Prelude to Minimalism

Agreeing with our earlier assessment as to the nature of Art
in The Art of Minimalism
as:
the annihilation of the Subject
by the nature of its being
a reflection of the Totality

Minimalist Art
is the annihilation of the Subject
(by the nature of its being
a reflection of the Totality)
through the most minimal expression available
to both Artist and Spectator

This presupposes a few things:
1. Minimalist Art is the most minimal expression available
2. This expression must be shared by both Artist and Spectator
3. The minimalist expression is Art

I believe material reality is the Totality of Being
which is to say
The most minimal expression of Material Reality is its Being

The Minimalist Art Object is thus
the expression of its Being in Material Reality

Which is to say
The minimalist expression shared by both Artist and Spectator
is the Being of the Minimalist Art Object in its Material Reality

As such
the Minimalist Art Object is Art
by its annihilation of the Subject
through reflecting the Totality
by its Being in the Material Reality

Every Subject in engaging the Minimalist Art Object
is annihilated by the minimalist expression of (its) Material Reality
as it exists in (its) Totality

The Totality of each Subject's engagement
with the Minimalist Art Object
is (its) Being in (the) Material Reality

Breaking Up The Weeds

For D.

Its time to start throwing things away
again
Its alright with me though
I like it

I'm throwing away mp3s
they don't even take up any real space
I just like weeding out the shit

For the whole of last week
I've been going in alphabetical order
through all of my albums
and only playing the one's
of which I had any doubt
as to their Authenticity

I haven't gotten rid of much
really a few
but its just about making the decision
looking at something with a square eye
determining if its worth a good goddamn
and choosing to
either
take it or leave it

Hearing Only the Frequency

Trust me when I say

that everything I have

is yours

that everything I say

I say to you specifically

Trust me when I say

I will never lie to you

If you ever find yourself

giving into the demands

of an animal

you should reevaluate

your analytical processes

You're better than the animals

You've got to try and believe me

You've got to believe you're better than an animal

You're better than the animals

You've got to try and believe me

Solid Conservative Sentence

What they call classy these days used to pass as common decency.

No Egos

I know that sometimes people
have to talk over me
I'm not yet sure
if its a problem

I'm sure
I've got a streak of  sadomasochism in me
that would make Freud kick a mule
I'm certain all heroes do

It's not a crime to imagine yourself brave
at least not in my book
Courage always Courage
and there is no unsure thing

I believe volume has power too
but not in the way
that preachers on the capital steps
use it

The real thing
is always an unconscious
byproduct of belief
that what one says is right

It's not a crime to believe something is right
not in my book anyway
Righteous always Righteous
and there is no unsure thing

The Art of Minimalism

The thing I'd like to say about Minimalism is that
it has nothing to do with the quantity of Forms
and everything to do with the space of Conveyance

To get there we have to talk about Art:

Art is centered on the Art Object

It is through the Art Object
that we have any concept of Art at all
which is to say,
Art is the coming-into-being of the Art Object

Due to our Subjectivity
(ourselves as Subject in Relation to the Object)
being mediated by our Consciousness
(our consciousness as the Relation between
Subject and Object)
the Art Object
comes into being
for each Subject
entirely aside from its being in Totality

So,
Art is the coming-into-being of the Art Object
within the Totality
wherein
each Subject, in engaging the Art Object,
subsequently brings the Art Object into being
marked by the consciousness of the Subject

As the marked coming-into-being of the Object
is the Object mediated by consciousness
The marked Object
in the conscious engagement of the Subject
proxies for the Object as it exists in the Totality

In this way
the Subject is barred from perceiving
the Object in Totality
and thereby
Totality itself

For each Subject
their marking of the Art Object
functions as
the coming-into-being of the Art Object

In turn,
these individual markings
are subsumed in the Totality
within which they exist

The Art Object in Totality
subsumes
all markings done thereto

The Art Object in Totality
is the Art Object engaged

In this way,
The Art Object reflects its being in the Totality
and
the Subjective engagement with the Art Object
likewise reflects its being in the Totality
so
the Subjective engagement with the Art Object
reflects the Totality
in revealing the Subject's marking of the Art Object

The revealing of the Subject's marking of the Art Object
is the reflection of the Subject in Totality

The Subject is subsumed in the Totality
for the Totality is, in being Total, all-inclusive
and thereby,
reflects both the Subject and not the Subject
or
the Subject's being and not-being

The Subject then
in engaging Art
engages itself and its negation
and the negation
negates
the Subject is annihilated

Art is the annihilation of the Subject
by the nature of its being
a reflection of the Totality

Femme Noir

A Romance Novel

Stockholm, 1973


"You don't love this life.
You've just been in its grasp for so long,
that you don't know what you'd be
without it."

Then he unsheathed his dagger...

Intro to Minimalism

We've got to get a few things straight
about Art
before we dive head first into this thing

The concept of Art is an entirely human construct
which means
that all the meaning of Art is imposed from outside
by us incorporating that concept into our being

There is, as you can see,
an internal/external dichotomy:
Art is imposed on an object
by the incorporation of Art into our being
both of which happen simultaneously
put forever in motion
by the first utterance of Art

The utterance is the coming-into-being of all things
so,
every utterance is a coming-into-being
within the history of all like utterances
while simultaneously
manifesting itself as an entirely singular utterance

The utterance exists
both within and without
the continuum
it is itself and not itself
all inclusive and entirely exclusive

All of which is mediated by the Art object
represented in the Textual Chain
as the Productive Object

The Object catalyzes the utterance

All utterance starts with the Subject

engaging the Productive Object

the utterance itself is an Imposition

of the Subject's Intent in uttering

on a Receptive Object

i.e. 

The spoken word

The Canvas 

The Marble

The Other

As the utterance is an Imposition

it can never be the Productive Object

only Signify it

In turn,

the manifestation of the utterance

in conveyance

takes the place of the Productive Object

within the Totality,

thus the Textual Chain reinitiates,

and

in conveyance of the utterance

the utterance replaces the Productive Object

within the Totality

simultaneously

Accordingly

the Subject/Object dichotomy

has become impossible to separate

Both function simultaneously

in engaging the utterance

As Art is no different than any other utterance

the Productive Object (Art Object)

catalyzes the engagement of all interested parties:

i.e.

"The utterance of Chair"

The Subject (Artist)

looks at a chair (The Productive Object)

(That chair is perceived via the utterance of chair

for

the knowing of Chair is the reception of its utterance)

he creates an utterance of that chair

on the Receptive Object (Canvas)

The utterance of Chair has reproduced itself 

via the Productive Object (the (C)hair)

The artist's utterance of Chair

is at once 

its own marked utterance of Chair

while concurrently 

absorbed in the Total utterance of Chair

(Chair's utterance within the Totality)

In Reception

the Totality engages the marked Chair

The marked Chair

is both

its own Productive Object

(The utterance of Chair)

and a reproduction of the Total utterance of Chair

In this way the Totality absorbs the marked Chair

The Productive object is visible only in the Totality

accordingly

All Subjects engage the Totality in utterance

conveying (as above) marked utterances

which are Received only via the Totality

That is to say,

All conveyance fails to communicate

the truth of the Productive Object

because of the Imposition of the Subject

In the Metaphysics of Text

Art exists in the Productive Process

which is 

the marked utterance of Chair

coming into being

within the Totality

(Remember the Totality is Subjectively Constructed)

and Go!

Wake Up Call

Expect to be busy over the next two weeks.

Don't Awaken Sleeping Reason

Awaken the Sleeping Giant!

A Note on a Note on the Metaphysics of Text

The last post
A Note on the Metaphysics of Text
may have gone to your Readers twice

This was an accident
the First of which was unfinished
the Second is complete

So if you read the First
Jump in where it left off on the Second
Or just come all the way over
&
See things in their context for a change

A Note on the Metaphysics of Text

It has been about 18 months since I started Liberty Tries To Awaken Sleeping Reason
All the while, you proud few have followed me along
without which this could, literally, not have been possible
& I never stopped once to let you in on how its all supposed to work
So, to reward your most patient patience
I figured I'd give you the key to how this thing is supposed to happen.

This comes, to my own discredit, on the heels of some major changes to our little space here.
But that doesn't diminish your importance in the least,
really on the contrary:
You have asserted yourselves in the work since the very beginning,
and if this note is coming into being
it does so with your hands in it.

This comes down to what
Liberty Tries To Awaken Sleeping Reason is:
A Metablog
which
to understand that better
We'll look at something similar
Metafiction
definition via Wikipedia

Metafiction is a type of fiction 
that self-consciously addresses the devices of fiction, 
exposing the fictional illusion. 
It is the literary term describing fictional writing 
that self-consciously and systematically draws attention to its status as an artifact 
in posing questions about the relationship between fiction and reality, 
usually using irony and self-reflection. 


Which is(n't) terribly helpful


A Metablog is then a blog
that self-consciously addresses the devices of blogging,
exposing the aesthetic illusion.


With that in mind,
let's take a look at these changes.


Page Construction
This isn't the first time I've changed the "plastic" elements of the space
Sometimes it has been on account of Boredom
Other times Accident
But always with the consideration of the work in totality


That is not to say that every change
has accompanied some conscious alteration of theme
except in the way 
that as the form and matter of the aesthetic object
it changes the object as a whole.


Which is to say,
That the new Elephant on a Bicycle theme
is not indicative of a change in either my methodology or themes
except in the way that the constitution of the aesthetic object
affects engagement with the object


This happens, like all aesthetic engagements, on two fronts
which boils down to the same process on both sides
except with a distinction of roles and functions


That process is just the act of engagement
whatever that entails for the individual


I have removed the "Blogs I Follow" Gadget
because it distracted my eye
to the detriment of the work itself


This means, naturally, that many of your blogs
will not appear there
but I hope that information is available on your profiles
so as to not stop you from exploring
any of your fellow Followers' works
and thereby expand the possibilities of our work here


In its place,
I have added Labels to the posts
which took a hot minute
These are located under the heading:
DON'T USE THESE
which means:
DON'T USE THESE
and you shouldn't
mainly they are there to be used in a jiffy
and I don't encourage convenience
as a good way of reading poetry
my bathroom bookshelf excluded
that's a productive use of time


The point is to add Labels to the posts themselves
which should serve as an indication of each posts' Nature
and thereby allow us to communicate at a more productive level
but
If you happen to use them as a search guide
I trust you to accept 
that your action
will transform the work


I have likewise removed Music Preferences from my profile
as again,
it affected the aesthetic engagement in a way I found detracting
It also affected the number of preconditions 
I could account for in audience expectation
The incorporation of other media into the blog
are best isolated to the particular post in which they appear
and the collection of them established therefrom
Again, narrows the line of dialogue
allowing for better communication


This might be a good time to talk about Interests
Those were initially my way of establishing the context 
of Liberty Tries To Awaken Sleeping Reason
They either express an interest of the creator
which is my role and function
as thematic insight into underlying anxieties
within the work
or
display the methodological approaches
which make up the work's aesthetic theory


Divided:
Underlying Anxieties
Doom, Art, Protest, Private Spaces, Public Spaces
Methodological Considerations
Minimalism, Metafiction, Deconstruction

The choice of "personal" interests
I wanted to attribute to the author function
were carefully considered
not for their coolness in conjunction
but for the absolute reliability of their subject matter
as source material for the work
That is to say,
they are to be considered as ever-present preconditions
for the work's authorial construction

Doom works as the zero factor in the work
it is the bar by which all judgments are made
which is really the only thing that needs explaining
except
that this blog is written by the only author with any interest in
Private Spaces
Weird, right?

Minimalism aint what Wikipedia says it is
it deserves a post of its own
which I've been meaning to write and aint

The other two are what they are,
one was explained above,
the other,
explained for the last 18 months

Back to my earlier promised key
to Liberty Tries To Awaken Sleeping Reason

The Mechanics of Metablogging

A Metablog is a blog

that self-consciously addresses the devices of blogging,

exposing the aesthetic illusion.

I engage the work

self-consciously addressing the object

The object is best described in The Metaphysics of Text II

in a graph explaining the creator/spectator relationship

(thats You reading the Productive Object):

Textual Chain

The dotted green lines are not real lines

they are illusory lines 
constructed by a false belief in direct communication


In engaging the work
my object
is its existence as a Textual Chain


As a Metablog this chain becomes  cyclically kaleidoscopic
as the Productive Object
(the work as it produces your perception of it)
is changed by your contribution to the work
(actually or assumed)
into a Reproductive Object


My only response can be to a work forever in flux
That flux rests in the constant struggle to overcome
the division between all engaged parties
represented in the Textual Chain
this Striving is the space of
Liberty Tries To Awaken Sleeping Reason

That space is a kind of ex nihilio creatio
which is complicated
but that is the nature of all textual manifestation
and our unconscious suppression of which
is
the nature of the above divide

Which in reverse says:
Our engagement with the work
is conscious of the divide
between
Language and Meaning
and produces accordingly

This takes a lot into account
considering we are engaged in communication
but the text which results from this
is Being-in-Itself
in effect
The Work Communicates Only Itself

i.e.
"Drop that Beat!"

As we understand it
Drop that Beat
indicates
an ensuing onslaught
of bass and hi-hat

but Drop and Beat
carry with them them a legacy of different significations
so that
"Drop that Beat!"
evokes
"You Dropped that Beat!"
which would be an error on behalf of the percussionist

So
the attempt to communicate
"DJ, Rock the Party"
an (arguably) positive Meaning
(Drop that Beat!)
conveys an obviously negative Meaning
(You Dropped that Beat!)
by the nature of its Language

Which
if "Drop that Beat"
conveys two mutually exclusive Meanings
than
it has no Meaning-in-Itself

In contrast:
The Work Communicates Only Itself

Homesickness

Its alright if you miss it
It really is
but its a whole other thing
to live for things
you're bound to miss

You can't focus on things
you're bound to miss
You can see traces of them
everywhere
It gets overwhelming
just looking anywhere at all

One day I'll rewrite Descarte's Meditations
One day it'll make sense enough to me
So that I'll rewrite Descarte's Meditations
One day they'll have to ask
if I rewrote it at all

Folk Music

Folk Music

Liberates the Consciousness of the People

It used to take two Chords

and a pretty good Story

But the People these Days

aren't really into that sort of Thing

Arizona

I wrote 4 songs tonight

Now, that's not exactly true

I wrote 1/2 of one

finished 2

and took a cold, hard, look at an old 1

But finishing something

is a hell of an accomplishment

anyway

and that aint but half of what I did

I'm fibbing,

I didn't mean to

I just realized something just now

that makes me from a second ago

an outright fabricator

I might've wrote 1 and a 1/2 songs today

because two of the songs I finished

are mashed together

and I don't know what that counts for

Lately, I've been thinking alot about Art

I got this professor

always talking about "designation"

(which I don't give a shit about)

as a necessary requirement

for something to be Art

Like we all need more Authorities in our lives

So I dedicated a song to R.G. Collingwood

its an expressionist lyric

he oughta like that

"Collingwood"

When you were a writer

You were in love with your words

You wrote all those letters

Until you lost your nerve

What did you see?

Only the Mountains and the deep blue Sea

& What did you hear?

Only the Birds, Only the Birds, Only the Birds

Were There

Now that you are a painter

You're in love with all you see

You paint all your pictures

& then you ask it of me

What did you see?

Only the Mountains and the deep blue Sea

& What did you hear?

Only the Birds, Only the Birds, Only the Birds

Were There

~

There's an outro to it too

but there's no words

I like to think of it as a Dillemma

which is the same thing to me

as saying the Blues

It brings the melody into a more major

but way stranger space

in 6/4

(With the #s indicating number of measures)

Em G Em G F Fm B7 C7 Cm7 G B7 Em

2 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 2

It's sad and triumphant

the way I like 'em

Really wants a horn

but they're hard to find around here

and I find my mind

drifting off to Arizona

and my lonesome heart

trailing behind

I already done fucked that up

because all that above

comes at the end

and now its all out of order

but it don't matter really

there are always ways

of stranding things together

I wrote the next section first

and its been a minute too

but the words got me thinking

and seeing them in their own light

reminded me of a friend from the Service

That aint true really either

I knew the guy

but I wouldn't call 'em a friend

We were in the same company

and had a couple chances

to shoot the shit together

anyway

he was killed in Afghanistan

guess a week or so now

but it breaks my heart

anyway

"Snow Song"

That idiot drummer

He marched through the summer

Beating his drum

Till it snowed, playing,

"I'm Coming Home"

"I'm Coming Home"

Your soft-hearted sister

She's down by the river

Singing the only song

That she knows

"I'm Coming Home"

"I'm Coming Home"

Because

The Bells in the Alley, they clang

So Slow

And the Horns in the Army, they sing

So Slow

So don't Go

Back to the Snow

Without Me

~

That last bit I wrote

thinking about that kid

AJ Creighton

Who knows if he'd appreciate it

Anyway,

Dedications from Strangers

are more necessary to Art

Than Designations from Anybody

I know they don't make much sense together

at first glance

and they're not really supposed to

in any logical way

but its never been about logic

Anyway

How It All Works

For Stephanie

I've often wondered

whether being a Deconstructionist

affects my marriage

My wife, I think she's one too

even if she don't know it

But its hard to believe

that all that talk of différance

doesn't have some effect

This morning we had a tift

it didn't get out of hand or anything

it was about (t)ime

late mornings are always like that

We went to Gardens In A Flower Pot

on Little Creek

for potting soil

picked up three plants for that

shady oppressive strip of the backyard

Went looking for something called a Leopard Plant

picked up two Gold Dusts

which I think

are probably some version of the same thing

and some Gardenias

which took us by surprise

and we both happen to like

Got home and put away the groceries we picked up

then out to the yard for an hour or so

breaking up the soil, the vines, the weeds,

shoveling and planting

Made tacos for lunch

and Stef started slicing up some pork to marinate

She had it on lock down

but I was cleaning up anyway

She said

Thanks for helping

I said, earnestly,

I know its not your favorite part

She agreed

That's the destructive part

I like the constructive part

I don't remember if I said it or not

but I, at least, thought

That's an interesting way to think about it

Went back out for a smoke

and took a solid look at the garden we planted

It looked real good

but it got us thinking about other projects

to beautify the backyard

We talked about creating spaces

the Shade Garden,

the Vegetable Circle,

not trying to manipulate the grounds

make things all forced and alien;

just clearly mark out lines

doing what little work is necessary

to make that space make sense

In the corner of the yard

in the far back left:

An old tenant had dug for a pool

must've been a real hack-job

dumped the dug-up earth

back there and since

the Bamboo has been spreading

covering the ignored mass

taking up a good 8th of the lawn

I told her I'd like to cut down some of that Bamboo

not all of it

just enough to create a clear enclosure

make a circular space

surrounded by the tallest stalks

shadowed by the canopy

I couldn't wait to get to work

I took out the big garden shears

and started

hacking away at it

I told her

I like the destructive part

She said

Its different

you're destroying things

to create a space

I replied

That sentence right there

is exactly what I mean by Deconstruction

The Plight of the Antihero

Fashion Fascination

Fashion Fascination

The dog eats things in the yard

I don't know what they are

but she never needs more then she takes

I've lost the will

For a minute there

I thought the wife had taken the only pack of smokes

and I was wrapped up in the usual blinding terror

of

Going to the Store

Then I realized

I left them in my coat pocket

and I was wrong to say those things

I say in my head

about

expectations

No one gets a fair deal with Hope

It's always a sacrifice

and nothing about sacrifice

ever works

Rhetoric

Pretend for a second

that you actually took everybody seriously

That's pretty much how it is

anyway

I know I owe a few of the very few you

something on the Metaphysics of Text

The word's getting around

should really start putting the pieces together

Shortened Manifesto

for K.

It's good to see we finally got it together

We've been a'searching too damn long

Remember me back to California

Days drinking in the Dark

We won't be back till next Decemeber

and its been too damn long

To go back now

Think about those things

which happen all the time

Aint it like they've happened before

Aint it like they'll never happen again

Cyborg Puppet Show Theatre

For A.

Know when you look into the tiny hearts of men

(no bigger than a fist, clenching

Every other beat

that old, malleable stone of certainty)

That what you see there is blind Terror

I would experiment with the sublim(inal)

We know the universe

is

an ever-expanding, undefinable, space

Yet nobody feels inclined to say the same

of

themselves

We are all behind the wheel

simultaneously

Music playing Loud

singing, screaming,

Hung out on the Line

The Metaphysics of Text II

The Textual Chain

The series of occurrences previously mentioned is the broadest sense in which we perceive the Metaphysics. For our purposes -- the whole playing field. If any logical proof has not yet been adequately demonstrated as to illustrate the necessity of the above clauses, trust that it will. We need first, however, presuppose that our aforementioned terms do, in fact, exist in sequence; their definitions intrinsically entwined. That is, if we are to further define our terms, their relation to each other must be agreed upon.

This agreement is the Textual Chain and all manifestations of Text occur within it.

The Textual Chain:

We have then three distinct processes divided by the Productive Object with Intent and Reception being paralleled in the metaphysical space and Production accounting for all physical manifestations.

It is important to note the aforementioned division. Though without too much thought put to elevation. For the initial division of Metaphysics and Production can only assumed to be equal in value and sequence. The Metaphysics tier is composed of our Writer’s intent or projected aim -- the Work, and the Manifested Text of the Reader. The Production tier consists of the initial or accidental Text, as well as the finalized Text of the Productive Object.

There are, of course, two instances of transference. That is from a metaphysical object to a physical object and vice versa. These coincide with the two above illustrated divergences, one being the Writer function in which the Work incidentally constructs the Text, the second being the Reader function in which the Text manifests itself in its Reception. It is important to note here that the Work and the Manifested Text bear no relation outside of their shared ethereal nature.

This all centers on the Productive Object and as such, it will serve as our primary device for analyzing the Metaphysics.

The Metaphysics of Text I

From the Bottom Up

A Writer writes. This act, by the nature of its being, must produce something, for a writer writes, necessarily, upon some object. Whether its lined paper, napkins, refrigerator message boards, or clean white word processing docs, writing is by necessity - writing onto something. On the other hand, though potentially still creative, productive and clearly metaphorical, writing onto nothing is something other than writing, a process which serves no purpose in our discussion.

We first must define the object on which our writer writes. It is, foremost, a physical object.* This classification alone is rendered insufficient by the presence of a later physical manifestation in the textual chain. So, let us for now refer to this first object as the Receptive Object and the later physical object as the Productive Object. The Productive Object being the “final” or “finished” manifestation of the text, i.e. Newspaper, Novel, Blog Post, Film, Journal, etc (not to mention the frequent, ethereal, transformation from Receptive Object to Productive Object).

So, to recap:

A Writer writes onto a Receptive Object in order to create a Productive Object. What, however, does the Writer write? This gets tricky. It must be remarked here that a frequent dualistic nature persists throughout the entire Metaphysics of Text. The first of which is the dualistic manifestation of text, an at first deceptively simple problem of definition and subsequently a problematic core to the entire Metaphysics.

The first is simply the Text, which is the sequence of symbols constructed on the Receptive Object. The second being the perceived Work which our Writer intends to produce on the Receptive Object. The necessity of this distinction is empirical, or else every Writer would be completely content with the Text they produce, the impossibility of which should be self-evident. Our Writer, then, creates the Text accidentally by producing the Work. One could go further in saying that the Work is the attempt at producing the final Productive Object while the Text and its associated Receptive Object are the means to that end.

We begin to see the dualism moving towards conflict. For we can identify two lines of development and a problematic chronology between them. That is to say, the Work seeks to actualize itself through the Productive Object while the Text actualizes itself necessarily as the Receptive Object. However, the Work is not the primary catalyst for the Productive Object, the Productive Object is the actualization of the Receptive Object. So the Work cannot actualize itself in the Productive Object, or more clearly, the Productive Object cannot communicate the Work. That is not with any predictable reliability, for we must account for the possible coincidence.*

I want to be clear that this formula should not discourage us in our pursuit of the Work through the Productive Object. There is no need to throw away the literary analysis tradition. In many ways, we have always been judging a work by its efficacy in consistently manifesting what we assume to be the Writer’s Work. That efficacy remains crucial. It speaks to the skill of technique and the power of the Writer’s intention. It is however a judgment at its best.

Though, any further attempt which assumes that one is actually interpreting the Work itself, and not the physical manifestation of the Text as Productive Object, is built on false premises, it’s restriction to falsehood does not render it useless, only untrue. For the Metaphysics of Text is concerned with only one thing: Can the Work truly manifest itself? Or more clearly, Does the Work exist?

We mean, then, to explain how the Work and the Analysis can both be metaphysical objects while the Text is a physical object. What must transpire for this to occur, what are the laws of this transference, what must occur as a result? Then, and most importantly, what can be said truthfully about the Text? As such, our preliminary definitions are stated and we can begin our analysis.

*Footnotes in Comments.

Sorry I'm Late.

We cool?

Alright.