1.01.2008

The State Face

Coined, conned, re-capped, evolved: progress. As in, we made progress this month. We undug a treasure. We be-Came greater, stronger ( -er), er. She stutters, coy, timid, indifferent—no, playful and insecure, intimate. She is strongest, greatest (-est), est. The pitiful temper, his pitiful temper, was suicide, ended in suicide, had had quite enough, disguised his own blood as a traitor, a player in another wagon, another ear, another era, another county. Them, he trusted them. She is garrulous when she is undressed, not embarrassed, not hidden. Upbeat, congenial, engaging: wonderful. As in, of course, most recently, the dinner was wonderful. Attended by finely dressed bourgeois, against the common threads of indecency, Ho-Ho, (-ist): the elitist was not unwelcome nor conditioned for humble courtship. The seats were at center Court. This, above all, became our Mantra: Long, long, life the kinship between….Etc, beat, beat, etc. We play it at half-time to a magazine of percussion. She is usual, fitting, and fond of her skin. She was not betrayed by one of them. The blueprint stolen from the fifth floor of the Empire State Building (psst: hssh!) was a guideline to cultural success: a metaphoric blueprint, Harrison mutters, a suggestion. A corporate emblem of recognition. Even unstartled, unshocked, there remains, but to a few of the unadulterated populace, a strong faith, an interest, a belief, in the puppeteers, the man who is the man: undeniably, they reside in high rises, off the park, wear suits, drink scotch, do not anger easily or ever and are inhumane, skinless, cold. As in it is cold outside in January (precisely: well). This would resolve itself in scandal, Emma suggests, removed from the country club residence, unkempt—by nineteenth century standard—properly educated and claimed, eventually, by law school and the unsurprising aftermaths. A drive, a frivolous drive, to insignificance. All of them, she marvels (and Us too!). The indecency, however, is not encouraged nor prohibited, allowed, yes, allowed, permitted, permissive and not depressive to the mass of elected pedestrians, more in the middle, farther father: clan, precipitate a familial despot into our founded utopian equanimity, our class of man, our class of life. She, apart from her graceful indifference while exposed, was less inclined to aggressive assault. It is not visually compatible with the educational models of success, the principle behind thematic exposure—not her nudity, not representations of her nudity—history, political science, why the trends (like science and dams and border crossings compare!) are the trends they are. In physics like in sociology, it is a meager and untapped principle, a beauty contest (no, not a beauty contest). The blueprints, harangue, dear harangue. The cultural diagram of popularity, recognition. It is a metaphoric representation, Harrison mutters again, this time disillusioned and in despair, perhaps depressive by nature, but suicidal? Questionable? The repute of such a willful being would be in jeopardy: to make himself un-exist. He would not make himself un-exist, Emma insists. Trained, as usual, as mentioned, in the strictest of classics, the trainer’s path. And yet, impetuous by desire, the man jumps, a man himself the patriarch and founder, jumps, jumps, and in the recognition, she the recognizer, the artist un-recognized in this time, the artist that must go un-recognized for culture to rebound and become itself again: it cannot be the ironic compliment, it cannot be at all. It must go, abide, in nature and in itself, in no heated face of worldly recognition. There are no maps, Harrison yells. He yells at her, at Emma, at the face of this building, at the face of this state. What is a leap, he thinks, and he jumps and doesn’t expect to get anything and doesn’t get anything at all. Her face, of course, is the face on the screen and it is smiling and thinking what a fool! And he is thinking, jumping and jumping and nobody around jumping and jumping, what a leap, what a leap!

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