May the mystery lettered on the tigers die with me. Whoever has seen the universe, whoever has beheld the fiery designs of the universe, cannot think in terms of one man, of that man’s trivial fortunes or misfortunes, though he be that very man. That man has been he and now matters no more to him. What is the life of that other to him, the nation of that other to him, if he, now, is no one. This is why I do not pronounce the formula, why, lying here in the darkness, I let the days obliterate me. (Borges, The God’s Script)

The question of silence, addressed by both Borges and Wittgenstein…

***

Not only was the course he taught pointedly entitled ‘Current French Philosophy’ – a currency otherwise alien to our curriculum — more importantly, Land’s teaching was also a sharing of his own research-in-progress. This was unheard-of: philosophy actually being done, rather than being interpreted at second-hand?! He would sweep his audience into a speculative vortex of philosophy, economics, literature, biology, technology, and disciplines as-yet unnamed – before immobilizing them again with some startling claim or gnomic declaration.

To tweet the formula of fourteen words by accident… to share when you don’t know what you’re doing… would that be a burden heavy or light? Perhaps there’s another way?

Indeed. ‘Good luck with that’ springs to mind.

‘… technological advance will move faster and faster and can never be stopped. In all areas of his existence, man will be encircled ever more tightly by the forces of technology. These forces, which everywhere and every minute claim, enchain, drag along, press and impose upon man under the form of some technical contrivance or other – these forces, since man has not made them, have moved long since beyond his will and have outgrown his capacity for decision.”

And yet –

“Still we can act otherwise. We can use technical devices, and yet with proper use also keep ourselves so free of them, that we may let go of them any time. We can use technical devices as they ought to be used, and also let them alone as something which does not affect our inner and real core. We can affirm the unavoidable use of technical devices, and also deny them the right to dominate us.
But will not saying both yes and no this way to technical devices make our relation to technology ambivalent and insecure? On the contrary! Our relation to technology will become wonderfully simple and relaxed. We let technical devices enter our daily life, and at the same time leave them alone, as things which are nothing absolute but remain dependent on something higher.”

It all depends on –

“… the way of meditative thinking. Meditative thinking demands of us not to cling one-sidedly to a single idea, nor to run down a one-track course of ideas. Meditative thinking demands of us that we engage ourselves with what at first sight does not go together at all.”

and –

“I call the comportment which enables us to keep open to the meaning hidden in technology, openness to the mystery. … Releasement towards things and openness to the mystery belong together. They grant the possibility of dwelling in the world in a completely different way. They promise us a new ground and foundation upon which we can stand and endure in the world of technology without being imperiled by it.”

Full marks for the prescient diagnosis … just not yet entirely convinced regarding the remedy.

Perhaps, in the final analysis, the world is populated by two kinds of humans: the children of Heraclitus and the offspring of Parmenides. To use the language of war, the former has undoubtedly been winning for at least some two centuries.

To Reactionary souls such as myself, silence has emerged as perhaps the virtue of virtues, given context, embedded in order of absolute fungibility, drawing near the Platonic form of the “Good.” (forgive me Father, for I have sinned in posting here).

Instant publishing is ‘stream of consciousness’ externalized, plugged into the cloud…I can appreciate classic works in this “stream” vein, but it seems as manifest in instant publishing, consciousness, where applicable to it, verges on a misnomer. If anything, doesn’t “consciousness” have to do with refraction, such that it folds back on itself, contingent on a kind of silence? All gone.

From utility calculating machines to twitter addicts…next step? Extinction. In the future, men will probably be able to ingest or inject “hedonic (hedonism) units,” quantified pleasure units a la some artificial intervention in neurophysiology…they will Twitter about it. And then painlessly commit suicide.

Living takes far too long.

narrative compression

Brill’s Companion to Greek and Latin Epyllion and Its Reception
http://www.brill.com/brill-s-companion-greek-and-latin-epyllion-and-its-reception
The Songs of Demodocus: Compression and Extension in Greek Narrative Poetry…. 83, Richard Hunter
http://books.google.com/books?id=GSMyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA83

Hmm… if we can be arsed…