Re: Maya's Haiti footage (was: Frameworker in the news)

From: Fred Camper (email suppressed)
Date: Thu Feb 25 2010 - 10:49:33 PST


Quoting Chuck Kleinhans <email suppressed>:

> On Feb 24, 2010, at 6:22 PM, Fred Camper wrote:

> I don't know what you mean by "optics". If you mean the outlook,
> that's exactly what I mean. Bad timing.

This might be a relatively new usage, but it means something like "how
things appear to the public," and is often used cynically, as a
critique of those concerned with "optics," which is my point. You're
not going to save any lives in Haiti by *not* raising money to
preserve Deren's footage!

More on "optics":

from http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/optics, definition 3

  (figuratively) Perception, image, public relations.

     * 2007 January 1, Mark Steyn, "Blowing a 'hinge moment' of
history", in The Jerusalem Post:

           [?] I'd be interested to know whether US authorities
proffered any "advice" on the optics: Ixnay on the torture dungeon,
[?] ; if you have to have victims' loved ones present, go for the
widows and photogenic orphans rather than Moqtada's boys.

Fred Camper
Chicago

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