Lovecraft Papercraft

Here are three papertoys from the realm of Lovecraftian horror literature. Writer H. P. Lovecraft and his circle of authors created a shared fictional universe. In this universe there are various arcane books of forbidden lore which reveal secrets about ancient monstrous entities. The black book is a papertoy of Unaussprechlichen Kulten, a book first appearing in the works of Robert E. Howard. The yellow papertoy book is De Vermis Mysteriis first seen in the works of Robert Bloch. On top of the books is a papertoy of Cthulhu, one of the ancient entities often mentioned in Lovecraftian literature. Each of these toys was created by Jerom, France, 2007 and can be found here, here, and here.

Escape Artist

These last couple days I've found myself pondering the idea of "escape". I've been thinking of the various ways in which I use the term "escape" and how I apply it to my life.

An escape is a break from the usual routine. Often the word is used with travel, vacation or adventure. It therefore connotes something outside the boundaries of daily existence. We escape from life's duties, life's routines; we break from the mundane world to take a vacation.

And yet have you noticed how many aspects of our culture are masquerading as escapes? The shadow side to a hyper-capitalist culture with a Protestant work-ethic is a profusion of escapes. Our escapist culture seeks solace in virtual worlds, food and drug addictions and sexual fantasies. I am a product of this culture and in many ways a poster child for it.

An escape doesn't have to be mindless. I consider my books an escape, my writing an escape. Perhaps there are healthy escapes and unhealthy ones, but they all seem to follow the same logic: I wish to be somewhere else right now, take me there.

It's true that I fear boredom and listlessness and thrive on work and productivity. It's true that I'm frequently restless and impatient with the slightest things, such as making a meal or preparing the coffee in the morning.

The churn of daily stuff--jobs and activities that consume me--begins to feel like an escape in itself. I ignore myself, how I feel, and my surroundings, the weather outside, the air. My mind is focused on one thing, sadly; what I have to do. Beyond this, I am aware of how time is passing. Recall Charles Van Doren's marvelous essay, "If We Loved Time,":

The fear of time -- of time lost, of time wasted -- is a mortal disease. It shortens a life to an instant -- this instant -- which will be followed by other instants that are equally fleeting. There can be no joy in moments that are carefully measured and doled out.

This creates a perpetually unsettled feeling inside of me. Always under the assault of fear and haste, my first impulse is to seek out an escape. I've put myself into a prison and now I'm craving release.

I retreat to Borders where I can grab a book off the shelves and buy a tall Vanilla latte. This atmosphere immediately calms me down while at the same time I'm aware that it too is not static. I will finish my latte, read a couple pages and have to return home where I will give myself another job to do. Even my moments of rest begin to feel rushed. But that's not the ironic part of this "mortal disease". I'll get to the irony in a minute.

I also escape into fattening, easy-to-find or easy-to-make meals. My girlfriend and I go out to Chipotle or Thai food instead of cooking at home. Instant gratification is a first cousin of escapism.

I escape into the dizzying vortex of consumerism. There is always some item, some product, some material thing bobbing on the horizon of my ever-expanding sea of desire. Recently I bought a new Mac computer. Shame on me! One week later I wanted to buy a video game to go with it. I haven't played video games in fifteen years. But the thrill of my usual escapes seems to fade with time. I'm constantly on the look out for fresh, new escapes, more immediate and easier to obtain. I seek to colonize new worlds (of pleasure).

My girlfriend and I watch the Daily Show almost every night. Another escape; nothing wrong in itself; but compared to the vast amounts of escapes we partake in, our lives seem to be strung together by numberless incidences of the same thing. I was getting bored with watching the same show with her every night so I suggested video games. We had played a car-racing game in a movie theater once and had a ball together, so when I purchased the computer I thought it might be fun to try something new.

The new Mac computer provided an enormous escape. Twenty-four inch LCD screen, superb graphics, lots of cool software, crystal-clear photos and video, you name it. And then with the Internet, I was so buried in possible escapes that purchasing a video game on top of it seemed on the verge of profligacy.

When I finally got the video game, it was more like an escape from my escape. I'd waited two weeks to receive an extra controller for the car-racing game. When the controller arrived I was ready to play.

That night my girlfriend and I sat in front of the computer, helplessly trying to figure out how to make the game two-player mode. Nothing on the menu of options (or the back of the box) suggested this was possible. We spent an hour clicking buttons until I realized that the game only allowed one person to play at a time.

Computers are solo vehicles. I forgot that part.

But when I played the video game myself, I wondered why I had bought it in the first place. I don't even enjoy video games. I'm a writer, an intellectual. Video games are anti-intellectual, anti-creative. How far I had drifted from my original desires!



Escapes can become addictive as well. My addiction to the Internet is unprecedented. I check my email on average eight times a day. I check my six blogs three or four times a day. I loiter in cyberspace, I wander, I get lost on purpose.

Not that there's anything wrong with wasting time. But I'm so driven to accomplish things that in an ironic reversal I find myself escaping more and more into a cloud of petty aggravation. What I'm saying is after a certain point, the escape blurs. You're no longer moving from routine to escape, from normal life to fantasy, from mundane to dream. Soon the routine becomes the escape and vice versa.

That's what happened to me. With all my escapes, I trapped myself in the very thing I was trying to break free from.

Just as a prison is mental, so is an escape. The two can easily switch on you when you're not paying attention. The desire for escape intensifies the prison.

I guess this leaves me with the hope that I can distinguish things from now on. My escape is supposed to be fun. My work might not always be. More importantly, I would like to return to those original escapes that once gave me a sense of fulfillment. Reading and writing are escapes that don't dull my mind. Reading and writing make me sharper. They are difficult pleasures that also happen to be magnificent escapes.

Or perhaps I don't need an escape at all. Maybe I just need to look around and check into reality once in a while--rather than longing for someplace else.

Stumble It!

Marvel Papercraft - Mjolnir, Thor's Hammer

I have finished my second papercraft design! This model is of Mjolnir, the weapon of the Marvel Comics superhero Thor. The character of Thor was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and is based loosely on the god of thunder of the same name from Norse mythology. Mjolnir, among other things, enables Thor to fly, summon lightning, and create interdimensional portals. Rumor has it that a Thor movie will be released in 2010. Let's hope it will be as good as Marvel's Ironman was in 2008.

Template Info
Scale: 1:2
Finished Size: 5 1/2" (14 cm) x 10 1/4" (26 cm)
Number of sheets: 3
Number of parts: 7
Difficulty: 3/5
Download: Here

Retro Cartoon Robot Papercraft

There are two things that always make me smile: monkeys and robots. So you can expect to see builds of both in the future. :) Today the post goes to robots.

On the left is Rosie the robot maid from the early 60's American television cartoon The Jetsons . The model may look simple but it actually took some time to complete. The original template is very small, without instructions, and was not designed with any gluing tabs. I enlarged the template almost 100% and improvised my own gluing tabs to make it easier to build. The original template was designed by Phil Shore, USA, 2008 and can be found here.

On the right is H.E.R.B.I.E (Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics) from the 1978 Saturday morning cartoon The Fantastic Four which was based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name. The H.E.R.B.I.E character was designed by none other than comic book legend Jack Kirby who was working as a story board artist for the show at the time. After the show was canceled, H.E.R.B.I.E eventually began making appearances in the FF comic books themselves. The template for this papercraft was designed by Sean Kleefeld, USA, 1998 as part of a "fun pack" which is offered on his Fantastic Four fan site here. The original template was designed to be assembled without glue but I improvised some gluing tabs on the head and body to help the model hold its shape better.

UPDATE 05.27.2009: Unfortunately the link to H.E.R.B.I.E seems to be permanently dead. I don't think Mr. Kleefeld would mind if I posted an image of the template so that others can continue to enjoy building his creation, so here it is:

Movie Papercraft #1

I have a fondness for movie prop papercraft. Many of the papercraft I am currently designing fall into this category. On the left is a Guy Fawkes mask from the 2005 movie V for Vendetta. The template for the mask was designed by Kim Ruben, Norway, 2006 and can be found here. On the right is Jack Sparrow's compass from the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The hinged lid latches and the compass pointer actually spins. The template for the compass is by Robert Nava, USA, 2006 and can be downloaded here. Both these models are at 1:1 scale.

Book Chat

This being my first video blog, I give a sort of introduction before venturing into the realm of fiction and literary theory. I tell a short story about how I found the book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Then I digress to discuss the literary theorist James Wood and his book, The Broken Estate. I return to Shantaram with renewed zest and give an informal critique of the first chapter.

Powered by Podbean.com

Stumble It!

2001 Papercraft - HAL 9000 Interface

I am currently working on several papercraft designs and this is the first to be finished. It shouldn't be hard to see why this one was first. It only has three parts! :)

The "HAL 9000 Interface" was the electronic eye and speaker which the HAL 9000 computer used to communicate with the crew of the spacecraft Discovery One in the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Template Info
Scale: 1:1
Finished Size: 4"(10cm) x 12"(30.5cm) x 1/2"(1.3cm)

Number of sheets: 2

Number of parts: 3

Difficulty: 1/5
Download: Here.

More fun
If you want to turn your home computer into the HAL 9000 using this papercraft, a screen saver that mimics HAL 9000 monitor images from the movie can be found at this website.

Papercraft Animals #1

My daughter wanted animals as decorations on her birthday cake. These are a few I built for the occasion. Each one is constructed out of 110 lb (200 gsm) cardstock, although using something less stiff might have been easier due to their curving construction. To keep their paper feet from getting ruined by the icing I designed a cake top platform for them to sit on. With some modifications I may post the platform later as a download. All the animals pictured were designed by Tetsuya Watabe, Japan, 2007-2008 and can be found here.

On Reading and the Web

I'm coming off a technology binge and trying to reconnect with what was once important to me.

The Internet is a black hole. I lost myself to the Internet one year ago and now I'm recovering, trying to retrieve myself from the bits and pieces of cyberspace. As if during one of my trances, I was ground into two-dimensional data and now I'm floating around helplessly, looking everywhere but seeing nothing.

None of this makes any sense to me. How I can sit for hours in front of a computer and stare. But that is what controls me. I'm writing this essay to understand how technology isolates me from my sensory experience and why I get so addicted to this feeling of (dis)connectedness.

I used to think that technology was different from other pursuits. One year ago I began blogging. I experimented with creating web pages and exploring the vast corners of the Net. I introduced myself to virtual communities and regularly commented on people's blogs. There was something I was after. I suppose I naively believed in this new interface called Web 2.0 and thought it would bring me, if not happiness, then a feeling of connection.

That is not to say I haven't made any friendships since I began blogging. I have. And I continue to enjoy reading people's blogs and commenting on them. But as a writer, I want more. This is my makeup, you see. The Internet lured me deeper and deeper into a virtual world, where I became obsessed with creating profiles, new accounts, new services, new buttons, new widgets, and the elusive target of my satisfaction kept inching away.

Rather than describe how I've been lost in cyberspace for these last twelve months, I'd like to talk about what was once important to me.

Both the Internet and my favorite pastime, reading, seemed to offer me the same thing: immersion. I love the deep immersion of a text. It doesn't even have to be a novel. I used to retreat into the library and spend whole days in solitude.

But the immersion of the text and the immersion of the screen differ in significant ways. Lost in the library, lost in a book, involves active participation. You can become immersed in a television show, but it does not provide the same experience. Why not?

I believe it has something to do with the senses. Television only stimulates two senses (visual and auditory). The Internet stimulates perhaps three or four (visual, auditory, tactile, imagination). Reading simulates perhaps four or five (visual, auditory, tactile, imagination, memory).

The library has become a sort of symbol in my life. I've spent vast amounts of time in libraries. Throughout the years, there always seemed to be a library I could retreat to for safety and peace of mind. I developed relationships to these libraries by visiting them on a regular basis.

While the physical space of the library is there before I arrive, the mental space is my own creation. The mental space is part of the book I'm reading and my own imagination. The physical space of the library is silent and empty. I enjoy the transference that takes place while I'm reading in the library. Of course the experience of reading can happen anywhere; one can become transported from any location. However, because of the silence that allows for meditation, the library seems to open up my imagination tenfold.

The Internet is also a virtual world, albeit a noisy and cluttered one. Oftentimes after working many hours on my web pages I stand back from my work to appreciate it. Yes, I've accomplished something today. But where is it? And what is it? So I've changed my widgets around. Or I've customized the appearance of my blog. Perhaps I've even added a podcast. Nevertheless my work feels lacking in substance and never fully complete. A web page exists but you cannot touch it like you can a book or a painting. There is the sense that everything held up in this virtual world we call the Internet is likely to disappear at any moment. At the whims of a Google ranking and a body of readers in constant flux, who knows if you exist or not?

But when I'm in the library reading, I'm sure I exist. I'm so sure I never even have to think about whether I exist or not. The Net is constantly reminding me of myself. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, nearly every media is geared toward me and how I want to present myself. The inevitable consequence is that I become sick of myself and yearn for another activity to help me forget (me).



I miss the childlike experience of reading in a library. When the physical space disappears and I am fully immersed in a novel, so immersed that my imagination feels like it is receiving a direct communication from the author's mind. The pictures and words are coming in so clearly that I am momentarily awakened, that is, conscious, inside another world.

For a while I was looking for a foothold in cyberspace; a place to stand; but the Internet is like quicksilver. The more work I put into my web pages, the less stable my tiny ledge seems to feel. Now I'm seeking more solid experiences outside of the screen. Until I reached a burnout, or many burnouts, I never truly appreciated reading, and having an empty library, an empty mind.

I love reading but it is hard for me to get addicted to it. Why? Because it is not such an easy pleasure to obtain. The pleasure takes time and patience and the reward comes but not too soon.

In the library barriers come down, the barrier between my mind and the mind of the author, the barrier between truth and fiction, actuality and dreams.

The Internet also dissolves barriers. Geographical distances are breached, multitudes of cultures are brought together, different age groups and income levels coincide. But the time and space of the Internet is compressed; everything moves faster than in daily life. While it takes two days for a postman to deliver your mail, Yahoo does it in less than two minutes.

Rather than contracting, time expands when I'm sitting in the library. As I enter the fictional world of a novel, time becomes infinite and extends in all directions, across history. My imagination also expands as if in tandem with the words I'm reading. I'm not the same person; I'm not the same mind.

On the Internet I skate on the surface of information, web pages, headlines, profiles. But in the library I probe mental worlds, unravel abstractions, witness people from different centuries interacting, and feel their emotions.

So I've returned to the library to write my novel. I've returned to the library to read. I've returned to the library to philosophize on these and other topics. To ask questions. I'm looking for a wider world than the World Wide Web.

Stumble It!

Tabletop Graveyard Papercraft

This past Halloween I pieced together a tabletop graveyard decoration from several free paper models available on the internet. The miniature ghost, zombie and werewolf figures in the graveyard are from a customizable game called Heroscape. The scale of the graveyard is roughly 1:58 (28mm) with the finished scene being about 8" (20cm) by 10" (25cm) and 5 1/2" (13cm) tall. Models included in the scene are:

• Wall, gate, & graves by Wizards of the Coast, USA, 2003.
  Models are here.
  
  
• Mausoleum & ground texture by Oidessy Paper Models, Italy, 2003.
  Models are here.
  
  
• Tomb by Stones Edges, USA, 2004.
  Model is here.
  

By Way of Introduction: Part Two

In the second part of my introduction, I discuss what my "Book Chats" will be about. I discuss the Novel of Life and the Book of Innocence, and authors who have influenced and inspired me.

Astronomy Paper Models #1

Here are three astronomy papercraft I built. Each one was made with heavyweight typing paper and double sided tape. The larger one in the middle was my first attempt at paper modeling. From left to right they are:

• Moon Icosahedron by Calvin J. Hamilton, USA, 1998
  Model can be found here.
  


• Polyhedron Skyglobe by Richard Powell, Great Britain, 1998
  Model can be found here.
  
  
• Earth Rhombicuboctahedron by Carlos A. Furuti, Brazil, 2004
  Model can be found here.
  

The hardest part of each of these models was getting the final side taped in place without crushing the model.

By Way of Introduction: Part One

Beginnings

I was first introduced to the hobby of papercraft in the summer of 2008. Inspired by what I saw, I started building free models from the internet and also designing my own models. My purposes for creating this blog are: 1) to share my builds and offer information on where the models can be found and 2) to post for others the free designs I have created. With any luck I should be able to post my first free model no later than January 2009!