online: 8 october 2015
modified: 7-8 october 2015
7 october 2015 autumn tints in modern
culture
...on the highest seat... overlooking the Vale of Health... yellow
leaves and brown... on what were light brown hard mud paths... now wet,
dark brown, and squelchy...
...as i crossed an attempted field or lawn (where recently were tall
wild plants... nettles and others... some as tall as people)... as i
crossed that field i met a head-bobbing beak of a shiny black crow...
and enjoy the thought that anyone is able to publish such thoughts or
any... given netweb and all its complex hidden industry...
...this is what became of the telephone exchange... the prototype or
model of the post-mechanical... world... for that is what it is (for all
its misuse as way to turn new free life and being into profit, work,
occupation... or standing-reserve* as so significantly named by Martin
Heidegger)...
*Martin Heidegger basic writings, edited by David Farrell Krell,
Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1978. 'standing-reserve' appears in the
essay: 'the question concerning technology' page 299 and others.
...yes that's what came to mind as i set out today... how fortunate we
are in being able each to speak or write or act according to our ideas
of what seems right or wrong... to broadcast being and to extend itself
as thus and as we are... as 'netual' entities... as part ourselves of culture new...
and weak or powerful... in joining what once were systems, networks and the
like... now reappearing as software clouds in which old forms persist and flounder... as yet... tut tut... and in whom the new
appears... if only briefly... but perhaps as if sublime...
...as i look up from this a crow flying slowly moves across the image of
distant city which is in mist or rain... though here... in another part
of it... the air is cool and dry... as crow flies on through air to
perch on a tall tree with few leaves... and the bird's still visible as
silhouette... of life lived at the human scale but also at the scale of
heaven above... as insects also share our lives while out of sight
beneath us and in earthly holiness though often felt as pests or
irritations... as well as marvels of the nanotechnical... (measured in
the thousandth parts of a millimetre... or even less?)...
...a crow speaks 6 or 8 croaks... and then 4 or 5 more... as if applauding
or in disagreement...
...my back is aching slightly so i gather up this little camp (of one
person's posture, clothes, handheld device and bag)... as i change from
sit to stand and walk in view of city lights switched on while this was
written...
...and now in Korean cafe at night to eat something of the east... not
to my taste but good in being a worked-out part of a complete and
self-consistent ancient culture... though far from full of the unwritten
emptiness of modern culture so potentially good though dangerous...
(yet each perhaps contains the other....?)
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