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