I don’t like getting up until the sun is shinning into my tent. Now when it’s cold – say 350 like it is at this moment it is hard to get up. They said it snowed here the other night. It takes the dog a while to wake up. I say ‘morning dog’ and it stretches and wobbly hops from the lounge chair onto my cot. I tuck it inside the sleeping bag with me and it stretches and I scratch him on his head and it yawns, a big yawn. Then it naps for a while longer. In a few minutes it will insist on getting up and when it finds it can’t get outside it will begin to bark. “Time to get up” I say and it hops up on the cot and onto my chest and tries to nip at my nose. If it gets hold of it that will most likely hurt. It’s time, it insists for its morning walk. It is time to check to see if any other dog and been trespassing on its territory. It’s time to go and pee on its boundary markers. Refresh its ownership.
Uncle Iv Owens: he done / what he could / when he got round / to it – Jonathan Williams –Jubilant Thicket, 2005, p177
I have some rowdy neighbors – midnight drunks -don't quiet down until they pass out and fall flat on their faces. Topple over into their campfire. Fortunately it has gone out. Are they also bad parental role models I heard all evening – always hollering – forever making idle threats – If you don’t settle down…, come here now…, stop that this instance…, do what your told… we are going to leave, pack up the truck and go home. I mean it. You behave or we will leave. And when they get the boys settled down for the night they are the ones I think who have turned into the mean drunks. Do what your mother says, the old man chimed in backing up his wife for once, or we’ll go home. I mean it. That was the only time I heard him, so I can’t tell for sure if it’s the same voice as that of this drunk - voices in the night. Walking across the road and joining the couple over there. It’s mostly the men making all of this noise. I only occasionally hear a plaintive female voice. I eventually manage to fall asleep.
What appears to constitute change is actually the unfolding of a code implicit form the outset – Mark C Taylor – The Moment of Complexity, 2001 p69
I am unable to gain passage through Apache territory. I am turned back by a stern face emerging from a parked SUV and waving. I was trying to make a U-turn but he evidently thought I was trying to evade him. Just trying to cut across to the National Forest and he waved me back – back off the reservation – his reservation. He had a very stern face - being treated as the 'other' is never nice. Being on the reverse side of privilege - where white is not always right, is disconcerting. It was useless to try and explain. He refused to even speak - just looked stern and motions towards the direction I had come. His intent was clear and precise. I was the Outsider.
In the planetary imperialism of technologically organized man, the subjectivism of man attains its acme, from which point it will descend to the level of organized uniformity and there firmly establish itself. This uniformity becomes the surest instrument of total, i.e. technological, rule over the earth – Martin Heidegger – The Question Concerning Technology and other essays, 1977
Writing is the act of being conscious of the conscious mind – the act of actually doing this is rare
The train halts. An engineer tells us we’re stopped because we’ve lost touch with the outside world. Things are happening ahead, but we don’t know what they are – Rae Armantrout – Versed, 2000 p84
Walter brings in for show and tell a 1:18 scale model of the new VW bus. He says that the real one is not out yet (this was in 2004). He prefers rear wheel drive, he says. This one has front wheel drive. Oh well, he announces, I still like it anyway. He goes burr, burr and drives his imaginary VW bus around the coffee shop. Walter has been staying up late at night with his credit card in hand enamored with e-bay. Can you see me driving this, he says. Of course I would have to be a little smaller. The Eritrean mother and daughter next to me look towards Walter and snicker. They probably have their village idiots too.
Money money money bolo - ching, ching - money, money bolo -- uhee - money, money bolo - sheaka - money, money… I’m trying to figure out how to write ‘sound’. I know it is not with capital letters and I know that the quote marks are unnecessary, but you can not write pure sound anymore than you can pure color. It needs some context. It is the contrast - subject versus object.
He does not receive any and this is a grief to him because he would liked to be rich – Gertrude Stein – Stanzas in Meditation, 1956 p219
It’s a dreary looking day
Everyone is so somber
They sit quietly and read
Two men are more animate than the rest
They talk about ‘their’ churches
Whenever two or more shall
Gather in my name they shall
Constitute an unlawful assembly
The lady over there munches on a chip
That she has extracted from a
Single serving bag of “Miss Vicky’s”
(Frito Lay, Dallas Texas)
And then wipes her hand politely on
A paper napkin. A phone rings
Then she gets up and leaves
A man in a jogging suit (once called
A leisure suit) is at the counter
Placing his order, then he walks
Back and forth like he has to pee
This place is more alive than I
At first had thought. Brand name
Logos are awash. Even
God has his
Many believe / whatever happens is the other half / of a conversation – Rae Armantrout – Versed, 2000 p84
The three classes: the capitalist, the managerial and the popular
We are more free than we used to be… but we can no longer see what it is that our freedom is freedom from – Bill Readings – The University in Ruins, 1996 p164
The CIA killed at least 607 people in Pakistan last year and of that number only two of the reputed dead’s names appeared on a list of US most-wanted terrorists
Men who wish to know about the world, the philosopher had said, must learn about it in its particulars – Guy Davenport – Tatlin!, 1974 p1
The death of liberalism resulted from a rise of suspicion
We always function in society before we understand what it means to do so, and that we do so until death – Bill Readings – The University in Ruins, 1996 p148
It’s sunny – now!
It will make sense, now
It doesn’t ever
It never makes sense
Anymore
Any sense now or ever
We do it forever – now and then
We have a feeling – now and again
It is not new – now
It was not then - forever
Now, what do you
Say?
It’s sunny, by the way
Have I already said this?
Did I say it before?
Now, say what have you
To say?
It’s your turn. Say what
You have to say
NOW!
You have to say
NOW!
Word comes into contact with word – M Bakhtin
No comments:
Post a Comment