“Be silent, or say something better than silence.” ~ Pythagoras

By willemien de villiers Uncategorized July 18, 2012

Today I will say very little – only a flash fiction contribution to 3WordWednesday. (Not necessarily better than silence, but I enjoyed writing it.)

Shopgirl

“Tie me up, tie me down?” she says, feeling the smooth texture of his hands as she passes the wheel of ribbon.

“Excuse me?” he says as he unwinds a length of purple, the colour of deep shade. She closes the cupboard.

“That movie, you know?”

“Personally, I prefer a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown,” he murmurs.

Sighing, she closes her eyes and offers her bare wrists to the slippery satin tangle.

voguefabricsstore.com

present tense

Three inspiring quotes came my way this week and I think they’re worth sharing. The first two are by John Maeda, Japanese-American graphic designer, computer scientist, university professor, and author. (The Laws of Simplicity, MIT Press, 2006):

“Amidst the attention given to the sciences as how they can lead to the cure of all diseases and daily problems of mankind, I believe that the biggest breakthrough will be the realization that the arts, which are conventionally considered ‘useless,’ will be recognized as the whole reason why we ever try to live longer or live more prosperously.”

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.”

Interview with RISD President John Maeda.

Jonah Lehrer. is an American journalist who writes on the topics of psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities. In his book, Proust Was a Neuroscientist | Jonah Lehrer., he says, “We now know enough to know that we will never know everything. This is why we need art: it teaches us how to live with mystery. The blurb explains: “Science is not the only path to knowledge. In fact, where the brain is concerned, art got there first. Artists – painters, poets, chefs, composers, and novelists – as well as scientists discover essential truths about the human mind. We learn how Proust first revealed the fallibility of memory; how George Eliot discovered brain plasticity; how the French chef Escoffier discovered umami (the fifth taste); how Cezanne worked out the subtleties of vision; and how Gertrude Stein exposed the deep structure of language – a full half-century before Chomsky. The newfangled facts of science provide a whole new way to appreciate our fictions.”

Something to explore more…

Happy creating!

“Be silent, or say something better than silence.” ~ Pythagoras

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