Sometimes Smallsongs

It happens. You enter a bookstore. Take a volume from the shelf. Browse. And are caught up by a passage.

Though the aiodoi are not of space and time, it is of space and time that they sing, and it is to the smallsongs of space and time they hear (for they hear all songs, always and everywhere) that they listen most closely . . . even though so many of the smallsongs are sad, or angry, or simply wrong.

There is an almost inconspicuous "to" in there which leads to the mis-construction of "to they hear" (odd but not entirely since to grant a hearing to is a kind of judicial procedure). As well the "hearing to" proceeds the listening following the distinction in English between hearing and listening. But if you re-read the passage the stray, little "to" comes into focus as "to that they listen". Most closely. Makes a pretty compositions "to that (hearing) they listen".

Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson, The Singers of Time bought and brought home to read (almost aloud).

I love the invention of the word “smallsongs” – puts me in mind of all the little tunes we create and carry in our day to day lives.

By paying attention to how some people are listening, quality of their silence, the tenor of their questions, you ensure that others get heard.

And so for day 2364
03.06.2013

Phenomenological Parsing

after Leslie Scalapino

observe experience

2 verbs
verb + noun

in one case there is a caesura between two equal injunctions; in the other, the object anneals any gap

And so for day 1889
14.02.2012

Dual Duels

Would that English have a nice dual that was not first person plural which collapses the difference of the two (or more) into a collective identity. Even if there were a lexical means for referencing a dual, the verb inflexions are, well, inflexible. Just how does a dual conjugate? Some evolution of a conflation of singular and plural verb forms? isare dancedance Reduplication does nicely. Pidjin savy. gogo eateat laughlaugh

Occupy
Spend time in a space.

Pronouns are invitiations to spend time in a space. A language’s set of pronouns tells much about the subjectivties it may be ready to entertain. Even more telling is the relation between the set of pronouns and the verbal inflections.

So where do the subjectivities whose time is not ...

So what dimension do the subjectivites with other temporalities occupy?

The point • first person
The line --- second person
The angle > third person


The dual.

And so for day 1290
25.06.2010