I could waste a lot of time looking at optical illusion images.
That’s mostly just because I suck at the ones where you have to search for something in the spaghetti patterns. But I suppose it’s also because my truculent head contents refuse to give up on trying to make sense of something nonsensical. All of once have I won at those posters you used to see in a mall in the 90’s (“stare through the painting… not at it…until you see the image…”) to the point where I only “got it” (the secret image, that is) once. Even then I ruined it all by getting so excited that I lost the image altogether. A conjoined high and low point of my life. Anyway, now that these images are readily available all over the interworld, I still can enjoy baffling myself and turning the junction where my eyes and brain meet into the DMZ – the two agree to disagree but still each stand their ground on their own side, staring one another down hatefully. (Except for me, the two usually start shooting at each other.)
Example? Images like this one:
Now, I’ve seen the image alone before (without the cartoon characters squabbling over quantities and such). I even learned how to draw them so I could doodle them on telephone notes at previous jobs I’ve had (just to file under “more ‘art’ I’ve created that makes no sense”). And it’s neat for what it is: an optical illusion. But when I saw it turned into an Instagram image with those characters and the caption “perspective”, I had mixed feelings. Yeah. It’s important to respect perspective. Having an appreciation of others’ helps cultivate empathy. So, as a larger meaning: sure. Perspective is something to acknowledge and understand before arguing with someone (if nada else, they’ll be willing to listen to you if they know you’re listening to them).
But on the other hand…
I’m looking at this picture, and I only see two arguments happening: “Three bars” and “four bars”. You know what else I also only see two of? The bars. There’s only two bars. Not three. Not four. Look at the picture again. Can you follow any of the bars (Or logs. Or sticks. Or child beaters. Or whatever you wanna call ‘em) that are in the middle all the way from left to right without an edge disappearing? No. Only the first and last one make a complete structure without culminating in mindfkkry. Now, this is about perspective, so mine’s just another one I suppose. But here’s another element to my perspective – a rhetorical inquiry that involves your imagination. Let’s do a thought experiment. Let’s say these aren’t bars or child beaters. They’re rungs. Rungs to be put onto the upper portion of a very tall ladder you must ascend. And if you miss any of these rungs, you will fall. And die.
So, keeping in mind that however many rungs you count are going on that ladder:
How many rungs are there in the picture? Rungs destined to support your weight?
The “weigh” I see it… that’s how many ya got, homie.