March 28, 2013

"When I talk to people about the bowl, it is always about something else."

"It’s a metaphorical conversation about ritual, like in the tea ceremony, or about the fabrication process. It’s very hard to just talk about the bowl itself. We talk around the bowl."

Please talk about the bowl. I knew somebody who had, amongst the cardboard boxes stacked up in his garage, a box marked "BOWELS."

Are you familiar with the typo/misspelling distinction? I make a big deal about it in the comments thread here, and ultimately assert: "Under that definition, I don't think I have ever misspelled writing this blog, other than (very rarely) the occasional proper name."

Put that in the bowel of your pipe and smoke it.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: "Put that in the bowel of your pipe and smoke it."

Putting the pipe in your bowel is a Colonoscopy.

(and I did have to look up the spelling for Colonoscopy)

Anonymous said...

Re: "I knew somebody who had, amongst the cardboard boxes stacked up in his garage, a box marked "BOWELS."

If it was Ed Gein it might not have been a mistake of either nature.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oso Negro said...

The ability to spell properly, let alone a passion for it, are terribly old-fashioned.

edutcher said...

It's spelled just like it sounds.

Of course, it's pronounced incorrectly.

madAsHell said...

are terribly old-fashioned

I disagree.

If I want to paint a picture in your head, then I don't want you laboring with alternative spellings. It might change the picture.

madAsHell said...

I knew somebody who had, amongst the cardboard boxes stacked up in his garage, a box marked "BOWELS."

You were acquainted with Jeffrey Dahmer??

Uncle Frank said...

Somebody ought to search the anals of this blog for a misspelling.

Astro said...

The ability to spell properly, let alone a passion for it, are terribly old-fashioned.

So are grammar.

Ann Althouse said...

annal(thouse)

ricpic said...

Gut To Have It

The bowl will hold its value
When all else turns to dross,
That's why collectors tell you
Their bowels such bowls engross.

Chip Ahoy said...

Please talk about the bowl.

No. I'll talk about the article about the bowl. Why doesn't it show the bowl that it's talking about? I'm mad at that article because it did not add to my understanding of bowls one single bit. Not one.

And that is even with looking at 102 images of Noguchi tables, 102 images of Ingo Mauruer lamps, 102 images of Marguerite Wildenhain bowls and 102 images of Lucie Rie bowls in another window for this article. (17 rows of 6 images). To ensure I understood what the author of the article is on about. Without learning a goddamn thing.

And I looked at the slideshow they provided.

And for some reason beyond my grasp they leave out showing us the bowl of central interest, the one that sold for $2,200,000.00, 700 times more than it cost. The one that started the article. The one bowl that is 1,000 years old.

No, for that you must do for yourself and find the bowl with the old Chinese bowl with the llotus pattern. [bowl sotheby's 2.2 million dollars lotus]

Ah.

You see, this interests me. I made bowls, and the first thing that comes to mind is a lotus. Naturally. But an Egyptian water lily, not a Chinese water lotus. Which is the exact same thing except different. But mine has three fish inside that share the same triangular head and eye, with the lotus pattern on the outside. And another bowl in bisque to fire too, already drawn up in pencil, and in that arrested state for five years :-( also a water design, fish swimming around the outside rim.

Unknown said...

Spelling and grammar mistakes are convenient tools for opponents to use to deride your intelligence.
Spelling and comma usage has almost no correlation with intelligence. But, why give someone a stick to beat you with if you can avoid it?
I come from a family of really intelligent bad spellers. I deal with it every day and so does my family who are all respected professionals in fields requiring good written communication skills. We just have to go to the extra effort to check ourselves. Good spelling is a twitch like good teeth or high metabolism. If you don't have them and you care about them you have to work a little harder.

campy said...

"I knew somebody who had, amongst the cardboard boxes stacked up in his garage, a box marked "BOWELS."

Don't be so anal.