, who will laugh their asses off[^5] at stuff that nowadays are dead +serious to us. + +Getting back to the initial idea, we know that modern technology now allows us +to fill the humanity's informational archive™ with content comprising text, +audio, video and... that's about it. I'm fairly sure that I'm not lying when I +say that these three forms of expression comprise but a small part of our +lives. So how will you, for example, get to record olfactory-gustatory data of +your culinary recipes, to be later compared by your great-grandchildren with +what they'll have had then? Well, you can't do that. How will you store that +intense orgasm that you had when you made fierce love with Jocelyn? Who +wouldn't want to relive such a moment later in their lives, or, yet again, to +hope that the weirdos in 252525 will have some terms for comparison[^6]? Nope, +this kind of thing isn't technically achievable for now. + +So for now the question remains: will we get to interact with the Internet in +this manner in the next hundred of years? Stay tuned and you shall find out. + +[^1]: So yeah, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian are part of the great mass of +information that humanity has to offer. Just ask Google and Facebook. + +[^2]: So in the great scheme of things it would seem that piracy is doing a +great service to humanity. There, you've read it here, out of context, but not +out of importance. + +[^3]: For example we can barely speculate about the possibility of extending +the Internet at an interplanetary scale, although we can freely speculate +regarding its necessity in the (quite very) possible case when that happens. + +[^4]: The opposite of "discretize". There, I've invented a new word for you. + +[^5]: Also, but not only due to the fact that the sphincter will have evolved +into an organ capable of perceiving humour, why not. + +[^6]: Ever heard of Eccentrica Gallumbits? + +[bricks]: http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/bricks/arhiva-de-informatie-a-rasei-umane/ diff --git a/posts/y01/039-aferim.markdown b/posts/y01/039-aferim.markdown new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7808f45 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/y01/039-aferim.markdown @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +--- +postid: 039 +title: Aferim! +date: June 20, 2015 +author: Lucian Mogoșanu +tags: video +--- + +"Aferim" is a word borrowed into various Balkan languages from Ottoman +Turkish, usually uttered as a sign of appreciation or approval, similarly to +"bravo". The word is, I suppose, gone from all modern languages[^1] since +after the First World War, when the Ottoman Empire evolved into what we know +today as the Republic of Turkey. It's relevant to mention that words of +Turkish origin have been in use in the Balkans, and particularly in the +so-called "Romanian countries", for at least five centuries, especially in the +southern parts, and especially in urban settings, by public servants and +politicians. + +The movie Aferim! takes place in the 1830s Wallachia. While not explicitly +provided as background, the country's political and social status was at that +time somewhat uncertain, as the Ottomans were losing more and more ground to +the Moskals -- that is, the Russians -- after the end of the Phanariote rules +and the adoption of various so-called "reforms". This also happens immediately +after the population went through some nasty epidemics such as Caragea's +plague, which is hinted in the movie by the many graves we get to see. + +The movie's plot is slightly uninteresting from head to tail: the boyar +Iordache sends Costandin and his son Ioniță to find some Gypsy slave[^2] who +ran away from the estate after fucking the rich man's wife. I'm guessing this +was commonplace at that time, as it always was and will always be, and such it +can only be seen as support for the really important stuff, comprised by +everything that happens in-between. You probably don't see this very often in +American movies, but we Eastern Europeans are very good at this type of +storytelling, just have a look at Tarkovsky, Caragiale and Dostoevsky. + +So in the end Carfin's balls are cut off and thrown at Sultana's face, but the +ending is not what's important, although Costandin's, and in the end our +journey *is*, each scene depicting one or more typical, and purely, Romanian +traits: the superstitious Christian Orthodox priest who is also a fervent +antisemite; the old man philosophizing about the nature of life; the +oppressed, yet free in every other respect, Gypsy slave; the man just +carelessly passing by near someone in need; the corrupt public servant, and I +could go on and on. Some people might feel inclined to compare this to, say, +Twelve Years a Slave, or Django Unchained or whatever Hollywood movies you've +been watching lately. This is not an apt comparison, by any means: the +language isn't gratuituous, this is just the way Romanians have been talking +for centuries; the violence isn't gratuitous[^3]; everything from the mud, to +crosses stuck in the ground and the guy saying "aferim!" out loud says +something about how Romanians were, and still are. + +This is the thick substance that makes up Aferim!, which ultimately makes it a +pretty heavy piece[^4]. The authors manage to compress an entire people's +habits -- especially the ones that an outsider may consider "bad" or just +plain odd -- in about one hour and a half of film, which on one hand shows +that the core Romanian character isn't that difficult to express, especially +since the actors are Romanians themselves, and on the other hand makes up a +demonstration of the storyteller and director's skills. Well, let's just say +Radu Jude's Silver Bear Award is a pretty good sign that I'm right. + +I for one have gone to the movie with no expectations and left the room +properly satisfied. My biggest disappointment was to see that the Bulgarian +state television had more contributions to the movie than the Romanian state, +which didn't finance it at all, despite it being worth every penny[^5]. The +leftovers of the communist era have left at least *some* unexploited resources +in our movie industry and it's good to see that our directors and writers are +exploring more or less original themes. + +At some point in the movie the authors address the public through Costandin +the zapciu, who is asking his son whether people will remember his generation +in a century or two, and whether they'll think his generation was a good one +or not. I think this is the movie's best reflection point, and it should make +anyone wonder whether their actions will have any echoes throughout history. + +[^1]: Modern Turkish uses Beğenmek [among others][ottoman-turkish]. "Aferim!", +as we Romanians know it, is now only a word in an old +[Ottoman-French dictionary][ottoman-french], as well as in [our own DEX][dex]. + +[^2]: The slur "cioară" (or "cioroi", literally meaning "crow") is being used +throughout the movie, not unlike the American "nigger" used in reference to +black slaves at about the same time in history. + +[^3]: Ok, maybe the violence in Twelve Years a Slave wasn't gratuitous +either. I don't know, to be honest. + +[^4]: Maybe not as much for us Romanians, who can easily recognize every +little nitpick, as for the Westerners watching this movie, and who, if they +watch carefully, may get a glimpse of insight into the Romanian's way of being +and thinking. + +[^5]: So if you haven't been able to see through that +[dumb nationalism][dumb-nationalism] of yours yet, then fuck you. + +[ottoman-turkish]: http://www.osmanlicaturkce.com/?k=Aferin&t=@ +[ottoman-french]: https://archive.org/details/DictionnairePortatifTurc +[dex]: http://dexonline.ro/definitie/aferim +[dumb-nationalism]: /posts/y00/00b-romania-s-dumb-nationalism.html -- 1.7.10.4