From 209c63e539945b74b3fa30db96415f1df23e4589 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "kam (from the studio)" Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2022 17:12:42 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Sumiyaki and narratives --- txt/narrative | 5 +++++ txt/sumiyaki | 28 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 33 insertions(+) create mode 100644 txt/narrative create mode 100644 txt/sumiyaki diff --git a/txt/narrative b/txt/narrative new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6b6c46 --- /dev/null +++ b/txt/narrative @@ -0,0 +1,5 @@ +narration + +Close to the Machine is a nice book from Ellen Ulman. +It talks about people working with software. +It's narrative. diff --git a/txt/sumiyaki b/txt/sumiyaki new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9807964 --- /dev/null +++ b/txt/sumiyaki @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +narrative, manga + +Sumiyaki Monogatari is a manga from Shigeyasu Takeno based on the book Sumiyaki Nikki, by Toshikatsu Ue. +Sumiyaki Monogatari -> Tales of a Charcoal Burner (2005) +Sumiyaki Nikki -> Diary of a Charcoal Burner (1988) + +It is a story about a young charchoal burner that works alone in the rural area of the Wakayama prefecture, Japan in the late fifties. +The atmosphere of the story is really charming: it mixes the knowledge about a craft to the folklore of rural Japan. +There are here two differents takes on daily life: one about the work and one about the world. +Two different grips on reality. +A firm hold on logs, branches and wood, and slippery dreams with yokai and spirits. +The charchoal burner job is one of fatigue and extreme efforts, yet the story doesn't feel frustrated or miserable. + +(ok this is not to romanticize physical work, the good ol' times, Japan, or this lonely boy starring at the fire in the kiln almost burning his face off) + +The point is: it reminds me of the struggle of programming. +And it makes me wonder: there would ever be this kind of poetry around software development? +Every craft is surrounded by stories, narratives and myths. +What narrations surround software? +Matrix and the green source code floating around? OK, but that is fantasy. +The series with the hacker jailbreaking crimes? E va be, again fantasy. +Black Mirror? Horror and dystopia. +What is wrong with software? + +Close to the Machine, by Ellen Ullman is a nice reference here: she writes about struggles of software and struggles of daily life. +The book is exaclty like the tales of the charchoal burner: it mixes situated knowledge and days in the life of a (female!) software developer, with the folklore and myths haunting the Silicon Valley across the eighties / nineties. Probably this folklore called neoliberalism is to blame, when there are so few poetic accounts of software development. Probably is also not so easy. + +