#39

A picture of me is not something you can look forward to on this blog--why? Hm. Well, here:

• A face is just a form of lie.
• I don't like people forming impressions on me based on perceiving my body and hair.
• I don't want the internet to look into my eyes.
• If having a photograph taken of you traps your soul in the photograph (not true, but perhaps some form of two-dimensional copy in a splinter universe? fucking creepy) then placing that soul on-line can only make things worse.
• People only look at pictures of other people in order to better imagine how pictures might be taken of themselves, pictures that demonstrate to the world what kind of people they are, so that strangers might generate their own fantasies based on them. I used to argue that this is a gross social ill, born of imitating the narcissism of kings and emperors, but really it's whatever, and I'm just personally uncomfortable with that sort of perceptive appetite, as well as many others. Indeed, the notion of perceptive appetites acting on me at any time is disturbing. Safer to look at words, no? Agree with me that this is so.
• There have been two good pictures of me: in one, there is a box on my head, and I am facing away from the camera. In the other, I am lying down inside of a large recycling bin, resting on flattened boxes. To complete the triptych I'm attempting to craft, imagine a picture of a box.
• Think of me as that box. Just...fill it with how you want me to look. Picture my features subtly rearranging themselves at the blended command of your impression of me, your whim and ear, and the power your mind's eye and value bias exert on your imagination. What do I look like now?  What will I look like after you read my great, cool, and fun books? Do an experiment! Bill Nye says that we are all scientists.

--JL