“I am animated by the idea that you can stop reading me when you wish,” from A Brief Life, a 1950 novel by Juan Carlos Onetti.
I certainly do not know much about this author who I have quoted above but in relation to what follows I think it is pertinent. I spent my 21st year reading the Western Cannon, of what some PoMo’s (Post Moderns which for me is entirely dated. As for what we are know I have no clue. Maybe a return to high modernity?) or are they Bo Bo’s (Bourgeoisie Bohemians) once referred to as dead white males and the odd existentialist female for that matter. But now that your with me and reading just continue; but pause for a moment or two to ruminate upon that sentence. Where are we going in particular? Yes you might find this boring and depart this moment in cyberspace or is it the blogosphere for something more stimulating both visually and mentally. But if you’re here your giving me your attention, now then if you are giving me your attention then we have begun to trade in a new (?) market currency; TIME.
Yes life’s most valuable commodity is now the currency of the blogosphere; focus your attention for a moment. I could ask what you were doing prior to your arrival at this sentence and what brought you here?
Is there something you were looking for in particular? Yes? No? As I sit here and write this time flows out in a rhythm dictated by both the fabric of my mind and they rhythm of my body as my fingers strike the keyboard while listening to the CD playing at this particular moment. Aja by Steely Dan, an acquired choice no doubt but if your still reading I would recommend it, the musicianship is first rate and there are enough jazz influences imbued in the pop music to make it interesting.
Are you still here? Well then a to explain my musical choice rather than have an affair when I hit my mid 40’s or a mid life crisis for that matter I rediscovered the music of my teens. Yes, (YES in particular Close to the Edge), I rediscovered that decade which has been christened ‘the decade which taste forgot.’ The 70’s of long hair & velvet flared hippies in tie dye eating brown rice. But then there arose out of this middle class rebellion a wave of working class revolt and tastelessness; Punk. Q Are we not Men? Mind you John Lydon who once wore a T shirt while in the Sex Pistols which said I hate Pink Floyd now says, Listen, you’d have to be daft as a brush to say you didn’t like Pink Floyd.
But back to the 70’s today I played Isle of Wight ‘call it anything’ by Miles Davis before I came to write this; oddly enough Miles was not much of a fixture for me in my progressive rock phase of the 70’s. If there is something that Miles Davis is not its cerebral; he’s hot, burning with a passionate intensity that just sweeps you up in its notes and carries you away.
So then are you still with me?
So time has become both process and commodity. My perception of time is based on the fact that I exist in time (Duration or duree) and occupy space. In one sense time has always been a commodity which in the past was reduced to labour, still is for that matter but now as you read your exchanging your time to secure entertainment, information, knowledge or just pure indulgence. I mean for you to give my words your attention your spending time and by staying your making a further investment, sadly there is no option for refunds in at this outpost of the blogosphere.
Your spending time here at this blog so therefore from my perspective it is up to me to entertain and inform you’ the reader. After all I can only surmise from the dashboard stats that you have been here and these words are being consumed.
Excuse me Aja has finished I need to change the CD there that’s better My Favourite Things by John Coltrane, wonderfully uplifting music and if you don’t own a copy then go out and by one.
Side step back to Philosophy; (this is after all the plane of inconsistency)
For me the essential reading or insight if we are to bridge that chasm between metaphysical philosophy and (Post Jungian) psychology hinges on Satori; (illuminated understanding that is not based upon a process of deductive reasoning) a moment of insight which provides understanding which is not verbal, at least to begin with. It’s an expression of interiority, a subjective experience which generates a state, a feeling that transcends language. It’s only after the event when the Mind has had a chance to reflect upon what happened that the experience is reduced to language.
With my reading of Deleuze A Thousand Plateaus Capitalism and Schizophrenia and co-authored by Felix Guattari (One self; many selves hence the multiplicity)I came way with the idea and still subscribe to it that philosophy is ultimately a tool. A tool anchored in language that can be directed towards specific problems and applied to achieve specific ends. A tool which can generate answers that relate to our understanding of the human condition.
Our life is a Becoming, which is anchored in the physical space of the body and its movement as it unfolds in the moments of our duration.
To Become is not a conscious undertaking, it’s more of Zen thing if you will. Becoming incorporates the dynamics of the unconscious mind with the perceptual qualities of the conscious mind, to Become is to evolve. Becoming has no fixed state but due its own momentum it does achieve rest, then progression. To Become is to drop away conscious intention, if anything Becoming is very similar in its presentation and dynamics to improvised jazz.
Is it up to us as individuals to create our own tools based on acquired knowledge plus non-linguistic insight welded to creative rumination and then application? After all as conscious individuals we have an intuitive urge to understand the world and our place in it. Hence we construct and offer interpretations and explanations based on our observations, perceptions and acquired knowledge. We then put it all into the mix which constitutes our principal organ of though, the Mind. I perceive the mind to be located in the brain and works though the expression of language. From the mind it then emerges as a concept, an idea with form, a tool based in language.
After all do we really want to spend our lives using the thoughts and quotes of others to articulate a rational for our existence? No? Well then its up to us as individuals to learn to fashion the tool we apply to life.
The goal of Philosophy is to create new knowledge and hence new tools. Philosophy is not a closed system it is in a constant state of Becoming. Its not just words on the page but the actual process of discursive engagement, rumination, the construction and transformation of ideas into tools which can be readily articulated and circulated. The language tool becomes a meme which then becomes; a system, a plane which is accessible to those willing to engage and evolve as it seeks its own end.
I thank you for the investment of time you have made while reading this and trust that you feel you have received sufficient recompense for your attention
