Simple Common Sense

I have a little fling for human and social sciences these days. Let it be sociology, philosophy, anthropology or linguistics - you name it… I am not sure why I like it or why it fascinates me, but sometimes I think it is because it doesn’t give me any real answers. I am not good at being told things, so I might as well read books that only suggest instead of state. Other times I believe it is of my curiosity; I have grown a strong desire to learn or know about reasons, causes, logic, judgments and diversity of these. (And then I am really fed up with gullible people, sorry to say).

When I saw the British classic Blow Up some years ago I forgot about quite quickly. Seeing it again some months ago made my mind curious to discover the places, the lines and the true meaning of the almost quintessential message of curiosity and meta-interest (as it is called in the academic milieux, I’ve been told). What seems to happen is apparently that human curiosity about curiosity itself combined with abstract thinking sometimes lead to mimesis and imagination. Probably a bit like the situation I often take myself in, where I think somebody walk in the hall outside the bathroom while I am showering. After 10 minutes of nervous searching around the flat I realize it was my own mirror-image that reflected a shadow. Really annoying, actually.

Another weird kind of curiosity is the interest of morbidity. This cathartic form of behaviour when seeing something disastrous is pretty bizarre, but I reckon everybody knows the feeling of curiosity when one sees a damaged car, a wrecked train or whatever Aristotle meant when saying ‘people enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us’. It’s weird that such an unpleasant sight gives a kind of natural feeling of disgust that might even pleases you in other aspects of innate human emotions - and animalistic for that matter.

But to be honest; the reason why I’m writing this is because of some weird notions I’ve taken the last couple of months. First of all, why is it people always touch were a sign says ‘newly painted’? And why is people sniff when they are told that the person sitting next to them just farted? I mean, it’s just weird that this disgust needs to be verified isn’t it? It might just be that ‘People are Strange’ as Jim Morrison titled one of his songs. Maybe its because of the extreme curiosity that people suffer from (or benefit from, of course). Sometimes I think it is because people don’t trust each other, and want to confirm the warnings themselves! Either way, it is uncanny and even eerie, especially as I am curious to know why we are curious…

All pictures above are taken and copyrighted by Christian Halsted ®