Sunday, August 06, 2006

More on non-linear narratives

So... I'm searching out the overlaps between language, causality (or causalities), randomness, and psychological and religious experience. I am trying to envision a kind of non-linear or branched causality, that might better explain (some) things (like knowledge transmission, or historical connections, or the seeming, or real, disconnect between righteousness (or its opposite) and reward).

I have found that much philosophy, math, and physics lack clarity and explicitness in non-technical language. That causes me to wonder how clear and explicit much of that work really is.

But, alas, that presents a contradiction already to me, since poetry is a technical kind of language, and my poetry particularly seems to be such a bumbite for people! So that binds me in 2 contradictions, one concerning clarity; the other that my edgy linguistic experiments are directly related to, and implicated in finding more branched and non-linear causalities. I guess I'm stuck with that.


To get unstuck, here's something I sketched out while stuck in the San Francisco airport a while back. It’s the opening to a stroll thru some causal models and how they've changed over time, beginning with the question, 'what causes malaria?'. But I don’t get to that question in this sketch.


Riddel ov the Thred

Thare iz a thred, it is notten, it is koyel,
Like the yung prittee wimmen, it iz hard tu hoeld.
Wen yu lift this thred, this silkee frinj,
It iz lite in yur hand, just a foton a time.
     Now peenk az the klowdz at sunrize, now goelden
     Az Jerrusullem in the benden shaedz ov dusk;
     It iz blu like the jakkarranda blossem,
It chaenjez over time, it fallz frum yur hand**.     ** utherz say "sky"

Wut iz this thred that the sajez woud spin?
That the fizzassist minuetlee stretchez and frayz?
That biyollojists kut intu seekwens ov assid,
Foelden with oxxajjen, and randem evolvz?

Wut iz this thred, that historreyanz drag it
Like a fishermanz net, troling thaer seez?
Pollattishenz pull it with all thaer mite;
Thay kare not wether it brake or hoeld.
Mathmattishenz woud rezolv its repeeting orderz,
This hapless tangel, theze numbel handz.

Wut iz this thred? Yes, wut iz this thred?

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