The Thesis of the Recent Work My thesis is, that all cultures are illegible. There is always already a problematic of reading, writing, trans- mission. In one's native culture, these appear transparent, as if the habitus were capable of denotation - as if the signifier exhausted the world. After one has misunderstood, one consigns the rest to silence. What cannot be expressed in a particular language, may not be expres- sible in any. Thought, cultural thought, thinking through or within a culture, does not necessarily proceed by signs dependent on the culture. Within the literate frame of mind, the world appears as if there were signifiers all the way down. If one omits illegibility, one begins with understanding, subject to misrecognition. What is illegible, the cultural _scrawl._ The scrawl is a recognition that cultural attributes, parameters, languages, instantiations, may be heuristic, ad hoc, appearances only as if there were cultural laws, superstructures, placements and consensual citations. I use Japan as an instance of (my) misrecognition. I _apply_ this misrecognition elsewhere, to my native culture(s), to theory itself, to my ability to _read, write, and transmit._ This is a thesis as _therapeutic_; make no mistake about it. Or rather: continue to make mistakes: that is my thesis. _All cultures are illegible._ _______________________________________________________________________ Looking for It (Es, Id) Playing the lower register of the shakuhachi: six degrees of movement against the edge produces six levels of microtones. I can play from almost a whisper to a relatively loud bass. My fingers hardly move above the holes. I am beginning to feel the music emerging - not just the notes _in relation_ to the body. Impulses tend towards flows; they transpire as the instrument begins to disappear. Shakuhachi becomes _tongue,_ interior/exterior of the mouth; it becomes _tongue,_ a lang- uage without semantics, whose syntax is similar to that of other nat- ural languages. But the semantics have disappeared in favor of a pure structure, denuded by noise, breathing-out, breathing-in. I am on the _plateau_ of the instrument, roaming, nomadic. Eyes closed, the world spreads out, eddies, gathers, releases. Disappearing, I can live in this world. Making music is making discourse, conversation. The instrument returns to the condition of the _weed._ Talking to myself, I might slip across a position, search for another. I might slip out of it. I might miss the note, particularly in the other registers. Then everything will crash down and I am holding a tube again. Then the tube is grasped in my hands. Then I am standing or sitting in a room with the tube. Then I hear the breathing-out and breathing-in. Then I am breathless, and it is precisely at that moment that I die. Oh this is ludicrous. I do not die. But everything returns to everyday life, and logic again holds sway, objects are clearly defined, I take meaning for granted. I clean the instrument carefully, inside and out, wrap it in cloth, take it out of the dry and heated room. Then I know I can speak to someone. Then I have lost something. Then it will not be found. Oh, this is so stupid. _________________________________________________________________________ From NIKUKO@sexxxygirrrl.cum Tue Feb 3 02:44:22 1998 Date: NOW! From: NIKUKO@sexxxygirrrl.cum To: Poetics Subject: Nikuko's Service Offer ###################################################################### ###################################################################### Hey Guys, Write Me! I'll do _Anything_ Just for You! - Nikuko!!!!! Nikuko p0 tc-1-119.fukuoka 2:10AM 0 w {k:14} cat passwd | grep nikuko nikuko:*:13788:22:Nikuko:/home/n/nikuko:/bin/ksh daemon:*:1:1:Nikuko1 System Daemon:/:nologin, comeon! sys:*:2:2:Nikuko1 Operating System:/tmp:nologin, comeon! bin:*:3:7:Nikuko1 BSDI Software:/usr/bsdi:nologin, comeon! operator:*:5:5:Nikuko1 System Operator:/usr/opr:nologin, comeon! games:*:7:13:Nikuko1 Games Pseudo-user:/usr/games:nologin, comeon! news:*:9:8:Nikuko1 USENET News:/var/news/etc:nologin, comeon! demo:*:10:13:Nikuko1 Demo User:/usr/demo:nologin, comeon! (I'm not Nice!) ###################################################################### # Format of headers # ###################################################################### H?P?Return-Path: <$g> Nikuko, eh? HReceived: $?sfrom $s $.$?_($?s$|from $.$_) $.by $j ($v/$Z)$?r with $r$. id $i$?u for $u; $|; $.$b H?D?Resent-Date: $a H?D?Date: $a H?F?Resent-From: $?x$x <$g>$|$g$. H?F?From: Nikuko, eh? $?x$x <$g>$|$g$. H?x?Full-Name: Nikuko, eh? $x # HPosted-Date: $a # H?l?Received-Date: $b H?M?Resent-Message-Id: <$t.$i@$j> H?M?Message-Id: <$t.$i@$j> # # ###################################################################### Script started on Tue Feb 3 02:23:09 1998 $ ps PID TT STAT TIME COMMAND 17546 p0- I 0:00.00 leave, Nikuko! +59 20548 p0 Ss 0:00.12 -ksh (ksh) 20580 p0 I 0:00.00 leave, Nikuko! +59 24744 p0 S+ 0:00.01 script ll 24756 p0 S+ 0:00.01 script ll 24757 p1 Ss 0:00.01 sh sh, shhh, Nikuko! (ksh) 24959 p1 R+ 0:00.00 ps $ exit Nikuko! Script done on Tue Feb 3 02:23:20 1998 ###################################################################### ###################################################################### CYBERSHINTO !!! Think! Think! Think! Cyber-Shinto, marriage of the Electronic Chip and the National Treas- ure Ginko Tree! Cyber-Shinto in All things! Cyber-Shinto, Live and Let Live! Cyber-Shinto: It was bound to happen! Forget the Seven Happy Gods, think of _yao-yoruzu no kami,_ "ever-increasing myriad deities, each a Node on the Network, the Virtual Spiritual- Real of all things. Make up your prays, sublimations, dis- course as you go along - it's not a return to Tribality so much as an entrance to post-animism spirituality. Cyber-Shinto: Kami, kami, kami! Cyber-Shinto: That this World Isn't All there is, that one goes beyond, Beyond! Cyber-Shinto: Celebration of Life, not Death! Leave the funerals to the Buddhists! Cyber-Shinto: Instead of Heavenly or Earthly Gods, think of Presences on the Net: _so far,_ one has a sense of turning away from the computer Screen - HERE, it's virtual - THERE, it's real! _So far,_ there is still a distinction to be made. Cyber-Shinto: In which the kamidana, household altar, becomes the computer, and the computer becomes the kamidana! Still, it's a Thing in the room, something approached or withdrawn-from - but for _how long?_ Cyber-Shinto: Where the ceremony to summon kami, kamimukae, becomes the Entrance to Cyberspace (Forget Nationism!), burgeoning of Communities of Avatars, excellence in all things! Think of this as the TCP/IP _protocols of the faith,_ regulating Entrance and Exit! (Forget Emperors, Leaders, Men, Women, Gurus, Avatars!) Cyber-Shinto: For neo-animisms and spiritualities work excellently in Technological Society - breakdowns of Grand Narratives (forget the Kojiki or Nihongi!), spread of micro-electronics, nanotechnologies and miniaturized interpenetrating Virtual Worlds (the garage-door microchip! telephone! ankle-guard!). Cyber-Shinto, now _Cybershinto:_ Think of kamiokuri, the ceremony of sending-off kami after kamimukae, releasing the Virtual, turning off the Speaking-Machine: "IT IS NOW SAFE TO LEAVE THE KAMI, TURN OFF THE COMPUTER!" But for _how long_ will there be this distinction, before Perfect Merging, here and now? Cybershinto: The computer is the shintai, object of worship contain- ing kami. Shinto: Way of the Kami. Cybershinto: Way of the Virtual, indeed! Cybershinto: The carrying-palanquin for the kami, moving from shrine to street, dispersed among the nodes - the mikoshi, carried by protocols across cyberspace, whole worlds of kami! (Often translated as portable shrine, but think of as a _vector_ from node to node, fiber-optic ultimate band- width of the Real!) Cybershinto: Mikoto, words or commands of a god or noble, for ex- ample: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING OVER THE WIRES? WHO IS LISTEN- ING? WHO CARRIES THE SONGS? TO WHOM DOES YOUR HEART BELONG? Cybershinto: Ah, tana or spirit / soul, in Everything that Lives! Tana across the Wires, Tana of the Wires! For the Wires are Everywhere; we are Turning, not towards Tribalism, but to- wards the Virtual in All Things! Cybershinto: not National Shinto, Shrine Shinto, Traditional Shin- tos, but the Wired Shinto of the Future Technological State, the Perfect Innuendo, Perfect Harmony! Cybershinto: "Networks are inherently decentralizing and anti-hi- erarchical." (Wired magazine, January 1998.) Cybershinto: "We live in a MEDIATED world." (Wired magazine, Janu- ary, 1998.) Cybershinto: "Pierre Teilhard de Chardin prophesied 50 years ago that an electronic membrane covering the earth would wire all humanity together in a single nervous system." (Wired magazine, January, 1998.) Cybershinto: "We stand on the verge of being able to change the human race." (Wired magazine, January, 1998.) Cybershinto: "THE FUTURE IS IN BETA." (Wired magazine, January, 1998.) CYBERSHINTO!!! _____________________________________________________________________ Subject: Nikuko's Stealing of My Account - Sorry Nikuko's Records: nikuko ttyp8 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Wed Feb 4 01:47 still logged in nikuko ttyp2 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 23:46 - 23:54 (00:07) nikuko ttyp5 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 23:42 - 23:46 (00:03) nikuko ftp tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 23:41 - 23:42 (00:00) nikuko ttyp8 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 22:48 - 23:40 (00:51) nikuko ftp tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 22:47 - 22:47 (00:00) nikuko ttyp0 tc-1-119.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 02:10 - 02:46 (00:36) nikuko ttyp0 tc-1-119.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 02:00 - 02:09 (00:09) nikuko ttyp4 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 01:11 - 01:22 (00:11) nikuko ttyp4 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 01:08 - 01:10 (00:02) nikuko ftp tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 01:06 - 01:07 (00:01) nikuko ttyp4 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 01:04 - 01:06 (00:01) nikuko ftp tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 01:03 - 01:04 (00:01) nikuko ttyp5 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Feb 3 00:05 - 00:18 (00:13) nikuko ttyp1 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Feb 2 22:55 - 23:56 (01:00) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Feb 2 22:54 - 22:55 (00:00) nikuko ttypa tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Feb 2 01:29 - 01:50 (00:21) nikuko ttyp1 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Feb 1 05:29 - 05:40 (00:11) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Feb 1 05:27 - 05:28 (00:01) nikuko ftp www.anu.edu.au Sun Feb 1 02:21 - 02:22 (00:00) nikuko ftp jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU Sun Feb 1 02:18 - 02:18 (00:00) nikuko ttyp0 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Feb 1 02:10 - 02:38 (00:28) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Feb 1 02:09 - 02:09 (00:00) nikuko ttyp0 tc-1-106.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Feb 1 00:12 - 00:42 (00:30) nikuko ttyp1 tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 03:56 - 04:08 (00:12) nikuko ftp tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 03:55 - 03:55 (00:00) nikuko ttyp1 tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 03:54 - 03:54 (00:00) nikuko ftp tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 03:53 - 03:54 (00:00) nikuko ttyp1 tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 03:52 - 03:53 (00:01) nikuko ftp tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 03:51 - 03:51 (00:00) nikuko ttyp4 tc-1-096.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 31 01:59 - 02:23 (00:23) nikuko ttyp8 tc-1-075.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 30 02:46 - 02:58 (00:11) nikuko ttypb tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 30 00:35 - 00:54 (00:18) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 30 00:34 - 00:35 (00:00) nikuko ttyp1 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 20:30 - 21:12 (00:41) nikuko ttype tc-1-080.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 03:54 - 03:55 (00:00) nikuko ttype tc-1-080.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 03:52 - 03:54 (00:01) nikuko ttype tc-1-080.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 03:50 - 03:52 (00:01) nikuko ttype tc-1-080.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 03:22 - 03:50 (00:28) nikuko ttyq1 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 00:49 - 01:14 (00:24) nikuko ttyq1 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 00:39 - 00:49 (00:10) nikuko ttyq1 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 00:14 - 00:39 (00:24) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Thu Jan 29 00:13 - 00:14 (00:00) nikuko ttyq3 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Wed Jan 28 18:04 - 18:55 (00:50) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Wed Jan 28 18:03 - 18:04 (00:00) nikuko ttyq0 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 23:43 - 23:50 (00:07) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 23:42 - 23:42 (00:00) nikuko ttypa tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 22:48 - 22:57 (00:08) nikuko ttyq4 tc-1-070.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 15:15 - 15:42 (00:27) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-084.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 06:24 - 06:26 (00:02) nikuko ttyp9 tc-1-114.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 05:23 - 05:44 (00:20) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 03:54 - 04:44 (00:49) nikuko ttyp0 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 01:54 - 02:09 (00:15) nikuko ttypa tc-1-079.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Tue Jan 27 00:18 - 00:27 (00:09) nikuko ttyp0 tc-1-068.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 20:17 - 20:20 (00:03) nikuko ttypf tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 18:46 - 18:47 (00:00) nikuko ttypc tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 17:14 - 17:32 (00:17) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 17:13 - 17:13 (00:00) nikuko ttypc tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 17:07 - 17:12 (00:04) nikuko ttyq5 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 16:32 - 16:52 (00:20) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 16:32 - 16:32 (00:00) nikuko ttyp2 tc-1-080.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 02:43 - 02:53 (00:09) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-111.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 01:44 - 01:58 (00:14) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 00:43 - 00:43 (00:00) nikuko ttypd tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 00:23 - 00:42 (00:18) nikuko ttypd tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Mon Jan 26 00:15 - 00:23 (00:07) nikuko ttypd tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 23:57 - 00:15 (00:18) nikuko ttyq0 tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 23:51 - 23:56 (00:05) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 23:49 - 23:50 (00:00) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-098.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 17:28 - 18:24 (00:56) nikuko ttypd tc-1-102.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 03:56 - 03:56 (00:00) nikuko ttypd tc-1-102.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 03:46 - 03:56 (00:10) nikuko ttypf tc-1-077.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 02:29 - 02:49 (00:19) nikuko ttyq0 tc-1-077.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 01:57 - 02:28 (00:31) nikuko ttypb tc-1-124.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sun Jan 25 01:16 - 01:36 (00:19) nikuko ttypf tc-1-102.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 22:43 - 22:46 (00:03) nikuko ftp tc-1-102.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 22:42 - 22:43 (00:01) nikuko ttypc tc-1-107.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 21:54 - 22:05 (00:11) nikuko ftp tc-1-107.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 21:53 - 21:53 (00:00) nikuko ttypc tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 19:09 - 19:29 (00:20) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 19:08 - 19:08 (00:00) nikuko ttype tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 14:59 - 15:20 (00:20) nikuko ttypc tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 03:50 - 04:05 (00:15) nikuko ttype tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 03:36 - 03:48 (00:11) nikuko ftp tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 03:35 - 03:36 (00:00) nikuko ftp tc-1-092.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 00:53 - 00:54 (00:00) nikuko ttyq1 tc-1-092.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 00:37 - 00:52 (00:14) nikuko ftp tc-1-092.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Sat Jan 24 00:36 - 00:37 (00:00) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-098.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 23 23:52 - 00:01 (00:09) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-098.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 23 23:23 - 23:50 (00:26) nikuko ttyp3 tc-1-098.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 23 23:10 - 23:21 (00:10) nikuko ttype tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 23 18:29 - 18:35 (00:05) nikuko ttypd tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 23 18:07 - 18:13 (00:06) nikuko ttype tc-1-064.fukuoka.gol.ne.jp Fri Jan 23 17:37 - 18:06 (00:29) wtmp begins Thu Jan 22 15:19 ________________________________________________________________________ Irate exiting through closure - slope, by, I
eakdown<--over and out-->

athetic, I'm tupid, fucked, ody bought and old. slash-boy- ________________________________________________________________________ The Game of Japan (of Signifiers) Mendicant monks, we are on the road of total dissolution, along which a stream hampered by concrete flows, down predestination, we're carrying the magatama jewel, curved like liver like tear like conch like Nikuko, we're biting the head off to make kami-gods, we're biting the middle to make more of 'em, we're biting the tail, just when we thought there wasn't any more, we're biting each other, falling over in the ha-ha-onsen, suddenly switched, I've got my mouth fastened on some nether parts of me that hurt hurt hurt, they disappear along with the rest of my jewels, so like liver like tear like conch or ouroboros, I go in, she's elsewhere, smarter with all this Nikuko- biting, oh reader here I am!, until somewhere my toe meets my head and I'm an inch of flesh, all necessary for the jewel-cushion, Yasaka-jewels, you would've heard of them! on the couch, coach, shaped like conch - see where language gets you, not a bit of it!, hurt hurt hurt, you'll never guess what I'm typing with (it's not what you think, Yasaka!), I'm sitting on the conch ii We travel to Beppu where we make a big storm and a tsunami fills all the onsen with frothy-fish-foam and someone makes an island. iii There are trees on the island, there's a dragon and a cave made of burning human skin, the skin grows from the outside in, it's like a yakitoriya there, all warm and would-be pretty good to eat, but the dragon likes the roof, her flame goes out in the rain, you can only imagine the rest of this, how we burrowed and made little rooms for ourselves, ringing our begging-bowls, playing shakuhachi, until she gave up, in, out, 10,000 yen for the troubles, and how they emerged in Ireland. iv We leave the island, heading for a place that makes crows constantly. v In this place, there's a parliament of birds deciding on a proper constitution. So it includes homage to the emperor, a clean death for all traitors, exchange students and retributions well-crafted for certain crimes and misdemeanors, take care of the shrine! which means liquid for everyone, you might think someone would care in the midst of all this chaos. But now there's a text and everyone can read, and happily everyone does the production, even criminals who gladly retribute. Now we collect money from the criminals, because we rebuild the onsen, that's so necessary. It's quite nice now and not very expensive, and a writer like me can disgorge, unravel, open up like a box of shogi pieces which can't play the game of Japan. I will sit down at my desk with my brush. I will ink the inkan and ink the computer. I will portray my whole life, mendicant, auspicious, medieval. You will not believe the lovely jewels, curved, bitten in three places, tongues torn from mouths, just lovely talk. There's no mouth (against which the tongues) pressed against the skin against the dragon cave. The skin against the cave was comfortable, warm, worn; the cave wore the skin. vi The skin against the cave was the cave, the game of Japan. vii I sit at my desk and oh I am bleeding to death! I cannot, oh, type, touching myself in this matter, the A B I D E already have disappeared "in the manner of painting." You will see depth when something goes wrong and there is a big fixture (interlinear chandelier) in a space in which I am a magatama jewel. Now you will bite me in three places, what I call "the game of Japan." viii The apology for all peoples, which I make, a life of regret. That I am not all peoples, that I am on the exterior of any skin for any house containing any plant or animal. I am called a "covering." A "covering" may be a surface with thickness, and may serve the purpose of rainful- keeping-away. Together we meet again and shake hands and smile and the sun is warm (we have made it that way). And we are mendicant monks; we are wandering. We're on the road of total dissolution. There's a stream hampered by something or other, and we've got these jewels. ix _I'm bitten._ ______________________________________________________________________ ON THE NODES Tras na sevo. Chak fwa ou fe you bagay, sa lese takou you tras na sevo ou. Le ou fe mem bagay la plisie fwa, tras la vin pi fo. Se pou tet sa tout bagay ou abitue fe, ou fe-l pi fasil, paske bagay la ge cheme-l tou trase na lespri ou. [...] Tracks in the brain Each time you do a thing it leaves as it were a track in your brain. When you do the same thing many times the track becomes deeper. It is for that reason everything you are accustomed to do, you do it more easily because that thing has got its road all traced in your mind. (from Haitian Creole, McConnell and Swan, Petit-Goave, Haiti, 1960.) I've got tracks in the brain. I believe in Kami-sama, the god of the universe who makes me feel small. But I am in Kami-sama, so I am a small part of the god of the universe, and I know just what I am. But I am not going to pray any longer, no I am not going to pray any longer. There's nothing to ask but the task. Daily life is full of daily occurrence and that is the will of Kami-sama. And I do believe all the same, I do be- lieve. And I will continue to believe because I am on the right track. I do and am on the right track. I'm not gonna pray any longer, I'm on the right track. I'm not gonna pray any longer, I'm on the right track. I will go down to the station, I will go down to the station. I am on the right track, I am on the right track. Kami-sama, kamai-sama, I am on the right track. It is daily life, naruyuki, I have no steering wheel. I don't need your steering-wheel, I don't need your steering wheel. The train comes down to the station, I want to ride you baby. The train comes to the station , I want to ride you baby. The blues are falling down, trains at the station, baby. I want to learn you, baby, learn everything there is. I want to live forever, rather than I want to die. Heidgger digger caught over the fiddle, I'm caught way over the moon. "Me, pou chak aksio ki ge na mache, ou te oblije bay tet ou you lod." "But for each action which walking has, you were obliged to give your head an order." (ibid.) Don't ask me why you're here. ____________________________________________________________________________ Figuring (Fukuoka, Japan) The upper range of the noh flute is atonal in relation to the lower; this is probably unique in the flute family. The flute is designed with a small wooden insert near the mouth-hole. The flute I heard today at the Konkyoko temple ceremony, accompanying koto, was atonal as well, the result I think of ignoring the lower octave altogether, and playing up to three octaves above. After the ceremony over 10-sake- argument-me, we discussed theology. Everything is fine with one God the universe, the story, and I think every religion has a story, the narrative of _Being_ which doesn't have to go anywhere at all. There is a good daily-life narrative in Konkyoko, just let it go with the flow, coming and going, give and take, it's all back to daily life, which is where the God has big divinity. It's the them speaking, not as one, not as beings, but Being: "Why is there Being rather than nothing" might conceivably translate into "Why not?". I am greatly thankful that this group of people are thinking about the universe. ("If Sectarian Shinto is individualistic and ethical, it is quite con- ceivable that it has a tinge of religious universalism, even though it is not quite relieved of the bond of national religion. Therefore it may be described as quasi-universal or semi-propagandistic in charac- ter, and thus Sectarian Shinto has in principle some approach to the genuine universal religions, Buddhism and Christianity. Most of the Shinto sects are national in one respect, because their religious ob- servances are not a little connected with some of the national deities mentioned in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ myths, but in another respect some - at least one - of the Shinto sects have passed beyond the limits of national religion. To cite an example: the Konko Sect which adores Tenchikane-no-Maki (a name never mentioned in the _Kojiki_ or the _Nihongi_) or the Heaven-and-Earth-Including-Deity, i.e., the Supreme Deity whose influences extend over the entire Heaven and the Earth, free of any racial restriction or boundaries of nationality - in its worship of this Deity the sect displays an aspect of Shinto as a universal religion." From Genchi Kato, A Study of Shinto, 1926.) Now we will go out to the flea-market nearby at the Hakozaki shrine. Here there is much pottery from the last couple of centuries for sale, I do notice. I know nothing about this. We are walking down back the left-side and I notice a carton on the ground with shards. These aren't like the other shards at the flea-market, which are decorated and recent - these are apparently old, and we ask the owner where they are from. He mentions a river that was diverted; these surfaced. I am feeling eerie; they're inexpensive, and I figure they're not fake, since they are _so_ cheap, all different, worn in a manner similar to those I've seen in the middle-east or north-eastern Pennsylvania - and since it would be difficult to reproduce the _look._ I buy two pieces for 700 yen, around $6, and figure later, from a book (from which I figure everything - depending on _figuration_), that they are Yayoi, between 300 BC and 300 AD, wheel-turned with slight straw incisions. I have part of a base and bowl-side and part of a shoulder and lip and part of the universe. Like the 3.5 billion-year-old stromatolite fossil I own, these are part of the universe, before the _other_ incision of writing, although one might find DNA coding a form of inscription or universal govern- ment. These shards are part of the problem of ceramics, which always - in art departments - are closer to ateliers, workshops, eruptions, than to the discursive formations of academia. Their roughness pre- figures the figuration of the earth, before the figure of the book. I think they run on no protocol, no _writing_ except the survival of hardened clay in the earth, the habitus of their production, the familialities they occurred within - this is how I would _like_ to see them, in other words: without narrative and the pleasure of narrative, without the story of their origin or production (although with the story of their discovery and removal to the carton on the grounds of the Hakozaki Shrine flea-market). There are other narratives which are not. In Israel, studying prehis- tory, I went on a field-trip with other students to the North. We visited an Olduvai site, a dried lake-shore under excavation; there were trenches, about five feet high, and I walked through one of them. On both sides, there were stone-tools, Olduvai, still embedded. They were _there,_ roughly carved, way before points and handles. Touching them, I realized that the _last touch,_ the touch before _this,_ was by a creature not quite human, different, the same, intermediaries, just as the stromatolite appears rock-like, hardly alive, the first larger organisms (composed of cyanobacteria) to leave fossil records, thin bands in certain rock. We are talking about _rock,_ about _clay,_ about _writing,_ there and not there, as if touched, caressed, by a presence at a far remove from the symbolic - or stumbling through the symbolic, or being a sign. And we are talking about a _flute_ which doesn't jump to the octave, but jumps into tension, and the impetus accompanying the flute, and the difficult care of its carving. But we are talking about a sign, and what constitutes a sign when it emerges from the earth - or a sign, emerging as sound from silence - or a sign, when it is not a sign at all, not even a narrative not even a Presence of religion. We are talking about a sign which for us, _damaged life_ (Adorno), al- ready problematizes a sign, problematizes signifiers - just as such _operations after the fact_ inform Kristeva's Revolution in Poetic Language. And we are talking about a sign which is always already an upwelling, anomaly, appearance - an appearing which is taken-for a sign, a sign in these instances of the obdurate, inert earth - a sign which lends itself, trembling, as it were, to the chthonic. ("As it were," for it is our trembling, or my trembling, and "as it were," for the sign is neither borrowed nor lent, but constituted or recuperated by one organism in relation or within/without the presence of anoth- er.) Thus a sign which emerges, dragging the inchoate with it, and this is perhaps related to Otto's _numinous_ which is present in these objects, these shards, stones, sounds bent out of, within, belonging. Or what we read as the numinous, I would say not the divine or Pre- sence in all things, but a thinging which resonates the symbolic as if _the symbolic were there to be played._ We forget this, comfortable with writing. Or if not comfortable with writing, with reading. Or if not comfortable with reading, with the sign. Or if not comfortable with the kanji, comfortable with speech, with speaking and replying, call and response. Or if not comfortable with speech, comfortable with sound. Or if not comfortable with sound, comfortable with that silence which does not exist, emerge, upwell. Or here, comfortable with that uneasy obdurate which threatens those who signify, those who sign. And who of us are immune from this, at all levels of what is constituted or constructed as the real? No matter how much art is a placement _elsewhere,_ no matter how much the Net is a figure of flux, dispersion, dissolution. For a membrane has no nodes. "For a membrane has no nodes." And the _symbolic is a placement or a play._ (In noh, there is the _waki_ who probes, prods, the masked hero or heroine. The _waki,_ like everything here, I figure to be within and without the narrative - the _moment_ of the narrative perhaps, so that the hero or heroine can _produce_ the speaking or singing or _tuning_ of the world of the script to the audience, transmission eddying around his figuration.) (The greater the degree of superstructural play on the Net, the great- er the foreclosure of a political economy that problematizes the sign, in a way that no sed[ ] or awk[ ] or script can. So that one glides on the surface of the TCP/IP protocol narratives, for example, as if there were the continuum. But there is no continuum; there is only cauterization, filtering-machinery, no matter how fine the raster. And I would not know how to define the raster of the _upper register_ of atonality, the raster of the shard. I would not know how to define the raster of clay or stone, and I think these are problems of the Net, January Wired a case in point - the translation of scarcity economics into entrepreneurial capital for example. But this transformation, which is also a blinding, is a different occasion, and while I program _here_ I will also Olduvai _there._ Nothing will come of it. I am sure of that; _nothing will come of it._) _______________________________________________________________________ Aliases: Transformations: Us: # General redirections for pseudo accounts. bin: root-around-the-merry-go-round daemon: root-around-the-merry-go-round games: root-around-the-merry-go-round ingres: root-around-the-merry-go-round nobody: root-around-the-merry-go-round system: root-around-the-merry-go-round toor: root-around-the-merry-go-round uucp: root-around-the-merry-go-round webmaster: root-around-the-merry-go-round archive: root-around-the-merry-go-round hostmaster: root-around-the-merry-go-round usenet: root-around-the-merry-go-round news: root-around-the-merry-go-round # Well-known aliases root-around-the-merry-go-round: admin manager: root-around-the-merry-go-round dumper: root-around-the-merry-go-round operator: root-around-the-merry-go-round # trap decode to catch security attacks decode: root-around-the-merry-go-round (END) _______________________________________________________________________ What surrounds these - Notation on these recent texts which are almost-narratives, or al- most-narratives which _tend towards_ textuality - as a way of explora- tion/explanation - what I would want to say to you (if I could only speak) (clearly) (I can't) (*) The narratives are _broken,_ torn in the middle (Nikuko, torn); they return through a discourse on _language and matter_ - What is the matter with matter - the non-practical-inert or effluvia - think of _emergent debris_ - upwelling, as if there were a _moment_ of language and silence (I know there's not) - So then think of the _coughing or choking of language,_ or think of the _language of the throat_ - those uneasy areas where death might ascend, where the _sign_ might (appear to) be given from _on high_ - as if there were _height_ involved - The _returning_ or _recuperation_ of language, self-reflexivity of language, text, narrative - as if there were a _conjuring- trick,_ (levitation or game or strategy or the _cutting of a woman in two, making her whole again_) - as if there were a _disappearance of sense_ - as if someone might emerge, _mute_ in relation to the sign - The _returning_ or _recuperation_ of language, self-reflexivity of language, text, narrative - as if there were a _conjuring- trick,_ the act of _being clever, cleverness,_ skimming across the exfoliations of "clever's structure" - Or the recuperation of the _materiality_ disguised by cleverness - the obdurate of the sign, what holds the sign, say, on the sign-post - what posts the sign to you - And _to or for_ the purpose of exploring a territory which refuses the return of inscription (as in "a good return for the in- vestment"), for example - I can't return (myself), that is, I can't make sense (as if there were sense to be made), as if inscription were obtuse, as if muteness could be displaced (itself) into a _sign_ - So the machinery exploring those portions of the world not given unto man or woman, or those portions which appear on the periphery of dreams, or those portions of the imaginary _about to rise, coagulate,_ on the level of the symbolic - but not quite - This narrative's having troubles getting organized - it's as if you can't follow it, but the cleverness, say, of the author, perhaps a foreclosing on the _truth of the world,_ or a de- flection (that's what it is, a deflection or entertainment) - not a deconstruction, but an addition of the same, or an addi- tion of a _difference_ which refuses to be accounted for, enumerated, even _legible_ - "The recent texts, and so forth" (*) - ------------------ *"not at all" _______________________________________________________________________ YOU ARE WRITING TO NOBODY! THIS MESSAGE IS GOING TO NOBODY! LISTEN UP! LOOSEN UP! For some, the message below, confused, overly-obscure, obfuscatory in fact, might tend towards a blankness resonant with the absence of ANY communication in this damned space. For me, the INCONSISTENCY noted simply means that, in fact, EVERY ISP is creating its own simulacrum of messaging - as if there _were_ communication among widely-dispersed peoples - where- as in fact, it is a _fiction_ created by the world-wide consortium of interactive governments (WWCIG), which ensure that populations _remain put._ Why else would an ISP have an UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY involving something as simple as a quota-check from root? {k:11} /sbin/quotacheck -a /dev/rsd4a: Permission denied /dev/rsd2a: Permission denied THE FOLLOWING FILE SYSTEMS HAD AN UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY: /dev/rsd4a (/var/mail), /dev/rsd2a (/home) DUPES! NO ONE IS TALKING TO ANYONE HERE! WE'RE RESPONDING TO BOTS! GET IT? BOTS!!!!!! UNDERSTAND ME! UNDERSTAND ME!! UNDERSTAND ME!!! UNDERSTAND ME!!!! UNDERSTAND ME!!!!! UNDERSTAND ME!!!!!! UNDERSTAND ME!!!!!!! UNDERSTAND ME!!!!!!!! __________________________________________________________________________ No Play Nikuko speaks (kabuki voice throughout): "I, Nikuko, do beg you to sew my eyes shut! Oh, I have not seen so much horror in world! But, I, Nikuko, want to experience total bliss! I want to do one-man sumo with fearsome opponents! I will fight me in blackness of invisible enemies! I will fight police throwing me in filthy cell! Do you like elimination of "a" "the" articles now such? Do wrap me in kimono-cloth, strangle in transparent tape! I will know ecstasy! Then I will bring "you" ecstasy! I will make "you" verb in my vagina! Do you like forbidden pleasure? Jewel-Lotus-Magatama-Pleasure? You will have rope through labia to pull my deep joy-suffering! You will have me, do you like Oriental face? Deep cast of eyes wide open for your english-teaching insert! Where you are from, they have automobiles! I so like to drive! Oh deep American boy, I will make you drive in my vagina! I do like overdrive-gear-shift-nitro-burn as well! I will do one-man sumo with fearsome opportunities!" _____________________________________________________________________ Despair! Script started on Wed Feb 11 11:08:59 1998 warning: could not update utmp entry $ /usr/games/hangman ^[[;H^[[2J ^H^H^H______^[[2;6H| | ^H^H^H|^[[3;54HGuessed: ^H^H^H| ^H^H^H|^[[5;54HWord #: ^H1 ^H^H^H|^[[6;54HCurrent Average: 0.000 __|_____^[[7;54HOverall Average: 0.000 | |___ |_________| Word: --------- Guess: ^[[3;64He^[[11;10He e ^[[3;11HO^[[3;64Hae^[[6;72H1 ^[[3;66Ht |^[[6;72H2 ^[[3;66Hrt^[[11;9Hr ^[[3;67Hst^[[11;14Hs ^[[3;66Hnrst |^[[6;72H3 ^[[3;66Hmnrst /^[[6;72H4 ^[[3;65Hdemnrst /^[[6;72H5 ^[[3;67Hlmnrst^[[11;13Hl ^[[3;67Hglmnrst /|\^[[6;72H6 ^[[3;71Hprst^[[11;11Hp ^[[3;75Hu^[[11;12Hu ^[[3;68Hilmnprstu^[[11;15Hi ^[[3;77Hv^[[11;16Hv repulsive You got it! Another word? ^[[25;1H $ exit script done on Wed Feb 11 11:10:10 1998 _________________________________________________________________________ The Ratio Through the shakuhachi I project this and that into the into the habi- tus; it is pure sound and its mathematical relationships that estab- lish that establish a common language, which is not of this world, these broken rhythms or scales which together constitute what might be called a construct - so for example, the rhythm which is pure and additive, based on these divisions for example which (on the other hand), the scales which fracture such divisions - there's always a dialectic established, what might be considered a mobile ratio - and through this (through the shakuhachi I project this and that into the into the habitus) the habitus expands, exhausts itself (that is, as waveforms, solitons, stases, oases). In other words, it is the mobile ratio which constitutes the world for humans, which is constitutive of the world - order (extension and divisibility - what I have elsewhere called _measure geometries_) on one hand, and its fracturing as the body extends into, say, the _high note,_ the _bent note._ There has always been the body in the midst of this; see _Ornament._ There have always been _uneasy dreams_ of flight, always the grounding of the waking world. The language of this music is not of this world, because it (just) misses the sign, the symbolic; it cross-references (through the octave although that is not even recognized necessarily cross-culturally), is _heard._ It is and is not pure sound; it is within sequencing, within differentiation, and it is described say by idealized sine-waves with- out beginning or end (onset tones are another story - and in fact the creation of the story itself). So I would say that music is _of_ the world in a way language is not, and as such, it is a replay of scaf- folding against which the human emerges, is constituted. Which is not to say that this is either an explanation of the existence or cogni- tion of music, but only of a certain interplay between repetition and anomaly which exists throughout the habitus. What is habit. So that for example (this is all an example) I can play my ignorance (of the language and writing of Japan) into the void, so that I can reclaim (claim) a certain territorialization by virtue of an amanuen- sis or presence - an inscription which, as I have pointed out, is sim- ultaneously mute (virtual) and a _cut_ which is also a Jordan (closed) curve, or _circumlocution._ What is human plays around the remnant of metaphysics. One might call this a foreclosure against death, for example. The _breathing_ of a note, for example. The _holding_ of the note, until the onset is for- gotten. The _disappearance_ of the same, as soon as breathing stops (when one can no longer exhale, when the air inside is exhausted). The mobile ratio whereby the universe _turns._ ______________________________________________________________________ Illegibility (Proposal for Perforations) - An assumption of this century, Foucault's analysis of _divinatio_ not- withstanding, is that the world is becoming increasingly legible - that there are one or more _readings_ of the world - either through the foreclosing of textuality (what is, can be said), or through an increased understanding aligned with progress and progressivity. If the world is an encoding, then decipherment continues to reduce the unknown, and this might even be measured in terms of bandwidth, toler- ances, and so forth. On the other hand, one might argue towards an essential and irreduci- ble _illegibility,_ that not everything is decipherable - that there may, perhaps, be unknown or unknowable signs - as well as phenomena masquerading as signs - as well as phenomena having no relation to the symbolic at all. I am not arguing for a "horizon" of the illegible, but a seepage that occurs perhaps _within_ as well as without the legible. (For example, it may not be the case that every culture can be traced or translated - even in part - into every other.) Perhaps every domain is inherently illegible; perhaps foundations are not always interpretable across the board (and there for are not foundations sub specie aeternis). Consi- der the illegibility and illiteracy of the world, and consider the following, somewhat practical, concerns. 0 Issues of identity, recognition, self-reflexivity / asservation: To what extent does identity depend on legibility? Can one "read" another culture (without or without literacy in that culture) in such a manner that anomie or the sensation of exile do not occur? Can one "read" one's own culture in this manner? What is the phenomenology of anomie? Of exile? 1 Illiteracy - the inability to read and write. Every text is illegi- ble. (But if one is literate in the language of a text, and the text is visually "clear," does that _necessarily_ mean it is legible?) What is the post-Ivan Illich "take" on language, reading and writing? 2 Computer illiteracy - the inability to use computer technology. (Are computers legible _all the way down_? What constitutes legibility in this case?) What is the political economy of computer technology? Of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) in relation to this? (Think of the division between haves and have-nots for example. What - today - constitutes _having_? Is bandwidth a consideration?) 3 Dead Media (Bruce Sterling) - illegible remnants, archeologies. (What constitutes "media" in the first place?) 4 Infinite _kanji_ - wandering across a Borgesian world in which uni- versals do not exist, in which each signified (in the sense of refer- ence in the world) possesses its own sign. Nothing and everything are simultaneously interpretable in writing. All signs are illegible and legible; all are strictly indexical, ikonic, blurring the distinction. 5 Illegibility of or on or off the Net: What constitutes Internet illegibility; what constitutes Net illiteracy? Do TCP/IP and other protocols play a role here? Since virtual subjectivity is largely textual (or entirely textual, if bit-mapping is considered as such), what would be an _illegible subject_? What sorts of reception theory apply here? 6 Are cultures translatable? Is habitus a discourse or discursive for- mation? What is the political economy of legibility, of illegibility? 7 What constitutes misrecognition? How does misrecognition play into the above? (Misrecognition: an alternative or alternative reading, a non-intended reading, a reading-degree-zero, an absent or absent-mind- ed reading.) 8 Reading and writing "foreign" cultures or the cultures of one's own. Reading and writing on the Net. 9 And finally, to what extent is illegibility _inherent_ in the world at large? And what constitutes this inherency? _______________________________________________________________________ Writing Exercise, the Samurai of Cyberspace /salamander/ between one and the other, the animal which survives fire burns its way out of stones, you see animals here, she said, i only see salamanders. then and then. then and then he said why don't you say what I see or get rid of your eyes. then and then, she said, you're a fucking salamander. /party/ party is such, sweet, sorrow said, sweet-trotsky nodded in return. twas better than the death of the two of them, remnants of the left brigade. paris burned in the distance. sorrow had a baby face, and sweet was sweet sixteen. /machine/ so that the sixteen-machine sewed sorrow to sweet, so that stalin-machine killed trotsky-machine, so that paris burns with green sweet flame, sorrow said, jealous of the spotted animal suffocating, floundering, at her feet. /salamander/ between one and the samurai of cyberspace and othe samurai of cyberspace and r, the samurai of cyberspace and animal which survives fire burns its way out of stones, you see animals here, she said, i only see salamanders. the samurai of cyberspace and n and the samurai of cyberspace and n. the samurai of cyberspace and n and the samurai of cyberspace and n he said why don't you say what I see or get rid of your eyes. the samurai of cyberspace and n and the samurai of cyberspace and n, she said, you're a fucking salamander. /party/ party is such, sweet, sorrow said, sweet-trotsky nodded in return. twas better than the samurai of cyberspace and death of the samurai of cyberspace and two of the samurai of cyberspace and m, remnants of the samurai of cyberspace and left brigade. paris burned in the samurai of cyberspace and distance. sorrow had a baby face, and sweet was sweet sixteen. /machine/ so that the samurai of cyberspace and sixteen-machine sewed sorrow to sweet, so that stalin-machine killed trotsky-machine, so that paris burns with green sweet flame, sorrow said, jealous of the samurai of cyberspace and spotted animal suffocating, floundering, at her feet. _________________________________________________________________________ SONG FOR EMPEROR JIMMU Come on, my boys! Come on, my boys! Let the arrows hail! Let the arrows hail! "Let us smite them utterly!" "Let us smite them utterly!" Oh boys, let's go! Oh boys, let's go! Let us dance around the kami! Let us dance around the jinja! Let us traverse their scapula! Let us traverse their scapula! Oh boys, let's cut them utterly! Oh boys, let's cut them utterly! Let's cut them down and up! Let's cut them up and down! Oh boys, let the arrows hail! Oh boys, let the stones pound away! Oh boys, let's pound away the stone! Now, ha ha! Now, hai hai! "Let us pound them utterly!" "Let us cut them utterly!" Let the birds fly away! Let the beasts fly afield! Let them fly utterly! "Let us let them fly utterly!" Smite them, boys! Don't let them fly utterly! Don't let them pound utterly! Don't let them cut utterly! Smite them, boys! Don't let them dance utterly! Utterly smite them! Utterly smite them! Don't let them pound! Don't let them! Don't let them pound! Don't let them! Utterly smite them! Cut them! Utterly smite them! Cut them! Don't let them fly utterly! ________________________________________________________________________ Subject: Deja-vu, the Leper, Gone-World, Re/vision/ Re/verse My Mythology, by Nikuko-oozing The earth was formed from a swelling that began out of a primordial germ and split, separating dust from effluvia, debris from stony veins. From this, the kami emerged. Soon veins formed head-bands, emptied of swollen lungs and brains. Some kami committed seppuku, removing their tongues by means of pinchers forged from stony veins. Thus were formed brains with their many channels of mizu. Ah, lovely mizu! Transparent mizu! Tasteless mizu! Channels of mizu run down tiny brain-cunts in skulls formed from stony veins. Thus were formed "channels." (Cells gleam at the bottom of the world. Tongues stick to them.) Inkan stamp the elbows of kami-heads; the stamps cry "Oh Holy Mother Let Us Have Necks And Shoulders." Thus did necks and shoulders form. Some kami have arms on shoulders on necks on heads. They are meat-girls, Nikuko- oozings swelling into split germs and stony veins. They are angry girls! They are Dead-Meat-Buffalo Daughter, whose New Rock release is on Toshiba-EMI Limited, a blend of techno and industrial voice-over somewhat reminiscent of Big Stick, first heard at Rhino Records in Los Angeles (as usual, their lead singer died). Dead-Meat-Buffalo Daughter appears cour- tesy of Chameleon Records in Fukuoka, punk-animals everywhere or rather can you dance as the voice goes _way behind_ the back-beat. On the floor of genitals they dance the back-beat. It's illuminated. Slippery, signs slide across spaces of holes and _stupa._ Someone makes a sky-signal. Meanwhile, in the Nihongi, Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto say "Why should we not produce someone who shall be lord of the universe?" - an off-handed remark leading to much future woe. One can only imagine. "Universe" is given as "tenka" in a footnote, now meaning "the whole country; the public; the reins of government." Either a bringdown (EFL students wa take-note of the idiom) or hubris, from The New Crown Japanese-English Dictionary. What happens in the tenka? I don't know, but return to Nikuko-oozing's story, for her promising anger which spread like a virus from Nikuko-oozings-coalescing with trunks and legs, breasts and wombs, fierce warriors who have heard of Greece and Monique Wittig. They come across a hermit in a cave, another kami in disguise, since there are Nikuko-oozings-One and kami, and that's all. They show him their cunts, ask for sake; they drink much, push the stick through his cloth, and that is all there is to it. Shite, lead character in a Noh play, he begins to sing, Wa! (Harmony!) Waa! (Hurray!) He's _it,_ goaded by the _waki,_ Nikuko-oozing-who-does- not-wear-a-mask. Wa! Waa! Yugen crashed-body or scabbed, mystery-depth- profound-subtle-aesthetic, emerges among the kami, a beat magazine in New York 1950s, edited by Leroi Jones, if memory serves me. "It runs fine when I'm here," sing Dead-Meat-Buffalo Daughter, thinking of Nikuko-oozing. Shite-hermit sings and sings, stick poking through. Thus was born "song," "Noh," and "penis." In revenge, Shitehermit says, "Nikuko-oozing, you cannot be in Noh." No-Noh-Nikuko-oozing. She sews him back up in the cave. (Was he sewn at first? Whose cave? Was that Nikuko-oozing's? Niku- ko-oozing's cave - thus was born possession.) (Thus was born cunt, for there were no things before any of this. Nikuko insists on comprehension of this _no._) Dead-Meat-Buffalo Daughter change to swing-beat. The synthesizers wind down. Anyway, they make the Sun-Goddess, called Oho-hiru-me no muchi, although Ama-terasu no Oho kami and Ama-terasu-oho-hiru-me no Mikoto are cited as well. Nikuko takes pity; the earth is kami, too. So are Dead- Meat-Buffalo Daughter, who are auspicious; the hermit, who receives the penis; the waki, helping everyone. Now everyone has all limbs and bodies but the penises and wombs are equally divided. When a war comes, Nikuko- oozing-who-does-not-wear-a-mask, and is a dark-haired girl living near Nakasu, gets angry, and says, there is no kami for any of us, and there are many less penises perhaps at first, and then less wombs. When the earth swells, there is an earthquake and caves are swallowed in the earth. Sesshu's Long Landscape Scroll portrays this incident of Nikuko-oozing-supporating and hermit, and, as if in despair and irony, there is earthquake also, destroying the earth shrine at Hakata, until its memory faded from the affairs of men and women. (Some men and women are born without arms or legs; some without brains; some without breasts or wombs; some without penises; some without heads; some without skulls or necks; and some without shoulders.) --------------- Mizu, water; Nikuko-oozing, meat-girl; seppuku, suicide; shite, hero or heroine in Noh play, primary actor (wears a mask); waki, secondary actor, (maskless) in the same; Dead-Meat-Buffalo Daughter, playing now; kami, deity/spirit of sorts; inkan, signature-stamp; Sesshu painted primarily in the 15th century; head-bands are often worn by workmen in Japan; Rhi- no Records was (and maybe is) the best alternative music store I've seen in America. The last copy of Yugen crashed-body or scabbed was going for $10 a few months ago on the Lower East Side. Big Stick has disbanded. The Sun-Goddess names are from Aston's translation of the Nihongi. Monique Wittig wrote The Lesbian Body among other works. Nakasu is the snack-bar district of Fukuoka. Stupa, holy signal-tower of Buddhist cosmology I would say, Nikuko. Noh is a form of Japanese medieval theater; there are translations by Waley, but the intensity of televised Noh was completely unexpected. I live in Hakata-Ku, Hakata Ward, which is the merchant's town of Fukuoka. I have no brain or skull. Aston translates the Sun-Goddess' names as "Great-noon-female-of-possessor"; "Heaven-illumine-of-great- deity"; and "Heaven-illumine-great-noon-female-of-augustness"; but then Aston was writing in the nineteenth century. _______________________________________________________________________ Nikuko *** Value of LOG set to ON ^***^ Alan_S (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #cybersex *** Topic for #cybersex: 0037:BC: BRB <---------yea right *** Topic for #cybersex set by `AntiChrist on Feb 14 12:13:29 *** #cybersex 887461296 ^***^ none has joined Nikuko settles down for the night all wrapped up with her kittens. channel #cybersex -Gravity505- DCC Send script.ini *** DCC SEND (script.ini 3072) request received from Gravity505 [E/X] I am autogetting /net/u/6/s/sondheim/script.ini from Gravity505. *** DCC GET:/net/u/6/s/sondheim/script.ini from Gravity505 completed 1 kb/sec ROTFLMAO *** none is now known as Guest30868 *** Roaster is now known as Punisher *** Guest30868 has been kicked off channel #cybersex by _^Pagan^_ (10We are taking up a collection ta buy ya your own nick...till then.. get the phuck out!) <`AntiChrist> i kill me *** Signoff: |Romeo (Quit: Leaving) we will start with a Nikuko cries silently to herself, midnight-dreaming of loving families. passionate french amber please fuck me sweety hi everyone *** Signoff: Gravity505 (Quit: Leaving) ^***^ litle has joined channel #cybersex *** Lululean has left channel #cybersex ^***^ brosnon has joined channel #cybersex LOOKING FOR ANOTHER MALE WHO WANT TO CHAT WITH ME DCC ME hi natasha2 *** Mode change "+b natasha2!*@*" on channel #cybersex by _^Pagan^_ mmmmmmmm *** natasha2 has been kicked off channel #cybersex by _^Pagan^_ (One at a time please) *** Mode change "+b *!*@203.135.1.2" on channel #cybersex by `AntiChrist Nikuko is happy morning-dreaming, surrounded by smiling men and women. any ladies what to be my valentine. msg, me! *** brosnon has been kicked off channel #Cybersex by `AntiChrist (IP Filter: *!*@203.135.1.2 (Clone sheep, Not PPL) *** Signoff: HOT-BOY (Ping timeout) that's damn funny AntiC! Hi Natasha...nice to meet you.. ^***^ Bob_Mass (justme@bterrace.tiac.net) has joined channel #cybersex fuck ^***^ FFreTT (ou812@pntcmi137198.voyager.net) has joined channel #cybersex *** Punisher is now known as DoggyBastah oh i forgot my tongue in your mouth babes oh Nikuko, in beautiful soft dreaming, dawn-smiles, wakes up very slowly. ^***^ Mike21 has joined channel #cybersex heh ok ^***^ timmmm has joined channel #cybersex shit sorry wrong chan *** rips has left channel #cybersex oh he called you Antic I heard Jesus logged on three days later though.... *** BOB23 has left channel #cybersex look, let's get to the point. any ladies want to talk to a real man? must be net lag ^***^ rd1 has joined channel Nikuko looks at morning plum tree blossoms and light morning sky. #cybersex lick ma body sweety *** DoggyBastah is now known as Cupido ^***^ ^ilikeit has joined channel #cybersex ^***^ cyberjohn has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: Aerdy (Quit: There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are very few old bold pilots) a real man with a dick so big it is unreal? okay Any ladies want to chat or cyber msg me. *** Larry^47 is now known as Nikuko is happy and smiling, thinking of soft beauty all afternoon. Jesus`Christ ^***^ samm (..@194.126.3.110) has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: cuteguy20 (Quit: Leaving) *** Signoff: Glen31047 (Quit: Leaving) *** Mode change "-o `AntiChrist" on channel #cybersex by `AntiChrist *** Signoff: hornyme (Quit: Leaving) *** Mode change "-b natasha2!*@*" on channel #cybersex by _^Pagan^_ ^***^ Ninja-Turtle has joined channel #cybersex Do you know any alanw? *** No such variable "logg" *** Cupido is now known as CupidoTheLover Nikuko walks slowly at dusk, almost forgetting the very lovely day. hahahaha ^***^ Ikabod has joined channel #cybersex ^***^ bhdick has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: Alan_S (Sweet taste of vindication, It turns to ashes in your mouth.) IRC Log ended *** Sat Feb 14 12:15 ______________________________________________________________________ Nikuko Fights Back <^Tonguer^> hi ther *** #cybersex 887461296 any ladies here for cybersex or just looking ?? have to get off for a little while but ill be back <***> Signoff: Eva1 (Quit: Leaving) can it peel off in my directoion?? hehe *** Nikuko is now known as iB9321805 *** iB9321805 is now known as cs7991917 --=[+#cybersex+] BigGreek joined the channel. --=[+#cybersex+] Homer has left the channel. *** cs7991917 is now known as kf8076029 --=[+#cybersex+] LA_LEY joined the channel. *** kf8076029 is now known as qj8535742 --=[+#cybersex+] phallic_symbol joined the channel. hahaha *** qj8535742 is now known as c2774822 <*> ^Tonguer^ is single/male/38/6ft/195 lbs/well built/long brown hair /beard/blue eyes/Texan. Any ladies like to chat. Msg me *** c2774822 is now known as Nikuko --=[+#cybersex+] xyz12345 joined the channel. --=[+#cybersex+] kenzo^ has left the channel. *** Nikuko is now known as y86378360 *** y86378360 is now known as gp5551475 *** gp5551475 is now known as ny3820935 --=[+#cybersex+] Border joined the channel. *** ny3820935 is now known as yJ2368136 <***> Signoff: dickers (Operation timed out) --=[+#cybersex+] LA_LEY has left the channel. *** yJ2368136 is now known as vQ4085561 *** vQ4085561 is now known as pu5118542 --=[+#cybersex+] BigGreek has left the channel. *** pu5118542 is now known as t91468770 *** wrapping`paper`peeling`off is now known as guest`number`35 (Johnny2Bad/#cybersex) So now I finally get to see what my present is!? *** t91468770 is now known as yb6540044 *** You have been kicked off channel #cybersex by Curien (Goway +1[+141332+1]) *** yb6540044 is now known as Nikuko /join #cybersex Nikuko IRC Log ended *** Sun Feb 15 06:08 __________________________________________________________________________ Giving and Taking Notice "The great majority of people in most human societies is conservative. The reasons for this are not at all mysterious. Most people are cons- ervative in the sense that they take the basic structures of their society for granted and try to work out the problems of their own lives within these structures. In the words of Alfred Schutz, the soc- ial world is 'taken for granted until further notice.'" (Peter Berger, "Intellectual Conservatism: Two Paradoxes," in Facing up to Moderni- ty, 1977.) What does it mean for the world to give notice, or for someone to give notice to the world? What strife is encountered as the habitus enters a new phase, or is indifferently enframed, shattered - the brokerage of the commonplace? Berger's critique of modernity focuses on five do- mains: abstraction, futurity, individuation, liberation, and secular- ization. The first, second, and last tend towards teleology from below - it's here that the notice upwells - and both individuation and lib- eration might be said to have been handed notice by the strictures of the life-world. Structures or strictures (Berger was an exponent of phenomenological sociology, in particular the work of Alfred Schutz), one might consider first of all what is a _notice_? To notice something is to perceive and recognize it - the recognition might be considered an embedding of the _thing_ in the semiotic - that is, the thing becomes susceptible to semiosis, to furtherance on the plane of the symbolic. To give notice is to intend such an embedding, to intend the positioning of an activated signifier within the sememe. A signifier is activated in this regard if it is attended to - and a notice demands attention, inscription or circumscription within the subject (virtual or not). Only on the Internet can the world be considered as constituted by a collocation, or perhaps even, a conflagration, of notices. Everything present is intended, competitive; everything demands attention, de- mands attending-to. The life-world of the Net exists only insofar as intention is at work; turn the computer off or _stop reading,_ and the life-world dissolves. (Part of the addictive quality of the Net may come from the fact that it _appears_ intended as well - as if it were a maternal universe, human, legible, licit, and safe.) The exception is breakdown, hacking, any asservation in which anomaly or unintended consequences appear. Unintended, by whom? Certainly not by the hacker (for example), but unintended in terms of the relevances and coherencies established between the user and her machine, the user and her applications and the content delivered by those applications. All of this remains, then, normally (or in a normative mode) within the sphere of coherent content, competency; hacking or otherwise breakdowns appear to come in from the cold, from the outside. These never shatter, but shudder, the life-world of the Net; there are al- most always further actions that may be taken (reconnect, for example) in order to re-establish the constituting of the world. The life-world of the Net is _constituting,_ not constituted - it is a situation of _continuous rewrite._ (See the Internet Text.) The break- down of ceasing of transmission of writing results in stasis, a freez- ing of inscription, anomie on the part of the subject, the withdrawal of communicative competencies. So to say the Net is composed of _noticing,_ _notices,_ _taking notice of,_ is to say that the Net is intended as a constituted and constitu- ting realm. This is also to say that the Net and the user, as a dyad, form a performative coupling; the life-world exists as such within the phenomenological horizon of the user, but only in relation to the components provided by the Net as coherent (and, one might say, back- grounding and invisible). Thus the relevancies of TCP/IP and other protocols are abrogated to backgrounding, just as the cognitive mech- anisms within the subject are also backgrounded. The foregrounding is a confluence of signs. The signs are notices, as the computer gives notices. Giving and taking notice: What the subject does, and perhaps _what the subject is._ For the subject of or in the life-world of the Net is never taken-for-granted, but equally consti- tuted: constitute the life-world of the subject in front of his compu- ter, and you have constituted the virtual subject for the subject, or constituted the subject in relation to the Net, to the Net communities or computer-mediated-communications that seem so transparent across the wires. One might conceive of a liberation _from_ the notice or a liberation from the signifier, in fact, but the Net (at least until the raster be- comes finer with the advent of seamless virtual realities), at this stage, is a control system, a system of discrete inputs and outputs, a system of channels and agents, a system of well-defined specificities. Within such a system, anomie runs rampant; wetware and software meet only through the manipulations of voice, finger, and eye/ear/touch perceptual input. Isn't flaming an insistence on noticing - aren't web-pages personal or corporate notices - isn't this text itself a form of notice, giving notice on the Net, giving notice - as a report for example - on the state of the life-world of the Net? On its status (as seen by _this_ subject)? "Taken for granted until further notice." _________________________________________________________________________ Nikuko Joins the Fun *** Value of LOG set to ON ***! Nikuko (sondheim@panix3.panix.com) has joined channel #cybersex *** Topic for #cybersex: <*Scratch-N-Sniff*><--- Smells just like glass eh? *** #cybersex 887461296 <`Serina> hehe *** tina_^ has left channel #cybersex ###[sweetteen]### hi, want to see !HAIRLESS SCHOOLGIRL'S FIRST FUCK? ### RECEIVE A SECRET VALENTINES DAY GIFT FOR FREE?! then checkout !http://www.wildteensex.com!^ ###[kategirl]### hi sweety, visit my new XXX home page, http://www.free-sexpix.com , it has some FREE XXX pics/movies^ well I am off to the shower !***! ByTe-SiZe has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: Ridgy (Quit: Leaving) *** sorciere has left channel #cybersex *** Packers has left channel #cybersex is looking for a countrygirl,,msg,,me!! hi!!any chick wanna talk to a hot stud? *** xll has left channel #cybersex *** Nikuko is now known as Nikuko-Pu *** heartthrob has left channel #cybersex !***! filipo has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: Strppn_Man (Ping timeout) *** warII has left channel #cybersex !***! honey1l has joined channel #cybersex *** Nikuko-Pu is now known as Nik-Pussy *** birthdayboy has left channel #cybersex I have to do something presidenty today!!!! so I will shower! *** Shane-1 has left channel #cybersex *** Nik-Pussy is now known as Pussy !***! Nude27Man has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: Don- (Quit: Leaving) is looking for a countrygirl,,msg,,me!! 29/m !! I want to be you. !***! iha has joined channel #cybersex *** Streak14 has left channel #cybersex !***! ryno has joined channel #cybersex *** Signoff: frdf (Quit: Leaving) !***! kath`` has joined channel #cybersex !! Please be me *** dicky-dew has left channel #cybersex hi any girls for sex ,msg me ###[Todders]### hi mam how are you today^ !! Please cum to me !***! ^0verfiend^ has joined channel #cybersex <`Serina> it had to be youuuuuuuuuuu ###[FODA]### f or m?^ ###[spirox]### lo^ !! Please cum to me f ###[frogman]### hi what to cyber^ <`Serina> thanks a lot.... [!E/X!] !BAN ON YOU DETECTED.! By: _^Pagan^_ *** Mode change "###b *!*sondheim@*.panix.com" on channel #cybersex by _^Pagan^_ *** You have been kicked off channel #CyberSex by _^Pagan^_ (-10Lemme intoduce ya to my Thwack`Em Stic *-3!THWACK!!-10*.....Thwack`Em Stick) *** #CyberSex :Cannot join channel (###b) (Banned from channel) ###[spirox]### are you f^ IRC Log ended *** Mon Feb 16 09:42 ________________________________________________________________________ The Long Night of Welcome and Dismay It's after dusk, , the temple/shrine (Buddhist/Shinto) complex next door, , is about to close, . I bring my Sony professional cassette recorder with me, . It is set for Dolby, , high-bias, , and I have stereo micro- phones, . We are the only ones in the complex, . I'm determined to call on the gods, . We approach the shrine, , and ring the bells, . There are varieties here, , some like traditional bells you might wear on your clothing in the West, , some like doubled gongs, , some like heavy sleigh bells no horse could carry, . There are also metal ringing bowls and wooden bells and hammers of various sorts, . There are Buddhas and other deities, , some Hindu I think, , lined up against the wall, . Against the wall there are probably two thousand images, , ranging from an inch to two feet, . They have offerings of sake, , water, , coffee, , rice, , and other materials, . Some are wearing cloth, , I would call it propiti- ation cloth, . But now it's night and all of this is more or less invisible, , and we are walking along with the recorder on in the almost pitch black and every so often ringing the bells, , by ropes, , or hitting the bowls with the varied hammers, , and there is also the sound of our footsteps, . And we are driving the gods back into cyberspace or we are driving the gods towards us and the devils back into cyberspace, , or we are driving the devils towards us, . We hear rustlings in the air and I am sure there are ghosts everywhere but their moans will not appear later on the tape, , only high pitched doubled sinewaves as the ringing bowls' harmonics interfere with the bias frequency set on the recorder in order to bring the tape within the flat part of the hysteresis loop, . The remarkably even recording now has its own moans, , behind which, , I am sure, , the ghosts are hidden, . I believe they carry red lanterns, , but I am not sure, . They fly through the air with moaning sounds, . I will listen to the tape and leave my body, . I will carry a red lantern everywhere, . I will be that red lantern and I will illuminate my path forever, . ______________________________________________________________________