New Cities/New Soviets: Two Years In

July 14, 2005

Two Years In

Pinky has been here with just the right comment to put my inquiry back on track (as pinky so often is).

Control? was the question.

"PRODUCE", pinky said, is

A WORD THAT SHOWS
THE SELF'S LIMITS
BOTH WAYS
MUCH MORE CLEARLY
THE SELF'S LIMITS
AND ITS FREEDOM OF ACTION

----------
Puts it back in the frame, don't it.

And yet I wonder if he understands just what I meant
by the question?

-----------

Production and consumption.

between them commercial society.

The necessaries of life -- produced, yes,
but also consumed. As consumables, they
must be controlled.

Produced, yes, but also monopolized.

This is why I speak in terms of control, as
uncomfortable as the word is.

Control, dangerous, echoed footsteps
of the Golem. Like ambition and nationalism.

But at the same time, clarifying, necessary.
I'm telling you, days were the cart was so
hard, so heavy to pick up. If there is no
hope of calming the storm, of making the
earth yield up to us, of finding a spot where
blind compulsion cannot override your core being,

--------------

If there is that quicksilver marrow
inside me

what when it aches and tries
to run out my eyes,

what when it wants
to burst

or finding its burden
so heavy
wishes to flee?

Should I let it

explode me
cut me
and run away
with my feet?

Can we be enemies?

"In life the body suffers greatly"

do I then side with the sufferer?

(Deluze & Guatarri would have me do)

do I side with him by
suffering also, at his side,

or by suffering my own
pains, but enduring them
nobly and savoring their
greatness?

Or does he become
taken into my ambition,
my hope for the world?

When I speak of control,
I mean it in this sense.

the quicksilver at the heart
of humankind can never be tamed.

Neither controlled or controllable.

Nature, to, is beyond the control
of mankind.

But is it not my ambition to
have food for myself, is it
not my ambition to have shelter
for myself and my family.
To have comfort.
To have security.

How could I not be moved to
remedy my body's suffering?
By Molly's suffering?

Therefore it is taken into
my ambition, and can be worked
for without direct contact
with the suffering itself.

The notion of control in this
way functions as a kind of anasthetic.

Administered upon us so that we
may be operated upon,
it is necessarily odious.

But what of the operations
we must perform on ourselves?
Just the right amount of anasthetic
to do the job with a minimum
of gore,
not enough to numb
the hands and the mind.

Not enough to wrap
the quicksilver in a
gauzy coccoon,

for there will never
be enough anasthetic
to stop its
larval aching.
like a larva

Posted by Sam at July 14, 2005 10:32 AM

July 14, 2005

Two Years In

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