‘Le Dernier homme is a trial of the limits of dissolution of both the character and language,the ability to dwell in the present is a feature of not only the last man but also the story about him. As a narrative, Le Dernier homme is not very eventful. Striking with a low dramatic voltage, lack of chronological order and only scattered pieces of information, this re´cit about the relationships between three nameless characters residing in a non-specified house presents lengthy, carefully constructed passages where nothing happens. With the characters never doing anything except spending extended stretches of time together, they are simply there with each other, in the atmosphere of time and action coming to a standstill. As Hans-Jost Frey observes, on the level of communicating meaning Le Dernier homme does not say anything and does not try to. Instead, its stylistic devices are employed in such a way that they allow it to say nothing; or, as Frey fittingly puts it, “to say what cannot be said without losing it as unsayable by saying it”. It is by trying to say nothing that the language and style of this narrative manage to exert an unprecedented pressure on the partitions between the characters – something Nathalie Sarraute announced as a goal for contemporary fiction several years earlier.

‘With its tired characters and exhausted language, everything in Le Dernier homme is “just there”, plainly and without attributes. The most manifest linguistic and stylistic elements that contribute to the impression of unadorned presence and the absence of reported events are, on the one hand, an excessive use of certain words (especially adverbs presque and peut-eˆ tre; verbs mettre a` nu, blanchir and effacer, and nouns le vide, le silence, l’immobilite´, la le´ge`rete´ and la faiblesse), and, on the other, a very unconventional syntax. Imitating the narrator’s inability to place himself firmly in his rapport to the last man, Blanchot’s sentences often oscillate among “je”, “il” and “nous” in a single long sentence. This tendency, which makes sentences develop only by diverging from the course that was grammatically determined by their beginnings, allows for the adding of often disparate segments to the endlessly ramifying compositions. The following passage, in which the narrator describes the way the last man talks, can serve asan example here:

Ce qu’il disait changeait de sens, se dirigeait non plus vers nous, mais vers lui, vers unautre que lui, un autre espace, l’intimite´ de sa faiblesse, le mur, comme je le disais a` la jeune femme, “il a touche´ le mur”, et le plus frappant e´tait alors la menace que sesparoles, si ordinaires, semblaient repre´senter pour lui, comme si elles avaient risque´ de lemettre a` nu devant le mur, ce qui se traduisait par un effacement qui blanchissait cequ’il disait au fur et a` mesure qu’il se pre´parait a` le dire.

‘Along with exemplifying the syntax of this re´cit, this sentence also explains – and performs – the speech of the last man. Here, the narrator already shows signs of speaking the same way as the last man. The last man’s speech does not only efface whatever it says; nor does it merely postpone denotation by means of constantly modifying the meaning of the sentence. It is rather that when the last man finally gets to speak, his speech, at every moment, shows his reluctance to talk about things. With his slow and heavy rhythm, what becomes more important than words is the very act of speaking. Addressing neither himself nor the narrator, and saying nothing definite, his speech only marks the fact that these two characters are together.

‘Not unlike the sparse speech of the last man, Le Dernier homme, with its static syntax and mono-semantic vocabulary, itself serves as a medium of exhausted talk. What we get in both cases is a slow and careful preparation for talking, but not the message-transmitting speech. By the time this preparation crystallises into a fully formed language, it has already started effacing itself. With nothing hard and stable remaining in the narrative, what is left is an extreme level of linguistic thinness which, as Paul de Man argues is the case with all Blanchot’s stories, is as close as one gets to an entirely “unpunctuated [form of] temporality”. This thinness is not only intricate to create – especially within the genre of narrative literature, with its tendency towards denotative language – but also difficult to undergo for a reader. Many readers undoubtedly struggle with the exhausted language of Le Dernier homme. However, even though the unusually desolate space of this narrative does not immediately make one submit to it, the reader’s uneasiness is not left unaided. From the very start, the reader is constantly reminded of a similar resistance displayed by the narrator when facing the speech of the last man. In fact, the reader experiences discomfort precisely by means of reading about the narrator’s discomfort – that is, by means of being exposed to the effect that the last man’s speech left on the narrator’s own way of telling the story.

‘As a structurally inherent part of the re´cit, the reader resembles the narrator. Since the narrative structure of Le Dernier homme comprises the homological relation between “le dernier homme” as a book and as a character of this book (the book says what it says in the same way as the last man speaks), the reader enters into another functional homology – one between the last man and the narrator. The reader, while reading about the narrator’s difficulty to adapt to the last man’s speech, doubles the narrator’s attempt to come to terms with exhaustion and emptiness because s/he has to withstand the narrator’s language that itself already resembles the one of the last man. The reader and the narrator thus form yet another functional homology of this narrative. Although thereader cannot be forced as far as to comply with the narrator’s self-expropriation, the weariness that Le Dernier homme exerts via the reader’s enacting of the narrator’s enacting of the last man’s speech demands an exhausted reader. The reader who complies with this demand, then, carries out the very fatigue that defines the last man.’ — Daniel Just

 

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Further

Espace Maurice Blanchot
‘The Space of Literature’ @ goodreads
Contradictory Passion: Inspiration in Blanchot’s “The Space of Literature”
‘Everything and Nothing’: Blanchot in the Space of Shakespeare”
Introduction: Blanchot’s Spaces
Analysis of the Space of Literature by Maurice Blanchot
Blanchot on the analogy between writing and suicide
I’m too dead to tell you: withdrawing rooms and other breathing spaces.
BLANCHOT AND THE RESONANT SPACES OF LITERATURE, SOUND, ART AND THOUGHT
Reading The Space of Literature (iii)
Nothing doing: Maurice Blanchot and the irreal
Introduction: Against Praise of Maurice Blanchot
(Re)Writing, (Re)Reading: Maurice Blanchot and The Space of Literature
The Negative Eschatology of Maurice Blanchot
Read the entirety for free online
Download ‘The Last Man’ here

 

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Handwritten

 

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Extras

Derrida on Blanchot

Levinas on Maurice Blanchot

Maurice Blanchot.mp4

Blanchot’s Nietzschean Inspiration

Christopher Fynsk. The Relation Between Bataille and Blanchot, Speech and The Alterity.

 

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beirut 12 / 11: maurice blanchot and georges bataille
By Richard Marshall

 

Maurice Blanchot: As the German expression has it, the last judgement is the youngest day, and it is a day surpassing all days. Not that judgement is reserved for the end of time. On the contrary, justice won’t wait; it is to be done at every instant, to be realized all the time, and studied also (it is to be learned). Every just act (are there any?) makes of its day the last day or – as Kafka said – the very last: a day no longer situated in the ordinary succession of days but one that makes of the most commonplace ordinary, the extraordinary. He who has been the contemporary of the camps is forever a survivor: death will not make him die.

Georges Bataille: To others, the universe seems decent because decent people have gelded eyes. That is why they fear lewdness. They are never frightened by the crowing of a rooster or when strolling under a starry heaven. In general, people savor the “pleasures of the flesh” only on condition that they be insipid.

But as of then, no doubt existed for me: I did not care for what is known as “pleasures of the flesh” because they really are insipid; I cared only for what is classified as “dirty.” On the other hand, I was not even satisfied with the usual debauchery, because the only thing it dirties is debauchery itself, while, in some way or other, anything sublime and perfectly pure is left intact by it. My kind of debauchery soils not only my body and my thoughts, but also anything I may conceive in its course, that is to say, the vast starry universe, which merely serves as a backdrop.

MB: Intellectual despair results in neither weakness nor dreams, but in violence. It is only a matter of knowing how to give vent to one’s rage; whether one only wants to wander like madmen around prisons, or whether one wants to overturn them.

GB: I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.

MB: To see was terrifying, and to stop seeing tore me apart from my forehead to my throat.

GB: The fact is, that what de Sade was trying to bring to the surface of the conscious mind was precisely the thing that revolted that mind . . . From the very first he set before the consciousness things which it could not tolerate. The road to the kingdom of childhood, governed by ingenuousness and innocence, is thus regained in the horror of atonement. The purity of love is regained in its intimate truth which, as I said, is that of death. Death and the instant of divine intoxication merge when they both oppose those intentions of Good which are based on rational calculation. And death indicates the instant which, in so far as it is instantaneous, renounces the calculated quest for survival. The instant of the new individual being depended on the death of other beings. Had they not died there would have been no room for new ones. Reproduction and death condition the immortal renewal of life; they condition the instant which is always new. That is why we can only have a tragic view of the enchantment of life, but that is also why tragedy is the symbol of enchantment.

MB: When Kafka allows a friend to understand that he writes because otherwise he would go mad, he knows that writing is madness already, his madness, a kind of vigilence, unrelated to any wakefulness save sleep’s: insomnia. Madness against madness, then. But he believes that he masters the one by abandoning himself to it; the other frightens him, and is his fear; it tears through him, wounds and exalts him. It is as if he had to undergo all the force of an uninterruptable continuity, a tension at the edge of the insupportable which he speaks of with fear and not without a feeling of glory. For glory is the disaster.

GB: Extreme seductiveness is at the boundary of horror.

MB: And there is no question that we are preoccupied by dying. But why? It is because when we die, we leave behind not only the world but also death. That is the paradox of the last hour. Death works with us in the world; it is a power that humanizes nature, that raises existence to being, and it is within each one of us as our most human quality; it is death only in the world – man only knows death because he is man, and he is only man because he is death in the process of becoming. But to die is to shatter the world; it is the loss of person, the annihilation of the being; and so it is also the loss of death, the loss of what in it and for me made it death. As long as I live, I am a mortal man, but when I die, by ceasing to be man I also cease to be mortal, I am no longer capable of dying, and my impending death horrifies me because I see it as it is: no longer death, but the impossibility of dying.

GB: There is always some limit which the individual accepts. He identifies this limit with himself. Horror seizes him at the thought that this limit may cease to be. But we are wrong to take this limit and the individual’s acceptance of it seriously. The limit is only there to be overreached. Fear and horror are not the real and final reaction; on the contrary, they are a temptation to overstep the bounds.

MB: The disaster… is what escapes the very possibility of experience—it is the limit of writing. This must be repeated: the disaster de-scribes.

GB: I remember that one day, when we were in a car tooling along at top speed,we crashed into a cyclist, an apparently very young and very pretty girl. Her head was almost totally ripped off by the wheels. For a long time, we were parked a few yards beyond without getting out, fully absorbed in the sight of the corpse. The horror and despair at so much bloody flesh, nauseating in part, and in part very beautiful, was fairly equivalent to our usual impression upon seeing one another.

MB: “A child is being killed.” This silent passive, this dead eternity to which a temporal form of life must be given in order that we might separate ourselves from it by a murder–this companion, but of no one, whom we seek to particularise as an absence, that we might live upon his banishment, desire with the desire he has not, and speak through and against the world he does not utter–nothing (neither knowledge nor un-knowledge) can designate him, even if the simplest of sentences seems, in four or five words, to divulge him (a child is being killed.)

GB: Realism gives me the impression of a mistake. Violence alone escapes the feeling of poverty of those realistic experiences. Only death and desire have the force that oppresses, that takes one’s breath away. Only the extremism of desire and death enable one to attain the truth.

MB: Whoever digs at verse must renounce all idols; he has to break with everything. He cannot have truth for his horizon, or the future as his element, for he has no right to hope. He has, on the contrary, to despair. Whoever delves into verse dies; he encounters his death as an abyss. We can never put enough distance between ourselves and what we love. To think that God is, is still to think of him as present; this is a thought according to our measure, destined only to console us. It is much more fitting to think that God is not, just as we must love him purely enough that we could be indifferent to the fact that he should not be. It is for this reason that the atheist is closer to God than the believer.

GB: Laughing at the universe liberated my life. I escape its weight by laughing. I refuse any intellectual translations of this laughter, since my slavery would commence from that point on. …out of despair I decided to follow this horror through. Literature is either the essential or nothing. I believe that the Evil—an acute form of Evil—which it expresses, has a sovereign value for us. But this concept does not exclude morality: on the contrary, it demands a ‘hypermorality.’ Literature is communication. Communication requires loyalty. A rigorous morality results from complicity in the knowledge of Evil, which is the basis of intense communication.

MB: I cannot forgive — forgiveness comes from others — but I cannot be forgiven either, if forgiveness is what calls the “I” into question and demands that I give myself, that I subject myself to the lack of subjectivity. And if forgiveness comes from others, it only comes; there is never any certitude that it can arrive, because in it there is nothing of the (sacramental) power to determine. It can only delay in the element of indecision. In The Trial, one might think that the death scene constitutes the pardon, the end of the interminable; but there is no end, since Kafka specifies that shame survives, which is to say, the infinite itself, a mockery of life as life’s beyond.

GB: Eroticism is the brink of the abyss. I’m leaning out over deranged horror (at this point my eyes roll back in my head). The abyss is the foundation of the possible. We’re brought to the edge of the same abyss by uncontrolled laughter or ecstasy. From this comes a “questioning” of everything possible. This is the stage of rupture, of letting go of things, of looking forward to death.

MB: The central point of the work of art is the work as origin, the point which cannot be reached, yet the only one which is worth reaching. The authentic answer is always the question’s vitality. It can close in around the question, but it does so in order to preserve the question by keeping it open. The disaster… is what escapes the very possibility of experience—it is the limit of writing. This must be repeated: the disaster de-scribes.

GB: To put it more precisely, since language is by definition the expression of civilised man, violence is silent. Civilisation and language grew as though violence was something outside. But silence cannot do away with things that language cannot state. Violence is as stubbornly there just as much as death, and if language cheats to conceal universal annihilation, the placid work of time, language alone suffers, language is the poorer, not time and not violence.

 

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Book

Maurice Blanchot The Last Man (1957)
/ubu editions

‘We can dream about the last writer, with whom would disappear, without anyone noticing it, the little mystery of writing. A dense, dream-like exploration of the extreme limits of this mystery, written some ten years prior to the Death of the Author, (though unpublished in English until thirty years later) Maurice Blanchot’s The Last Man (Le Dernier Homme, 1957) could be considered a narrative follow-up to The Space of Literature (L’Espace littéraire, 1955) or a fictional companion to the critical essays composing The Book to Come (Le Livre à venir, 1959). One can imagine an infinite conversation between these works: drifting wearily across abyssal alterities—the echo, in advance, of what has not been said and will never be said. But this sumptuous récit alone demands the reader’s full attention—marvelously, Blanchot writes what cannot be written without losing it as un-writable by writing it (Hans-Yost Frey, YFS, 1998). Narrating at the threshold of this impossible writing, The Last Man weaves a blurring of several prosopopetic characters towards a radical revision of the subject and the text. The prose itself never crystallizes into an unambiguous statement—Blanchot’s trangressive philosophy peculiar in the tantalizingly pleasurable suspension of the never-fulfilled promise of understanding. Reading happens in this continual absence of comprehension: instead, dense knots of delightfully paradoxical propositions and stupefying catachreses drive the reader on in the unconditional acceptance of the text that pierces, like a look that is too direct, the indeterminate prose, and makes all relations, and especially our relationship to time, absolutely precarious.’ — /ubu editions

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Excerpt

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Misanthrope, No, never. When I was young, I learned handwriting analysis, and I used to study people that way or read people’s handwriting when asked, with strangely often correct readings, but no face stuff, and I don’t enjoy looking at my own face casually, so I definitely don’t analyse it. I probably did when I was on acid ages back ‘cos that’s something one tends to want to do while fried. You? Oops, hope your pains are a quickie. Aging does have unpleasant surprises in store for one’s body, but you’re not very old (yet). Again, thanking the Lord above or whoever for our non-summer over here, although we’re supposed to finally get one murderous day this Friday. ** David Ehrenstein, Good old F’OH. ** JoeM, October seems theoretically possibly doable and … well, maybe not safe but kind of maybe safe-ish? Who knows. We could be locked back inside over here by then. Pretty good safety system they’re working with, it sounds. All bases covered pretty much. I had my first temperature check the other day, bizarrely in order to be able to enter Hard Cafe Cafe of all places. It seems you’ve sorted the secret of being named as you wish. ** _Black_Acrylic, Might even have had some knowledge of it maybe, who knows? Well, I suppose someone knows. Oh, man, that does sound like a real dilemma: the possible move. I’m way, way outside the situation and know little, but it does make me a little sad thinking of you not in Dundee. I kind of think of you and the DCA being wedded at the hip. But you like your parents, so there’s that. And location moves can be excellent beginnings, as I well know. But, yeah, that’s tough one. You wouldn’t have to move until year’s end in any case, right? ** Steve Erickson, Obviously I trust you will ace your test, but ultra-best luck just in case you need it. I don’t know of Kurt Walker’s ‘s01e03’, but I’ll find it since it’s so easily found. Thanks. Curious about the Seimetz. Such a fucking drag that it has the Shane Carruth shit smeared all over it. ** Bill, Hi, Bill. Thank you, and, hm, probably not on the app? Fuck knows though. Ha ha. Never saw ‘Antiviral’. I think I saw it offered on one of the ‘illegal’ sites though, and, if so, zoom. ** Okay. It’s been a good, oh, 7 or 8 months since I turned the blog over to my personal literary god Maurice Blanchot, so it seemed high time. ‘The Last Man’ is my second favorite of his novels, and it a fucking sublime and amazing novel if you ask me, which of course you didn’t, but, if you were me, which you’re not, I would definitely read today’s spotlit novel if you haven’t. See you tomorrow.

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1.

‘Do you ever wonder why some people don’t seem to “get” you?
Have you ever felt you just didn’t “connect” with a business prospect?
Are you enjoying lots of first dates, but second dates don’t happen?
The answers are literally staring you in the face!

‘The most unforgettable and unique feature of a human is his/her face. A trained face reader can read each facial feature and line on a face to develop an accurate profile of its owner. Each face reflects in its structures and lines its owner’s personal history, mental attitudes, intimacy needs, ethics, emotional style, and verbal communication. Almost anything you want to know about a person is literally as plain as the nose on their face. Face reading gives you the facts you need to make important decisions, and alerts your perceptions to develop a deeper understanding of every person you will ever interact with.’ –– Lin Klaassen, Facereadingsbylin.com

 

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WESTERN STYLE FACE READING

THE FOUR BASIC FACE SHAPES

You can easily recognise a “watery”, emotional human being as the short and stocky type. If your facial shape and body structure is distinctly rounded and tending to a somewhat fleshy look, you’ll fall into this category. Another designation for you is an endomorph. (the entirety)

THE HAIR

Your hair is a measure of physical insulation, endurance and overall strength. If your hair is fine, delicate and silky, you are sensitive and also likely to be fragile physically especially if you are of a slender build. Thick wiry hair is an indication of your physical prowess and your resilience in life. You have great recuperative powers and may like a challenge in life.

THE FOREHEAD

The Forehead can be broadly categorised as follows – A wide forehead expresses your cleverness and practicality – being someone capable of executing duty diligently. This gives you high idealism and a wealth of ideas. A high rounded and deep forehead depicts your idealism, but with a focus on strong friendship. A narrow forehead is considered an obstacle to fulfilment,especially in social situations. Constraints in family life. Need to think things through. (cont.)

THE EYES

The late Princess Diana and Michael Jackson share a feature of the eyes. They possess floating irises also known as sampaku. The whites are visible under the iris. This indicates an inner turbulence – a person at odds with the world. Though spiritual in nature, they are hard to please or understand and have very high expectations of others. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln also shared these traits. (the entirety)

THE EYEBROWS

The eyebrow speaks of reputation, fame and temperament too. In many cases I have found a developed brow line also shows a high degree of dexterity or ability with the hands (engineers, electronics, civil engineers, drafts persons and architects). Individuals who are observant and who have to combine refined measurements with dexterity will have the brow line well developed. (cont.)

THE NOSE

The Ideal nose has a high, straight, full and fleshy tip with gently flared but protected nostrils. The fleshy tip indicates cordiality and warmth of personality. Deep empathy with others. Set high standards for themselves and are good mannered (Lailin). Oversized nose tip results in violent tendencies. The larger – the more prone to an act of violence. (the entirety)

THE PHILTRUM

The groove on the upper lip, below the nose is worth mentioning. It is called the philtrum. If it is clearly marked, deep and long, it augurs well for a strong and healthy energy levels and vitality. Flat, weak and unpronounced philtrums are a mark of reduced life force and drive.

THE MOUTH

If the lips are large it means an expensive and somewhat luxurious taste – but an expressive and generous temperament nonetheless. Often the large mouthed person can be very vocal under pressure, needing to verbalise, sometimes excessively, their dissatisfaction and frustration. (the entirety)

THE CHIN

This relates to the stamina of the individual and the stronger the jaw line the greater the degree of stamina and endurance. People with very strong jaw lines can sometimes be considered stubborn. If the jaw line exceeds the balance of other features in the face, don’t be too hasty in your judgement as this may simply mean a person who has strong convictions and who is not easily swayed by the opinions of others. (cont.)

THE EARS

The ears should exhibit good, fleshy inner and outer helixes. Thin and poorly shaped outer helixes may reveal diminishing health. (the entirety)

THE CHEEKS

In describing the ideal cheeks, Santa Clause may spring to mind with his rosy and shiny set of chubby cheeks. But according to eastern opinion, the excessively shiny cheek is indicative of digestive trouble. The cheeks are a pretty good barometer of health changes from time to time. Keep a close watch on your own biological gauge your cheeks. (the entirety)

 

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TWENTY CELEBRITY FACE READINGS

1. The Face of Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy’s outspoken manner has worked both for and against the famous rock star but at least he is dead honest! We are also aware of his trying health throughout the last two years and this is due to the hand of Saturn. His physical condition may yet have to suffer even more because of this. Notwithstanding the success of his television show and record sales, financial concerns after 2006 will also cause quite a bit of strain on him and his family. He will now need to carefully assess his fortunes in the light of this declining health. At heart Ozzy is kind and loving but has always exceeded his capacity for temperance. He obviously works and plays very hard. If Ozzy can sort out his finances just now, the next eighteen months will continue to be very successful for him and his popularity will increase as well. Some karmic influence with his eldest child will create a breakthrough in that relationship.

(the other nineteen)

 

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Emotional Face Processing Research at Duke University (2:13)

Pet face reader Alan Ngan Shui Lun (2:07)

Lynn Scheurell reads Becky Waters (3:26)

Barbara Roberts reads Marianne (1:58)

 

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CHINESE FACE READING: THE WOOD FACE

The wood type has a long face and long nose, a broad and high forehead and narrow cheeks. The eyes should have a kindly look, and the hair and eyebrows should not be thick or wiry. The forehead should be high and wide in wood as mental direction is important for this elemental type. Wood has the energy of growth, seeing the overall picture and a vision of the future, planning and seeing through projects. Wood types with balanced faces are leaders, administrators and organisers with strong ideals. They are capable of shouldering much responsibility and willing to work for the benefit of others. They need to grow and achieve, as this is the way they learn about themselves and their path in life. One of the challenges of the wood element is to be able to “see the wood for the trees” and not get enmeshed in structures. The Chinese say that a balanced wood face is a pre-requisite for Government. THE FIRE FACE The fire type also has a long face with narrow, prominent cheekbones, pointed chin and a more pointed forehead than the wood type. They may have freckles, red, curly or wiry hair, rapid speech and quick body movements. The fire element brings warmth and enthusiasm to the personality with a capacity to inspire and get people “fired up”. They are active and outdoorsy, goal centred, fast paced and adventurous. They can sometimes take crazy risks, and constantly seek stimulation and excitement. THE EARTH FACE Earth personalities are characterised by short square faces with distinct jawlines, sallow complexions, thickset bodies and deep voices. The features can be large, especially the mouth which relates to the stomach and intestines. Earth has the ability to be still and to build a solid base in life. THE METAL FACE The metal face is oval with widely set, chevron cheekbones and a pale complexion. Usually good looking, they have clear, shining eyes with a lot of energy coming out of them. The eyebrows are pale, the speech is clipped and the hair is usually straight. They are good advisers, lawyers and counsellors. Metal is the element of the mind and so they are strong willed and solve their own problems. A good sense of humour, lively outlook and hardworking attitudes are all facets of metal at its best. At its worst, it can become toxic with negative thoughts, cut off and caustic, with a “why is this happening to me?” mentality. Metal types also make good teachers and healers. When depressed, they suffer with diseases of the respiratory system and lower intestines. It is important for them to breathe deeply to let in the heavenly Qi and to make sure that they eat good quality food with lots of minerals, and stay away from junk food which can be difficult for them to eliminate. They tend to respond well to psychotherapy, homoeopathy, Bach flower remedies and treatment protocols which are rational and well thought out. To feel happy, they need to express their creativity or the bright shining metal gets dull and rusty. Classic metal faces: Charlotte Rampling and Lauren Bacall who used their metal creativity in their acting careers. THE WATER FACE Water personalities can be recognised by their round, chubby, soft faces and sometimes, rotund bodies. Large soft eyes are a water feature as is dark hair and colouring. Water people are quiet and gentle, much ruled by sensation and susceptible to any appeal to the emotions. They are good communicators and storytellers and are sensitive, and aware of trends either at work or society. They can be psychic and make good listeners, carers and counsellors. There is an aliveness and vitality about clear water which can attract what it needs like a magnet, unlike wood types, for example, who decide what they want and then make a plan about how to get it. If the water is clear, they have strong reserves and the ability to flow freely in any situation. If it gets stagnant through unexpressed emotions, the skin can develop a blue tinge with dark rings under the eyes. Chinese Face Reading for Health

 

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THE EFFECT OF REALISTIC APPEARANCE OF VIRTUAL CHARACTERS IN IMMERSIVE ENVIRONMENTS
by Katja Zibrek, Elena Kokkinara and Rachel McDonnell

Virtual reality, in which people have particular or all their senses completely immersed in an artificially created world, is becoming important in areas such as education, medicine, entertainment, etc. Currently, major corporations such as Facebook, are investigating the efficacy of communication between avatars in virtual reality, since users will be able to modify the appearance of their own self-representations. However, the appearance of an avatar could influence the way a mes- sage is communicated: the seriousness of an emotional situation, for example, could be assessed as unimportant simply because it is com- municated with an unrealistic virtual character. This could have crucial consequences in applications, such as medicine and training, where the accuracy of transmitted information is vital.

When addressing the question of how the appearance of the virtual character influences one’s perception, the most common concern is that of visual realism. The uncanny valley, proposed by Mori, describes a negative response from the user who is observing a near photo–realistic character. While the existence of the uncanny valley is still an ongoing investigation, the most common problem is the variety of stimuli used to represent increasing levels of realism. In our research, we approached this problem by designing levels of visual realism of a character by changing its render style1, while keeping the realism of motion and shape constant.

The second concern is – does realism matter in an immersive environment? Previous studies have put more importance on matching behavior and appearance of the character, but proposed that the interaction between behaviour and appearance is complex. To study one such behavior which is commonly expe- rienced in real life interactions with people, we designed characters, who exhibit personality traits. We expected that the type of personality would interact with the character’s appearance, where negative person- alities might either lower the appeal of unpleasant looking characters, or might actually make them more appealing due to the match between appearance and expected behaviours. The novelty of our study is there- fore, that we looked at complex but naturally present behavior when observing other people (personality traits), and we limited the concept of realism to only changing the render style of the character, without modifying the actual geometry or motion of the virtual character’s model.

To establish a possible relationship between personality and render style in virtual reality and how it mediates the response towards virtual characters, we created an immersive, game–like scenario experiment, and displayed it to members of the general public, visitors to a Science Gallery Dublin2 exhibition. Because of this, we were able to collect responses on an exceptionally large sample (1106 individuals). This study provides a valuable insight into how the character’s appearance influences our response to virtual characters and the role the character’s personality plays in perception. Our contribution to the field extends the question in an engaging, virtual reality environment, and provides guidelines for this developing platform. (continued)

 

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8.

 

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Joseph Mills, Hi. Well, you’ve shown up under your full name, but the commenting section section is very glitchy — some people can’t even see them, for instance — and irreparably so, apparently, so all bets are always off when commenting here these days, sadly. But welcome back! I hear you on the dread. I’m assuming it’s like here, i.e. masks, plastic partitions, and hand washing stations, and I guess in your case a lot of book sanitising? I hope it’s a surprising pleasure in practice. Possible? ** David Ehrenstein, I get the interesting as a phenom thing, and her using her considerable power for the good is a big, big plus. ** Misanthrope, Ah. I think manga/anime is a great form, but I hear you. Learning experience: yes, one can hope he’s learning. And, yes, do put some of your kind of generosity in service of yourself, buddy. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, B. The thing I’m working on re: Guro is very early on, so I’m not sure what it’ll be or what form it’ll take quite yet. I like that name: Jon_e. You know, it will very likely be that what you see as overly Bateman-ish will not seem so whatsoever to outsiders. It’s funny how that works. ** Right. Here’s a curious, very old, formerly dead post that I thought I would re-foist on you. Hopefully I did the right thing. See you tomorrow.