Comments on: Venus is in the eye of the beholder https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/ A blog about political change, among other things Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:04:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: wispy https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-222572 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:04:41 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-222572 help please what is the full original name of this statue

??i cant find its name ?

]]> By: Richard Aubrey https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109476 Fri, 15 May 2009 14:11:54 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109476 Hunters and gatherers go through feast and famine. Since meat can’t well be stored–at least in the summer–you eat all you can and then have to go back out when the last of a big haul goes green. Plant goods last better, but not for long and there is no indication in the Paleolithic of tools for working grain. So you got it when it was ripe and not otherwise.
But while things are good, there is, literally, nothing to do. There is no way to prepare for the future, no incentive to try to get ahead except with a few more blades.
So how do you pass the time?

]]> By: Scottie https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109468 Fri, 15 May 2009 11:36:26 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109468 Art tended to go through stylized phases over the course of history. Things were often just depicted the way they were because, well, that’s the way it was done!

Look at Egyptian art and how it remained fairly consistent for long periods of time as a rough example of what I mean.

This figurine strikes me as a depiction that falls into that catagory. She was created in this manner because that’s the way it was done as far back as anyone could remember, and continued to be done in the same manner for a very long time.

I suspect, as was referenced by another, that part of why she was depicted in this fashion originally was due to the crudity of materials and techniques that were employed, and keeping her as simple as possible ensured she stayed in one piece as long as possible with little breakage.

I’d even go so far as to suspect that the figurine in question may even have originally had a head that simply broke off, and rather discard the figure some ancient someone just figured out how to attach a string to it and kept it.

Think of how many modern humans continue to hold onto items long after they are worn out or broken with the intent to “fix them up”.

If everything that was broken was simply discarded, hardware stores and auto supply shops would have closed down a long time ago.

The big unknown here is, what exactly was the intent of this depiction? Was it intended to glorify a concept (motherhood, fertility, good health, etc.), intended as a religious device for some sort for a goddess, or was it ancient porn?

Who knows?

The only ones who could definitively answer that question for us all died a long time ago.

So, IMO it’s better to forget about absolute statements of what this figure means (it’s just guessing anyway!) and simply enjoy the fact that we are in a position to appreciate the artistic efforts of a human being who spent a lot of time thousands of years ago to create this figurine, and after all this time she is still around to be appreciated.

We should all be so lucky as to leave such a mark on the world, even if it is now anonymous.

]]> By: Mrs Whatsit https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109464 Fri, 15 May 2009 10:17:22 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109464 JThoits, yes indeedy. See my 9:14 pm!

]]> By: SteveH https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109463 Fri, 15 May 2009 09:04:32 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109463 There needs to be more discussion of this modern concept where ancient peoples are mythologised to the point of being held up as incredibly enlightened humans.

We do it with native Americans, Aztecs, cavemen and tribes in deep jungles. As though ignorance really is bliss and they had no dishonest a**holes among them to screw things up. As though they somehow restrained themselves from inventing indoor plumbing from some deep insight that their way of life was more fitting and correct for people.

Well no. They lived the way they did from a lack of unleashing human imagination and creativity. Every single one of them would have traded all their arrowheads, primitive tools and baskets for an actual enlightened human to put a simple paper airplane in their hands.

]]> By: Nolanimrod https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109453 Fri, 15 May 2009 05:18:49 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109453 Wow! Graphic depictions of the female form, with secondary sexual characteristics emphasized.

What do you suppose they were selling?

]]> By: JThoits https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109439 Fri, 15 May 2009 02:14:44 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109439 Boy, this topic brings back my undergraduate days. I did not have much of an art background before I took my art history class in 1978. We spent two weeks looking at female/fertility figures. I think I would have a much greater appreciation now then I did when I was 18.

Is anyone else feeling a bit paranoid about grammar and word choice after yesterday’s extended discussion? I am frankly scared to death to attempt quotation marks or parentheses.

]]> By: nyomythus https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109428 Fri, 15 May 2009 01:21:41 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109428 I think in all the agony and sadness and emotion and pain — something of a mystery no doubt produced extraordinary heart pounding awe.

Some of what I’m getting from listening to this, but I dare say with such a mundane and regimented life I have, only a smidgen — to come closer I would need more than a beauty and appreciation of a master phonometrician.

Satie: Trois Gnossiennes rendered via Moog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOlmef64nYI

]]> By: Mrs Whatsit https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109427 Fri, 15 May 2009 01:14:54 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109427 Too, I mean. Goodness.

]]> By: Mrs Whatsit https://thenewneo.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109425 Fri, 15 May 2009 01:14:29 +0000 http://neoneocon.com/2009/05/14/venus-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder/#comment-109425 Do you think it came cheaply, nyomythus, or did they simply live in numinous wonderment? Or what would seem to us to be so?

Maybe their artists seemed to them to be used car salesmen and hucksters, to. But I would prefer to think of them as you do, wondering over lines formed by a stick dragged through sand.

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