Comments on: Seeking nothing, or some thing http://sodsbrood.com/pilgrim/2005/06/23/seeking_nothing_or_some_thing Comeday morm and, O, you're vine! Sendday's eve and, ah, you're vinegar! Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:56:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Scrivener http://sodsbrood.com/pilgrim/2005/06/23/seeking_nothing_or_some_thing/comment-page-1#comment-436 Scrivener Wed, 29 Jun 2005 10:04:24 +0000 /?p=199#comment-436 What a beautiful post. I love the repetition of those "mechanical motions." I hope it's not too outlandish to read this post and to say that I hope your fishing trip is going well? What a beautiful post. I love the repetition of those “mechanical motions.” I hope it’s not too outlandish to read this post and to say that I hope your fishing trip is going well?

]]> By: Todd http://sodsbrood.com/pilgrim/2005/06/23/seeking_nothing_or_some_thing/comment-page-1#comment-435 Todd Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:31:55 +0000 /?p=199#comment-435 Maybe you SHOULD read dhalgren. There is a joy, you see, in the becoming of the world that what you call the fictive world points to. Here's a quote from Dhalgren which probably won't help you at all. The main character of this novel doesn't know his name; a name is like an absolute or a foundation; no one thinks it is fictive. A name feels like it means something and in this passage he has remembered his name and the name of another felllow. But then he is happy to forget it. Its the experience of meaning (be)coming and going that is wonderful, NOT the way meaning is fixed for all eternity in, let's say, a non-fictive work (as if there were such a thing) or a name: I sat and panted and smiled […] with contentment over the absolute fact of his [William Dhalgren’s] revealed identity, till even that, as all absolutes must, began to dissolve. […] “What--?” Denny moved his hand on my leg. Lanya glanced at me, shifted her shoulder against mine. But I sat back again, silent, marveling at the dissolve’s completion, both elated and numbed by the jarring claps that measured and metronomed each differential in the change—till I had no more certainty of Bill’s last name than I had of my own. With only the memory of knowledge, and bewilderment at whatever mechanic had, for minutes, made that knowledge as certain to me as my own existence, I sat, trying to sort that mechanism’s failure, which had let it slip away. (784) Maybe you SHOULD read dhalgren. There is a joy, you see, in the becoming of the world that what you call the fictive world points to. Here’s a quote from Dhalgren which probably won’t help you at all. The main character of this novel doesn’t know his name; a name is like an absolute or a foundation; no one thinks it is fictive. A name feels like it means something and in this passage he has remembered his name and the name of another felllow. But then he is happy to forget it. Its the experience of meaning (be)coming and going that is wonderful, NOT the way meaning is fixed for all eternity in, let’s say, a non-fictive work (as if there were such a thing) or a name:

I sat and panted and smiled […] with contentment over the absolute fact of his [William Dhalgren’s] revealed identity, till even that, as all absolutes must, began to dissolve. […]
“What–?” Denny moved his hand on my leg.
Lanya glanced at me, shifted her shoulder against mine.
But I sat back again, silent, marveling at the dissolve’s completion, both elated and numbed by the jarring claps that measured and metronomed each differential in the change—till I had no more certainty of Bill’s last name than I had of my own. With only the memory of knowledge, and bewilderment at whatever mechanic had, for minutes, made that knowledge as certain to me as my own existence, I sat, trying to sort that mechanism’s failure, which had let it slip away. (784)

]]>