Conceptual 'Story' Takes 1,000 Years to Read
He's already tried to enact the Law of Identity and genetically engineer God, but now conceptual artist Jonathon Keats has created a story that will take 1,000 years to read. Thanks to clever, layered printing, his story is printed on the cover of Opium Magazine's current, appropriately dubbed 'Infinity' issue. The story being a mere nine words long (come on, is that really a story?), each word is concealed under a different layer of ink. Each layer, Keats told Wired Magazine, will fade incrementally over the next millennium when exposed to ultraviolet light. Keats intends for the piece to investigate the way that digital media has increased the rate at which we consume text.
So, go ahead; get a copy, set it outside, and hope that your future progeny will still know how to read. [From: Wired]
Death of Print
Elle Girl
In April 2006, Elle Girl's print edition was closed down, but the Web site lives on at ellegirl.com.
CosmoGirl
Though it will be folded into Seventeen magazine, the teen version of Cosmopolitan will publish its last print issue in December 2008. It will live on at CosmoGirl.com.
Christian Science Monitor
Founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, this venerable paper will move all its daily content to the Web starting in 2009, though it will still publish a weekly print version.
Radar Magazine
Was it too snarky for its own good? We'll never know, but this modern-day successor to '80s-era Spy magazine shut down in October. AMI, owner of the National Enquirer, bought RadarOnline.com, however, which will focus on celebrity gossip a la TMZ.com.
US News and World Report
Once a serious competitor to Time and Newsweek, US News and World Report is now best known for its College guides, which it will continue to publish. The weekly newsmagazine, however, will be turned into a monthly, and all daily operations are moving to the Web at usnews.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mere said 5:19PM on 6-19-2009
spoiler alert!
it reads :"Was it really worth it? I don't think so"
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Justin said 6:02PM on 6-19-2009
More like:
"You just wasted 1,000 years on this stupid book"
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dickn2000b said 8:57PM on 6-19-2009
Of all the worthless, pretentious, CRAP I have ever heard of, this has to be it. This guy is no writer, nor any other kind of artist, unless you include scam and con artist. What a monuental waste o time and publishing space.
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cptierney6 said 11:43PM on 6-19-2009
keats is not a con artist. ive read many stories and essays he has written. i had to write an essay about an essay of his in literature class. he was one of the only authors i liked. i think it is creative. the point is that we dont appreciate text. it is so easy to find and read because of the digital era. keats is a great author who wants his work, along with others, to be appreciated and not simply skimmed over quickly somewhere on the web.
fryboympd1 said 8:44PM on 6-19-2009
Probaby:
"You have been punked! I can't believe it worked."
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Kirsten said 9:16PM on 6-19-2009
I can't believe that some people take the time to do stuff like this! Get a life, man!
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tmhartline said 9:26PM on 6-19-2009
Kirsten,
That's the point the author was trying to make. Take... some... time... to... really... read... something... Ponder it a bit, relax in the moment, stop wishing time away hurring from one thing to another.
Todd Zuniga said 3:50PM on 6-22-2009
Really? How many magazine covers have you done?
teachem2think said 9:33PM on 6-19-2009
Welcome to the world of so-called modern art: pretentious as hell and utterly vapid. Who are the only people who take these frauds seriously? Yep, other so-called "arteests" and (relatively speaking) a handful of gallery owners and collectors...most of them engaged in sodomy when not buying, selling, or trying to maintain the value of this crap.
If you think this so-called conceptual art is ridiculous, check out anything by Hans Bellmer. Hans hated women. He hated his father. He expressed his hatred with his "art." After WWII, he spent most of his time making erotic drawings, etchings, sexually explicit photographs, paintings and prints of pubescent girls. This was his sexual excitement. Eichmann used his orders as an excuse to help murder his fellow jews; Bellmer used the fascist culture to explain his "unconventional" art. If Mengele could have defended his actions as an art form, who knows where he'd be in today's pantheon? Hans was a pornographer ahead of his time and, naturally, he's very admired by our cognoscenti.
The last time I looked, there was an ink tinted close-up photo of a woman's vagina for sale through a gallery in Greenwich, CT: only $1,800,000.00 USD. And the real shame is that there is probably an idiot out there ready to buy it. Absolutely pathetic!
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Lisa said 9:46PM on 6-19-2009
couldn't have said it better myself
John said 11:07PM on 6-19-2009
I agree with people thinking it is art and secondly, the ridiculous pricetag on it.
Last year I went to the Guggenheim. Paid the $12 to get in. Well, they were showing a few Picasso pieces you never heard of and the rest was all James Dine. Shoes on the floor, a hatchet in the wall, one Christmas ornament.....It was CRAP! I went downstairs and got my money back.
jeffmcnair1 said 9:37PM on 6-19-2009
Who cares?And Who has that much free time to think of this crap?Oh and Why waste your time writing this story?Im still trying to figure out how to get the couple minutes back I lost reading this worthless story.
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wIL said 10:18PM on 6-19-2009
I am a pretty fast reader, I would bet that is could read it in 333 years.
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tob1957 said 10:24PM on 6-19-2009
Chuck Norris has already finished the "Story"
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lunabrava87 said 10:36PM on 6-19-2009
A couple of issues I have with this article and the comments about said article:
The author Leila Brillson writes, "The story being a mere nine words long (come on, is that really a story?)" and to that I would have to remind everyone of flash fiction. A story can be told in one sentence. Look at Amy Hempel; she is well known for her short fiction, some only one sentence long. However, in asking this question to the readers Brillson is doing something that the artist Johnathon Keats is doing: we as readers are invited to questions and comment. We are asked to participate, rather than remain passive readers. I may disagree with Brillson's notion that a story can't be nine words, but I applaud her for her statement because it makes me a better reader and it makes me form my own opinions; in the end, her article is smart and inviting. Keats is doing the same thing; whether you like his piece or not, you will talk about it and form your own opinions on it, which is the purpose of art. Art makes a person think and discuss. It's not a waste of time because we are learning something new. I have the issue of opium and the reason I bought it was not the cover but the stories inside; the idea of time. When I actually looked at the cover I was surprised and intrigued. Sad that it would take so long. I wondered if I could decipher what it said. I also wondered if I could write a story in nine words.
Everyone's comments are valid and I think that Keats' work has been fruitful even here because nine (and now ten) comments have been posted already.
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scott said 11:35PM on 6-19-2009
Bravo
Rick said 10:40PM on 6-19-2009
i hope one of the words isn't "butler."
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missimin said 10:43PM on 6-19-2009
I already did my 1,000 years waiting for the end of the Harry Potter series. Well, it felt like a thousand. Same with A Series of Unfortunate Events.
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john said 12:00AM on 6-20-2009
Harry Potter: What a useless piece of work that was.
eahoff34 said 4:33AM on 6-20-2009
Now you can start on "Twilight". ;-)