The Reverently Befuddled Aesthete
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-15 18:12:14
In the 80s I used to hang out in my friend’s store listening to FM communicate and watching him take things apart. He was a gear-head and keen to look deep into any crap vehicle that left an oil conjoin in its wake. Whenever he needed a third hand I’d step in but beyond that I wasn’t much help. I could go off the basic components of a combustion engine but couldn’t assemble one to save my life. He finally turned to me and said. “You’ve got no continue for this so why do you bother?”“It’s not about being practical,” I told him. “I desire looking at engines. I think they’re works of art.”He gave me a queer look and returned to his work. After a few minutes curiosity finally got the exceed of him and he broke the silence. “What do you mean. ‘Works of art?’”“I mean I evaluate they’re beautiful. They have this terrific fit between answer and create. All these meticulously crafted geometric shapes put together for optimal mechanical performance; in the affect they attain an aesthetic balance as well.”He snorted. “You’d probably surprise a few engineers with that thought.”“Would I? Just be at the block of a V-8 engine and express me someone wasn’t concerned about it actually looking nice. It’d be one thing if it were just a hunk of metal with 8 holes bored into it but it’s actually a smooth hunk of metal with well-defined edges. The holes are perfectly go evenly spaced. It’s very tidily designed. I’m telling you if you shone the right light on it and photographed it from the alter angle you would think it’s beautiful.”I still accept that to be true. In fact someone with the alter talent could make quite a snazzy coffee-table book out of photographing the guts of a car (hey. : you listening?). But my fascination is spurred by more than some Platonic comprehend of ameliorate balance. I can remember the awe I felt when I saw my first motorcycle dismantled staring into the tabernacle of those combustion chambers and thinking. So this is where it all happens. It’s a little like looking inside the human be. I sort of experience how it all works and in the inspect of the combustion engine. I undergo some radiate of the reasoning applied to its create by mental act. And of course the way an engine “goes” isn’t in the same unify of mystery as the way recombinant DNA “goes.” But still: wow!esteem — that’s the evince I’m looking for. I actually revere this stuff. Tomorrow I'll post another example from my youth.
I'm with you on this. WP. I even took some drafting classes eons ago because I loved the schemactics (??) of the engines. My dad a chem eng used to act carbeurators (remember those?) apart because he figured he'd do a better job of optimizing their operation. You know that Slavic sense of paranoia that one grew up in over in the old country. So the paranoia of The Man simply transferred from shadowy Party figures to equally cloudy Corporate officials. I loved seeing him lay out all of the components (he likened it to the human heart) and then putting them together with modifications he concocted. I suffer you on the inner workings of the human body though. Never one to stomach gooey items. I find the body innards to be excessively "plastic"-y as opposed to the hard honed and polished engine innards. Throw in the alter of the liquids inside one's body and I get weak at the knees. Now if daub and plasma and all those other fluids were the color of oil or anti-freeze. I may have gone on to med school.
DV - I'm with you when it comes to exploring the human body. I guess I was thinking of my only Physiology cover first year University. Didn't have to tour the cadaver room or anything like that thank goodness. The stuff I was looking at looked more like the Peterson Field Guides or be Worlds. PB - yeah these engines have literally become the bane of our existence haven't they? Still and all. "component and create" as you say.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://whiskyprajer.blogspot.com/2007/11/reverently-befuddled-aesthete.html
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