online: 9 june 2019
modified: 7 june 2019
25 may 2019 prosthesis
today i would like to think of prosthesis . . . things made to aid
people . . . a rather clumsy word, no doubt, which seems necessary in
these times . . .
i will try not to attempt to write a definition but to put the whole
idea in ordinary words . . . a thing made to assist people in using
other things . . . already it begins to sound clever and even
unnecessary or academic or teacherly . . . not like many other words
that flow more smoothly . . .
let us take the word chair and the word seat . . . and also the word
wheelchair . . . a chair carries many implications . . . beyond that
of supporting peoples posture when seated . . . but also wheelchair
brings the idea of an object with two functions . . . here they are
combined in a double name . . .
it might be that there will arise a double name which is more original
than that . . . in that it is a single entity and combines smoothly with
other words as such . . . a chair by itself can indicate the king or a
chief or the chair of a committee or meeting . . .
who is in charge here? says the police man towards a disorderly group
of people . . . and there is also the word wheel . . .
i am pausing for a moment to let these words and thoughts they represent
to interact as freely as possible . . . but the writing seems to be
leading in the wrong direction . . .
i used to dislike the word prosthesis which leads one to evaluate . .
. and end that writing experiment beginning with speech and continuing
as writing . . . let us try to recover that aim . . . that categorical
imperative . . . i never used that word but want to use it now . . . it
came twice to me, as part of a wider discussion by other people . . .
though i do not know what it means sufficiently to enjoy it just yet . .
. but i am remembering that my first attempts at poetical writing about
design could also be as enjoyable as anything else . . . what i
understood it to mean was the necessity of having a firm standpoint for
poetic writing and for rational thinking . . .
so lets do what comes to mind, if we allow this obscure phrase of
Immanuel Kant to provide guidance outside the range of poetry perhaps .
. . but not beyond the range of chairs and tables . . . (beautiful or
comfortable or otherwise) . . .
as usual on second reading the words that seemed uninteresting have
changed in the interval and there remains need to resay or rewrite these
collections of words . . . so having written quite a lot about what
could be a wrong situation we can try to continue simply with the
intention of combining speech with writing . . . it almost happens to me
. . .
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