6. Point
de côté
Napoleon
had hemorrhoids. As did Marx. As did Elizabeth Taylor. As did Marilyn
Monroe. To confirm the diagnosis, a colonoscopy is required. Only
Elizabeth Taylor may have had one : the colonoscope had not been
invented before 1968. George Clooney probably had many colonoscopies.
Elizabeth Taylor married and divorced Richard Burton twice. Elizabeth
Taylor did not die in a car crash. Elizabeth
Taylor was friends with James Dean, who did. Dogs
are our friends. Elizabeth
Taylor left a legacy. Grace
Kelly left a legacy. The legacy of Grace Kelly is called :
grace. Elizabeth Taylor left a legacy. The
legacy is called : The
Flintstones.
In the 1960’s, there were The
Flintstones and The
Jetsons. The
Flintstones are in the past, and The
Jetsons are in the future. The Jetsons work only for a few hours every week
thanks to all the robots that do their chores. In
the future, robots will do our chores. People who are something in
the world don’t like to think about the ends. The elite is
what we call the people we look up to in times of need. For people
who are nothing in the world, all times are times of need. In
the desert, bodies are built for scarcity. With a margin, that is. A
stock for crisis. In the desert, bodies live very slowly, usually.
Not spending much energy. Energy is the currency. The Jetsons have
unlimited energy. They live in a loop, endlessly. The
Flintstones behave like us. They
have cars. They commute. In ancient times, life was predicated on
cycles. The Flintstones live in a loop. As
do the Jetsons. In
the future, life will be a loop. In France, there was a revolution.
At that moment, revolution meant : jettisoning the old order. In
with the new. The arrow of time, linear history, progress. A
repressed motion forwards, towards the future.
Revolution meant: overthrow and instate, clean slate for a
modification of the status quo. Revolution has another meaning.
Celestial bodies complete their revolutions, isn’t it. A revolution
is
a cycle, cosmically speaking.
In ancient times, people were nothing in the world. Subpar performing
civilizations. Generations of forgotten
nothings.
Dissolved before
history, their
ashes make our soap today.
These
fragile ghosts had no hope that their children would live better
lives than them. Our pathetic ancestors were as inadapted as the
dinosaurs, dull hunks shuffling the continents for millennia without
change. No progress. No vectors. Only revolution, astronomically
speaking. This is the meaning of The
Flintstones,
whose world resets every 22 minutes. Elizabeth Taylor was in The
Flintstones,
the movie. Spielberg produced that movie. It came out after Jurassic
Park.
As we all know,
Jurassic Park came out the same year as Schindler’s
List.
Schindler was sad that he couldn’t have saved more. Eichman was sad
that he couldn’t have killed more. The
Flintstones have a pet dinosaur. The Jetsons have a robot maid and a
dog. The dog is normal. The dinosaur acts like a dog, and is pink.
The dinosaur’s name is Dino. The dog’s name is Astro. Smaller
dogs die later. Dinosaurs get cancer. Revolution
means to return. No progress. Progress can occur for 22 minutes. The
Jetsons also live in a 22-minute loop. As we know, no epistemological
observations can be made of the future. The Jetsons suggests that it
too will be governed by cyclical time. Life is loops. Loops
intertwined make progress. Maybe. Loops disparate make cycles.
Nothing is lost, nothing is gained. People who are nothing live in
loops. The
world resets every day. The day is 22 minutes.
People who are nothing in the world live in the past. Fibrosis causes
varices. Varices are veins that end inside the oesophagus. History is
written by people who do not live in loops. People who are nothing in
the world work from 9 to 5. We call that the business
day. There is also the business week. If you send a package on
friday, don’t expect it to arrive in 2-3 days. It says right
there : business days. There are different kinds of days.
Embedded loops. In times of need, the dinosaurs did not think to ask
the clouds for guidance. In ancient times, history was not written.
People
in the past are disappeared. There is no record of them. History
is written by people who don’t want to disappear. Marjorie will
disappear. You die twice, they say. Marjorie has died once. When she
poured water on her brother’s hand, the other brothers were
watching. Before that, Marjorie had been enjoying the sun. Marjorie
had not applied any cream that day. No
cream on the feet. Feet are the size of the sun. Hands, on the other
hand…. The
strong hand that slaps you is not the hand that creams your back ;
nevertheless, you better not bite it. Several strong hands are needed
to lower a coffin into the ground. In the desert, bodies are built
for scarcity. Bodies built for scarcity carry something extra. A
reserve. Marjorie had reserves. Marjorie had been scooped up from the
car, you could not have recognized her ; all of her had become a
giant wound. Wounds become scars. Scars are made of hardened dead
tissue. Marjorie’s brother was wounded when Marjorie was eating
cheese on the lawn. He sliced his hand with a knife. It made a wound.
Wounds become scars eventually. Marjorie will become a giant scar in
that box. Camus has become a giant scar. As has Grace Kelly. The scar
means : dead, hardened. All that remains of dinosaurs are scars.
The fossil record is a
forest of scars. The fossil record is incomplete ;
it will stay that way. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs made a
crater. Craters are not like wounds. Blood is the essence of the law.
The brother’s hand at the funeral : scarred. Marjorie was an
irresponsible mother. Marjorie lived in Darwin. Darwin was betrayed.
Darwin meant a coral. Darwin was not nothing in the world. He sailed
around on the Beagle,which is a dog. Smaller dogs die older. Kropotkine saw Darwin
disfigured, he went to the desert. In the desert, bodies are built
differently. The desert is where it never rains. At the bottom of the
sea, it never rains. It snows. Marine snow is the name given to the
biological debris that fall from bountiful layers of the sea, down to
the abyssal plain. On the ocean floor, dead whales crash softly.
Braking distance is incompressible. Braking distance is a factor of
speed. Water slows the fall. It doesn’t rain in the ocean : it
snows. Large objects don’t crash violently in the ocean. They crash
gently. Polychaetes drift aimlessly. They are blind, among other
disabilities.
Worms are blind. Joyce
was almost blind. Borges was. Osedax means
bone-eater. Osedax are a kind of Polychaetes. Osedax eat the bones of dead whales. Soft
underbellies. Whales have soft underbellies. Dogs have soft
underbellies. Underbellies are a weak spot. The soft underbelly of
Australia is Darwin. During the war, Darwin was bombed a lot. In
1974, a cyclone devastated Darwin. Darwin
is on top, next to Indonesia, where Tambora exploded and was heard
like a gunshot. The
soft underbellies of books occur in the middle. The middle of a
cyclone is called the eye. The middle of a volcano is called the
magma chamber. The middle of things is the epicenter. The middle of
the earth is a magma chamber as well. Magma is liquid. Magma seeps
through the cracks like history. In the desert, bodies are built for
scarcity. Marine snow is frequent, but it is frugal, and must be
shared. In
the desert, bodies are built more friendly. Marjorie
was born when Tracy devastated Darwin for Christmas. Darwin never
visited Darwin. It was named that way by a sailor of the Beagleon a subsequent trip. Tailors
will weave and be rich. Mine
will. Canaries are brought down in the mines. In the dark dreary
mines. Where the ages shall roar. And the stream of their blood runs
as black as the coal. Clean
slate is nautical. Blank state is from latin : tabula
rasa.
People who are nothing are born nothing. People who are nothing are
empty. People are born with no content. Content fills containers. The
clean slate has been wiped. After a watch, the slate is cleaned.
Perhaps some data escapes the cleaning. Clean
the coal. The
blank state has no previous content. Are people clean slates or blank
slates ? People who are nothing are blank slates. Clean slates
carry their past with them. God is tricky. God gambles,
statistically. Darwin thought that the red people in New Zealand,
which is near Australia, were primitive savages. He also thought
similarly of people who lived around the Horn, which is what we call
the southern tip of America. In the desert, bodies are built for
scarcity. The
desert is where the conditions are extreme. It may rain or not in the
desert. In some desert, it snows. Darwin thought all humans were from
one ancestor. Darwin thought the difference between animals and
humans was bigger than the difference between the lowest humans and
the highest human. Some humans are higher than others, it’s true.
There are people in the world who are nothing. The
smallest crumb can devour us. The devoted are devoured by God. God is
tricky. God played tricks on us. God thought the dinosaurs were
subpar performers. We better perform. God punishes subpar performers.
God is a great manager. With God, you will never be responsible.
Manage is from the hand. The hand of God touches everyone. It is a
gentle and firm hand, and invisible. Obsolescence will end the
depression. More bulbs can be sold if bulbs last less long. More
bulbs, more money. More money, no more depression. Fewer
problems. Depression is a problem. Apathy is a problem. Anhedonia is
a problem. Problems
must
be treated
if they persist, chronically.
Depression causes sadness. Depression is a disease. Depression can be
treated, medically. Depression is a personal circumstance. Subpar
performers are afflicted with depression. They are punished, it’s
that simple. Depression
is personal. History is statistical. History is nothing personal.
Depression is statistical. People
who are nothing in the world throw themselves out the window when
they recover from depression. Whites are dangerous when they are
cornered. Beasts are dangerous when they are cornered. Whales are
rarely cornered : the
ocean is the open. Animals live in the open. White
whales are dangerous. Whiteness is an important chapter. Achab was a
good guy. Achab was cornered. Achab was white. Achab was dangerous.
Achab followed his dreams. Never let anyone prevent you from
following your dreams. Dreams are the means. Dreams do not end :
they are interrupted, rudely. History is written by people who follow
their dreams. People who follow their dreams do not think about the
ends. Dreams don’t end : they are interrupted. While dreaming,
it feels like you are really in a place. Hint : if it feels like
you are really in a place, the place you are in is not the place you
feel you are in. Dreams
are messages from the deep. It was like a beautiful dream. Dream
logic dominates. Dream big. People
who are not nothing dominate. Intellectuals dominate. Echolalia
legitimizes. Echolalia satiates. In
times of need, people who are nothing look up to those who dream big.
Those who dream big are leaders. Leaders are dreamers. Analogically
speaking, establish correlations. Dreams
are recursive. Statistics
stick. Did
the dude dream he was a butterfly or what. History
is written by statistics. Dreams
within dreams are good. This is called abstraction. Languages are
dreams. Languages make pictures with words. Languages are more or
less abstract. Assembly is not very abstract. Java is very abstract.
It’s a continuum of abstraction. The more abstraction, the quicker
it is to make. Languages manage memory. Memory is from the hand.
Abstract langages manage memory automatically. Whose hand ?
Manage is from the hand. The strong hand that manages is the one you
want pulling you up from a cliff that towers above a river of snakes.
Languages are like dreams. There are languages
inside languages.
Languages
are recursive, like dreams. There
are langages that intersect, mostly. When langages intersect, it is
good practice to call attention to it with italics. Point
de côté.
When
whites are cornered, they are very dangerous. When they are the
weakest, the beasts release whatever reserve of energy they store.
The reserve is for emergencies. To be cornered is an emergency. In
the desert, bodies are built with some reserve. Some reserves are
useless in the face of danger. In times of need, one calls upon the
reserves : often they are insufficient. Marjorie’s reserves
did not save her. Bodies of the people who are the cream
of the societyhave no reserves. Reserves are for those who are nothing in the
world. In the clouds, bodies are lean. Too much mass won’t fly.
Bird bodies are lean. Managers are lean. Management is lean. To
manage is from the hand. Dinosaurs bodies had too much reserves, they
were subpar performers. They stood no chance. To be lean is to be
fast. The person who lives faster lives more. If you travel faster,
you may live further. The person who lives infinitely fast lives
forever. Any death before 120 is premature. Summer doesn’t end for
those who live fast enough. When whites are cornered, they are more
dangerous than ever. To have reserves is to be slow. Slow things are
nothing in the world. The smallest crumb can devour us. Fast is a
state of mind. Slow is a state of body. Bodies of creatures in the
desert are slow, because they are built for scarcity. Lizards are
slow. Snakes are slow. And so on. Lizards and snakes are fast, at
times. Lizards and snakes are fast when they must. In the desert,
everything is about energy. Fast takes a lot of energy. Slow takes
less. Speed is not unlimited. Normally, nothing can travel faster
than light. Information can be carried negatively. Think
of the ellipsis. Three dots : omission. The fait
divers makes
a diversion. Imagine the following situation : a hand is held before
a light. On a wall behind, it casts a shadow. The shadow is where the
light doesn’t go. The shadow is larger than the hand. As the hand
gets closer, the shadow gets bigger. So far, so good. The hand moves.
The shadow moves. The shadow moves faster than the hand. Imagine a
sensor. A light sensor. Imagine that the hand is large, say 10km.
Meters are better. Kilometers are better. The 10km hand casts an even
larger shadow on the plain. The shadow covers the territory. The hand
blocks out the sun from high above. It
takes a foot to block out the sun, at least. A hand won’t, on the
other hand. The
shadow is much larger. The sensor is in the shadow in the territory.
The 10km hand moves fast. The shadow moves faster. If the hand were
to move at some fraction
of the speed of light, the shadow would move…. No ? The hand has
five fingers. Five
or six. Feet are the size of the sun.
Fingers come out of the base. Five
or six guys speak to the manager. They
create a shape where zones are full and zones are empty. Sensors can
be placed on the territory inside the shadow of the fingers. Five
or six guys are sensors. As
the hand moves, they turn on and off. Information is made of bits.
Censors
enumerate : it’s always been that way.
Eight bits makes a byte. String
enough bytes together, you got yourself a whole 104000000 bytes, just
enough to contain several minutes, three or four, of color video,
showing the image of a woman becoming a giant flowering wound inside
her car at 80km/h. Three
or four, maybe five or six. You
can see the person in the other car’s airbag protecting them.
Airbags filled with air protect the traveller. You can see Marjorie
sliding over the airbag, splattering against the windshield. You
wince. She is a mother. You don’t want to be a father. She is an
irresponsible mother. You are not a father. To be a father is to be
oppressed. To be a father is to be depressed. Some
guys weren’t born to be fathers. Fathers
get next
to nothing
for their woes. Fathers pay. It costs to be a mother. It costs to not
be a mother. Have
a child. There are millions of people in the world.