On Being Obvious--Towards an Illustrated Alphabet of the Obvious

JF Ptak Science Books    Post 1850

"It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind."--T.S. Eliot

"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men".-- George Orwell 

"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."--Arthur Conan Doyle

The obvious thing about the full sense of obviousness is that it isn't obvious. Sure, there are plenty of aspects and bits of obviousness that are obvious, but like reverse plasma flashes of lightning, and the great bulk of icebergs, and the tops of clouds and the interiors of mountains, there is much more to the state of Being Obvious than necessarily meets the eye, even when the clues are all visual. 

http://www.ww2incolor.com/other/3352567301_c98329d308_z.html

What is it that makes something "obvious"?  There must be hundreds of reasons to label something so, yet the cause of the labeling is much fuller than the label it wears.  There can be a rich and varied life in the obvious and its different stages, as rich and varied as snow and fog and clouds, though those examples seem to have more qualifiers and descriptors than the obvious does.  "Painfully"and "woefully" obvious are certainly two qualifiers for different states of obviousness, though at this level of inspection the different levels of obviousness seem to be a little oblivious. And yet there seems to be great depth in so many different aspects of The Obvious.

It would be nice to be able to construct a Geometry of the Obvious--of course this is entirely plausible so long as it doesn't actually have to mean anything or be rigorous in any way.  A fantasy geometry would then be pretty easy to construct (which also is being used for the letter "G" in our alphabet):

G   Geometrically Obvious:

It would be easy to assume that the visual assumption for the Aspect of Obvious would be the center of the image, though it is not necessarily so, even in this imaginary compilation of defining the obvious aspect of the photo. The stuff that makes something obvious can be anywhere.

And so to lay the groundwork for an Alphabet of The Obvious I've made a few selections, below--suggestions really for what the categories and assignments to letters might be. 

For example,this would be a fine example of:

A  The Absurd & Doubly Out of Place Obviousness--the horse seems to be the one with a sense of irony for the surroundings its quiet semi-absurdiy: 

http://hotparade.tumblr.com/post/24487294327/arthur-tress

 

B  Better-Him-Than-Me Obviousness:

 

 

C  The Extremely Comfortable with Obviousness image: 

D Here is an example of great detrimental obviousness for its own sake, an obviousness with no connection to its portrayal:

 

E  Incredibly Engineeringly Prideful obviousness in a sinking situation:

F  Employed and Flamboyant Obviousness--this is a good example of someone in a position of obvious for no other reason than being paid for it:

H David-Byrne-How-Did-I-Get-Here Obviousness:

 

I  This image shows a series of postures in which the invisible reasons for their unexpected absurdity has a very quick but invisibly obvious explanation (via Modern Mechanix, here):

[Source:http://okjol.tumblr.com/page/8

J Joyfully obvious:

 

K  Keeping Calm and ObviousL  Lip-Bitten-Embarrassing Obviousness, where the weight of the obviousness vastly outshines its subsequent good use:

 

 M  Maximally Obvious:

N  Demonstrably-No-Reason-in-the-World-to-Smile Obviousness:

O  Overtly Satisfied\ obviousness:

 

P Patently Providing Unnecessary Information Obviousness:

Q Questionably quiet obviousness:

R  The Obviousness of the Resourcefulness of an Enormously Bad Idea:

S Sublimely simple obviousness:

T This is a good example of Something that Seems Fantastically Obvious Not to Do but is Really Quite Necessary obviousness:

U  Caught in an untoward moment obviousness:

 

 

V  Voyeurly Second-Hand Obviousness via Observation of Selected Obviousness, where the observer of the fixed obvious moment becomes a part of the sense of obviousness himself:

 

W  Waterly & Excruciatingly obvious, and dangerous, all to no good end:

Z Zoo-Pride Follows Subtle Embarrassment Obviousness: