Table Of Contentinside the Platonic Cave to outside it, or at L
least out of the first level, one cave embedded a
inside another cave eternally, and n order
of Dark Ages, Medieval Era (“middle ages”), V
Enlightenment, you’ve got a progression from, e
& then in addition to that there is the literal
n
enlightenment, the progression from dark
t
Romanesque churches to rose-windowed
o
Gothics to literal electricity inside buildings
and homes, and I’m sure this connection has
been made elsewhere a thousand times. (But
who said, who said, I thought I had ideas once; they
were all on loan ?)
The wind came over the hills, and muffled
out the sounds of citizens inspecting market La Vento
goods, and the vendors waxing poetic on the
virtues of the goods, and the hagglers trying to
maximize expected utility.
Suspended Reason
໙
ded. to Henry Rollins
La Vento
ded. to Henry Rollins
fall 2020 | notnothing.ooo
written 2014-16
1 jardine pl #2
Brooklyn NY 11233
The punk thing is the thing that’s actually uncom-
fortable. The punk thing is the thing that is indiffer-
ent to reward, though it might get rewarded. The
punk thing is the thing that doesn’t care if you like
it. The punk thing is not always good. The punk
thing also isn’t the angry thing or the rebellious
thing. Not even the anti-institutional thing. The
punk thing is simply the thing that doesn’t treat
institutions sacredly. It treats them as mutable, or
ridiculous, or unimportant, or any other way you
treat things that you don’t put on a pedestal.
—The Sublemon
inside the Platonic Cave to outside it,
or at least out of the first level, one
cave embedded inside another cave
eternally, and n order of Dark Ages,
Medieval Era (“middle ages”), Enlighten-
ment, you’ve got a progression from,
& then in addition to that there is the
literal enlightenment, the progression
from dark Romanesque churches to
rose-windowed Gothics to literal elec-
tricity inside buildings and homes, and
I’m sure this connection has been made
elsewhere a thousand times. (But who
said, who said, I thought I had ideas once;
they were all on loan ?)
It’s the contemporary era. The wind came over
the hills, and muffled out the sounds of citizens
inspecting market goods, and the vendors waxing
poetic on the virtues of the goods, and the hagglers
trying to maximize expected utility.
It came between the buildings and in between the
stalls, “Who said, who said… who said, who said…”
I was speaking, but nobody else was. Except I
couldn’t hear my own voice, carried by the wind, so
perhaps everyone spoke, perhaps there was overlap,
perhaps nothing was said at all.
6
But I said,
I said, divide the word “meaning” onto a simple
grid with an X-axis of subjective-objective and a Y-axis
of elusive-discoverable and then in counter-clock-
wise from upper-right quadrant, call it “formalist
textual meaning,” “reader-response (experimental),”
“reader-response (implied),” and finally “classical
interpretive” or/and just call the whole thing off, can
we please move on.
And I said, In order of least to longest reach, tongue-
shot,
touch-shot, nose-shot, ear-shot, eye-shot.
And I said, I
7
I.
I said, I said, Adaptation was fine but what it really
needed was more orchids.
And I said, von Trier’s mother slept with an
employer — who was not her husband —
in order to conceive a son with “artistic genes” (her
words), and von Trier was actually only informed of
this when said mother was perched precariously on
her deathbed.
And I said, who wouldn’t be interested in a language
after hearing that it lets you improvise sentences
with easy word-form modulation eg., “The sky
bluens” or “Bluely the sky stretched for miles”?
POMO
Mi selas eterne,
Sed ciu frukto
Estas granulada—
Banala (ankau)—
Kompleksa, jes,
8
Sed gi valora lo kosto el selo?
Sed gi valora pli ol sukero simpla?
Eble doni gin / “Vitaminoj”
Donas gin tre multo.
I said, I want to talk about the way “Hey Jude” is
the most poignant mode of autobiography — an
old man, I can see him now, giving advice, this sac-
rament of wisdom, as much an advice to a younger
compatriot as a collection of personal failures, the
sad songs he couldn’t make better.
I said, I said, if you are the writer in your fam-
ily, chances are you will be writing your parents’
obituaries.
I said, modern interestingness of the
observations of a historical text correlates inversely
with these observations’ correctness. Also basically
true of the historical interestingness vs. modern
novelty of aesthetic qualities and innovation. Strong
metaphors catch on; true observations become
canon. (optimistic view)
Pessimistic view: Memetic potential of ideas or
beliefs correlates weakly and even inversely with their
truth value.
I said, “Mr. Peterson” or “Learning”?
9
