One of my favorite paintings is René Magritte’s’ The Treachery of Images.  I once saw a bright sun yellow station wagon covered in psychedelic flowers with “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” painted on the hatch. I hope this magnificent wagon is still on the road in all its sunny glory.  

The phrase stuck in my head. After a little Googling, and I found the painting. And felt like I was in on an joke. Logic is the butt of the joke, along with all that took things too seriously.

The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture “This is a pipe”, I’d have been lying!— René Magritte

Torczyner, Harry. Magritte: Ideas and Images. p. 71. ISBN 9780810913004.

<p class="has-drop-cap" value="<amp-fit-text layout="fixed-height" min-font-size="6" max-font-size="72" height="80">I like how the painting plays with sensible conclusions, joyfully undecided like an optical illusion. This is key, the painting <em>does</em> something. Other works are in on the joke, search for them, you will find them. I like how the painting plays with sensible conclusions, joyfully undecided like an optical illusion. This is key, the painting does something. Other works are in on the joke, search for them, you will find them.

And I want to play too.

So I argue, this is not a post.

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