Wax Scrawls: Melancholy, Solitude and Unleashing the Douchebag Within

I didn’t love this poem “I Google You” (parts of it rhyme!), but the simple fact that it was written still seems kinda’ cool to me. [Update: Hm. I might take that back. There's something about the consciously futile yearning in it that's actually sorta' great. I'm also just generally fascinated now with how to make art out of the contemporary e-moment. Yes, that is some foreshadowing of the downfall of this blog.]

Lifehacker: Debunking the Myth of Multitasking. Still – as someone who can’t focus on anything for more than five minutes, multitasking is often the only way I can feel productive. You?

Clive Thompson on how “Games Give Free Rein to the Douchebag Within“. Theorists often point to the creation of a provisional ‘second self’ in gaming, but Thompson wonders why his avatar self is, well, such a dick. My response? One’s second self doesn’t make sense unless you consider the unconscious and the projections involved in creating identity. Why else is the hyper-masculine, ultra-violent avatar so popular amongst skinny teenage boys? The obvious question though is whether or not this is cathartic in a healthy way: if I act out my masculine fantasies in a game does this provide a constructive outlet for them or encourage their entrance into ‘my real life’?

In Praise of Melancholy. “What can we call this fit but a meaningful experience of generative melancholy, of that strange feeling that sadness connects us to life’s vibrant pulses? Alienated from home and happiness, we sense what is most essential: not comfort or contentment but authentic participation in life’s grim interplay between stinking corpses and singing lemurs. This “fit” shivers our souls.” It’s a long read, but interesting, particularly because it takes pains to distinguish between the paralysis of depression and the potentially productive, mutual relationship between sadness and introspection.

Speaking of sadness, this piece in The Smart Set looks at a new book that analyses the destructive effects of loneliness. Some of them are obvious, but apparently the book also focuses on how to return to being social after extended periods of self-imposed solitude.

Finally, a new BBC sketch show called Wrong Door looks pretty damn funny, particularly if this YouTube trailer is anything to go by. [via MeFi]