Tuesday 17 May 2011

Today's Review: The Circle

There are many shapes around today. You have the square, the triangle, the rectangle, the diamond, oh wait, that's just a knocked over square. There are other, hexagons, dodecahedrons, polytagoreannippolopolislygingas (I just looked up the longest shape name on Google. I hope that's a real shape, although it almost containing the words "nipple" and "ginger" means it doesn't have a lot going for it). But for all practical reasons, only a few of those heavily populate the world around us.

Looking around now, there's an abundance of rectangles. Windows, cabinets, TVs, unless you're some fancy interior design fanatic, most of the stuff in your home is rectangular, or at least square. It's probably the most useful shape, but what of circles? Circles are just cool. Though entirely useless in the sense of holding things, without circles we wouldn't even have wheels. The wheel is placed alongside fire as one of the most important discoveries in human history, and this has regularly been celebrated in modern times by jumping motorbikes through circles that are on fire, or burning shitloads of tyres.

So yeah, wheels. They're circles. Not enough? Earth is round, the sun is round, and they're the main things that gave us life and are keeping us alive. Without circles we'd be doing all crazy kinds of square shaped orbits, and if life was even formed at all we'd be freezing to death every time our planet got to a corner in its orbit.

What do you do for fun these days? Play some sport? Watch movies? Well, both activities probably involve balls or DVDs. Both circular. Maybe you just like to spin in circles for fun, because you're a bit weird. Well, try spinning in a square. Not as fun is it? In everything we do, there's probably a circle involved one step of the way that is integral to the process. Gears in machines used to be circles, and even now we're relying on wind farms and water turbines to produce electricity. See, squares might look nice, but when it gets down to it they're not gonna move much, and if they do they won't like going around those corners. Circles have no corners, because they don't need anyone. They just get the job done, and they can keep spinning and rolling forever, as long as Newton doesn't stop them.

So embrace the circle. Without circles we'd all be dead from nuclear war or zombies or something. Just don't try to use them as furniture. Unless it's a table. That's okay. And some circular vases look pretty nice. Whatever, circles are cool.

My rating: 4/5

No comments:

Post a Comment