Sketches | Solitary Pleasure | The Press

Artist Marc Séguin offers his unique perspective on current events and the world.



Waking up to -7°C one morning at the beginning of the week. Deep in the woods in Haute-Mauricie. More snow here and there on the northern flanks in the forest. Didn’t need a thermometer to know it was cold.

Getting out of bed is slower, until the wood stove – lit at first light – has had time to warm up the inside of the camp a little. With as reverie, among many others, the concern of the world of education in the face of the rise of artificial intelligence at a recent congress. I won’t come back to this, except for this: can one really survive by “feigning” one’s knowledge? It will make us primates in captivity.

In a cupboard that serves as a library in a dark corner of the “shack”, a pile of magazines and books accumulated over decades. It is sometimes good to re-read old newspapers and old publications.

Confidence: I love reading the news several days later, which provides a healthy distance from the excitement of the present.

And he’s also sometimes happy to decant a week’s worth of news. Like this investigation into the relationship of trust that we have with the news media and the decline in the credibility of journalists. A drop that is not at all worrying, but rather indicative of a state that is not as ideal as we like to believe. Do we really need the illusion of existing every second in a hurry?

I still buy (and read) paper newspapers (and also a lot to start the fires at camp). Parenthesis: the cashier at the convenience store on the 155 near La Tuque, who was missing the two pallets from above, had the most beautiful smile in the world. ” You have a beautiful smile. Not sure she believed me. It was sincere.

Bad time for the truth, the other would say.

If, in the future of AI, it’s software that passes someone’s exam, I’ll just avoid that person; it will eventually appear. It will make more or less real humans. We should work on seeing the difference rather than crying. We have already seen it. We have been improving our bodies with surgery for decades (and we justify ourselves with a feeling of “empowerment”), why not intelligence?

Russian athletes cheat. There is interference in elections even if the culprits will never be found. Oh and also: someone could tell Minister Drainville that he is no longer on the radio; I had thought of it all by myself and, a few hours later, while crumpling the paper to start a fire, it was written word for word in THE Montreal Journal by Richard Martineau (that the minister is no longer a radio presenter…). Don’t misunderstand the previous sentence: I agree with this idea of ​​speaking your mind, but NOT in an environment where you have to pretend to tell the truth. Which, unfortunately, seems to be the case with the political voice. Symptom of a worried world, like those people who have run out of paper all their lives. We agree that no one has used their hands for centuries on the toilet. I love that the minister speaks his mind. It is sorely lacking in the well-meaning speeches of the elected representatives of power and other contemporary priests. He could apologize a thousand times over. It is not in contrition that the minister pleases, but because he rolls a little in the garnotte, like us. Precision here: I did not vote for him, neither in his first party nor in the other.

And then this marvelous idea, from the federal government, to rewrite official history here and there, motivated by guilt… I took so much for granted, told and taught by professors. I am told today that it was wrong. Is it because we are bored? Do we really believe that we are really doing better than before?

So many people comment on the social present, are indignant, invent dramas, truths and lies. As if to have fun…

No need for the thermometer to justify the -7°C, except for a few incredulous people. My balls froze on my way to get the milk on the veranda. Talking balls: in the library, a book that talked about masturbation in primates (Cambridge University Press). Fascinating, so few touch each other in freedom and a thousand times more in captivity. Science advances the hypothesis that it is to counter the lack of competition or because of an existential boredom. This explains it.

A few minutes later, the stove was perfect for toast. I then put gas in the chainsaw and the rest of the day was enjoyable.


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