June 27, 2003

• and they’re off

   

  Language is ultimately art.  And art has bled itself into reality.  And now we swim in the simulacrum.  Ask Baudrillard and he’ll agree.

   

  Hi, we’re naked.   But it’s not what you think so let’s start from the beginning.

   

  Adam sits on a rock and does a little philosophizing.  Staring out over the vast green of Eden, he plucks a tall weed of grass and chews and spits a la Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn.  Of course, his is the world of truly original ideas and his life follows no course presaged by the movies or books.  Bereft of language, you might wonder how he speaks.  Does he done have good grammer?  Oh, I dare say, the clouds are quite the spectacle. Jolly good show!  You see, language is all about structure and representation.

   

  He sits on a rock and names the animals.  Eh, llama.  Eh, platypus?  He jumps in the water and goes for a skinny swim and as he shoots water between his teeth, he stares at the sky and though it was already there, the world as we know it begins to take form – albeit vague.  What permits meaningful thinking?  Bertrand Russell puffs away on a pipe a few millennia hence and slaps the cracked palms of a smoking Heidegger: La Langue!  Wittgenstein wants something more specific: The Structure of Language.

   

  Flash Forward.  The scene is Vienna and the coffee is syrupy thick in dainty cups.  Carriages zip along both sides of a cobblestone street and somewhere over the fog of horse breath and morning haze…

   

  H:  If meaning comes from language, where does language come from?

  W:  Forget the origin of language.  You’ll find the meaning in its function as a SYSTEM.

  The Horses:  Oh, that we would be free to roam the emerald hills of our foalhood!  Get off me, foo’!

   

  And back.  Now, this isn’t lewd.  But there’s Eve.  Daaaaaamn.  She’s naked too.  They’re both naked.  But there ain’t no misbehavin’.  Adam thinks of Eve and Eve alone.  His worldview is of the make-it-up-as-you-go-along sort (with a few dietary guidelines).  No need to act like you didn’t notice the Victoria Secret window as your lady watches you out of the corner of an eye.  Like a hawk!  The way it should be.  Woman = Eve.  Naked lady = Eve.  Wife = Eve.  Friend = Eve.  “Heidi Klum” = Eve.  His definitions were limited and good (enough) for him.  When I was your age!  kids these days!

   

  And for all we know, they may have been an ugly couple.  But life is form or it’s just messy.  There’s meaning, not just sensory perception.   But form is married to meaning and that gives birth to language.  So, the maybe ugly couple – our Parents, really – presses against a tree and finds that bark leaves grooves in the skin, an imprint.  They giggle.  And hold hands.  And they grunt a few phonemes.  First: Oh!  Second: Oh!  Together: I love you!  I lov eyou.  I lo veyou.  I l oveyou.  I’ll ove you!  I love you!

   

  And it was good.  Simple.  Their introspection ran about an inch deep; correlation ran in short chains.  Likewise, epistemology came by way of sensation and a Big Booming Hebrew Voice.
  
  The Platypus:  Quack?

   

  “Art is about the episteme as a whole, an allegory of the deep arrangements that make knowledge possible.”

   

  —————

   

  

  

   

  ———————-

   

  mazel tov

   

  I would like to dance with you

  A slow affectionate waltz

  Played by a big band

  Of angels

  Cheered by our hope.

   

  I would like to hold you

  Near me

  When I’m blue.

   

  My first kiss was with

  Hope

  And a better tomorrow

  Light refracting and twisting

  Off gutter puddles.

   

  A mole digging a hole

  Climbing

  A mound upside-down.

   

  That’s where you wait.

   

  ‘Til we swim with the fishes

  And five loaves of bread.

   

  ————-

   

  

   

  I’m going places, baby!  Soon enough.  Long-term goals.  Long-term goals.  Where the people lack vision, they perish. 
  
  Have yourself a great week.

  

  Russert ate him for breakfast! 

   

  and… Matt11:28

   

  • 2:28 am
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