In the time since my last entry I finally bought a ladder so that I can make full use of my loft (yes, thanks to Gwen it now is listed at 43Places). It’s been great to use it as a place to store my excess stuff and to hang out with my friends. They took over the walls and decorated them with drawings and words that are strange, childish and entirely amusing. Gwen even marked her territory on one wall.
Saturday night a few of us had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at our apartment. It turned out very well, with great food and even better people. The only sad part was that it was the very first Thanksgiving meal I’ve experienced where there were no leftovers. Normally I’d have a few days of delicious food, but not this time. My world seems to have entirely shifted.
A recent study seems to point to average being beautiful. A study published in Psychological Science suggests that the less processing time we take to recognize something, the more we like it. Thus, the more average or less deviant something is, the more beautiful we find it. The averaged face of 15 women included with the article certainly is very attractive, but I tend to enjoy deviance a great deal as well. How do we include the appeal of the exotic in considerations of beauty?
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9 comments on “Loft & Thanksgiving”
I refuse to believe that average is the most beautiful. This study sounds like an indication of our ever decreasing attention spans, and not a true indication of what is beautiful. Personally I think that some of the most beautiful people and things are the ones who you have to stop and think about before their beauty registers.
I do love your loft, and hope you don’t mind that I marked my territory 🙂
Beauty always registers for me, but then I’m all about being aware of the Good, the Beautiful and the True.
Nah, I don’t mind that you marked your territory, but others might.
Well it’s not that beauty doesn’t register, it is just that I think there is a difference between that which is instantly appealing and that which is truly beautiful.
I don’t find that much of a difference. I feel drawn to things I still hold as beautiful as time passes and my own sense of beauty matures.
I much enjoyed the one time I’ve been in your loft, and wish I could have helped decorate it, though I’m not sure what I’d have to contribute.
It’s interesting that you raised a point about deviant ((from “regular
“)) appearance, because I thought of the same thing as i read the “average being beautiful” bit. Perhaps it does support the theory that people are too fucking lazy to consider what they look at.
You definitely need to visit the loft again! I have soap for you, so you should stop by for that too.
Maybe people are too laxy to consider what they are looking for. I wonder if there is also a developmental unfolding of how much attention we give to aesthetic things and how complex we prefer our beauty.
I am sure that I embarassed myself when I attempted (( and found myself able)) to climb the ladder to the loft. I have a fear of heights. and of falling.
I love that you actually stole soap for me. Do you know about my stealing obsession? Oh, and I have a natural love of soap, too, though I wouldn’t call it an obsession.
If, when you say “developmental unfolding,” you mean that what a person finds aesthetically pleasing changes as they develop (( and then there’s the issue of emotional, physical, spiritual etc. development )) then I would say it must! And I think that if a person prefers their chosen beauty to be uncomplex, it displays a sort of shallowness of thought. Mm-hmm. That is all.
Well, I didn’t find your climbing ability especially embarassing, if that means anything.
I seem to recall you speaking fondly of your stealing obsession. I must remember that you also need a DND sign. Yay for hotel lingo! Would you like an NQQ or a BSNQ1? How about a BSNK1, our finest suite?
I read a lot about developmental structures, so I’m a bit of a geek about development. From what I’ve read, aesthetics is a developmental line, much like morals, cognition, psychosexual, linguistic, etc. And each develops more or less independantly. So you could have high cognition and morals and think primary fingerpainting is high art. Exploring that dynamic is exciting to me, but I’m a geek for all things having to do with consciousness.
So many gifts from Apollo! Hand cream and soap and a feather boa and spray candy!
…I think that’s everything. 😀 I am excited to have a do not distrub sign. I would treasure it very much. I would take it with me wherever I lived, even to Vancouver.
Embrace the geekdom.