Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 00:03:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Paul Antschel <antschel-AT-m-net.arbornet.org>
Subject: Re: preterite freedom




> How else can you explain the hostility expressed towards Steve with its
> comically unexamined assumption that he must be a tenured professor
> pursuing sinister and cynical ends. (...as if this were the character
> assassination of an innocent like Bill O'Reilly as conducted by the
> inmates of the Marat/Sade/Lyotard Spoon asylum.)

The O'Reilly line is pretty funny, I must admit, even at my expense.

But Steve's well aware that I'm fond of him and the apparent hostility
was completely feigned. Mere play-acting to add a bit of drama to the
Marat/Sade/Lyotard Spoon asylum, as you so aptly phrased it. Things were
getting a bit dull here, to say the least. And I beg to differ with whoever
said no shouting. Sometimes it's better to whisper, but not always, sometimes
shouting is necessary.

Eric spoke:

> I disagree with Paul, however, that the issues 'anon' raises are
> insignificant and they should simply put to bed in order to return again
> to our thrilling discussion on endless war.

The funny thing is that Paul is more qualified to deal with the issues
raised in this message than I am, yet he claims they're insignificant,
with his absurd idea that he's dismissed the entire specter of GR, merely
by moving Kennedy 1mm to the left and then generating a movie all the way
back to the Big Bang or some such utter nonsense.

I fail to see how this changes anything.

Eric spoke:

>I think 'anon' by raising the specter of GR, has put his finger on both
>the issue of freedom and the deferred terror of endless war.  (It is
>eerie isn't it how "A screaming comes across the sky" seems to prefigure
>belatedly 9/11 and how we are all now, metaphorically, seated in the
>Orpheus Theatre anxiously awaiting whatever it is that is about to fall
>next - without knowing where or when.

As long as we're quoting hypertext, the following lines also seem to
prefigure belatedly where we all are now, imprisoned in Orpheus Theatre,
to paraphrase Eric, awaiting yet another insane performance by the troupe,
hopefully one that will far surpass the last in its sheer madness:

"And what I saw was more like a crumbling, a frenzied collapsing of all
that had always protected me from all I was always condemned to be. Or it
was like a kind of clawing towards a light and countenance I could not
name, that I had once known and long denied. But what words can describe
this sensation at first all darkness and bulk, with a noise like the
grinding of stones, then suddenly as soft as water flowing. And then I saw
a little globe swaying up slowly from the depths, through the quiet water,
smooth at first, and scarcely paler than its escorting ripples, then
little by little a face, with holes for the eyes and mouth and other
wounds, and nothing to show if it was a man's face or a woman's face, a
young face or an old face, or if its calm too was not an effect of the
water trembling be-tween it and the light. But I confess I attended but
absently to these poor figures, in which I suppose my sense of disaster
sought to contain itself. And that I did not labour at them more
diligently was a further index of the great changes I had suffered and of
my growing resignation to being dispossessed of self. And doubtless I
should have gone from discovery to discovery, concerning myself, if I had
persisted. But at the first faint light, I mean in these wild shadows
gathering about me, dispensed by a vision or by an effort of thought, at
the first light I fled to other cares. And all had been for nothing. And
he who acted thus was a stranger to me too. For it was not my nature, I
mean it was not my custom, to conduct my calculations simultaneously, but
sepa-rately and turn about, pushing each one as far as it would go before
turning in desperation to another. ... But one incident remains to be
noted ..."  (Samuel Beckett)

Voluntary? Or just happening?

(And there's no way moving Kennedy 1mm to the left is going to get you out
of this one, Paul.)