Life, 1913-04-24 · page 15 of 48
Life — April 24, 1913 — page 15: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Main Cartoon:** "The Futurist (elucidating)" mocks early 20th-century Futurism and modernist art criticism. A pretentious man lectures a well-dressed woman, claiming that when he looks at her, he sees only "an agglomeration of varicolored curves"—reducing a person to abstract geometric forms. This satirizes how avant-garde artists and critics used obscure, pseudo-intellectual language to describe art in ways disconnected from reality or human experience. **The Satire:** Life ridicules Futurist doctrine by showing how absurdly this analytical framework fails to actually *see* or describe anything meaningful about a person. **Supporting Content:** The page includes poetry ("The Dryad—Spring"), humorous definitions mocking prescriptions and false intellectualism, and an Irish-dialect joke about amputation. These reinforce Life's theme of exposing pretension and linguistic nonsense in modern discourse.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a 2 SN SS ee The Futurist (elucidating) : FOR INSTANCE! AT THIS MINUTE—WHAT DO 1 SEE WHEN 1 LOOK AT YOU, MADAM? SIMPLY AN AGGLOMERATION OF VARICOLORED CURES! The Dryad—Spring Modern Definitions ‘OT that I love you less, but that I feel P CRIPTION: A prescription is an order on a drug The budding life that thrills my sister trees, store, written in an unintelligible language, instruct- The scent of springtime thro’ the darkness steal, ing you to take into your system something you know The old alluring sweetness of the breeze— I know that in the shadows of the hills Lie violets. The cherry trees are white, The slopes are dotted with the daffodils, nothing about, given by a man who makes his living by prolonging your ailment Tue Intettect: Something which is popularly sup- With blue-bells and hepatica. The flight posed to influence our actions, but which never does. So OPE GAl ewdllow sic: (he-surameralcy long as our appetites, inclinations, ambitions and jealousies Lures my heart with it! It is spring! The call are interested, the intellect is constantly, and with a kind Of the old cestasy is on me. I of ridiculous perversity, setting itself up as a guide, while Am held too close to call—I leave it all !— its complacent directions are as constantly set aside by Not that I love you less, dear, loyal heart, other considerations. The only time that the intellect is | But that the mists are rising far away useful is when we are attempting to convince others of Revealing hidden loveliness—To part Is bitter, yet forgive—I cannot stay! Leolyu Louise Everett. the truth of our own prejudices, ASEY: 'Tis hard luck about Kearney. Oi hear he hod t’ hov his leg cut off bechune th’ ankle an’ th’ knee. MAN who can pull in the traces with an ass can ride Cassioy: Ay! th’ docthers decided thot to save th’ in the chariot with a king. whole leg they'd hov t' cut off part av it comicbooks.com