What's good until you look at all sides of it?
August 23, 2024 8:00 PM Subscribe
I'd like examples of real-life objects or experiences, where you could choose to look at a good part, but if you expanded your view, you'd see a bad part too. An example would be looking at the face of a cute baby... but if you looked at the whole baby, you'd also see a poopy diaper.
Other details:
It should be a recognizable thing that you could make a drawing of.
Ideally the bad part would be intrinsic to the thing - so "an apple with a worm" is a good example except that not all apples have worms, so it's not obvious what the bad part would be.
Thanks for any ideas!
Other details:
It should be a recognizable thing that you could make a drawing of.
Ideally the bad part would be intrinsic to the thing - so "an apple with a worm" is a good example except that not all apples have worms, so it's not obvious what the bad part would be.
Thanks for any ideas!
Maybe some things like the pyramids or the Mona Lisa? Not so much a 'bad thing' but it might be close enough.
posted by true at 8:08 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
posted by true at 8:08 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
A lovely garden... with stacks of tools (rakes, clippers, hoses) and a compost pile out back.
posted by SPrintF at 8:13 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
posted by SPrintF at 8:13 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
A gleaming, bustling metropolis, and the countless tons of waste and pollution it produces.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:47 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:47 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
Peonies and ants
posted by Czjewel at 8:53 PM on August 23 [4 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 8:53 PM on August 23 [4 favorites]
Me in a Zoom for work with the flowers and the curated books and then the camera zooms out to reveal the empty Diet Coke cans, piles of paper, post its that say “Do thiiiing …?” and fleeces flung everywhere.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:15 PM on August 23 [22 favorites]
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 9:15 PM on August 23 [22 favorites]
A mirror reflects a sad face just as well as a happy one.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:18 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:18 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]
Separating rubbish / plastic recycling doesn't take place.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 11:19 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 11:19 PM on August 23 [2 favorites]
"good" / badness
posted by HearHere at 11:23 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]
posted by HearHere at 11:23 PM on August 23 [1 favorite]
A plate of food that has mold on one side.
A piece of furniture that is broken/rotted on the back.
A ship's sail flying above the water, still attached to a sunken ship.
Similarly, a church steeple rising above a flooded town.
A car that has been damaged on one side.
A vase with a crack in it.
posted by haplesschild at 12:01 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
A piece of furniture that is broken/rotted on the back.
A ship's sail flying above the water, still attached to a sunken ship.
Similarly, a church steeple rising above a flooded town.
A car that has been damaged on one side.
A vase with a crack in it.
posted by haplesschild at 12:01 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
Having a well paying job : Job requires personal compromises in order to keep well paying job
posted by porpoise at 12:19 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
posted by porpoise at 12:19 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
A hospital emergency room.
A lemon.
A movie set in a studio back lot.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:55 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
A lemon.
A movie set in a studio back lot.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:55 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
Here's the New Yorker cover version of the scenario chesty_a_arthur is describing.
posted by Bardolph at 3:28 AM on August 24 [8 favorites]
posted by Bardolph at 3:28 AM on August 24 [8 favorites]
most new furniture these days seems to have ugly unfinished sides that they assume no one will see
posted by Jacqueline at 3:29 AM on August 24 [3 favorites]
posted by Jacqueline at 3:29 AM on August 24 [3 favorites]
You know how clothes always look perfectly fitted on models in photoshoots and then you buy them and it's potato sack city? The side facing away from the camera is usually done up with binder clips and sundry to give an instantly tailored look. Even pre-photoshop/AI, none of it was real.
Edit to add yeah here's a whole how-to.
posted by phunniemee at 4:34 AM on August 24 [7 favorites]
Edit to add yeah here's a whole how-to.
posted by phunniemee at 4:34 AM on August 24 [7 favorites]
Embroidery? Beautiful on the front... not so beautiful on the back.
A fancy restaurant, and the dustbins / dumpsters out back.
Any plant with bright, beautiful, and very poisonous berries, perhaps. Honeysuckle, for instance.
Phunniemee's clothes example - you can see the same thing on clothes shop mannequins. A beautifully fitted T-shirt almost always has a bulldog clip somewhere round the back, if you look.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:44 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
A fancy restaurant, and the dustbins / dumpsters out back.
Any plant with bright, beautiful, and very poisonous berries, perhaps. Honeysuckle, for instance.
Phunniemee's clothes example - you can see the same thing on clothes shop mannequins. A beautifully fitted T-shirt almost always has a bulldog clip somewhere round the back, if you look.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:44 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
most new furniture these days seems to have ugly unfinished sides that they assume no one will see
For what it's worth, that's a time-honored tradition in furniture making. If you look at beautiful, ornately carved, even gilded pieces in museums, then assuming it's meant to be placed up against a wall, then all the fancy stuff is on the front and sides. The back is usually just a handful of rough sawn pine boards nailed on. The same is true of the bottom and usually also the bottoms of drawers. Nobody wasted time or high-quality materials on the parts no one was going to see, even when making furniture for kings and queens.
posted by jedicus at 4:57 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
For what it's worth, that's a time-honored tradition in furniture making. If you look at beautiful, ornately carved, even gilded pieces in museums, then assuming it's meant to be placed up against a wall, then all the fancy stuff is on the front and sides. The back is usually just a handful of rough sawn pine boards nailed on. The same is true of the bottom and usually also the bottoms of drawers. Nobody wasted time or high-quality materials on the parts no one was going to see, even when making furniture for kings and queens.
posted by jedicus at 4:57 AM on August 24 [4 favorites]
a completed side of a Rubik's cube, pull back to see all the other sides still mixed up.
delicious fruit center, pull back and it's a spikey, super smelly durian.
posted by alchemist at 5:30 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
delicious fruit center, pull back and it's a spikey, super smelly durian.
posted by alchemist at 5:30 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
A flower, pull back and the plant is covered in bugs
posted by Art_Pot at 6:41 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
posted by Art_Pot at 6:41 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
My favorite illustration of this is by S Gross - an elephant is Soft & Mushy.
posted by theora55 at 8:24 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 8:24 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
Just this morning, I heard the song "From A Distance" (Bette Midler) cited as an example.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:03 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 9:03 AM on August 24 [1 favorite]
I live on a small hill, which (and I am so grateful for this!) gives me an expansive, gorgeous view of some of nature's many trees, a small mountain in the distance, and much beautiful sky that often displays lovely fluffy white clouds.
Also, smack dab in the middle of the view is an old, leaning telephone pole with all kinds of unattractive weird wires and an ugly electrical box attached.
p.s. If I lean to either the far right of my window or the far left, I see only a good, unobstructed view - not as expansive of a view, but still good. If I stand in the middle of the window, I get a larger view, but I then I get the telephone pole.
posted by SageTrail at 9:06 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
Also, smack dab in the middle of the view is an old, leaning telephone pole with all kinds of unattractive weird wires and an ugly electrical box attached.
p.s. If I lean to either the far right of my window or the far left, I see only a good, unobstructed view - not as expansive of a view, but still good. If I stand in the middle of the window, I get a larger view, but I then I get the telephone pole.
posted by SageTrail at 9:06 AM on August 24 [2 favorites]
Humanity.
posted by deludingmyself at 3:49 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 3:49 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]
This site, MetaFilter. Definitely MetaFilter.
(note to self: "Lighten up, Francis.")
posted by zaixfeep at 3:59 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]
(note to self: "Lighten up, Francis.")
posted by zaixfeep at 3:59 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]
Maybe a house (ex. 1, ex. 2 ex. 3, ex. 4) in the eye of a storm?
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:23 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]
posted by Iris Gambol at 6:23 PM on August 24 [1 favorite]
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Fluffy cat/ teeth and claws
Big SUV with happy family/ exhaust emitting from tailpipe
Politician shaking one hand with happy voters/ other hand collecting a bribe behind their back
Fruit tree with delicious fruit/ smelly rotting windfalls beneath it
posted by Bardolph at 8:08 PM on August 23 [4 favorites]