Jenny Hval is a Norwegian artist. I first got captivated by her when she made music under the artist name Rockettothesky. This new video from her talks about the seemingly heavy pressure of thinking that we don’t need feminism or socialism anymore, a thought that has been promoted throughout Western society, but maybe more so in Scandinavia where a lot of people seem to think that everyone has a good life there and therefore there is no longer any need for change or a continuation of the fight for equality.
My thoughts stumble so often lately. There is so much bubbling underneath the consciousness, but it somehow doesn’t make it through to the surface and I don’t know how to make the invisible layer burst, or even crack.
I’m doing well. In societal terms I am getting somewhere, or at least doing something. But it doesn’t lament in my soul and it’s only surface water that I have stopped wiping away. I am still aware, still weary of drowning underneath it – of being crushed underneath the weight of it. It being the structure of this imagined world we call real. Structures of norms, rules, doctrines and ideologies. Structures that have shaped every human being since they were born and more often than not, kept its hold of these humans till their lives had no more to give.
In the everyday world I live in I do not feel like I am being part of society and thus I do not feel like I am contributing to one either. All I do is rather measured in what makes profit and how I can use this profit for my own benefit. I don’t know what my utopia would look like, nor do I know if I would even want it. All I know is that humanity is better than this. The amazing things we can create. The great things we can do. How we can make each other feel.
I won’t drown in the surface water, I won’t let it become a sea that crushes me with it’s pressure. But it’s hard to stay afloat, it’s hard to drain the water away, to wipe it all dry to be able to see the real surface. I will still work to keep it as dry as possible, so my eyesight is not blurred. But it’s hard work. And it won’t end anytime soon.
Circles. And circles and circles and circles.
Again and again, around and around.
Need to break the pattern to obtain something new, something fruitful.
The gray daylight drains me.
Dreams of cobblestones and big, heavy boots, strong lipstick and a jacket to keep out the rain.
Layers to keep out the cold.
The air hitting my face – cold, but invigorating rather than numbing. My lungs are greedy, they can’t get enough, but the feet give up first and leads me back to shelter.
The old man saw the sea in his ceiling. He got lost in the waves.
To imerge yourself completely in water. Feeling the liquid envelopment; between your toes, in the creases of your ears. Sounds are less sharp, as everything is covered in cotton. The water has a certain softness in it’s resistance. Floating and sinking. Your body follows the movements of the waves, unable to stop them.
At the top of the cliff, of a mountain; the slight lightness at the top of your head that appears when you look over the edge.
The last year or so, I have understood a lot about how the world works. I have learned about things I never saw as truths – things that I now find almost impossible to question. Most of these things involves how we are told to live our lives. One of these things is education.
I was a great child in school. I listened, followed the rules, payed attention, worked hard and did all my homework. For years my grades were good and I was always seen as one of the smart kids. But as I got older, I felt like I didn’t have much to show for all my hard work. So when I started high school, it was easy for me to get distracted by boys, new friends and all the drama that happens around teenagers that are put together into the same building day after day.
Already at the age of 15, I felt like I had been missing out. Missing out on life so to speak. While I had been reading and doing my homework, other kids had been out and about learning to socialize and picking up skills that I only dreamt of having. Someone would be great at playing guitar or piano, someone would do awesome graffiti. And the older I grew, the more I envied those who had those skills – who weren’t afraid of using their immediate feelings to create something of their own.
Studying at the university, I really wanted to study literature – it was a thing I really enjoyed. But then I was told that would never give me a job. So, out of fear for what the future would bring, I didn’t study literature. Maybe I wouldn’t have found a job if I did study it, but I still haven’t got a job that is relevant to what I actually studied. And I know several of my piers who haven’t. We all have a degree of some sort, and hardly any of us got a job because we achieved that degree. And many of us dream to do something less tangible; something that isn’t measured in numbers.
These two TED-talkers illuminates what I think can be very important changes to what education is today:
I imagine we have all thought of how our lives would be if we lived them differently.
It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about the past months. Not just another city, another job, moving house. But what I actually take from life, how I use my allocated hours and days. So much of it disappear into nothing; work, commute, housework, television…
Personally I stopped watching tv a long time ago. And I love being without it! I have become so aware of advertisement and how it affects ones attention – how it creates needs you never had and really never will have. I have also been freed from the endless zapping between channels that offer mediocre time-wasting. Now I have to choose what I want watch and I either end up watching something I love, something informative and something inspiring, or I end up watching nothing at all – and spend my time with my nearest and dearest.
But tv is not the only thing I decided to leave out of my life. I’ve have almost entirely stopped shopping. And for someone who likes to create different looks every day, that is rather remarkable, I’d say. The constant needs and wants and striving to reach some higher materialistic goal are things I don’t want in my life. I don’t want my life to be about money, success and popularity. I want to spend my life laughing, thinking, breathing calmly, eating well – and most of all I want to spend it with people that makes me feel good about myself, about life in general and whom I can generate the same effect for.
I haven’t been using this blog as much as I wanted when I started it, mostly because I write most of my thoughts and ideas down to myself and discuss them with my closest. I have always had certain opinions I have not expressed publicly, mostly because I grew up in a society were it is looked upon as a good thing to get along well with everyone and never hurt anyones feelings. This might sound like a great society, and in many ways it truly is, but I have always felt the need to hide or hold back some of my thoughts and opinions because of the fear of provoking or upsetting people. But I have finally realized that the things I am unhappy with, the thing I see as wrong and that I think should be changed aren’t things I should hide or hold back on. I have been lucky to meet people who have been brave enough to fight for what they think is right – not in a government – funded war, but in their everyday choices. To take a stand on the things you do everyday is one of your most important tools as a human being enveloped in a set society.
What I am trying to say is a lot of things, but mostly: why do you live like you do? Because that is how you grew up? Because that is what society tells you? Because that is what the rules tell you?
Are you happy about the way you live? Do you think your friends and family are happy in their lives? Do you think the general population of this world are happy? What is happiness? What is important to you?
Just take 11 minutes out of your day to listen to this man and think about what he is saying:
Hi,
long time, no see!
Autumn has arrived. That does not mean you shouldn’t enjoy the greatness of summer!
Deep Vally is a band I discovered this summer, and I immediately liked their raw and honest sound, and such a sound for being just the two of them! Officially my new idols.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see these awesome girls when I was at Glastonbury this year, but here they are in all their glory!
Enjoy your Saturday night!
Lately I have been made aware of the American abortion-debate.
I have always believed that the question of abortion is something that should be decided by the woman in question. The circumstances around pregnant women are always varied, and wether the woman in question is in a relationship or not – I still believe the last word should be said by the woman – simply because it is HER body. I do think men should be told, discussed with and heard, but in the end it is not they who will grow another person inside their body. And to have a baby is not just to “keep a life” – once this life has started, it has to be continued. And as we all know, a life takes more than some motherly love and some hallelujahs.
http://jezebel.com/the-concept-of-fetal-pain-is-bullshit-514317386
Just one of the things I have been reading about this issue. This article is quite spiteful and not at all objective of the question, but it certainly has some valid points! Read further on the comments also makes a lot of sense to me.
“A three-day-old human embryo is a collection of 150 cells called a blastocyst. There are, for the sake of comparison, more than 100,000 cells in the brain of a fly. The human embryos that are destroyed in stem-cell research do not have brains, or even neurons. Consequently, there is no reason to believe they can suffer their destruction in any way at all. It is worth remembering, in this context, that when a person’s brain has died, we currently deem it acceptable to harvest his organs (provided he has donated them for this purpose) and bury him in the ground. If it is acceptable to treat a person whose brain has died as something less than a human being, it should be acceptable to treat a blastocyst as such. If you are concerned about suffering in this universe, killing a fly should present you with greater moral difficulties than killing a human blastocyst.”
– Sam Harris (posted by Osslfrage)
“And not only do they vote based on unproven scientific facts, they also MAKE UP THEIR OWN on the fly and the public does almost nothing to hold them accountable for doing so.”
– prestocaro
“It’s not about “saving babies” it’s about making sure women suffer for having sex. It’s about control.”
– Wheezer801
This last one might seem at bit harsh to some of you. But if you look at who is making these acts, they are not persons who will ever be in the position of having to make this choice. Because they are all men. It’s easy to ask “why should men have control over a woman’s body?” But I think it’s just as important to ask “why should government have control over it’s citizens bodies?”
I respect the fact that other people have other opinions than me.
But what gives them the right to tell other people what to do or not to do with their bodies?
http://www.mattbors.com/blog/2012/02/20/uterus-police/
(great comic btw, check it out!)
I hope you all are having a great Friday!
If not, here is a little cheer-me-up:
May the sun shine for you!
Stephen Fry, your knowledge and understanding makes me happy.
cherry sour 