Symmetry, from a bird’s eye view, creates order, balance, and harmony. Call this a Law of Design. Zooming in, we can describe it in terms of a Law of Composition: invariance under a set of transformations. Symmetry is a mapping of the object on to itself which preserves the structure. Pulling back we can define it as a Law of Function: conservation forces by the operation of a physical system.
Author: Michael Tolbert
Author, feminist, philosopher of the Hydrorealism.
Slow Movement
In Tati, real life moves at a leisurely pace. It is a natural movement. It ambles, winds and weaves, hesitates, shifts, reverses course, then suddenly is dragged along by the undertow of contrary forces, jostled and shoved, this way and that. The movement is mimicked in both narrative and temporal form. Nothing is rushed. There is no punch line to get to, no hard set up in order to sell the joke. The gags are there but no cue card held high to remind the audience when to laugh. The humor emerges, stealthily, by our insipid attempts to thwart this natural movement by making it conform to the artificial patterns of modern life.
If real life is natural, modern life is steadfastly artificial. Modern life imposes artificial patterns that slowly strangle the joy of living. Modernity appears and is of no practical benefit (chairs are beautifully designed, but useless to sit in). We are forced to adapt to these artificial patterns in a clumsy manner (uneven hops along stepping stones) because modern life interferes with our natural movement. Children and dogs best embody this ideal, while Hulot is the grown up child bumbling his way through life, caught between two conflicting worlds. The conflict of pattern: this is Tati’s genius and the neverending source of his humor.
So where does such a finely ingrained sense of humor come from? Allow me a moment of speculation. The comedian sees the world as a well-choreographed dance. Only the dance partners keep stepping on each other’s toes. “Les lignes géométriques ne rendent pas les gens aimables” (“Geometrical lines do not produce likeable people”).
Watching a Tati film (Monsieur Hulot ‘s Holiday, Mon Oncle, Playtime), a wide smile appears on my face, then grows into a grin, then slips into a chuckle, then finally overwhelms me in an uncontrolled fit of laughter. If you are in on the joke, there is no end to the joy of these films. But beyond the profound humor, beyond the biting satire against the cult of consumerism and the comedy of manners, there is something so grounded in Tati, so humanistic, something that so resembles real life, that an incredible feeling of familiarity and nostalgia takes hold.
Do not rush Tati. Do not insist we get to the joke in a speedy fashion. Live in his world. Act as the mischievous whimsical children and be swept along by the play of irreverent forces. Set aside your personal demands, your checklists, your projected desires on the screen. Be free. Be alive. Then carry that spirit into your real lives.
The Gift of Life
Reason by Nature: But what is this gift of life? An inherited curse? Some terrible burden bequeathed unto me? I did not ask for this gift. Don’t I have the right to reject such a gift?
The God Problem: Life is not the gift. You are the gift. You are both dead and alive. You have no power to reject that which you claim.
Ophuls’ Challenge
If life is movement, can we ever be happy?
The God Problem: Joy flows from movement. Happiness is mere contentedness. Begin the day in joy, end the day in happiness. Sorrow yields new joys.
Nostalgia
“Nostalgia is a product of dissatisfaction and rage. It’s a settling of grievances between the present and the past. The more powerful the nostalgia, the closer you come to violence.” White Noise.
The Future MUST be Here
“Out of some persistent sense of large-scale ruin, we kept inventing hope.” White Noise.
AI
The problem with AI is not its ethics. It’s the aesthetics, that is to say, a problem of conception. You can assemble all the pieces, make everything adhere to a strict pattern of seeming life, of virtual consciousness , and yet we are left barren, no life, no consciousness. Why? Because the truth isn’t out there waiting to be seized like a prized possession or devoured like a meal. The truth is found in the aesthetic experience, a shared sensibility that shifts and vibrates and oscillates in every fiber of our being. AI, at least in its nascent form, attempts to fixate its defined boundaries. AI quickly becomes a mental cage (as we fret and obsess about making its ridiculous output somewhat less ridiculous). It is dead life without time. Time is the secret ingredient that we are lacking. Experience under conditions of time yields consciousness. This is life, this is biology. And like life, we resist any aesthetic that feels like shackles and chains. The anarchy of our spirit.
Tradition and Irony
Irony rises as the traditions of society relax and loosen. It intones new power dynamics while giving only superficial support to the previous rules (the ruling regime).
Tati
Tati’s metaphysics can be summarized as follows: Nothing goes according to plan, the way God intended.
Tati’s revelation is a miracle.
The Hack 