Return of Ego Leonard
The other week while I was preoccupied with the previous post something happened that I want to circle back to. This was that another oversized Lego figurine (2.4 meters) had washed ashore. This time on a beach in Siesta Key Florida (near Sarasota) Giant Lego Man washes ashore in Florida - Boing Boing. This must be the return of Ego Leonard not seen since '07. Or not quite; an Ego Leonard seems to have washed up on a beach in Brighton at the beginning of November 2008, according to this site Lego Man -- No Real Than You Are?.
Now we another Ego Leonard or some pastoral plastic Martin Guerre at least. How many of these are there and how authentic? This certainly seems to be a companion of the first. Comparing the photographs and noting the comments section in the Boing Boing article reveals that the 2007 Ego Leonard had a blue shirt and is numbered "9" on his back (with nom de visite "no real than you" on his front). The Brighton Beach Leonard was also blue shirted possibly the very same as the Dutch one. The current Ego Leonard has a green shirt and is numbered "8".
There seemed to be more interest this time around. Nobody paid much attention last time. I remember having to dig around online to find enough information to write up a post on it. That post got as many hits last week as this buggy normally gets in a month. The previous incident, in August 2007, a figurine washed up on a Dutch beach on the English Channel. The web site Ballardian The Drowned Giant: No Real than You Are: at the time compared the incident to the JG Ballard story "the Drowned Giant". This time around it attracted a fair amount of brief attention and from various points of the globe Lego man to stay in police custody in Florida | Stuff.co.nz:. The attention included a Metafilter thread No real than you are! | MetaFilter which hung off the Boing Boing post linked above but which didn't shed a whole lot of additional light on the topic. Other than it being a U.S. news story I can't really account for it being a bigger story this time around.
The website that turned up previously No real than you are: is still there and active and still gives evidence of this affair's apparent Dutch origins. I remember last time thinking: Why no social media?" There was only the somewhat old fashioned website, which asked for response and input through email. Perhaps Facebook, I thought, is too cut and dried, too key-lighted for something as intermittent, and whimsical as Ego Leonard beachings. But no, Ego Leonard can be followed on Facebook, a YouTube channel, twitter (@egoleonard of course), and they sell T-shirts. I get the impression now that if you are wired into the Ego Leonard world, all this is slightly less mysterious.
Sunlight and the tree on the terrace alt="Tree on the terrace"
The enduring question is what is the meaning of all this? I'll stand by taking it at absolute face value. The continuing charge is finding beauty and purpose. No [less] real than you . The sounds like a challenge of some sort. To look for as the Ego Leonard site states: Luck solidarity everything green and blooming and without rules and restrictions. The picture included here is one one my favorites from this year I see this tree every day biking to work. The side walk runs along against an embankment. It often makes me laugh when I see it. I do note these ego leonards seem to become lost to the sea a lot. I wonder whether they seek tranquil beauty or a savage beauty. Is Ego Leonard an ambassador of child-like wonder or an agent of the sublime?
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