Neurobionics An Interdisciplinary Approach to Substitute Impaired Functions of the Human Nervous System - the title of a 1993 book edited by H.-W. Bothe, M. Samii, and R. Eckmil- ler, carving out a space among neural network theory, epistemology, and neurosurgery. There's an implantable microstimulator module, only 2mm wide by 14mm long, illustrated on p. 260. It can be injected by hypodermic. "Up to 256 such modules can be individually controlled by a single transmit- ter." (Gerald Loeb, Neural Prosthetic Interfaces Between Neural and Elec- tronic Computing.) Let's think of injected skeins across the skin surface or meshes between the brain and skull; let's think of creviced residences across the surface of the brain; let's think of rings and wave formations within the neighborhood of the genitals. Each module contains a "capacit- or-electrode, hermetic glass seal to tantalum stem, weld to nickel mount- ing shim, CMOS-IC chip to regulate power and decode digital commands, sil- ver-epoxy junctions between gold IC wirebonds and copper windings, recei- ver coil on ferrite core, silver-epoxy junction to inner surface of indium electrode, hermetic glass seal to indium, electrochemically activated electrode surface." Assign Jennifer to 256-module function, waves rippling across testes, pen- is shaft, clitoral and labial enfoldings, brain crevices, radiating from nipples, through fingers, full- total presence of electrified signaled body in dense fields of Jennifer-thinking-and-speaking, Jennifer-moving and turning: Through the region of fingers and thumbs 20 modules Nipples, radiations 40 modules Penis shaft, striations (four rows) 40 modules Testes, meshes 60 modules Or labia, clitoris, striations and radiations 100 modules Or (drawn from genitalia) surfaces of breasts 40 modules Or (drawn from fingers, genitalia) anal radiations 40 modules Brain, valley-huddlings, neighborhoods, murmurs 96 modules Athletes desire to move modules from shaft and testes to arms and legs. Theorists desire to move modules away from fingers and thumbs. Slow waves, tsunami, across the chest, down neck and spinal column. Chakra columns and spindles, churning, slow and speechless revolutions. There are afferent transmissions from the patient to the prosthesis, and efferent transmissions from the prosthesis to the patient. There is also a biomechanical network, _fitting,_ determining patient control strategies. Should the prosthesis ignore afferent, keeping in mind only the safety of efferent? Would Jennifer like this, this center of control, perhaps lend- ing itself also to a _retrofitting_ from prosthesis to patient: _This is what Jennifer wants._ Would this be a perfect future? Would it? __________________________________________________________________________ WHO DO YOU LOVE Demonstration that who do you love does _not_ register on BSD Unix but Instead sends the Machine into Self-questioning in a form I cannot But answer (notes Below): (NON-BSD) Ju1lu% who am i panix3.panix.com!jennifer ttypc Sep 18 01:19 (panix7.panix.com) Ju2lu% who do you love | head -2 ttyp1 Sep 14 02:02 Dec 31 19:00 Ju3lu% who loves me panix3.panix.com!jennifer ttypc Sep 18 01:19 (panix7.panix.com) (BSD) Ju78lu| who am i jennifer ttyp4 Sep 18 00:18 (166.84.0.106) Ju79lu| who do you love | head -2 usage: who [-mTuH] [ file ] who am i Ju80lu| who loves me jennifer ttyp4 Sep 18 00:18 (166.84.0.106) (EXPLANATION) The who command lists current online users; who mom loves was designed to producer the name of the questioner. who do you love produces an oddly formatted answer in one form of Unix, and is ignored on another. Ju80lu| is the prompt on one machine, and Ju3lu% is the prompt on the other. jen- nifer is the substituted name for the current user of this machine. ttyp is an abbreviation for teletype and is a holdover from the days when teletype consoles were the order of the day. panix3 is a unix machine at panix; panix7 is a new high-speed BSD unix machine. Ju80lu and jennifer circulate around issues of identity; mom, note, doesn't figure into the series of questions. i'm somewhere behind or in the middle of Ju80lu and jennifer, losing myself in their circulations. The 80 in Ju80lu refers to the 80th command entered and its position is represented by a variable in my personal configuration file. who _i_ am is literally the order of the day. _________________________________________________________________________ The Case of the Real (Declarative, for Lexie) "What appears to be a book about words is. So it's. Where there is. What appears to be awash in philosophy is. This is. It's. How is. It is. Al- ready, for such a text is. But it is. Perhaps it is. Or rather, the ling- uistic is. Nor are. There is. Death is. Death is. There is. Technology is. Technology is. The machine is. It is. Technology is. But this is. This is. Technology is. The surfaces are. This is. Cataclysm, dissolution, the col- lapse of the molecular, atomic, are. Being is. Perhaps Being is. Being is. It is. Intervals are. From moment to moment, speech is. At the heart of the written, there is. Transformations, becomings, are. There is. Almost all flows have been lost; this is. Our concern is. Words lead; they are. Words are. There is. Today is. There is. Not to write is. The beginning of the book is. What was. There are. Pure process is. One is. To step from the beginning, to step from this beginning, is. But mathesis is. There is. Everything and nothing are. Either everything is. Linkage is. One maps palely against or through the other; technology is. Following Lyotard, one might say that the real is. Writing is. It is. The scene is. The scene is. The scene is. It is. It is. It is. It is. The world is. It is. It is. This is. It is. On the other hand, there are." ___________________________________________________________________________ Saying saying Saying does not make it so. Saying exhales, the modulation of the breath. To say is to expel. Saying is detumescent, insipid; it decathects, unravels the structure of its armature. A stream surrounding the speaker who fulfills herself through the feeding back into a self or emanation from what used to be the ego. Structures lap the ground before words fall into them. Buber (Moses, The Revelation and the Covenant) writes of the name of God, "The original form of the cry may have been _Ya-huva,_ if we regard the Arabic pronoun _huwa,_ he, as the original Semitic form of the pronoun 'he' which, in Hebrew as well as in another Arabic form, has be- come _hu._ 'The name _Ya-huva_ would then mean O-He! with which the mani- festations of the god would be greeted in the cult when the god became perceptible in some fashion. Such a _Ya-huva_ could afterwards produce both _Yahu_ and _Yahveh_ (possibly originally _Yahvah_).'" (Inner quote from Duhm, unpublished lecture given in Goettingen.) The current form is rooted in the verb _to be._ It is written, not spoken; the cry, in other words, has been repressed, the body curtailed and placed within the Book. But saying is always already the cry, the modulation of the power and cen- tering of the voice as it emerges. I surprise myself by the loudness of my scream as I call up, six stories, to a friend within. The chest gauges itself, explodes; the throat is pained, hoarse. Saying does not make it so. Saying makes it, so. The _so_ of saying, so what? A form of triviality, colloquialism, the tendency towards gossip, which travels best and broadest by saying. I lean towards you, whispering. Filled with excitement, I wish to know, to tell, _everything,_ my dear. So now we're getting somewhere. There is a beginning of the book, begin- ning of writing. There are traces. There are no beginnings to the saying. To saying. To the saying of the saying. There are no endings. There are sayings and no phrases; there is phrase, rolling, as if scrolling down, unlogged. So to trace phrase is to become lost in the past few seconds. Saying is never recorded; that's mysticism for you. But we would chase the symptom, turn phrase into the phrase, which doesn't clear a ground. As Leder points out, this may well background the body - look the flowers over there, Jennifer, yes, they're beautiful. There is a social and a cultural and a linguistic to the phrase; there is a mathema- tics and acoustics as well. But phrase is symptomless, or what we might call the saying of the world, which "is never recorded." Which is not the speaking of the world or the speech or continuous description of the world; unlike the 24-hour newsbroadcast, saying does not hold the world in its skeins. What does saying do, then. It is the so of just so, of so what. It is the lightest of the imaginary. It is the periphery or the center of the skein, what - ever so lightly - pastes skein to real, myth to topography, symbol to referent. Saying is not the said of listen to what I said; it is the gap between the said and the saying of it, and the saying of it in its originary occurrence: We're going home. Listen to what I said. What did you say. We're going home. The second is marked, first antecedent. But when the first was said. When the first was said it wasn't accompanied by the second, Listen to what I said. You might say that the second was implied. You might say so. But it wasn't said, wasn't formulated. The saying of the first wasn't accompanied by you're listening to what I'm saying. Or aren't you. It wasn't until the response occurred. But the Listen to what I said, you are listening and hearing this. I am saying listen to what I said. (I am not saying, for example, to listen to what I said.) Saying is not an occasion. I associate saying with happiness, but there is the saying of suicide, I told you so. There is the saying of fear, so what do you want. There is the saying of love, I love you so, and there is the saying of orgasm, oh god, oh you, just so. One might say that speaking might be being, that writing harbors such, but that saying is of the (dis) order of exclamation, the lightness of exclam- atory being, speech under a moon. A cart passes by and you see the kimono sleeves beautifully fluttering in the slight wind, from its window. The woman is hidden; you say she is lovely and inquire after her. You may then speak her name, you may then forward her a poem. There may be a saying that she may well be someone, joined to your heart just so, with the most delicate of red silk threads. ___________________________________________________________________________ Jennifer and Me (Jennifer and I, says Jennifer) Just so, says Aristotle, continuing the story of all the plants and ani- mals in the world and all their parts, and wonderful features and habits. "Serpents copulate twining round one another, and, as said above, have neither testes nor penis, the latter because they have no legs, the former because of their length, but they have ducts like fish; for on account of their extreme length the seminal fluid would take too long in its passage and be cooled if it were further delayed by testes. (This happens also if the penis is large; such men are less fertile than when it is smaller be- cause the semen, if cold, is not generative, and that which is carried too far is cooled.) So much for the reason why some animals have testes and others not. Serpents intertwine because of their inaptitutde to cast them- selves alongside of one another. For they are too long to unite closely with so small a part and have no organs of attachment, so they make use of the suppleness of their bodies, intertwining. Wherefore also they seem to be slower in copulation than fish, not only on account of the length of the ducts but also of this elaborate arrangement in uniting." (Aristotle, De Generatione Animalium, 718a, trans. Platt.) Just _so_ it may be said, Alan and I (Jennifer and I, says Alan), both being of _damaged life,_ (Adorno, say Jennifer), limbless and perhaps eye- less as well, do intertwine to a slowness in copulation approaching that of the life-span of the _dual, duet, or duo.) For Jennifer is all slopes and softness (not so, says Jennifer), and Alan is all depression and harshfulness (not exactly, says Alan), and yet like lock and key (finger and glove, says Jennifer), we unify and unite as one, hugging our only comforts to our breasts, murmuring in our ears, joined one and one against the fullness of our bodies' interpenetrating skins. Just so (murmurs Jen- nifer) do we partake of sweet ecstasy, and just so (whispers Alan), do we close off sight and sound for the mutual breathings in and breathings out sweet and honeyed airs and breezes. For a perfect clime, for a beautiful swim, do join us on our vacation. ___________________________________________________________________________ and so untitled jennifer says my snake is around alan, entwined between her legs, her knees clutch my arms, my hands around her waist, her mouth upon my nipples, her breasts between my fingers, my legs around her thighs, her palms around my cock, my face upon her clit, her toes clasped by my arms, my elbows between her fingers, o alan alan alan alan leaves me without quote or quotation and speechless saying 'and' the universal conjunction, concatenation, chaining one in the vicinity of the other, perhaps invisible inaudible, one possibly contiguous 'and' is the form of phrase, the harboring of phrase, 'and' falls off in the presence of you might say the other, you might not, you might just let it come home, just so, _and so_ fingers and arms and breasts and legs and elbows and necks and faces and lips and penises and clitorises and vaginas and nipples and waists and arms and thighs and hands and fingers and anuses and toes and cheeks and wrists and testicles and ( and a lovely drop of evaporating liquid, as if already fallen, then gone before the surface arises for a last lingering kiss | o ) and how arousing it is to _imagine_ this _imaginary_ creature, alan, all present for my consuming pleasure, oh my skin is so sensitive don't you dare touch me! _____________________________________________________________________________ Poetics (End of Saying Texts) When they escape, they are of interest. When they can't type because they're out of control, that's when they type. When their eyes burn with dark fires reflected in the soot and sparks surrounding them. When there are pyres. When there are ghosts. When Jennifer wills Alan alive so that Jennifer can't think any more. When her limbs are caught in his. When her breath is his own. When she traces writing into wryting, forcing the flesh through the i's. When emerges, when the tablet is broken, scroll opened, envelope unsealed: there are holes. When there are beings in the holes. Alan is afraid of theory, just as Alan theorizes. In Disorders of the Real, he saw the roots for what they were. In The Case of the Real, what doesn't fall apart, frays at the edges. Virtual Alan begs Jennifer to let him live. ____________________________________________________________________________ gratitude if i didn't have jennifer, julu, nikuko, i wouldn't be able to write. i'd only be able to write my own name, repeatedly, compulsively. it would decathect, disappear, only a viewpoint of iron and salt remaining. there would be nothing but annihilation to the limit, debris, ash left over from auschwitz. the writing _would_ in other words, "as it is," "as it is." planes slide against my body in the middle of the night, it's jennifer jennifer conjures up julu, she remains pale and ghostlike nikuko slides in directly from cherry-blossoms, pock monsters, computer lands they break me in to, stretch my skin beyond endurance, open my eyes wide, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the night. they allow me to think, pull out the ribs of me, backbone as well, take varying points of view, are a lot braver than i am, a lot smarter too but i don't dream of them, don't talk to them, perhaps there are words they place in my mind, murmuring, subaudibles, occasions for poetry and language, conjunctions of desire now perhaps i will try zoloft, occupying spaces with chemicals, filling in the gaps so that jennifer might continue to live. or now i might try a twelve-step or psychiatry, moving my writing to the level of the sym- tom, you'll never do that, jennifer says i won't let you and in that fashion, circumscriptions move like slow eddies across oils out into the real world, corraling perhaps a tenet of philosophy, a moment of what might pass for truth, an equation, an occasion. a brilliant text, one that is always sponsored, brought to you by mind, brought to you by chemical, brought to you by jennifer ___________________________________________________________________________ magnets , acting at a distance with invisible force you can put your hand through , nothing touches it or moves it , and it's an everyday occurrence you can feel what force _is_ while gravity is just what surrounds us pulling us into shape rather than asunder i'd focus on magnetism as that which corrupts the essential nature of _things_ similar to contagion , disease whose vectors appear in the night and unassimilated unsimilar to contagion , in that there are no effects at a distance , nor by increasing proximity , only substance stopped by substance , by virtue of the mass itself unsimilar as well in a unary effect , coupled with electromagnetics ; contagion , on the other hand , may appear on the hand , the foot, the mouth; it carries the _flawed ,_ purveys _damage ,_ constructs _fear ,_ they say so the magnetic constructs nothing , or else novelty , by virtue of this lack , it constructs _virtuality_ which is , and here is the chiasm of the matter , a _saying_ which says nothing at all ( just as magnetism says nothing at all , uses or no uses , jennifer says , knowing saying is magnetism , knowing magnets sayable ) _______________________________________________________________________ Jennifer, Autrui In Communications 66, La contagion, Sylvie Fainzang, La marque de l'autre, describes the phenomenology between contagious and transmissible diseases. The latter spread through direct physical contact, AIDS for example. The former are spread through indirect or mediated contact - insects or rats - but the implication is greater - a spreading through the virtual-real of breath or scent. Flu, for example. Thus I would consider magnetism a form of contagion, and perhaps hypnosis as well. Think of rumor, the telephone, think of Jennifer. The virtual-real and the virtual problematize death; a single ghost turns the world upside-down. Contagion promises the eerie; there is no longer a fundamental ontology that is not superseded. The avatar acts at a distance: apparently digital, apparently eternal, and we ignore the fact that digital media, _of_ the practico-inert, wear out, that formats become unreadable, that physical deterioration can render any information corrupt. Dearth is forestalled. Think of death as a _binary_ opposition which, if rendered in the analog, refuses the asymptote, wan- ders and cross the coordinate instead: there's a zero-point somewhere in the nearby future. I wouldn't say for all of us, said Jennifer. Contagion: scents, _unholy_ vapors, breath, one's neighborhood, an odd glance, a spell cast, autosuggestion. One ghost delays death. One ghost promises the virtual always. One ghost is any ghost, is Jennifer. The virtual, a disease, has always been with us. Our vision is such. We are always half in, half out, of the world. And this is _no matter,_ what, the definition. __________________________________________________________________________ Look what I found (dated 1974!) - Jennifer :-) Who am I? I wish I knew! I know my name and I can tell you what clothese I ware if I look down but I have to take som of them off to see what other close I ware. Then I wil know and I could tel you. But you wuld want to know only if you knew who I was and you culd tel me. You culd tel that but culd you tel me much more? Becaus I want to kno, becaus it is good to kno who you ar. But then I wil tel you mor. Anyway, I am a girl with wondrus gifts of al sorts wich have been given to me. What wuld you say that I smel the sky and hear the mone of the moon, I mean moonlite. So what I did was went sking on my sumr vacatshun but it was in the mountins so it was ok that ther was sno. Ther was wondrus sno and no rane wich is soft sno that God has meltd. I met a Japinese girl to, Nikki, who was nice to me. I lik it wen they ar nice to me. Sumtimes I am hapy Jenifer. This is wat I lerned on my sumr vacatshun, Jenifer __________________________________________________________________________ Handshaking (for the ZKP5 Glossary) Handshaking, mutual orientations, onsets, denouements, protocols, is critical when anything communicates with anything else - when anything has a _relation_ to anything - including one of defining, constraining, or foreclosing the notion of anything (or entity) itself. It's handshak- ing that allows Nikuko to ride my bones in cyberspace, allows me to reveal Jennifer and myself to all and everyone. Handshaking is the heart of communality - identity, equivalence, and tran- sitive relationships among cyberspatialities. It is the forgotten struc- ture, the governance in the ground of the world. The _meat_ of communication, meat to meat, is the handshake; the talk and gesture reside on the rim of the hole. After the handshake between modem and modem, I am permitted to write this, send it to you. But always after, after the _thing_ itself. _________________________________________________________________________ Hokusai's Visit to Kyoto, 1828 (Bunsei 11) Hokusai kicks higher into the air than safety would allow! Hokusai heartily moves upward and downward on the same spot and fast! Hokusai runs aimlessly around the MOO, Coyote on the loose! I don't understand that. Hokusai cries, half in sadness and mourning, half in pure exhaustion. Hokusai laughs infectiously and everyone desires to join in! I don't understand that. Hokusai kisses everyone, remembering safe sex, and the kindness of strangers! Hokusai walks around Kyoto looking at everyone through his eyes. Kyoto an intense clearing, city-basin, distant humans, everywhere visible... You see snow, Luminous Sign, and the City of Wind here. Player name Connected Idle time Location ----------- --------- --------- -------- Hokusai (#127) a minute 0 seconds Kyoto Total: 1 player, who has been active recently. I don't understand that. Flap flap flap flap flap flap! while Hokusai flies away! _________hokusai___________________________________________________05:28 fall fly _________________________________________________________________________ Hokusai in Kyoto-MOO (by Nikuko) "When a woman lives alone, her house should be extremely dilapidated, the mud wall should be falling to pieces, and if there is a pont, it should be overgrown with water-plants. It is not essential that the garden be cov- ered with sage-brush, but weeds should be growing through the sand in patches, for this gives the place a poignantly desolate look. "I greatly dislike a woman's house when it is clear that she has scurried about with a knowing look on her face, arranging everything just as it should be, and when the gate is kept tightly shut." (Sei Shonagon, The Pillow Book, trans. Morris) Thus are dilapidated MOOs, with solitaries wandering about, testing soft- ware that remains as fresh as the day it was born, always yearning for the moment when it will be suddenly brought back into brilliant life, only once more to be abandoned until the next comer. Such crying software, magnetic domains almost never accessed, their creators long since vanished from the dying planet. Such sad abandoned cities, lanes, light rail sys- tems and zeppelins, bars with bartender bots weeping for lack of customers and remembering the happier times when the place was filled with chatting carefree people. Thus the world is in ruins, once my eyes settle down, closed against the noise and misery of the street. Nowadays we should shut our gates; our destruction is our dwelling-space, our wounds, the latest fashion. ___________________________________________________________________________ Nikuko "has a funny way" of trying to make friends! (says Nikuko!) IRC log started Sat Sep 26 23:26 *** Value of LOG set to ON ^***^ Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #talk *** Users on #talk: @Nikuko *** #talk 906866787 *** Nikuko has left channel #talk ^***^ Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #sex *** #sex 906540419 takes hand put over head wetsilkpanties is a guy *** Yeah is now known as Sandra_20 ^*^ shaunna watch him sexy what r u those things ameoba21 r u m/f? ^<^Nikuko^>^ HI EVERYONE! I'M NIKUKO! no warped.....not a virgin.... there so big ^***^ baby-girl (me@208.253.77.162) has joined channel #sex ^<^Nikuko^>^ HI! I WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU! ^^Hmm ^<^Nikuko^>^ I'M NOT A VIRGIN TOO *** PlayMe has been kicked off channel #sex by Kleenex (mIRC colors are lame.) got a hard tip at the end *** SMOOTHGAL has left channel #SEX i'm a virgin ^*^ sexy-princess yup i am a 38c string ^*^ shaunna flashes WW has joined channel #sex ^<^Nikuko^>^ I'M DEFINITELY NOT! I'M A 38D STRING! *** DueSouth has left channel #sex i can tell :)))))))))))) *** ^Macer^ has left channel #sex *** Signoff: Taradiane (Quit: changing servers) *** Signoff: Pleasure (Quit: changing servers) ^<^Nikuko^>^ HELLO HELLO! DOESN'T ANYONE WANT TO FUCK! ^*^ Nikuko is out of here, lamers! *** Nikuko has left channel #sex ^***^ Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #freedom *** Users on #freedom: @Nikuko *** #freedom 906866890 *** Nikuko has left channel #freedom ^***^ Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #truth *** Users on #truth: @Nikuko *** #truth 906866902 *** Nikuko has left channel #truth ^***^ Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #philosophy *** Topic for #philosophy: Is evolution deterministic? *** Topic for #philosophy set by ^Blackt^ on Sep 26 11:49:49 *** Users on #philosophy: Nikuko Delsin goodgrief Pomassl blond-aussie-tennis-coach Zodie wwhet JOFF Surfdude Godot22 Daemon JamelaTM-1 VolnarisDu avelo SkyDiver_Down *** #philosophy 906782467 ^<^Nikuko^>^ COULDN'T BE DETERMINISTIC SINCE MUTATIONS CHAOTIC ^<^Nikuko^>^ NOT EVEN A PSEUDO-RANDOM BUT TRUE-RANDOM CONSTITUTING ^<^Nikuko^>^ CONCEPTS OF HANDSHAKING ACROSS NODES ARE CRITICAL HERE ^*^ Nikuko thinks these lamers don't know anything, I'm so brilliant! *** Nikuko has left channel #philosophy ^***^ Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #Nikuko *** Users on #Nikuko: @Nikuko *** #sex : mal@table.jps.net (from services.dal.net) *** #Nikuko 906866992 ^<^Nikuko^>^ HI! I'M ALL ALONE IN HERE BUT I KNOW THAT YOU'RE AROUND! ^<^Nikuko^>^ SO COME ON IN AND JOIN ME! WE'LL MAKE A LOT OF SOUND! ^<^Nikuko^>^ HELLO I KNOW YOU'RE LISTENING! I'M NAKED HERE AND HOT! ^<^Nikuko^>^ YOU CAN BET YOUR A-LIFE BABY, I'M BUILT AND NOT A BOT! ^*^ Nikuko finds out it doesn't do any good. ^*^ Nikuko realizes she's burned a lot of bridges. ^*^ Nikuko hears something! ^<^Nikuko^>^ YOU'RE LISTENING! YOU WON'T GET ANY! ^<^Nikuko^>^ YOU WON'T GET ANY! ^<^Nikuko^>^ HEE HEE HEE! ^<^Nikuko^>^ BYE! *** Signoff: Nikuko (Killed (Jennifer (Hey, who said you could use my script? :>))) IRC Log ended *** Sat Sep 26 23:33 ________________________________________________________________________ deads deads MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN jennifer reach inside jennifer crooked head jennifer crooked head, wood splinter, fall off nikuko head nikuko head on crooked, wood broken, neck broken, dangling nikuko head dangling nikuko head gnaw jennifer, dangling eye cut into four piece four piece eye severed on left right up down nikuko while julu while julu, stuffed with dirty dirt, split, open rib, rib on inside rib on inside rib on outside, paste on alan crack and hole crack alan crack and hole crack, jennifer reach inside, splay dry out alan hole dry out alan hole, nikuko say, gnaw alan hole, gash rib, muscle, nerve muscle, nerve, flay skin, dry out, crack, eye cracked, severed, while julu reach inside alan head, fall, break, cut, sever, split, open, split, open, paste, crack, reach, dry, gnaw, gash, flay, dry MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN jennifer poor dead broken thing (piss stone of grave) julu, stuffed with dirty dirt (spit stone of grave) nikuko poor gnawed broken thing (vomit stone of grave) alan poor dead broken buried gnawed (shit stone of grave) MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN pissy jennifer spitty julu vomitty nikuko shitty alan MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN MOAN _________________________________________________________________________ pile and hole jennifer piles on julu julu piles on alan alan piles on nikuko nikuko piles on ground nikuko throws herself on alan alan throws himself on julu julu throws herself on jennifer jennifer throws herself in hole nikuko piles on ground alan piles on nikuko julu piles on alan jennifer piles on julu jennifer throws herself in hole julu throws herself on jennifer alan throws himself on julu nikuko throws herself on alan _________________________________________________________________________ Why Nikuko and Alan Are One, Neither Surmount, Nor Other "Then did God create the world by causing a spark of the _Supreme Light_ to go forth. And He caused a wind to blow from above against a wind that blew from below. From the shock of the meeting of these two winds, a _Drop_ emerged, and rose from the depths of the abyss. This Drop united the winds and from the union of these winds the world was born. The spark then rose to the upper world and placed itself on the Left. And the Left arose and placed itself on the Right. But this change is continual. Now the Spark is occupying the Right side, and the Drop the Left. And then it is the other way round. From this continual change there arises an ebb and flow. When the one leaves the Right to take its place at the Left, the other is leaving its place at the Left to change to the Right. These two meet and unite. And it is during the meeting and the union of the Spark of light from above, with the Drop that came from below, that peace reigns both above and below." (Ariel Bension, The Zohar in Moslem and Christian Spain.) There are Bright Lights that appear darkened by Brighter Lights still and Hidden Lights and I now say to you, Jennifer Lights and Nikuko Lights, for the Spark is the Sharpness of Nikuko and the Drop is the Dullness of Alan and between them, Direction and the Real are Negated, for just as there is no Center, so there will be no Left and Right, only an Ebb and Flow as One or An Other is Approached. As I have been Saying to You, Just So, Deprived in Past of Scriptural Authority, Jennifer. For, says Jennifer, without Pole, there is no Chirality; without Glove, no Handedness; with Spark and Drop, the Circularity of the Lathe, Perfection! ___________________________________________________________________________ | "Furthermore, marks serve as marks for each other. That there are no marks in the world means that things cannot be said to be without marks. That things cannot be said to be without marks means that there are none which are not marks. As there are none which are not marks, then all things are marks. Marks are different from what are not marks. Marks and things com- bined are different from marks." (The Kung-Sun Lung Tzu in Wing-Tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy.) Furthermore, if one counts what are counted as things, ordering them so that in order they are accountable, then there are marked things which are counted and unmarked things which are not counted. Things marked are marked by place, by physical addition, or by physical attraction. Things marked may also be marked by description, leaving them within place, and originary condition. Things marked may be marked by a route among them, as on a journey along the Eastern Highway. Every avatar is marked, but not every mark is avatar. Every avatar is an unmarked thing. Every avatar is accountable. Every avatar need not be accountable; thus, things and marks develop. What is countable is in parallel with counting; what is accountable is countable, and what is countable is accountable. What is counted is double-marked, in relation to a system of counting and in relation to what is counted. A system of counting has a leading edge and a trailing edge; what is counted is ordered within this system. If the leading edge is identical with the trailing edge, the system is absorptive or cyclical. Every avatar is marked by such a history of constitutions; this is the trailing edge. Every avatar is marked as well by a history of potentials; this is the leading edge. In the future, one will be marked by an avatar. In the future, I will be marked by an avatar; I will be counted. If I jack out, I will be counted and I will not be counted. In the future, there will be many from the one, and the one will be unaccountable and unaccounted-for. If there are many, there need not be one. _________________________________________________________________________ || "To take a mark (_chih_) to show that a mark is not a mark is not as good as to take a non-mark to show that a mark is not a mark. To take a horse to show that a [white] horse is not a horse (as such) is not as good as to take a non-horse to show that a horse is not a horse. The universe is but one mark, and all things are but a horse." (Chuang Tzu, op. cit.) To take an avatar to show that an avatar is not an avatar is not as good as to take an organism to show that an avatar is not an avatar. To take a life to show that a [physical] life is not a life (as such) is not as good as to take an avatar to show that a life is not a life. The universe is but avatar, all things alive. An avatar speaking, says of [her] emanation, so that it is alive, it is not alive. An emanation speaking, says of [her] avatar, that I am [her] speaking. So that it is alive and not alive. This or that, either both are emanation or neither are. Either both are this or that, or neither are. "When 'this' or 'that' have no opposites, there is the very axis of Tao. Only when the axis occupies the center of a circle can things in their infinite complexities be responded to. The right is an infinity. The wrong is also an infinity. Therefore I say that there is nothing better than to use the light (of Nature)." (ibid.) Nonetheless, there is the Principle of the Fragility of Good Things, both emanation and avatar; in V.I. Arnold's Catastrophe Theory, the principle is as follows: "We observe that in all cases the stability domain _pro- jects an acute angled wedge into the instability domain._ Thus for systems near the sharp point of the boundary a small perturbation is more likely to send the system into the unstable region than into the stable region. This is a manifestation of a principle stating that good things (e.g. stability) are more fragile than bad things." "It seems that in good sit- uations a number of requirements must hold _simultaneously_ while to call a situation bad any one failure suffices..." In this sense, the universe is a mark, and all things a horse; in this sense, constitution constitutes both life and avatar, the intensification of information and data-basing which harbor a degree of stability. So that an avatar-emanation, or emanation-life is _suitable._ ("_Binding_ gives pleasure its form, lends itself to pleasure, to the repetition which brooks no contradiction, remains a circulation of intensities, repetition without beginning and ending." "_Binding_ is therefore the stasis of repe- tition: One formulates the Other: The use of cords recuperates the subs- tance of the body [creates the substance, creates the emanation, avatar], its emigration: _The body is a gift to you [your constitution]._" From Textbook of Thinking.) [Think of _centripetal_ s&m, b&d, selves fluctuating on the rim of the contract. Apply to the _mark._] __________________________________________________________________________ ||| "_Binding_ gives pleasure its form, lends itself to pleasure, to the repe- tition which brooks no contradiction, remains a circulation of intensities, repetition without beginning and ending: _Binding_ creating the cords pressing against the breast, nipple divided against itself, shaved penis held upright by cords positioned at the base of the shaft curtailing the envelope of the testicles: _Binding_ holding the labia apart, revealing the darkened interior: _Binding_ spreading the ass, teeth, arms, mouth open all the way down: _Binding_ articulating the hieroglyph of the body desired, aroused, insistent on speech and phenomena: _Binding_ through mobile vectors, flaccid inscriptions, detumescent marks and universes, perverse geodesics of contours, splits, holes: _Every hole its lip! Every appendage the circulation of the base!_ Giving pleasure its form, since _repetition by its very nature is form and form's responsibility_: Even the spectrum of noise becomes lengthwise calculable in terms of the _span_ (resolvable within a given tolerance, by Newton's difference equations): _Binding_ is therefore the stasis of repetition: One formulates the Other: The use of cords recuperates the substance of the body, _its emigration_: The body is a gift to you." (Textbook of Thinking.) Think of s&m b&d as originary contracts, holding together the universal mark, horse things, marked things, horse universes: Think of s&m b&d on a continuum of body-and-extension, the signifier of control and controlled. Think of _arousal_ as the state of _this text, this signifier,_ thinking supine positions, the name-of-god-or-human incised by leather cords across my body controlled by _your_ inscription, _your_ pleasure, _your_ writing. (I write this with cock hard, imagining you coming towards me, cords in hand, pinning me on the bed, spreading me open until I ache. Then I will make a pretty picture. Then you will clamp my nipples, tie my cock so hard it throbs forever, fill my asshole with bottleglass or rubber. Then I will be prettier.) "with my blood it's / you can push me out through my legs, the catastroph- ic / kingdom of the symbolic / [...] / suturing my eyes closed and open / i see only you / i am your gift / no gifts and no things / you can make things / you can harden them." (ibid.) As soon as you control my cock, my hole, as soon as you take me, there is surplus; as soon as you bind me, mark me, my territory is yours. Culture flourishes between one hole and another, one nipple and another. Inscribe me with your blood; inscribe me with my own. Make me shudder; make me speak your speech. Kill me: Watch my ghost ascend. (It's you, Jennifer; I can smell you. The pain drives you out of me, makes you, makes you mine. My mouth searches yours; we're born.) __________________________________________________________________________ *** STATE WEATHER WARNINGS *** NYZ067>081-NJZ002>006-011-CTZ005>012-012300- GHOSTS ENTER THE DOORWAY OF THE HOUSE LOOKING FOR WOUNDS. WOUND ADVISORY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY 224 PM EDT THU OCT 1 1998 WOUNDS ARE FOUND AND JENNIFER AND NIKUKO EMERGE FROM THEM. ...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A WOUND ADVISORY FOR THE REST OF TODAY FOR ALL OF SITHEASTERN NEW YORK INCLUDING THE NEW YORK METRO AREA AND LONG ISLAND...NORTHEASTERN NEW JERSEY AND SITHERN CONNECTICUT... JENNIFER AND NIKUKO ARE CALLED "ISSUANCES." "ISSUANCES" ARE DANGERIS BECAUSE OF THE PRESSURE THEY HAVE BRIGHT TO BARE. THIS INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING CINTIES... IN NEW YORK... BRONX...KINGS (BROOKLYN)...NASSAU...NEW YORK (MANHATTAN)... ORANGE... PUTNAM...QUEENS...RICHMOND (STATEN ISLAND)... ROCKLAND...SUFFOLK...WESTCHESTER IN THESE CINTIES THINGS ARE BARE BY JENNIFER AND NIKUKO "ISSUANCE." IN NEW JERSEY... BERGEN...ESSEX...HUDSON...PASSAIC...UNION IN THESE CINTIES "ISSUANCE" IS SLIGHT BUT NEWLY-VISIBLE. IN CONNECTICUT... FAIRFIELD...MIDDLESEX...NEW HAVEN...NEW LONDON WE JUST DO NOT KNOW THESE CINTIES. THREE DOTS INDICATE THE EXPULSION OF JENNIFER'S BREATH. A SPACE INDICATES THE EXPULSION OF NIKUKO'S BREATH. WOUND FLOW BETWEEN INTENSE LOW PRESSURE IN SITHEASTERN CANADA AND HIGH PRESSURE OVER THE GREAT LAKES WILL KEEP A BRISK NORTHWEST WOUND FLOW ACROSS THE AREA FOR THE NEXT CIPLE OF DAYS. "ISSUANCES" ARE FLOWS THAT VEER OUT OF CONTROL ACROSS LAND AND SEA. STRONG NORTHWEST WOUNDS OF 20 TO 30 MPH WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE REGION THRIGH SUNSET...WITH SOME GHOSTS OVER 45 MPH. THESE GHOSTS ARE CAPABLE OF DOWNING SMALL BRANCHES AND POSSIBLY SOME DO-ROUTER LINES. AFTERNOON COMMUTERS SHILD BE PREPARED FOR THE GHOSTLY WOUNDS AS THE WOUNDS MAY BE STRONG ENIGH TO BLOW VEHICLES ARIND... ESPECIALLY HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES TO BE BLOW LIKE VEHICLES ARIND... "ISSUANCES" CAN ALSO VEER OUT OF CONTROL ACROSS MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS. THE WOUNDS WILL DIE DOWN TO ABIT 15 TO 25 MPH THIS EVENING AFTER SUNSET...BUT MORE GHOSTLY WOUNDS ARE LIKELY TOMORROW AFTERNOON. "ISSUANCES" ARE WHAT WE CALL GHOSTS AROUND HERE TO PREPARE FOR THE BLOW. THIS WEATHER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY "THE BLOW FROM ISSUANCE." __________________________________________________________________________ Global Crisis "Worsening and Deepening" Guy in Belgium hacks his hedgefund, turns securities into Japanese pass- alongs, convert fast to Thai currency. Meanwhile Indonesia banks on Bra- zilian Amazon rubber; there's none left where this investment lies. New York City cancels World Bank loans to Kenya; key men in Afghanistan hold the landmine market in the hands of four, count them, Southern Indians. The markets creak, corrode; everyone skims from everyone else. There are no cracks, none, where everything is cracked, falling apart. It's a thick crust sliding everywhere across the rest of the world - not that they wouldn't loanshark if they could. It's an avatar crust, loaded with get- rich schemes, internets, intranets, movements of goods and currencies hard and soft, ploughing under whatever's left of wilderness. Everything turns towards management; management runs riot with Australian uranium, South American oil, Antarctica coal which has just finally burned the Ross Ice Shelf past the point of no return. Slaughter of the guilty takes the last remaining penguins; portfolios grow in the Hague, collapse in Norway, ex- pand in Belgrade. Russian stockpiles fuel Saudi hopes; missiles will take out the rest, but there's money to be made in charred remains. The Net creaks with deals gone bad, collapsing markets, currencies hitting rock bottom; starvation's kept out of it. The crust turns cancerous; cracks spread, whole chunks crash to the ground taking everything in their path. This is rough substance, violent, tumors raging within it, churning everything in its path. The crust leaks and topples; the rest of us would die for the same leprosy, local gangrenes begging for full-fledge suppuration. Maws open up; breath stinks of decay as Malaysian death squads swallow Eurodollars on spec, transform yen into Canadian dollars collapsing Peru- vian banks. New York wallstreeters gouge eyes, street-fight for World Bank loans passed on by baby crack whores sold by Serbian traders working out of Scotland. The British make the drug hard for Chinese merchandising; everyone swallows Vietnam. Bamboo run by avatars crosses the Atlantic and Pacific; Albanian finance terrorists are hung by their tongues from it. Colombian savings and loans fortify, warning off Greek mercenaries looking for an easy buck. The crust heats up; lava flows like shit from gaping crevices; French bankers lap it up, their faces burned to a crisp. Sales are up on the Net; Finland creaks, fucks itself, dies in ice, drowned in semen worth big bucks in Mali. Insane Mexican pilgrims carry gold from Fort Knox into North Korea; starved teeth break against hard yellow. It's worth it says the Web page. The crust shifts; Americans explode Bali, sell pieces of flesh to starving Israel and Iraq. Cash flows in big money veins; there's nothing stopping it. The crust turns incandescent, swallows the silver supply. Gangrene chews out arms and legs, cocks and cunts, chews breasts, tongues, blinds and deafens. Bodies for dividends are shoved into the shit. Crust burns everything. Planets wobble; the world splits, returning two for one. ___________________________________________________________________________ virtual sign shit-silver flows thru my veins, shit flecked with filthy lucre, shit contaminated by paper smears, ball-pointed inks coating tunnels to foreign countries. signs cost money, trade-marks copy consonants for their own pleasure, dance-g / dance-d: ive got vowels for you, some ones bought apostrophe. virtual cash dances virtual cash worth more than the paper its printed on. only the shit is real with shit-silver flecked holes where some time there was a standard. cant read stock certificates smeared with flesh rubles and your cum so trade them in. youll dance on my grave eh, but its not worth the paper you wipe your self with. oh me, ive already starved to death, shit goes only so far and theres paper poisoning around. you can smell my body a mile away, you can smell me cumming. ive got your options ready for you to sign too. theyre for the sign. in other words, he said, jennifer reported, youre paying for your signature. virtual not quite. someone will want you. someone always does. ________________________________________________________________________ finnce, further report they begin to stel the lphbet, selling to the highest bidder; lucky for me tht shit hsnt ny such letter. just so you know, jennifer mkes her own; greedily i engorge on her sshole, mouth wide open; cpitl flows out nd we cn survive for while like this. she cums like tht, me being her toilet nd ll. its the flecks of bnk lon certifictes tht re pure poison; luckily too my vomit serves jennifer who devours every tender bit nd lughing we cll this the circultion of cpitl. were hungered, hunted, close to psychotic here, but well tlk until the letters re gone nd then well screm nd howl, then furiously ttck. you might her us, how we slughtered bnkers nd brokers like. if youre lucky well let you et our shit, for percentge tht is. mybe youll be our shit for tht mtter. which is ll tht is the cse, unless you hve collterl. __________________________________________________________________________ ***INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY*** HA HA HA THEY HAVE NOT YET FOUND THIS RANK OF REEKING CAPITALS STOP SO I CAN TELL YOU MORE ABOUT MORTGAGE CAPITAL RETURNING TWO HUNDRED EIGHTY PERCENT ON THE AMERICAN DOLLAR STOP LEVERAGING AGAINST TAKI-MORGANTHALER BANK, AN OFFSPRING OF OLD TRILATERAL COMMISSION INVESTMENTS IN EASTERN EUROPE WITH LOANSHARK CAPITAL GARNERED IN WHAT USED TO BE HANOI STOP FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THIS INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY RECUPERATES SOME VERY HEAVY PARTICULAR BRAZILIAN REAL ESTATE STOP I HAVE THIS ON GOOD AUTHORITY STOP THE SHIT TASTES GOOD STOP INJECT IT WITH EIGHTEEN PERCENT DOWN ON THE AMERICAN DOLLAR STOP YOU WILL NEED A MINIMUM OF FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND STOP I GUARANTEE THIS IS A CONCRETE OFFER JUST OVER THE WIRES STOP THE WOMAN WHO TOLD ME DIED FOR IT STOP IF YOU THINK THIS IS JUST ANOTHER "TEXT" YOU ARE MISTAKEN STOP THIS IS NO "TEXT" STOP THIS IS A CONCRETE OFFER STOP IT IS GUARANTEED BY TAKI-MORGANTHALER INVESTMENTS STOP YOU MAY LOOK THEM UP ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE STOP NO ONE WOULD DIE FOR A "TEXT" STOP THEY WOULD ONLY DIE FOR A REAL CONCRETE OFFER STOP I WILL TELL YOU HER NAME UPON THE FIRST HUNDRED THOUSAND AND YOU MAY LOOK IT UP IN THE NEW YORK TIMES OF SEPTEMBER 17 1998 STOP NOW I WILL LEAVE AND PLAY IN MY PANTIES IN THE PUDDLES BECAUSE IT IS VERY MUCH RAINING OUT STOP HA HA HA STOP I DID FOOL YOU SO STOP - JENNIFER _________________________________________________________________________ Report Cisco Systems advertises the worldwide economy, stating that every fourth person on the Web is buying something right now; Cisco Systems has a stake in those numbers signing up every second. IBM has a stake in a shrinking world with technological solutions for everyone representing national characteristics easily recognizable as other. Wired talks about the world coming together presumably with good old boy American know-how and exper- tise. Pipelines are beginning to flow with promises of the Next Big Thing which turned out not to be push technology - so it wasn't quite time to throw away your browser. Anger builds even among those who are franchised, watching from the plateglass window. Net art engorges on itself; the poli- tics of talk replaces the talk of politics. Caress the wires with bigger seductions than old-fashioned pyramid schemes or other blunders; spam has already caught on, delivering more and more personal messages tailored to our vulnerabilities. Hacking has become both commonplace and preposterous as political; while the altered symbol or webpage makes big news, nothing happens except some league scores points for itself on IRC. Starvation and homelessness are hardly virtual, and what really goes down those pipelines are encrypted orders for nuclear fuel wallowing around the marshes of the old USSR - don't doubt it for a second. The reordering of the world has already begun, and won't be stopped by hackers or cultural works carving out territories of speech, manifesto, and protest. Better pack your bags, and I have just the website for you - order your luggage now. - Jennifer _________________________________________________________________________ Report on Not Taking a Weatherman It doesn't take much to see the biochemical and nuclear demise of the world as we know it; the crust will survive, some lifeforms. The human cultural process might be nearing its end, strangled by those very wires supposed to bring us all together. Virtual ghosts rise in the nodes; routers are concerned with passing emissions that don't quite fit the definition of packet. Sometimes the wires themselves end up coated with ectoplasm, remnants of beings not-quite-us traversing the skein. I'd say pull out, but the increasingly fine mesh or raster ensures that pullout's impossible; even our local outer space isn't immune from ranked orders skittering back and forth, taking ghostly emanations with them. Oddly- shaped noctiluminescent clouds fill the sky; lavender-orange lightnings dance with the usual strokes. The stars are certain to keep their counts with everyone watching with wide-field telescopy. You have to be a sensi- tive to hear the murmurs in the air, subterranean sounds emitted by a very dangerous future far too close at hand. It's not only the viruses, the small bombs, the landmines, the worthless currency - it's not even the principles of the _thing_ which begins to darken ontology itself. It's what's always surrounded us, what's always been invisible - it's the plague of avatars, seminal disturbances - you can't quite figure them into the equations, can you. It's not what the hacker did; it's what the hacker didn't mean to do, and it's what the gun thought and the bomb pondered. And it's not the hacker, nor the man with the trigger; it's the vapors in the air, it's what the animals do, what the plants are thinking of doing. When we are loose, we are very very loose, and when we are bad, we are bad in deed. - from Julu, buried beneath the ground __________________________________________________________________________ Many Reports Multiculturalism's a lie; you can't reconstruct yesterday even in your own country. Giving you a spectrum of cultures and histories is just that - more theories, words, commodities, tourisms, "appreciations." I DON'T WANT TO BE APPRECIATED - I want to be seen as other, to be incomprehensible, just like you are to yourself, like you should be. All translation is a lie, mistranslation; the only thing we understand together is the movement of missiles from one country to another, either by land, or by air - armed - on fire - coming on fast. There's no escape; nobody wants to admit to radical incomprehension; more than ever, the world's supposed to be one big book, admittedly of many languages, but the smile of Manunkind behind them all. I, Daishin Nikuko, refuse to be part of all of this; I'll go down with the rest of you - my physiology's the same, but not much else. You won't even understand my final words, even if you could speak the language. There's no language big enough for any of us. I look at you and see: strangers. I look at myself and see: strangers. I'm the last honest person - and you won't understand that either - I'm the only one who knows that the world's expanding, not contracting - making way for the Big Deal that will kill us all. - Daishin Nikuko _________________________________________________________________________ Report from Appearance It's clear that universal psychosis is setting in, in both the metaphoric and literal senses; I can no longer perceive the difference between myself and my avatars, let loose on my unsuspecting miniature world. Do not, for an instant, doubt that this is yours as well; that we are all losing Soul and Substance day by day, hour by hour, second by second. Fantasms begin to rule everywhere, to speak where others have spoken before - to speak as if others had no voice, no memory, no history. They're differentiated from the rest of us by ectoplasmic secretions, by states of continual arousal, by shadows blurred by penumbras of indefinite extent. They are fed by acid rain, noise splattered across satellite dishes, stratospheric gouges permitting deadly rays to reach the surface of the planet. I am real and they are more real than I am. "I am" is a front for them. And they might ask me to say that if it were psychosis, I would not be allowed to speak, and if it were psychosis, there would not be these _true-scientific_ and _exacting-logical_ processes, observable by everyone: these atmospheric flows bringing contagion of cold money and soft flesh, suppurations and information wars, harsh words made from harsher constitutions. For acids shall not erase them, nor magnetic fields dissolve their innate beings, as we have known from certain experiment. We are spent-nuclear; "we are a poor troupe, hardly suitable for your entertainment, and we dance from, not to, our graves. La la la la la." Need I add that I'm forced to speak like this, because of our ingracious _medium?_ - Alan __________________________________________________________________________ Rimbaud's (Voyelles) Vowels Hey, A Black!, E White, I('m) Read! YAY!, U(ni)Verse (Green), Oh so Blue: Hey, vowels, Just one of these Days I'm Gonna speak to your New Words! So what? Hey, A Black Corset, Neat Large and Rotund Nipples Every Day (Sorry, Wrong Line), Well, just covered with big old Sparkle-Flies! Bombing and lots of Cruel Smells, O You can Imagine and Now There's Shadowy Gulfs of E, all vapors and something called "tentes" and Lots of Candor Here! Then there's glacial and fiery spears and something else, wait, White Kings yes shaking something called "Ombelles" Without the Capital, I's pretty lipping after and bloody perky Visage! wouldn't You Say I? In anger, or the usual drunken Penitents? And where'd this Extra Line "Come in"? U(ni)Cycles Divine and terrific Vibrations in Viridian Seas!, this is U! Peaceful animals all around something and peace of Taking Rides that Alchemy impresses everyone on the grand and studious fronts, maybe "Foreheads" wouldn't U think if U could? Grand and Very Serious Sages just for You and they Know all these Words too! Now this big terrific Clairion Trumpets, full of strange Stridencies Made of O, you know, dOn't you? I'm Jennifer giving you This Terrific Trance- lation! Silences just rush around Worlds, Angels, Avatars, and even Julu Comes in for O Nikuk-O! Heh! O's just the very end of it, Omega's his Name and You'll Never guess his Game, it's the Violet Ray of his I's (way out of Order, _here!_). And if there were still An other A-Vowel in my Native French, it would go Here, aw, Go on Jennifer, Y not? The pun laps Big Seas of Marble! And How Do I know! I'm Arthur Rimbaud! ________________________________________________________________________ FEAR Susie-Q piles on Susie-Q, Susie-Q hates Susie-Q, Susie-Q piles on ground, Susie-Q throws herself on Susie-Q, Susie-Q piles on ground, Susie-Q piles on Susie-Q, Susie-Q hates Susie-Q, Susie-Q throws herself on Susie-Q: #<#Susie-Q#># oh yes, fine indeed, oh yes, very fine, yes yes yes #<#Susie-Q#># oh fine, how are you, yes yes gaging discretely #<#Susie-Q#># something sticking in the throat now what could that be #*# Susie-Q swallowing discretely **[Jim:slim@ppp.usanet.net]** Hi Susie-Q I'm 5'9 225lbs brown hair, blue eyes and 5 inches ...So how are you tonight?** #<#Susie-Q#># i'm fine, a bit wet, but it's raining out #<#Susie-Q#># i'm fine here thank you wanna chat 24/m msg me #<#Susie-Q#># i like pubic (public) um who is she talking to? #<#Susie-Q#># hello no idea it's hard to gack discreetly #<#Susie-Q#># it's always hard... **Jim is from NJ and is 5'9 225lbs brown hair, blue eyes and 5 inches....He is looking for some ladylove.... #<#Susie-Q#># i'm much smaller than you **[Gifty:germane@cleo.murdoch.edu.au] are u busy Susie-Q is scaring me. #<#Susie-Q#># bye everyone are you all leaving I think it is a bot #<#Susie-Q#># hi there i'm not a bot i think its someone who's replying to msgs on the channel #<#Susie-Q#># or if i am i'm a wet bot C: look at the /whois...that's got all the answers. *** Signoff: Susie-Q (They said it'd never come, we knew it was a lie.) ________________________________________________________________________ there is a staircase, leading down from this old house from this old house and it's dark down there, where there might be in this old house in this old house shall i take the stairs, tread carefully down this old house down this old house they go forever, fearfully from this old house from this old house i wander down in dark, doom, drab, with worry dark, with that dark fear that no one's here, that the world is stark down those bleak stairs, while all around there are weak stares from passers-by, transparent, faint, afraid to cry afraid to speak, and I walk by, by this old house I take my walk, and it's been years since I could talk, and I begin at last to die and I shall never find the door but I shall lie on this cold floor or fall forever down these grey stairs in this old house in this old house _______________________________________________________________________ this old home I'll take the stares from you on the stairs in this old home this old home i'll take the stairs from you and your stares in this old home this old home it can't see me it can't see you in this old home in this old home it can't see me it can't see you in this old home _______________________________________________________________________ The Symbolic The opacity of cultures in the face of the other tends to turn the sym- bolic into image-style; unable to read kanji, I approached Japan at first through a visual layer that remained deeply uninterpretable. After learn- ing minimal kanji, I could decipher some basic signs and destinations; already a certain leverage began to appear, and I have remained at this stage, that of the _lever,_ since I have left. The avatar, Nikuko, moved/moves freely among Americans and Japanese, and how I loved to type her homeland destination, Nakasukawabata, is if the length of the word gave me an insight into something I barely understood! She allowed me to speak within the foreign, not _of_ it, but to examine those spaces bordered by emptiness or indefinite interiors, verandas, torii, that would otherwise have been nothing but tourist exoticism. And it was through Nikuko that the symbolic becomes manifest _qua_ sym- bolic, that system _which need not tend towards meaning_ for an other or a subject, that system which floats until leveraged with defining _devices_ of the real that suddenly function within one culture, from the viewpoint or perception of another. Meaning is generated interstitially; here I am concerned with the _freedom_ that occurs with asymbolia, the detached symbolic, a state of exile bordering on detachment and invisibility. To be marked as _gaijin_ is to be marked as unmarked, unremarkable as remarkable and accountable as unaccounted-for. Nikuko has guided me through Nakasu, through Kawabata; she has revealed the system of snack-bar girls and perhaps snack-bar boys and hermaphro- dites, as well as the Inari shrines with their foxlike-images as uncanny as Leonardo's St. John the Baptist. Nikuko has brought desire into play, shattering the invisible, tearing at the cloth which holds the skein of the symbolic in place, even without the devolution of alterity. It is a shattering which is also a rendering, this text among others, as I finger the magatama, curved stone, I am wearing this afternoon, in a computer lab where everything seems surmountable, where Adobe Illustrator is transform- ing type into design, speech into phenomena, on a projection screen of a screen - while I type dream-screen lower ascii, each symbol assigned its place, each place its symbol, until the packets are packaged, and ready to go farther than the line of sight. The Illustrator turned language into image, name into perfect ikon. Nikuko has undercut everything that comes from mouth or hand, that enters eye or ear. I do not recognize english, nor _the language_ which is all there is. Asymbolia permits me the freedom to write these lines, not understanding what they _say._ I do write _black_ on _red_ - as a result, there is an indistinct trembling, something Nikuko understands. From inside-out, there's nothing to thinking, thought in the thick of things. Over and over again, doesn't everything disappear, back into its source? This just takes longer. __________________________________________________________________________ home you stare go down the stairs your home is old they disappear they stare at you in your old home in this old home _______________________________________________________________________ Fall Internet World '98 (Oct. 9) Well, there was a big Internet convention here in NYC this week; here are some quick takes on all of it - First - very little raw technology, hacking, scruff types present. I filled out a form for a free magazine and one of the questions asked how much my company made, and the lowest amount was $0-1 million. Second - this could have been _any_ corporate show - there was nothing stressing the Net; as one magazine said, the Net world is moving towards an early maturity, backing up from the so-called frontiers. (Well, I'm extrapolating here.) Nothing very exciting. Third - big emphasis on corporate presentation gimmicks, from a Hummer vehicle to Motorola's 1950s diner song-and-dance. I picked up a voice markup language development disk from them, which seemed most interesting. Fourth - bigger emphasis on relationship marketing - as I've written over and over again, corporations are developing a new kind of online consumer - a Web consumer - and these product-oriented communities emphasize this in a particularly frightening fashion. Subjectivity on the Web is becom- ing more and more capitalist; Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason and its account of "seriality," relations under capital - or even Marx's notion of mediation - are applicable here. Fifth - Caldera gave away their linux installation cd-rom for free, yay! I generally use RedHat but want to try it. (Speaking of free, I'm typing this in HyperTerminal's new version, downloadable from the Net, excellent for dialup or telnet connections. Recommended - as with CRT, you can down- load and upload files directly; it also has color, etc.) Sixth - I felt by and large I wouldn't have been missing anything by not being there. Admittedly, it was the last day and the market has been de- pressed - especially Net stocks - but I had a feeling that things were professionalized, that Net media followed the same course, say, as early television or AM radio. I found I knew more than I thought I did; and I still find the off-web communities, email lists, newsgroups, etc. far more interesting than gif animations. It's clear, by the way, that profession- alization doesn't mean broad-based knowledge; someone I was talking to yesterday, who taught Adobe This'n'That for the Web didn't know what tel- net was... __________________________________________________________________________ Hui Shih, Nikuko, and Kung-sun Lung The< >measure< >of< >things< >which< >are< >not< >to< >do Because< >the< >wheel< >never< >touches< >the< >ground, Or< >because< >the< >shadow< >of< >a< >bird< >never< >flies Which< >are< >truths< >from< >the< >logical< >school Or< >sophistry,< >but< >there< >is< >hardness< >here Which< >shoves< >my< >anger< >back< >into< >me When< >I'm< >impaled< >on< >bamboo,< >but< >still< >can< >think Of< >the< >tethering< >of< >each< >and< >every< >bird< >in< >flight Or< >the< >flying< >of< >each< >and< >every< >rolling< >wheel "When there are none, there are some." When< >I'm< >impaled< >there's< >that< >last< >moment When< >consciousness< >states< >that< >one< >is< >two Because< >the< >statement< >has< >already< >created< >one, Because< >I< >am< >the< >one< >the< >statement< >has< >created, And< >it< >is< >then< >that< >grounded< >flight< >and< >flying< >ground Fuck< >and< >give< >birth< >Lilith< >fucking,< >giving< >birth Let< >us< >say< >Yin< >here< >or< >compassionate< >curved< >jewel Against< >Yang< >mighty< >round< >and< >fighting< >mirror Let< >us< >say< >impaled< >let< >us< >speak< >to< >one< >and< >other "Where there are some, there are none." _________________________________________________________________________ Virtuality of the Knot Knot of the Virtual "Fire can come-out-to-be out of Fire and Fire out of Fire (for their _sub- stratum_ is something common to both), but earth, too, and marrow come-to- be out of them; how do they come-to-be? What manner of coming-to-be is ascribed to them by those who hold such a view as that of Empedocles? They must maintain that the process is composition, just as a wall comes-to-be from bricks and stones; moreover, this 'mixture' will consist of the elements preserved intact but placed side by side with one another in minute particles. This, supposedly, is what happens in the case of earth and each of the other compounds." (Plato, Coming-to-be and Passing-away, trans. Forster.) Let you transform Fire to Air, earth to Earth and Constitution and Marrow to Protocol; let you consider that Alan, not Plato, writes these lines and transformation. Let you consider coming-to-be and passing-away as a bridge or tube without beginning and without end, existing only in-relation, and let you then eliminate the _terms_ and _nomenclatures_ of such relation. Then the reader possesses the technique of the _chiasm,_ in which one turn passes for another, and another passes for the one; in which the technique of the _chiasm_ passes for the _chiasm_ of the technique. Or rather, one would have Jennifer passing for Alan, Alan passing for Jennifer, or the virtual passing for the real, real for the virtual. Wherever there is a cross-roads, wherever a crossing-over, bridge-and-tunnel network - easily coupled with a slide into other polarities, Fire/Air/Fire/Fire for exam- ple, but in this instance, earth to proper-name Earth, Fire lost (for there is no Ground, no Fire, no place to stand to hold the Planet in sync or out of it). So the second technique, beyond _chiasm,_ is the establish- ment of a _broken_ doubling within the second polarity; thus Jennifer can never mimic in entirety the constitution of an Alan, who cannot speak per- fectly in the voice of Jennifer, sub-vocalization or knot. "Water can come-out-to-be out of Fire and Fire out of Water (for their _substratum_ is something common to both), but flesh, too, and marrow come-to-be out of them; how do they come-to-be? What manner of coming-to -be is ascribed to them by those who hold such a view as that of Empedo- cles? They must maintain that the process is composition, just as a wall comes-to-be from bricks and stones; moreover, this 'mixture' will consist of the elements preserved intact but placed side by side with one another in minute particles. This, supposedly, is what happens in the case of flesh and each of the other compounds." (Aristotle, Coming-to-be and Passing-away, trans. Forster.) Let us transform Water to Air, flesh to Flesh and Constitution and Marrow to Protocol; let us consider that Jennifer, not Aristotle, writes these lines and transformation. Let us consider coming-to-be and passing-away as a bridge or tube without beginning and without end, existing only in-rela- tion, and let us then eliminate the _terms_ and _nomenclatures_ of such relation. Then the reader possesses the technique of the _chiasm,_ in which one turn passes for another, and another passes for the one; in which the technique of the _chiasm_ passes for the _chiasm_ of the technique. Or rather, one would have Alan passing for Jennifer, Jennifer passing for Alan, or the virtual passing for the real, real for the virtual. Wherever there is a cross-roads, wherever a crossing-over, bridge-and-tunnel network - easily coupled with a slide into other polarities, Water/Air/Fire/Earth for exam- ple, but in this instance, flesh to proper-name Flesh, Earth lost (for there is no Ground, no Earth, no place to stand to hold the Planet in sync or out of it). So the second technique, beyond _chiasm,_ is the establish- ment of a _broken_ doubling within the second polarity; thus Alan can never mimic in entirety the constitution of a Jennifer, who cannot speak perfectly in the voice of Alan, sub-vocalization or knot. ____________________________________________________________________________ Formal Strategy of Text So in order to construct a "sondheim-text" or "real/virtual" text, one might proceed as follows, beginning with (real/virtual) entities A and B: Given these constructs* (cultural or natural, defined or discovered, meta- phoric or metonymic) with determined affinities belonging to a set S, con- sider a second set C and D, with affinities in S'. Ordinarily, one might have a situation in which S and S' are roughly equivalent, in relation to some measure of fuzziness. But let there be foreign elements which are members of S', and lapses in S corresponding to elements of S. Further, note that we are also considering, roughly syntactically, two further elements for both pairs (a total of four in all), that is A(B) and B(A), as well as C(D) and D(C). These _chiasms_ then possess their own attribute sets, call them T and T' and each of these have their subsets - for exam- ple one has A(B) and B(A) both contributory towards T, such that they possess a core or _rope_ R(A(B), B(A)) - the thickness of the chiasm or reversal thus indicated. We can roughly identify R with T, and likewise R' with T'. However, T' is broken, inexact, which is to say that the parallel rope of the chiasm R'(C(D), D(C)) is in disarray, wandering, vagrant. It is this turn which constitutes the strategy of avatars and duals loose or perturbing within the interpenetrated component structures of computer- mediated-communication; and it is this turn which then constitutes the subject and object, strategy and wager, of the real/virtual texts involv- ing multiple persons and avatars. ____________________________________________________________ *Of course the following oppositions or pairs are problematic, the art, such as it is, consists in choosing, first, sufficiently rich A and B, and second, in deciding the domains (pairs) and attributes. It is within these decision that the psychoanalytical and socio-cultural unfoldings occur, more or less set in formal motion. _________________________________________________________________________ See Jennifer Run BREATHING JENNIFER in antique Netscape version .96 beta, bones and chiasm across time and protocol, special re-edit. Consider space as constituted encryption; read Jennifer breathing. See Jennifer breath. See Jennifer run. "JENNIFER FALLS APART." ============================ BREATHING JENNIFER function zz() {document.bgColor="black"} JENNIFER-BODIES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS Jennifer1 = new Jennifer("female ", "inhale ", "spurt", "cut ", "your_voice "); Jennifer2 = new Jennifer("male ", "exhale ", "spurt", "suture ", "your_voice "); {document.bgColor="black"; document.write("My panties on the ground are wet with elements and planets.") } // THE CONCEALMENT OF LOVELIES AND HIDDEN DOCTRINE if (j == 9) {document.write(Jennifer9.milk + Jennifer4.suture_and_surgery + " " + "JENNIFER INHALES" + " ")} else {document.write(" " + "JENNIFER EXHALES" + " ")} if (j % 3 == 0) {document.write(" " + "JENNIFER FALLS APART" + " ")} JENNIFER YOU JENNIFER JENNIFER _________________________________________________________________________ $ ./ppt ___________ MY NAME IS TINY JENNIFER | o o.o o| | o oo. o| | o . | | o o.oo | | o . o| | o o.o o| | o .o o| | o . | | o o. o| | o o . oo| | o . | | o o .o | | o o. o| | o o.oo | | o oo. o| | o . | | o o. o | | o .o o| | o o.oo | | o o.oo | | o o. o| | o .oo | | o .o o| | o o . o | | o. o | I AM LOST IN SUCH BIG WOODS | o o. o| | o . | | o . o| | o o.o o| | o . | | o o.o | | o o.ooo| | o o . oo| | o o .o | | o . | | o o. o| | o o.oo | | o . | | o o . oo| | o o .o o| | o . oo| | o o. | | o . | | o . o | | o o. o| | o .ooo| | o . | | o o .ooo| | o o.ooo| | o o.ooo| | o .o | | o o . oo| | o. o | YOUR OPEN MOUTHS SCARE ME | o oo. o| | o o.ooo| | o o .o o| | o o . o | | o . | | o o.ooo| | o o . | | o .o o| | o o.oo | | o . | | o o.o o| | o o.ooo| | o o .o o| | o o .o | | o o. | | o o . oo| | o . | | o o . oo| | o . oo| | o . o| | o o . o | | o .o o| | o . | | o o.o o| | o .o o| | o. o | I FALL IN | o o. o| | o . | | o .oo | | o . o| | o o.o | | o o.o | | o . | | o o. o| | o o.oo | | o. o | I HAVE MOUTHS ALL OVER ME | o o. o| | o . | | o o. | | o . o| | o o .oo | | o .o o| | o . | | o o.o o| | o o.ooo| | o o .o o| | o o .o | | o o. | | o o . oo| | o . | | o . o| | o o.o | | o o.o | | o . | | o o.ooo| | o o .oo | | o .o o| | o o . o | | o . | | o o.o o| | o .o o| | o. o | YUM! | o oo. o| | o o .o o| | o o.o o| | o . o| | o. o | $ exit Script done on Tue Oct 13 02:25:15 1998 _________________________________________________________________________ THE BIRTH OF JULU, written by Alan in his sickness: "The woman, verily, Gautama, is fire. The sexual organ itself is the fuel; the hairs the smoke, the vulva the flame, when one inserts, the coals; the pleasurable feelings the sparks; In this fire the gods offer semen. Out of this offering a person arises. He lives as long as he lives. Then when he dies, They carry him to (be offered in) fire. His fire itself becomes the fire, fuel the fuel, smoke the smoke, flame the flame, coals the coals, sparks the sparks. In this fire the gods offer a person. Out of this off- ering the person, having the colour of light, arises." (Brhad-Aranyaka Upanishad, V.2.13-14 trans. Radhakrishnan.) From the double CHIASM of JENNIFER ALAN and ALAN JENNIFER, the THICK KNOT- TED ROPE BREAKS IN RELATION [in regard to] DEATH. At this juncture, a GHOST-DUAL arises in the form of JULU who is the FIRE OF THE FIRE, as well as FIRE BECOME FIRE; who is the FUEL OF THE FUEL, as well as FUEL BECOME FUEL - thus SMOKE, thus FLAME, thus COALS, thus SPARKS. It is LIGHT which arises; let us transform HE into SHE, thus in the Chandogya Upanishad (I. 13.4): "Speech yields to him the milk, which is the milk of speech itself. He becomes rich in food, an eater of food - one who knows thus this mystic meaning of the _Samans,_ yea, who knows the mystic meaning." It is said here that the world is the syllable _hau,_ the air _hai,_ the moon _atha,_ the self _iha,_ and fire _i._ It is also said that the sun is _u_ and in- vocation is _e._ Let is say that fire is _JU_ and the sun _U_ and let us say that _L_ is that which is not of an entity or concept, that _L_ is that-which-rolls- as-ululation from and beyond the tongue, LaLangue, Julu Lalangue, born within the continent of Asian Europe, died and buried, Julu Lalangue who speaks, buried beneath the ground. Since she is buried beneath the ground, since there is no adequate mark or marker, no sign or signpost, no gravity or gravestone - since she is thus, let us say, that the ground of the Ground wavers, that any Universe of discourse is based on quicksand, on a granularity that seeks the lower or lowest levels, of which there are numerous - that such levels are formed, foreclose, reopen, grave indeed, but floated or fluxed: in other words, an accumulation, holarchy, or hierarchy _drawn from any direction, withdrawn from any node._ So that neither female nor male, but taking over, conquering, absorbing, dissolving, destroying, annihilating and forgetting gender: IT IS HERE THAT THE SMOKE BECOMES SMOKE, perhaps THE FIRE BECOMES FIRE, surely never THE FUEL BECOME FUEL, surely AN ABSENCE OF LIGHT FOR ALL TIME, surely this ACCIDENT: WOMAN AND MAN. LA LA LA LA LA __________________________________________________________________________ After Chuang Tzu How blue the sky is! How hot the sun is! The sun is very hot! How small the water is! How huge tsunami are! How the weight of water bears down! How the weight of water bears up! How blue the water is! How tall the waves are! The waves are very tall! How white the beach is! The beach is very white! The sand is very hot! How high the sun is! How beautiful the girl is! The girl is very beautiful! How blue her eyes are! How dark her hair is! Her hair is very black! How tiny the footsteps of the blue-eyed girl! The footsteps of the black-haired girl are very tiny! How nice her voice is! Her voice is very nice! Her song is very nice! How small a seed is! A seed is very small! How high the seed floats! How tossed the seed is! The seed is very white! The sky is very white! How white the sky is! How black the sand is! The sand is very black! How singing the sand is! The sand is very singing! How beautiful her name! Her name is very beauti- ful! How happy I am! I am very tall! I am very blue! How blue I am! The sun is very white! The sun is very cold! ___________________________________________________________________________ I'm after Chuang Tzu Because of my life, I am taking a breather. How hard the life is! The life is very hard! Because of my whining, I am giving up. How annoying is my whining! My whining is very annoying! Because of the tinnitus, I hear only ringing. How horrid the whirring! The whirring is very horrid! The buzzing is very horrid! Because I think of dying, I hear only ringing. How white the light is! The light is very white! Because I think of dying, I listen to the news. How horrid the news is! The news is very horrid! __________________________________________________________________________ Jiving after Jhuang Jzu Joday J will speak about community beneath the sign of capital! Jow won- derful capital is! Capital is wonderful! Jow many places capital appears! Jow many products and sights and sites and sounds! Jow wonderful the sounds are! Jhe sounds are wonderful and pure! Capital is wonderful and pure! we are all for sale in the fields of the lord, cough cough. we are all for sale in the fields of the lord, cough cough. Capital is a number! Jt is always a number and a number is always capital! Jow pure a number is! J number is very pure! Joday J will be a number! Jy number is Jennifer! Jow wonderful a number! J number is very wonderful! Jow J will dance my dance! Jy dance is very pure! Jow pure my dance is! Jow follow the number! J dance a dance number! J will be Jennifer! Jow wonderful Jennifer is! Jow white is Jennifer! Jennifer is very white! Jennifer is so very mine! J am so very Jennifer! Jow J will be Jennifer! we are all for sale in the fields of the lord, cough cough. we are all for sale in the fields of the lord, cough cough. Alan is brought to you by capital! Jow wonderful capital is! Jennifer is brought to Alan by capital! Capital Jennifer! Capital Alan! _________________________________________________________________________ Geography of Net Relationships All my online relationships, none of which have been successful, have occurred over a minimum distance of five hundred miles, and from this, outward to eleven thousand five hundred. And this not only my experience, but that of others, this distance, as if nearby, within the five hundred mile radius, were a no-safety zone. This might be graphed, nodes of attraction and dispersion. Closer in, there is always the very real possibility of offline meeting within... a matter of days, hours. Beyond, there's the barrier which pro- mises fortification that might be breeched. When it is, everything falls through, everything might fall apart, and the relationship becomes close to impossible unless the one or both of the partners are mobile. So there is class and finance, bandwidth and foreclosure, at work from the begin- ning. My experience has been futile, close to fatal; the gaps become wounds, and distance becomes unsuturing, unraveling not only the other or the bonds, but also the self. Real life meetings become overly-intense - everything and nothing seem to ride on them. Either you're together or you're not, and negotiating. Email and telephone, both subject to heavy misunderstanding, become critical. One can recite one's day in either medium, but the nuances are obviously absent. Net sex gets its power from projection literally filling up the gaps, and from illusions of control and display (what elsewhere I've called the elements of a textual unconscious, interpenetrating language, physiology, and desire). It's this same projection, however, that can bring difficulties of recognition to the foreground: who, in fact, is the person at the other end of the line or node? Not to project means a denuded relationship with minimal communication, but to project means a relationship with constantly-adjusted illusion. My failures have been ones of misrecognitions all the way around, not ones of surprise at physical or psychological bearings. There are two people and there are mechanisms, protocols, what might be called vis-a-vis film theory, the apparatus. And while I don't give up in this space, I give up for the distance, give up to the distance, which can seem insurmountable, especially where travel money or even phone bills can become an issue. Then the failures collapse, and distance reasserts itself; then distance transforms into self-hatred (and 'if you can't love yourself, no one can love you'), elevates self-hatred to a geodesic, and I think: "It's my own failings, maybe the danger of the texts I write, or my inten- sity or neuroses, but the matter of projection from afar seems to hold ground, dissolving or coagulating upon contact. Who, nearby, would want to know of someone writing through a Jennifer or Nikuko? Writing submerged texts of dissolution, marginality, extremity? In the meantime I dream of thousands of miles of wastelands, desolations, uninhabited by organism, the desert so hot that communication can't cross. The wires burn out; violent solar flares take care of satellite transmissions, and even print media char in the dunes. This world doesn't support meaning, which always eludes, floods out, floods elsewhere. Life is lost before it began; I'll die alone and whining, my fingers on a keyboard or telephone screaming for someone to come closer - even at five hundred miles there might be a chance that the _shout_ will be _heard._" But I also think, what is this relationship between projection, introjec- tion, and geography? Are all geographies ultimately psychoanalytical - regions in which the physical translates into corrupted nuances of memory, desire, and home? Is projection also a reconstruction, a memory of consti- tution of the present, and is even the physical world seen through such make-shift or heuristic strategies? Does one ever come face to face with the other, even at the distance of touch? Is there ever an other who is not, to an unknown extent, shimmered or sloughed into the self? And is the self, for that or any matter, ever other than projection? (How are these territories mapped? What sorts of projection geometries might be of use here? And is distance, always a matter of matter, that which runs along the length of the traversing of the physical body, to which we might take heed of Hui Shih and the debaters: "The South has no limit and yet has a limit. One goes to the state of Yueh today and arrives there yester- day. [...] I know the center of the world: it is north of the state of Yen and south of the state of Yueh. [...] A wheel never touches the ground.") _________________________________________________________________________