{"id":13557,"date":"2022-10-13T16:16:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T16:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/?p=13557"},"modified":"2025-04-07T15:36:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T15:36:21","slug":"talismans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2022\/10\/13\/talismans\/","title":{"rendered":"recharge your talismans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(abandoned substack draft)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>meaningful objects matter because we&#8217;re all gonna die<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You may have seen me wearing this &#8211; I bought it from this older man in SF who spent his youth travelling through Morocco, Egypt, etc. We talked for 20 mins about art &amp; passion &amp; love. He\u2019s one of me.<br><br>Talismans are simply objects with stories that are meaningful to you <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3xWT30P5uD\">pic.twitter.com\/3xWT30P5uD<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1138662495080439808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 12, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>tend to them, attend to them, they are narrative batteries. how you manage your talismans will\u2026 function as scaffolding? a graph overlay? like a trade network<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What is a talisman and why should anybody care? To me, a talisman is any object that has meaning. This matters because people are drawn to wanting to live meaning lives, because we\u2019re all going to die and we\u2019d like to make it count, whatever that means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Complication: what is a meaningful object to me might be a meaningless object to you. People have fought vicious wars over this sort of thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Flags are talismans. Trophies are talismans, whether we\u2019re talking about the World Cup or an Oscar or a Nobel prize or a Medal of Honor. wedding rings are probably the most universally understood talismans. a wedding is a ceremony where an entire community gathers to charge a talisman with symbolic meaning, often in a house of worship, with a trusted community leader doing the imbuing. even if you\u2019re not religious, even if it\u2019s a purely secular wedding, fact is everyone shows up to spend some of their limited time and energy on this earth to witness and consecrate a symbolic act, a rite of passage. We can debate about whether marriage as an institution is still relevant in 2022, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s disputable that it\u2019s still a big symbolic act<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Every crown is a theatre prop.<\/strong> This is obvious in a production of king lear, it\u2019s less obvious when it\u2019s a production of the British Monarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe you don\u2019t <em>technically<\/em> need talismans in order to have a rich and meaningful life. I find myself inclined to think that, well, you\u2019d probably still have psychological, imagined talismans even if you don\u2019t have physical ones. And as long as we\u2019re still breathing bags of flesh and blood, it makes sense to use physical objects in our environment properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>without using the word talisman, mark twain talked about this a bunch in his 1902 essay \u201cdoes the race of man love a lord\u201d. He talked about how, apparently when the Prince of Wales visited the USA, people would sell his hair<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Biggie\u2019s plastic crown <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guinnessworldrecords.com\/news\/2020\/10\/plastic-crown-worn-by-the-notorious-big-sold-for-record-breaking-amount-634764\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sold for $594,750 at Sotheby\u2019s<\/a>. notice the theatrics \u2013 handling the prop with gloves. The theatrics are part of the charging of the talisman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kanye pissed in his grammy. A mark of symbolic disrespect. This in turn reminds me of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Piss_Christ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">piss christ<\/a>, a 1987 photograph by the American artist and photographer Andres Serrano \u201cdepicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a small glass tank of the artist&#8217;s urine\u201d. And that in turn also makes me think of Duchamp\u2019s Fountain. I\u2019m not exactly an Art Critic or whatever so my interpretation is just a curious layperson\u2019s&#8230; but there&#8217;s a kind of desecration that, oddly enough, elevates the status of the thing being desecrated. Here I find myself thinking about Samuel Johnson being mocked. Haters are fans too. This thing is important enough to be worthy of desecration. (This is why it&#8217;s very important to understand <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1412916757543616512\">attention economics<\/a>, especially in the social media era.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>tattoos can be talismans. I got <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/visakanv\/status\/1691783822130745550\">my own first tattoo<\/a> to commemorate the completion of my second book, Introspect. It\u2019s a classical labyrinth on my neck. I choose to think of it as a sort of DIY shamanic initiation. It\u2019s partially visible even when I\u2019m wearing a shirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Logos are talismans. Ever noticed how upset people get sometimes when a brand changes its logo, if it\u2019s not done well? It&#8217;s like you&#8217;ve desecrated the public commons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>jewelry can be talismans<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Books can be talismans. I think from time to time about how Carl Sagan autographed a copy of a book for Neil Tyson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">There is a chance though, if you\u2019re like me, to fall into a sort of trap of \u201cpedestalizing sacredness\u201d &#8211; ie the books become things that you revere without touching. This is not how I want to live. Books are for touching, engaging with <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3YIhhjf1ZW\">https:\/\/t.co\/3YIhhjf1ZW<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1157204974826164224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 2, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m starting to think now of my library as a sort of fractal thread of threads of my engagement with ideas, with representations &#8211; my relationship with each book is marked by my notes and scribblings in them<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A melody or a song can be a talisman. One of the cool things about growing older is that a song that is meaningful to you can <em>accumulate more meaning<\/em> over time, as you come to associate it with more experiences, and more reflection. You can then access past emotional states<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Someone once asked \u201chow do I get rid of a lucky horseshoe? is it bad luck to throw it away?\u201d My answer was, \u201cthe secret to parting with good talismans is to pay it forward into the world. don\u2019t throw it away, give it to someone. or even leave it somewhere for strangers etc with a note. add to the magic in the world rather than subtract.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, every talisman is fleeting, just as life and existence itself is fleeting. There\u2019s a great little story about \u201cthe glass is already broken\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Marie Kondo instructs people to ask, \u201cDoes it spark joy?\u201d I believe she is basically asking people to tap into their emotional response to objects. (2025apr7 As I revisit this draft I realize that my job in revisiting drafts is to tap into my emotional responses&#8230;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>You can make your life more meaningful by investigating meaning.<\/strong> I think this is the real fun and joy of tidying up. It\u2019s not some burdensome chore for you to feel bad and guilty about. Simply look around you with curiosity, and ask, ooh, what\u2019s the story of this?w What\u2019s the story here? Every object has a backstory. I once decided to spend a whole day researching the history of the PlayStation 4 controller. I ended up on a fascinating journey about the history of Sony, how the founders were\u2026 war\u2026 how the transistor was invented, and how the PlayStation was born out of a rivalry with Nintendo. So now when I pick up my PS4 controller to play games, or even when I just look at it sitting on my console, I have this whole story associated with it. It\u2019s meaningful to me. My life is more meaningful as a consequence. (Purple shoes. Ayy Lmao painting.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the reasons I am drawn to writing, and ~LitErArY pUrSuiTs~, is that I find it to be an exciting, liberating, emboldening way of making sense of the world, of making meaning. It doesn\u2019t even need to be Meaning with a capital M. It\u2019s just about playing with associations. What I mean by that is \u2013 writing, tweeting, playing with ideas \u2013 these are ways in which I make the world around me more interesting, more meaningful. One simple way to do this is to research the history of every object in your vicinity. Suddenly your boring stuff comes alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There\u2019s a bit that I really like in the movie Thor: Ragnarok, where Thor is upset about his hammer Mjolnir having been destroyed. And he says to his dad Odin, \u201cI can\u2019t win, not without my hammer.\u201d \u201cAre you Thor, the God of Hammers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The word \u201ctalisman\u201d itself has been on an interesting journey. Etymologically, it came to English from French (also talisman), via Arabic \u1e6dilasm (\u0637\u0650\u0644\u064e\u0633\u0652\u0645), via ancient Greek telesma (\u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03c3\u03bc\u03b1), meaning &#8220;completion, religious rite, payment&#8221;, ultimately from the verb tele\u014d (\u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03ad\u03c9). That\u2019s the same teleo- in teleology, or teleological.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The wikipedia page describes it as \u201cany object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be careful, when competing for a talisman, that you don\u2019t dishonor what the talisman stands for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BedoyaFTC\/status\/1579852153833017346\">spoons talisman thread<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1204759338629206016\">trump\u2019s office<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>shamans<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">My feeling is *my* feeling, ie not a description of objective reality<br><br>I find that I\u2019ve been learning that most people aren\u2019t like me, most people don\u2019t care that much about examining the roles of flags and talismans and so on<br><br>Some of us are symbol-weavers, most are not <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pI9zWmR3Za\">pic.twitter.com\/pI9zWmR3Za<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/visakanv\/status\/1149665404039487488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 12, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>2019: for weeks now my mind has been gripped by the surprisingly limited number of powerful symbols in global circulation, and how few people really, deliberately work to contribute to this. Not talking about graphic design; talking about full-stack worldbuilding. I think the conventional sense most people have is that we are simply *overwhelmed* with logos and brands everywhere. I have the opposite feeling: we are symbolically impoverished and don\u2019t quite realize it. The hundreds of brands are all variants of the same handful of ideas. The imagination deficit is the most staggering thing in the human realm &#8211; but few people know it&#8230; because most people lack imagination!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\/\/ abandoned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(abandoned substack draft) meaningful objects matter because we&#8217;re all gonna die tend to them, attend to them, they are narrative batteries. how you manage your talismans will\u2026 function as scaffolding? a graph overlay? like a trade network What is a talisman and why should anybody care? To me, a talisman&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[727],"tags":[730],"class_list":["post-13557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drafts","tag-substack"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5gxNz-3wF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14732,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13557\/revisions\/14732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}