![]() Truth as power struggle rather than fact. They size-up people and, by extension, the city itself, scrutinizing every conversation not for its truthfulness (PIs expect to be lied to) but rather by how what is being said reflects the interests of the speaker. Noir protagonists’ world-weary approach to truth comes from that place of joking. And as all real wise-asses know, humor is the only way to speak through certain taboos (calling Richard Pryor!). Zinzi December is constantly, hilariously mouthing-off. Noir protagonists speak in wisecracks, and usually get physically punished for doing so. It’s not easy, in other words, to climb outside your circles in the urban jungle. Noir acknowledges that violence is one of the few events that can crosshatch all the various barriers raised and that you must be a quasi-outsider (private investigator, former cop, ex-junkie, and so on) in order to successfully communicate across the city’s compressed and always potentially violent differences. Noir offers allegories of social and spatial interpretation in which truth takes backseat to power.Ĭities force us to confront (or, as the case may be, to pointedly ignore) an enormous amount of socio-economic distance contained within a relatively small geographic space. It evolves around a main character - neither cop nor robber but a bit of both - who gets paid to search the city for fast answers, reading characters who function as stand-ins for entire ways-of-being in the tough metropolis. Noir is urban exploration as literary form. ![]() I love noir books and film, from Raymond Chandler’s Angeleno classics to Beukes’ darkly magicked (yet respectful) take on it. Guess which one the American stores carry?) (The difference between Zoo City‘s two covers is striking: from stark animals-and-architecture as typeface to cartoon Lauryn Hill. Zoo City is a fast read, cynical and sassy, reminiscent of a streetwise Charles Stross, and it makes me think of that masterpiece of weird-noir-with-animals, Jonathan Lethem’s incredible Gun, With Occasional Music. In short, it sounds like a book specifically engineered for my peer group… There’s even a corresponding soundtrack album “of kwaito and electronica… painstakingly put together by African Dope’s Honeyb to evoke the feel of Lauren Beukes’ new novel.” Each page drips with local references (including a passing mention of Spoek Mathambo) this book must read quite differently to those familiar with Jo’burg and the pop culture landscapes of South Africa.Ī member of the Mudd Up Book Clubb recommended it to me. The unconvential pair is caught in a web of intrigue involving murder, 419 email scams, and a missing kwaito/afropop teen star. It’s weird noir, set in contemporary Johannesburg, featuring an ex-junkie protagonist named Zinzi December and her magic sloth.
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![]() It’ll take your brainstormed ideas and organise them by letting you use a template to arrange and organise your random and disorganised thoughts, add images, draw diagrams, and even convert notes into a Word document. ![]() The Inspiration Maps app can help control the chaos that sometimes comes along with brilliant ideas. But just as frustrating? Getting bogged down in too many good ideas and too much inspiration. Running out of inspiration is a major drain on your creativity. ⇨ Check out Inflow Visual Notebook 5) Inspiration Maps ![]() It lets you draw and handwrite notes on your screen with virtual ink, add photos and graphics, copy and paste from the real world, and arrange and reorganise your ideas easily. It’s an app designed for ‘visual thinkers’, and it essentially functions as virtual pen and paper. If nothing gets your creativity going like a good doodling session, the Inkflow Visual Notebook is an app worth checking out. ⇨ Check out Brainsparker 4) Inkflow Visual Notebook It’s stocked with over 200 prompts, so you should find plenty of inspiration here. It fires out random creativity prompts to help users ‘ignite their imagination, overcome creative blocks and brainstorm new ideas.’ The app also lets you schedule a daily prompt (or ‘daily Brainsparker’ as they call it) to work out your creativity muscle each morning or night. ⇨ Check out the TED app 4) Brainsparker Brainsparker is a good app option to turn to when your creative reserves are running low. Plus, for developers and designers, TED offers up a great selection of talks geared towards technology and design. Whether you just want to zone out and be inspired by a talk about poetry or baboons, need some positive psychology wisdom in your life, or want some insight into solving a thorny problem, you’ll probably find a TED talk that speaks to you, and helps walk away with more pep in your creative step. The TED app lets you do this easily, straight from your mobile device. Is there anything more inspirational than a genius TED talk? There’s nothing like watching smart people talk about their passions to remind you of yours. The app is a great tool for new designers looking to develop their creative skills or seasoned designers stuck in a creative rut. ![]() The IDEO Method Card app is a boon for inspiration-seeking designers.Īccording to the people at IDEO, the app gives you ‘51 ways to help you explore new approaches and develop your own.’ The 51 method cards are based off the same creative prompts that IDEO designers use in their everyday work life. Based on your answers, Unstuck will give you tips on how to move forward and get your creative juices flowing again. Here are some of our favourite creativity and inspiration boosting apps to get you through a creative rough patch.įacing a creative block that you can’t quite navigate your way around? Unstuck will help.Īcting like a portable creativity coach, the app asks you a series of questions that prompt you to take a look at your creative process and what’s blocking it and why you’re stuck. Whatever it is, don’t despair: like everything else in life, there are apps that can help you out. Maybe it’s the summertime heat zapping your motivation, maybe you’re just tired, or overworked, or in a funk. We’ve all been there: staring down a creative block or trying to drag ourselves out of a creative rut. ![]() |
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