June 12, 2004
Word Virus: Introduction
"We must find out what words are and how they function.
They become images when written down,
but images of words repeated in the mind
and not of the image of the thing itself."
-William S. Burroughs, via "The William Burroughs Files"
"My general theory......has been that the Word is literally a virus, and that it has not been recognized as such because it has achieved a state of relatively stable symbiosis with it's human host....The Word clearly bears the single identifying feature of a virus: it's an organism with no internal function other than to replicate itself."
-William S. Burroughs, via http://www.lucaspickford.com/burrwords.htm
"There are generally six steps that take place in viral replication. Adsorption (attachment to the host cell), penetration, uncoating, genome replication (viral synthesis), maturation, and release."
-from "Wikipedia: virus"
"The origin of viruses is not entirely clear, but the currently favoured explanation is that they are derived from their host organisms, originating from transferrable elements like plasmids or transposons."
-from "Wikipedia: virus"
"The word may once have been a healthy neutral cell. It is now a parasitic organism that invades and damages the central nervous system. Modern man has lost the option of silence. Try halting your sub-vocal speech. Try to achieve even ten seconds of inner silence. You will encounter a resisting organism that forces you to talk."
-WSB, via http://novatrilogy.tripod.com/wordjunk.htm
"Viruses typically consist of a protein coat (the envelope), a protein core (the capsid) that encloses the viral genes and the viral genetic material itself. The envelope, normally derived from the cell membrane of the previous host, protects the viral genome contained within and also provides the mechanism by which the virus infects its host."
-from "Wikipedia: virus"
"I'm glad you liked the article [Confidence Trick]. I think words have a lot more power over us than we often think. When we use words we bring other people right into our brains. Reading these words right now, I am speaking inside your head, in your own voice. It is a much more intense process than is usually acknowledged. We allow other people to inhabit us, to posess us and manipulate us as veritably as a ventriliquist's dummy. Is it really that heretical to suggest that we may be controlled by words carelessly incorporated into our vocabularies?" me, in draft I wrote for the another blog's comment section
"Viruses can serve as vectors, trasporting genes from cell to cell, a process known as trasduction. General transduction occurs when host DNA, fragmented in the course of the viral infection, is incorporated into new virus particles that carry these fragments to a new host cell."
-from Biology, 5th edition, my high school textbook
When writing Confidence Trick, I was using Bill Burroughs' great theoretical insight -- the idea of the "word-virus" (a "bit of word and image"), as a jumping-off point. I was trying to make a kind of innoculation against what I consider to be an ugly and dangerous mutation. But not all words are parasites -- the co-habitational, mutagenic capacity of language is the greatest power of humanity.
Since starting this blog, I have continued analyzing words with the idea of the word-virus in mind. I like to tinker with the genetics of words to purify useful strains as well as to create vaccines against harmful ones. To consolidate and extend this work, I'm going to start a category of "Word Virus" posts collecting all of the related posts in one place, a kind of bio-engineering facility to culture and experiment with language. Let's take it from here...
To the virus lab!
Posted by Sam at June 12, 2004 12:39 AM
a word is only
the marker of
the sub voc
phrase fragment
it sets off in the receiver
how that string becomes
over and over the same
is the real deal
how
that string
that variable string
of word net connectors
settles on a
sufficient similarity
in two heads
that iz the only basis
of
a successful communication
whatever
the subvoc connectors
that fire off
as the word is introduced
to a word net
in a context
of successive
word hits
those are the
moving parts
of the word-ding
as virus
want to know
meaning
see what
the receiving net does
next
---------------------------------
the word/virus
is this whole fragmental activity
in the receiver net
using the notion
that the virus is
not just the word
but
this whole activity
this cloudy
meaning iceberg
(word-tip/nets connectors/underwater body)
explains why
the word tip
can stay the same
and yet
its underwater actions
in the receiving wordnet
i.e.
its action(meaning)
can
mutate radically
even become its opposite
getting at that fragment
at a particular cultural moment
like you do in explicating
the confidence mutation circa
late 90s yup america
is the real
" gene read out"
of the word/virus organism-activity packet
Posted by: meat me at June 12, 2004 04:25 PM
yes. as you
point out,
it is very
important
to
distinguish
between
the fragmentary,
neural-net activity
of words/subvocalizations
and
the "underwater"
functioning of the
word-virus/associations
(biologically,
a virus
even has
a different name
when it is
incorporated into
host DNA.
"prosid" I think...)
If I understand
right,
the first
process is what
WSB
likens to a
computer punch-card
or player piano,
and
is pure repetition.
(manufacture to spec
is necessary for
even rudimentary understanding.)
The second, on
the other hand
occurs by way of
"associative states"
with
much more mutable
patterns
of image + emotion.
The tricky part
is
how these
two processes
"track"
each other.
not
super-closely/
"Mutation of
word-function
can only
be a
result of
'cutting in' " (Burroughs)
putting
a second
card
in the machine
at the same time
should work.
just track back
to the coordinate points,
the subvocal words
that
produce errant
signals
((((((butfuck
What are
we talking about
here
"errant signal"?
let's try
to stay clear
about what's
at stake.
Shame, yes,
panic, yes.
--The two
most common
STDs.
rage and
other
fast-burners.
and certainly
the horrible
couch
of learned
helplessness.
can you think of others?
)))))))))))
-------
once identified
these
coordinate points
present
a target for
disruption.
KAW-FI-DINCE
"whatta mess --
throw another
card in the machine
and fast."
I think
the weakness of
CT
--- no good
disrupting word/card.
It always
ended up so:
"i'm thinking
of confidence"
(iceberg quivers)
"and that's
supposed to
tell me
to
do something
...wait, what were
my instructions?"
at best
a freeze-up
never
really shattered
the bastard.
--------------
My next experiment
is on
motive/motivation
-- I want to see
if a super-
tight resonance
will work.
(jesus knows
"motivation"
is a word
many of my
contemporaries
have
fallen foul of.)
Posted by: sam at June 15, 2004 08:17 AM
you got the motion
right i think
so keep movin
the bigger constructs are emergent
let em appear
like
the picture
in the developer tray
Posted by: pink at June 15, 2004 05:41 PM
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