[010] Theseotomy

I'm teaching a class on Old World Games like Hnefatafl and Nine Man's Morris on the north shore of Lake Superior in late November. Sign up here if you're interested ! I'm also teaching a kid's course on Nine Man's Morris , and a kid's course on making sewing kits .

"Contemporary life demands smooth spaces that we can glide across without stopping. When winning gets dull enough, you start to wonder what other goals are available." - Kneeling Bus, Brave Men Run (In My Family)

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Theseotomy (noun) The operation in which a repairable object has been made into a single-use product.

The Ship of Theseus is an infamously repairable object. It is completely replaced, over the years, from stem to stern. The Ship of Theseus is theseous. It is capable of being repaired indefinitely.

A sock that can be darned is also theseous. Wool socks are wonderfully theseous. The repairs made to a woolen sock will felt back into the original fabric until they are inseparable. A sock made of acrylic yarns that frays and dissolves irreparably is non-theseous. That sort of industrially-made low-quality sock has undergone a theseotomy. A theseotomy is a procudure in which the theseous nature of a thing has been destroyed or damaged.

Wooden furniture made from strong oak, ash, or maple can be repaired, refinished, and reupholstered. A broken chair leg can be replaced or glued back together. Good furniture is theseous. IKEA and other cheap furniture companies make their products out of MDF, which crumbles apart. It cannot be repaired. Bad, cheap, industrialized furniture dissolves away. IKEA furniture has been theseotomied.

A handmade basket will, like all things, break and wear down over time. With the right materials, and a bit of skill, a basket can be repaired and parts can be replaced. A good basket is theseous. Milk crates are also a sort of basket. Plastic laundry baskets are baskets too. But these plastic baskets are very hard to repair, even if you have a plastic-welding tool and the right materials. It's not really worth it, either. Plastic baskets have undergone a theseotomy and are now non-theseous.

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"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." - Robert Henri