🐍✨The Nexialist #0146

getting over rejection | cobra | rivers of life | the most common dreams | triple d*ck | cockamamy | flehming | the role of myth in language

Nov 09, 2023

welcome to another batch of spreadable content, the nexialist

hey, you! i hope this e-mail finds you well. this week i’ve been feeling under the weather (also literally, because the rain in amsterdam is quite constant these days). the benefit of this is no fomo to go out of the house. the disadvantage is that laziness and horizontalness take over. nevertheless this week’s issue is here, and full of brainsparks: from rejection-dealing strategies and snakes everywhere to phallic obsessions and other myths, hopefully you’ll finish this feeling like you learned something new. now, i’ll leave you to it. enjoy 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

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❤️‍🩹getting over rejection

my fear of rejection happens to be a recurring topic in therapy: at work, at new paths/possibilities/explorations, ~~and even in making a move at a cute guys at a party~~. at times, i find myself paralyzed because of that.

this post from it’s nice that felt like a little treasure: Getting over rejection: Creatives, and a therapist, share their stories and methods. olivia hingley shares the story of an art student not able to find work due to lack of experience, a rejected filmmaker who built his own platform, an established illustrator/graphic designer who got shit online for his work, and my favorite: a small but mighty design studio that made their own graveyard with rejected projects, a place in which they go to find inspiration for other projects. even if my career is not in the same industry, i felt inspired to take more risks and move beyond this fear. it’s saved in my favourite’s folder to read when i get rejected next.

Rejection isn’t exactly be a desirable experience, but it’s far from solely a negative one. You may not have got your dream job, but you might learn vital skills in another position. Rejection from one area of an industry might push you to forge a new path in another. Backlash online may instigate an important moment of self reflection and acceptance, and a project not making the cut can be flipped on its head with humour, and the desire to learn and grow. So while rejection might still be a gloomy word that strikes fear in the creative world, does it really have to be so?

brainsparks: the vanishing designer (tn#81), the hidden networks of everything (tn#126), scenius aka communal genius (tn#31), chatter toolkit (tn#87), the perfectionism trap, artist imperfection (tn#38), goal-setting and fear-setting (tn#52).

🐍cobra

i’m lowkey obsessed with megan thee stallion’s new song. starting with the ~~pseudo-~~buddhist quote about shedding skin and the rock’n’roll instruments to megan sharing very intimate and vulnerable situations: loneliness, anxiety, alcoholism, cheating and suicidal thoughts. she is famous for more sexual songs and performances, so i think this dimension of her is actually quite a statement, especially because it’s her first independent release, in a new skin. i’m not a huge fan but i’m here for it.

brainsparks: an economy of suffering, rituals of suffering (tn#59)

🌳rivers of life

last week i went to the embassy of the free mind, or the hermetic philosophy library, with my friend françois. it is a beautiful museum/library in amsterdam where you can get “insight into the connection between God, cosmos and man. This connection is reflected in the Hermetic, alchemical, astrological, magical, mystical, kabbalistic and Rosicrucian texts and images in the collection.” it is a treasure in amsterdam to explore these topics and such rich imagery.

one of the images that i was fascinated with this time was this synchronological chart of the religions of the world, that you can scroll through here (it became a rabbit hole for me). it was made by james forlong and it shows the objects of worship in the center, in continuous lines that intertwine as religions emerge. it’s so intriguing to see tree worship as the first, phallic/fertility faiths second and then the serpent right after. fire and sun come thousands of years later, according to this map. ancestor worship comes in much later. (seeing the snake reminded altamira 2042 (tn#74), where i learned about the canoe-snake myth:)

The indigenous Amazonian sources, especially in the Northwestern side, such as among the Tukano, report an oral transmission on the creation of the world by an anaconda that moves inside the Amazon River whose shores the serpent populates as it meanders through the waters of the great river, giving rise to primitive villages. This myth seems to be very ancient and it has been shared by various Amazonian peoples along the Amazon trough because of an efficient culturally symbolic message widely accepted among them, and therefore it appears in opposed areas within the Amazon, both between the Northwestern portion and the estuary of Maranhão. This paper presents this evidence using Amazonian archaeological ceramics from the stilt villages of Maranhão. (source)

of course, we know there is some “hallucination” involved (and plenty of european bias). in the end (1800-1900) there is a naïve closing: “miracles and revelations becoming discredited. great renaissance of learning. accurate sciences and truer apprehension of nature, physical and moral. deism, secularism, materialism, theism with old faiths and superstitions.” only if he knew there are still holy wars causing pain and death. i also wonder how an updated version would look, not only with more discoveries but also with a continuation until now, with themes like digital esoterism (tn#116), crypto as ritual and religion (tn#58) and social media x cults (tn#74).

brainsparks: cosmophobia (tn#135), syncretism (tn#44), life after lifestyle (tn#91), what will replace religion? (tn#81)

💤the most common dreams

then this week i came across this map, which uses google search volume about dreams. i have to say i had chills down my spine to see this parallel.

the most googled dream in the world is about snakes —52 countries google this dream more than any other…. the next most googled dream is the dreaded teeth falling out dream...

brainsparks: animal dreamworlds (tn#138), scientists going into your dreams (tn#13).

🍆triple d*ck

well, moving from snake to phallic… i talked about codpieces (tn#27) a long time ago, and since i discovered them i’m still in awe that this fashion accessory was part of history for centuries. in this video essay by nerdwriter, we learn the story behind henry viii’s ~~bulge~~ political propaganda to assert his virility and power in a moment when he couldn’t get a male heir (among other issues).

what better way to assert your masculinity than by having a mighty codpiece bulge out of the center of your portrait like a 3D object. and if that wasn't enough to get the point across, you can add a dagger just to the right and an incredibly phallic glove to the left. in the parlament of 16th century European painting this technique is called triple dick.

brainsparks: codpieces (tn#27), the origin of war (tn#95), measuring manhood (tn#125).

🐓cockamamy

quite a funny word i had never heard of, and i need to adopt it. also, being a phallic theme, i couldn’t leave it out of this week’s nexialist. i also love the origin of it.

cockamamie (adjective)| kah-kuh-MAY-mee
Cockamamie is an adjective used to describe something ridiculous, silly, or incredible.
Did You Know? By the look and sound of it, cockamamie (also spelled "cockamamy") could have something to do with a rooster and the outrageous sound it makes. But in fact, cockamamie is believed to be an altered form of the term decalcomania, which refers to the process, invented in the mid-19th century, of transferring pictures and designs from specially prepared paper to surfaces such as glass or porcelain. (The word referring to the picture or design itself, decal, is a shortening of decalcomania.) The word decalcomania comes from French, with décalcomanie combining the verb décalquer, meaning "to trace" or "to transfer by tracing," and -manie, meaning "-mania." Starting in the 1930s, painted strips of paper with images capable of being transferred to the skin were called decals or—in children's slang—cockamamies. Those familiar with today's temporary tattoos will understand quickly that these were regarded by many as silly novelties, lending the word cockamamie the necessary leeway for application to anything ridiculous.

brainsparks: lollygag (tn#40)

😬flehming

talking about ridiculous, this week i learned a new term for that funny face you’ve probably seen an animal making. it has a name and some possible explanations.

The flehmen response (/ˈfleɪmən/; from German flehmen, to bare the upper teeth, and Upper Saxon German flemmen, to look spiteful), also called the flehmen position, flehmen reaction, flehmen grimace, flehming, or flehmening, is a behavior in which an animal curls back its upper lip exposing its front teeth, inhales with the nostrils usually closed, and then often holds this position for several seconds. It may be performed over a sight or substance of particular interest to the animal, or may be performed with the neck stretched and the head held high in the air.

👅the role of myth in language

this piece by linguist marina yaguello is a delight to read, as it “traces the myths, legends, and religious narratives that have shaped humanity's understanding of the origins of language.” we still don’t know the origin of languages for certain, but imagine centuries ago how people made sense of it. “to admit a plural origin of language would mean accepting that Adam was not the ancestor of humanity as a whole.” so it’s interesting to see these stories, from lingua adamica to babel.

brainsparks: interlingua (#106), internet’s lingua franca (tn#20), a dweller on two planets, lemuria (tn#141)

see you next week, cockamamies! 🐔✨

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