“Perhaps you enjoy chasing squirrels, there is great pleasure in the quest of the unattainable. You and I know that wonder is the secret of bliss and that with reason comes the death of the beautiful.” – Okakura Kakuzo, in a letter to Isabella Stewart Gardner
When I wrote the ‘shades of gray’ project back in the summer and fall of 2004, it felt very much of-the-moment, but looking back at those words twenty years later, it is surprising how much remains relevant, and more astoundingly how much was genuinely prescient. While I hope my writing style has improved somewhat, the themes and concerns and critiques have stayed frighteningly similar. I haven’t quite decided if this is good or bad or entirely without judgment one way or another.
Though this has been presented in haphazard piece-meal and broken-up form, it was designed to be read in one sitting, like a series of vignettes that cumulatively create a single all-encompassing tableau. Here, then, is the project as it was designed to be presented – in its entirety for perusal on a dark and dim winter’s day. It comes with its own soundtrack/playlist, which works as background music to the words found within.
As for the retrospective look back, I find it better to examine the words used back then rather than nudge you in any specific direction. It exists on its own now – it has no need for further explanation or exposition.
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