<nettime> Genji

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

-


Genji


The declarative sentence, the statement, the clear interrogative, have run
their course. What can be meant by this? 

Only that gaps open among words, that spaces lead to other spaces, that
language itself is wounded, that every word links elsewhere, pulls hard at
the skein, harder at the skin. 

This is the critical problem of contemporary thought: the unmooring of
language, untethering of thought, which wanders blindly among surfaces. 

There is no return; language is unpunctuated, phrases slide obscenely
(perhaps) upon each other, every word is skewed with every other. No
longer is the difference a function of two variables; instead, it is an
accumulation of partial and occluded signs whose deferrals slide into
non-existence. 

Languaging slides from an accumulation of words, proprietary signifiers,
protocols; the sentence has already disappeared. One letter shudders,
stutters, against another; pronouns lose antecedents, precedents; nouns
lose referents. 

Descending into chaotic phenomena, ontology is undermined; everything is
relativized - meaning, for example, becomes tied and taut to the attri-
bute, and nouns are referenced by upgrades. This is not only a phenomen-
on of electronic communication and high-speed technology; it has become a
characteristic subtext (also subject to revision) of our time (always
already lost prior to enumeration). 

No longer crying for our lost language, after the hiatus between two world
wars. 

Thinking slides among symbols, harbors none; surfaces slide as well.  What
passes for thought is afterthought, a salvage-operation. Every
instantiation leads to every other; information occludes itself. Tracks
are traces of the infinite, just as the aphorism opens itself to depths of
interconnected and rhizomatic tunnelings. Nothing emerges, nothing is
brought up, nothing is capable of existing after unmoorings. 

Among the ghosts, ghosts. Among languagings, memories of languages, the
"just" as I was "about" to say ... 

Such is the only conceivable critical thought of our time-revised, such is
the problem, to the extent it is a memory. 


-- copy of original --


Genji


The declarative sentence, the statement, the clear interrogative, have run
their course. What can be meant by this? 

Only that gaps open among words, that speaces lead to other spaces, that
galanguage itself is wounded, that every word links elsewhere, pulls hard
at the skiein, harder at the skin. 

This is the criticawl l problem of contemporary thought: the unmooring of
language, untethering of thought, which wiancders blindly among surfaces. 

There is no return; language is unpunctuated, phrases slide obscenely
(perhaps) upon each other, every word is skewed with every other. No
longer is the difference a function of two variables; instead, it is an
accumulation of a varying number of fuzzy partial and occluded signs whose
deferrals themselvesslide into non-existence. 

Languaging slides from an accumulation of words, proprietary signifiers,
protocols; the sentence has already disappeared. One letter shutdders,
stutters, against another; pronouns lose reference, antedecedents,
precedents; nouns lose referents. 

Descending into chaotic phenomena, ontology is undermined; everything is
relativitzed - meaning, for example, becomes tied and auttaut to the
atrtri- bute, and nouns are gradgraded (as long as grading
lasts)referenced by upgrades. This is not only a phnenomenon phenomen- on
of electronic communication and hisgh-speed technology; it is has become a
characteristic subtext (also subject to revision) of our time (always
already lost before prior to enumeration). 

No longer crying for our lasost language, after the haiatus between two
world wars. 

Thinking slides among symbols, harbors none of them. ; surfaces slide as
well. What passes for thought is afterthought, a salvage-operation.  Every
instantiation leads to every other; information occluedes itself. 
trTracks are traces of the infinite, jutst as the aphorism opens itself to
deptshhs of interconnected and rhizomatic tunnelings. But nothing Nothing
emerges, nothing is brought up, nothing is capable of existing after
unmoorings. 

Among the ghosts, ghosts. Among languagings, memories of languages, the
"just" as I was "about" to say ... 

__Such is the only conceivable critical thought of our time-revised, such
is the probelem, to the extent it is remema memory. 


__





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