DoubleQuotes in the wild

July 10th, 2013 by Charles Cameron

[ by Charles Cameron — “found objects” as they call them in the art world, relating directly to my DoubleQuotes forrmat ]

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Here’s a terrific example, visual with textual accompaniment, of the power of DoubleQuotes, and the spontaneous uses that others make of them:

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The textual element is kindly provided in translation by this tweet from Will McCants:

Playboy vs. Prayboy (Left caption: "Every Month of the Year," Right: "Only during Ramadan") http://t.co/phw5jU8WVS? h/t @bassem_sabry

— Will McCants (@will_mccants) July 10, 2013

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I’ll be using this post as a place to capture other instances of DoubleQuotes in the wild, just as I’ve been using A feast of form in my twitter-stream today to capture and comment on a series of instances of recursion in the twittersphere.

Ramadan Mubarak…

Posted in Charles Cameron, Doublequotes, form, Islam, Uncategorized | 15 comments

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  1. Charles Cameron:

    July 24th, 2013 at 12:48 am

    This pairing of images is pretty gruesome, as described in the accompanying text — both are drawn from Chris Anzalone‘s Visual References post from last month, which gives essential visual support to his article, Zaynab’s Guardians: The Emergence of Shi`a Militias in Syria in the CTC Sentinel, just out.
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    1, Hind & Abu Sakkar the Syrian Rebel Heart-eater
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    Internet poster comparing Abu Sakkar, commander of a Syrian rebel group, (right), who committed a politically symbolic act of cannibalism on video with an organ (said to have been the liver or heart) from a slain Syrian government soldier in May 2013, and Hind bint ‘Utba (left), one of the Prophet Muhammad’s most virulent enemies before his conquest of Mecca in 630 C.E. In some Islamic historical sources, she is said to have taken a bite of the liver of the Prophet’s uncle, Hamza bin ‘Abd al-Muttalib, who was also one of his greatest warriors, after the Muslims’ defeat at the Battle of Uhud near the city of Madina. The text at the bottom reads: “Some stick to their habits and traditions!!,” referring to Sunni Muslims. The image of Hind and Hamza is a still from Syrian film director Moustapha Akkad’s famous 1977 film The Message about the beginnings of the prophetic career of Muhammad, the founder of Islam. Akkad was one of those killed in a bombings of hotels in ‘Amman, Jordan carried out by Al-Qa’ida in the Land of the Two Rivers/Iraq, then led by Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi.

    The two pieces linked to above, taken together, offer a great deal to the understanding of Shi’a contributions to what Chris calls “the increasing sectarianization of Syria’s civil war”.

  2. Charles Cameron:

    July 24th, 2013 at 1:30 am

    Another use of twinned images, also from Visual References, and with Chris’ comment below:
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    Nasrallah & Bashar with the Qur'an (Poster)
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    An Internet poster showing Hizbullah’s secretary-general Hasan Nasrallah (right) and Syrian president Bashar al-Asad. The photograph of Nasrallah was taken after the 2006 Hizbullah-Israel war and has clearly been edited to show light emanating from the book (presumably the Qur’an). The same is true of the posed image of al-Asad. Both are shown by the designer as pious (thus, presumably, deserving of support).

    Whereas the use of “doubling” in the double cannibalism images of my previous comment was to suggest that present Sunni brutalities have historical precedent (with tremendous spiritual and emotional resonance), this pair ties the piety of the politician with the piety of the cleric, making a conceptual bridge between both Lebanon & Syria on the one hand, and politics & religion on the other. Not terribly surprising, but still, cleverly done.

  3. Charles Cameron:

    July 26th, 2013 at 12:52 am

    Here’s a nice one from The Lebanese Expatriate, which I’ve used in today’s post Of the arm, fist and rifle:

  4. Charles Cameron:

    July 26th, 2013 at 11:03 pm

    Offered without comment:

    Source: http://www.albawaba.com/news/same-gun-killed-al-brahimi-and-other-opposition-member-509581

  5. Charles Cameron:

    August 3rd, 2013 at 4:44 am

    Hilarious “before and after” pics — a standard trope for DoubleQuote inages, but delightful here because a graffiti artist captured the guy sent to erase his work on camera, and used the resulting image to paint the guy’s portrait on the same wall…
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    Source: Telegraph

  6. Charles Cameron:

    August 6th, 2013 at 5:50 pm

    I’d say this is a DoubleQuote — in a single tweet:
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  7. Charles Cameron:

    August 6th, 2013 at 6:12 pm

    Two curious uses of “DoublePeople” that surfaced recently:
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    One features photos of relatives, spliced together by Ulric Collette to show the impact of genetics:

    The other features pairs of photos by Hana Pesut in which couples exchange outfits:

    To get a better view of these two sets of “DoublePeople” images, click through to the articles which present each set — they’re more powerful when seen in full context.

  8. Charles Cameron:

    August 7th, 2013 at 6:57 am

    This one’s in reference to Burka Avenger, the Pakistani superhero cartoon in which a teacher (unveiled) dons a burqa (veiled, burqa/ninja style) to fight for women’s education and other rights:
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    In case you haven’t seen it, here’s superhero “Burka Avenger” episode 1, with subtitles:


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    and here’s the silly “controversy” it has spawned:
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  9. Charles Cameron:

    August 10th, 2013 at 11:35 am

    This is a strange sort of DoubleQuote, in the urban wild…

  10. Charles Cameron:

    August 15th, 2013 at 11:20 pm

    Hadn’t seen this before, but Daily Kos had a set of comparisons between the covers of the four editions of Time magazine a while back, definitely in the DQ spirit.  Here’s the first one:
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    But you should see the whole set… 

  11. Charles Cameron:

    August 17th, 2013 at 8:23 pm

    Here’s a “DoubleQuote in the wild” from Phillip Smyth, taken from an illustrated tweet in which he describes it as “#Syria –Shia militia juxtaposing Haidar (Ali) with #Assad & calling for the lord to grant victory #HizballahCavalcade”:
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    I have considerable respect for Ali…
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    Really, though — is Assad the Younger supposed to measure up to the Prophet’s own cousin and son-in-law, arguably his first male convert and companion, the fourth of the Rashidun caliphs and first Imam of the Shia?

    In splendid color, while Ali is in black and white?

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    Edited to add:
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    Phillip Smyth informs me:

    The shot implies that Ali is looking down and maybe pushing Assad. The text is important in this regard. However, placing shots next to each other conveys something different — mainly, themes of sacrifice & mutual courageousness. It’s important to also remember how they’ve been casting Assad. He’s presented as a “Strong leader” or “Standing up for the ‘Resistance’ [aka Hizballah & crew]” and now those around Syria (remember, Assad = Syria) are trying to kill Assad.

    So the DQ remains, while my interpretation is somewhat off — which makes sense… Thanks.

  12. Charles Cameron:

    August 17th, 2013 at 9:44 pm

    Oy, and another one:
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  13. Charles Cameron:

    August 31st, 2013 at 1:50 pm

    Okay, here are two more…
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    Even if you have to starve, Ian Penman’s review of a book about the Mods, begins with this musical DoubleQuote in prose:

    In a lovely 1963 piece on Miles Davis, Kenneth Tynan quoted Cocteau to illuminate the art of his ‘discreet, elliptical’ subject: Davis was one of those 20th-century artists who had found ‘a simple way of saying very complicated things’. Jump to 1966 and the meatier, beatier sound of a UK Top 20 hit, the Who’s ‘Substitute’, a vexed, stuttering anti-manifesto, with its self-accusatory boast: ‘The simple things you see are all complicated!’ You couldn’t find two more different musical cries: Davis’s liquid tone is hurt, steely, recessive, where Townshend’s is upfront, impatient, hectoring. One arrow points in, the other out.

    And here’s a video DoubleQuote — maybe our first — in which the respective impacts of being “drunk” vs “stoned” are compared, via a series of games…

  14. Charles Cameron:

    August 31st, 2013 at 7:52 pm

    And a footnote to the above?

    Heck, it’s a creamery? I’ll take cold milk straight up.

  15. Charles Cameron:

    September 1st, 2013 at 8:32 pm

    And I just ran across this while researching something else entirely — it’s a “staged” DoubleQuote, and faintly hilarious — 
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    I’d have to say King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain looks somewhat more at ease with a sword…