November 12th, 2009 / 2:35 pm
Web Hype

Samesies

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Samesies finds photos taken by different people of the same thing. The collection is stunning, and reconfirms my faith that we are all sort of living the same lives. I think of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, an account of one beach scene told by multiple characters, told over and over again, segmented by decades. It’s told in that murky VW way — and I suppose arguments and interpretations are possible — but I think the point is time, despite its grave capacity to shepherd one towards death, does not exist. And light behaves without prejudice, which is a start.

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20 Comments

  1. Amy McDaniel

      these images have so much more power in near-duplicate than, i think, they would on their own. weird. i love the comparison to The Waves, too. thanks for posting this.

  2. Amy McDaniel

      these images have so much more power in near-duplicate than, i think, they would on their own. weird. i love the comparison to The Waves, too. thanks for posting this.

  3. Paul Siegell

      yes, extremely cool. thank you!

  4. Paul Siegell

      yes, extremely cool. thank you!

  5. Rebekah

      Rad x2. Wonderful. My day is better now.

  6. Rebekah

      Rad x2. Wonderful. My day is better now.

  7. TiMen

      My day is the samesie of that dude with his peaches buried in the fiery ash.

  8. TiMen

      My day is the samesie of that dude with his peaches buried in the fiery ash.

  9. Justin

      I’m sorry–I really am–but I just can’t help pointing out that that’s not even remotely what The Waves is about. The beach scenes are like a page each, and they aren’t narrated by any of the characters–they’re Woolf’s own interjections. It’s the whole *rest* of the book that’s done in the round-robin POV but even at that, there’s not really a Rashomon-like aspect of telling and re-telling. It’s actually quite the opposite- you get the complete trajectories of the lives of the whole group of friends, from earliest childhood to old age, with all the contrasting emotions along the way, but no questions raised as to the basic facts of the story. The beach scenes, taken all together they describe the passage of a single day–counterpointing the novel’s main work of showing these lives in their complete finitude, symbol of the fleeting nature of existence, blah blah.

  10. Justin

      I’m sorry–I really am–but I just can’t help pointing out that that’s not even remotely what The Waves is about. The beach scenes are like a page each, and they aren’t narrated by any of the characters–they’re Woolf’s own interjections. It’s the whole *rest* of the book that’s done in the round-robin POV but even at that, there’s not really a Rashomon-like aspect of telling and re-telling. It’s actually quite the opposite- you get the complete trajectories of the lives of the whole group of friends, from earliest childhood to old age, with all the contrasting emotions along the way, but no questions raised as to the basic facts of the story. The beach scenes, taken all together they describe the passage of a single day–counterpointing the novel’s main work of showing these lives in their complete finitude, symbol of the fleeting nature of existence, blah blah.

  11. Jimmy Chen

      no need to apologize, i’m glad you pointed stuff out. i wasn’t exactly sure (i read it way back in a somewhat distracted state). all i remember were these similar descriptions of the ocean as time passed; guess i forgot the rest of the book.

  12. Jimmy Chen

      no need to apologize, i’m glad you pointed stuff out. i wasn’t exactly sure (i read it way back in a somewhat distracted state). all i remember were these similar descriptions of the ocean as time passed; guess i forgot the rest of the book.

  13. Sean

      Uh, I keep trying to point out that Jimmy Chen is smarter, faster, more intuitive (no way to teach intuition, sorry) that all the HTML posters combined. So I have to gladly yawn. This is the best post in 2 weeks of treading cereal gone milky here. Thank you, once again, JC.

  14. Sean

      Uh, I keep trying to point out that Jimmy Chen is smarter, faster, more intuitive (no way to teach intuition, sorry) that all the HTML posters combined. So I have to gladly yawn. This is the best post in 2 weeks of treading cereal gone milky here. Thank you, once again, JC.

  15. Jimmy Chen

      pimp daddy yo — where were you when i was a virgin?

  16. Jimmy Chen

      pimp daddy yo — where were you when i was a virgin?

  17. Ken Baumann

      Dig it.

  18. Ken Baumann

      Dig it.

  19. Ellen Frances

      Thank you for this post. I enjoyed looking through Samesies while considering your mention of the idea that ‘we are all sort of living the same lives’.

  20. Ellen Frances

      Thank you for this post. I enjoyed looking through Samesies while considering your mention of the idea that ‘we are all sort of living the same lives’.