Nothing
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2024 12:22 am
Douglas Mercer
July 6 2024
Now that German Idealism is reaching it completion, it’s time to do some clerical work and tie up some loose ends. The owl of Minerva flies at night but the still long day needs to be traversed, though the dusk of twilight can be glimpsed as the sun begins its slow descent (decline and fall). Hegel said that the universe was incapable of keeping secrets which is not true; it can but does not want to. But it will only reveal those secrets to one who comes with an open heart and a vivid imagination, a pioneer; after the owl of Minerva takes her final flight what is never submerged catches sight of everyone, ineluctably.
The god teaches us by words.
We are to learn that in heaven (having, haven, heaving) nothing always happens. When we hear “happen” we are alerted to the event as words possess the same valence at all times, unless the speech is mundane. Of course heaven is full of action but an odd kind of action on its plateau: who needs action when we got words? Being, seeing, looking, singing, saying, hearing. But heaven in not a thing, it is information in formation, that is it is not physical substance or matter. It is pure mind or spirit, and animate. There things do not mean but are means, a way of going, there it goes without saying.
So the god plays on the word nothing: no thing. This is its famous wink or nod, German winke (signaling), the way Birnam wood always comes to Dunsinane, the way in the end the figural becomes literal and the literal become figural, when light and dark play as unified opposites and hold sway. Were there to be only light one would be blinded and see nothing; were there only dark one would be equally blind and equally see nothing. The two always need to combine with no third term with no dialectic in order to be able to see. What does one see? A diaphanous world where one sees through everything (that is by means of everything); and sees nothing.
Nowhere: now here. Obvious.
All or nothing. Nothing at all.
They say the universe emanated from nothing, from a vacuum, or a void, or vacancy, and so it did. They say in the end the universe will split apart, the centrifugal or fugue forces finally beating out the centripetal ones and the constituent parts of matter will become smaller and smaller and more distant from one another until matter will be spread thinly over the void, with no light or sound, and so it will. It will be a cold place where nothing ever happens.
They say in his madness Friedrich Holderlin was outrageously courteous, even ostentatiously so, he addressed everyone he met as an aristocratic noble with ornate and flowery language and punctuated by bows, played the piano incessantly, sang always, and liked to say “nothing happens to me.” Eckhart said that God is “nothingness”; science tells us that the nothing less than the universe came from nothingness though philosophy tells us that nothing comes from nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit, from nothing nothing is made); Sartre famously and fashionably replaced being and time with being and nothingness; nothing is simply the nihilism at the end of time which is overcome by the pure logic of thought alone, that is the software takes over and the hardware is jettisoned like a rocket losing its boosters when enough thrust accrues and escape velocity is attained. It is certainly something to think about this nothing.
***
Everyone is trying to get to the bar
The name of the bar, the bar is called heaven
The band in heaven, they play my favorite song
They play it one more time, they play it all night long
When this song is over
It starts again
Heaven is a place
Where nothing ever happens
The band plays the music of the future, the music of the spheres and the celestial song holds sway in heaven; this music goes on forever; we will then be only song; heaven is a place or a location or a point or a site; the destination will be dense and at it nothing will always happen.
There is a party, everyone is there
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time
When this party is over it will start again
It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same
In Finnegan’s Wake (Finn Again Wakes) the author has the main and only character (who dreams the book) have the initials HCE: here comes everybody, that is we are all in this vibration. Heaven is a place of exuberance, jubilation, and exhilaration (party) and when the fun ends it begins again right away. In Critical Theory they ponder long on the concepts of same/different, but in heaven the discrepancy has fallen away and all is equal (all things being equal, all things equal being). When it rains and shines everything is the same, embrace the void, it is shining, it is not living, it is knowing, it is being, and nothing always happens.
When this kiss is over, it will start again
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be this much fun
Heaven is a place where nothing always happens
The kiss is the desert’s kiss and it consumes, eats up and is a consummate consummation; when it ends it begins again and so on forever; that nothing at all (the all is nothing, the nothing is all, heaven is where nothing transpires), that a place where nothing always happens could be so intoxicating is not hard to imagine at all; it is easy when you try. The gods shine above our heads, when they kiss we see nothing but form.
***
We are on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
I will take that ride to nowhere
The road is destiny or density rather; the path, the way; inside and there is where it happens; here the speaker is willing to gamble (bet) on this nothing which is first and foremost , last and always, a ride.
We are on the road to paradise
Here we go
Maybe you wonder where you are
I don't care
Here is where time is on our side
Take you there
Where one is then will be beside the point; here time is no longer a vexing or limiting agent but has been overcome and so ordered; and will work in concert with us, we will love the passage or passing of time, that is time passes away (a way, a road/ride).
There's a city in my mind
Come along and take that ride
It is alright
It is very far away
But it is coming day by day
Would you like to come along?
You could help me sing this song
The location will be the celestial city at the end of time; it is alright means all war and strife have subsided, all the revolutions of life have ceased (surcease is success), and one only revolves as on a carousel; you know it’s going to be alright; the thing in the distance (in fact it is near) is coming, that is it is underway along its way toward us; anyone who wants to can sing and be song.
***
Nothing is better than that, that is nothing is better than something that is only a thing, thatness and whatness, substance; that is the world will fall way when everything comes from nothing; when nothing is at all; you can say this is farfetched our outlandish, but those are bootless cries by now. Nothing doing, as the man said, as he bowed outrageously and recognized every one as being ennobled and began to tap with long nails on the keyboard and begin his soaring song; German Idealism has interpreted the words appropriately and has appropriated them to its cause, by putting them in their proper place. And really it was nothing but a thing, as if we had got hold of a black hole and set all things trembling.
***
Notes:
In Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark Bellam's map of the ocean is a blank piece of paper.
In Salinger's Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters the note in the cigar box that is an empty piece of paper is said to have been given "by way of explanation." The groom draws nearer as always.
July 6 2024
Now that German Idealism is reaching it completion, it’s time to do some clerical work and tie up some loose ends. The owl of Minerva flies at night but the still long day needs to be traversed, though the dusk of twilight can be glimpsed as the sun begins its slow descent (decline and fall). Hegel said that the universe was incapable of keeping secrets which is not true; it can but does not want to. But it will only reveal those secrets to one who comes with an open heart and a vivid imagination, a pioneer; after the owl of Minerva takes her final flight what is never submerged catches sight of everyone, ineluctably.
The god teaches us by words.
We are to learn that in heaven (having, haven, heaving) nothing always happens. When we hear “happen” we are alerted to the event as words possess the same valence at all times, unless the speech is mundane. Of course heaven is full of action but an odd kind of action on its plateau: who needs action when we got words? Being, seeing, looking, singing, saying, hearing. But heaven in not a thing, it is information in formation, that is it is not physical substance or matter. It is pure mind or spirit, and animate. There things do not mean but are means, a way of going, there it goes without saying.
So the god plays on the word nothing: no thing. This is its famous wink or nod, German winke (signaling), the way Birnam wood always comes to Dunsinane, the way in the end the figural becomes literal and the literal become figural, when light and dark play as unified opposites and hold sway. Were there to be only light one would be blinded and see nothing; were there only dark one would be equally blind and equally see nothing. The two always need to combine with no third term with no dialectic in order to be able to see. What does one see? A diaphanous world where one sees through everything (that is by means of everything); and sees nothing.
Nowhere: now here. Obvious.
All or nothing. Nothing at all.
They say the universe emanated from nothing, from a vacuum, or a void, or vacancy, and so it did. They say in the end the universe will split apart, the centrifugal or fugue forces finally beating out the centripetal ones and the constituent parts of matter will become smaller and smaller and more distant from one another until matter will be spread thinly over the void, with no light or sound, and so it will. It will be a cold place where nothing ever happens.
They say in his madness Friedrich Holderlin was outrageously courteous, even ostentatiously so, he addressed everyone he met as an aristocratic noble with ornate and flowery language and punctuated by bows, played the piano incessantly, sang always, and liked to say “nothing happens to me.” Eckhart said that God is “nothingness”; science tells us that the nothing less than the universe came from nothingness though philosophy tells us that nothing comes from nothing (ex nihilo nihil fit, from nothing nothing is made); Sartre famously and fashionably replaced being and time with being and nothingness; nothing is simply the nihilism at the end of time which is overcome by the pure logic of thought alone, that is the software takes over and the hardware is jettisoned like a rocket losing its boosters when enough thrust accrues and escape velocity is attained. It is certainly something to think about this nothing.
***
Everyone is trying to get to the bar
The name of the bar, the bar is called heaven
The band in heaven, they play my favorite song
They play it one more time, they play it all night long
When this song is over
It starts again
Heaven is a place
Where nothing ever happens
The band plays the music of the future, the music of the spheres and the celestial song holds sway in heaven; this music goes on forever; we will then be only song; heaven is a place or a location or a point or a site; the destination will be dense and at it nothing will always happen.
There is a party, everyone is there
Everyone will leave at exactly the same time
When this party is over it will start again
It will not be any different, it will be exactly the same
In Finnegan’s Wake (Finn Again Wakes) the author has the main and only character (who dreams the book) have the initials HCE: here comes everybody, that is we are all in this vibration. Heaven is a place of exuberance, jubilation, and exhilaration (party) and when the fun ends it begins again right away. In Critical Theory they ponder long on the concepts of same/different, but in heaven the discrepancy has fallen away and all is equal (all things being equal, all things equal being). When it rains and shines everything is the same, embrace the void, it is shining, it is not living, it is knowing, it is being, and nothing always happens.
When this kiss is over, it will start again
It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
Could be so exciting, could be this much fun
Heaven is a place where nothing always happens
The kiss is the desert’s kiss and it consumes, eats up and is a consummate consummation; when it ends it begins again and so on forever; that nothing at all (the all is nothing, the nothing is all, heaven is where nothing transpires), that a place where nothing always happens could be so intoxicating is not hard to imagine at all; it is easy when you try. The gods shine above our heads, when they kiss we see nothing but form.
***
We are on a road to nowhere
Come on inside
I will take that ride to nowhere
The road is destiny or density rather; the path, the way; inside and there is where it happens; here the speaker is willing to gamble (bet) on this nothing which is first and foremost , last and always, a ride.
We are on the road to paradise
Here we go
Maybe you wonder where you are
I don't care
Here is where time is on our side
Take you there
Where one is then will be beside the point; here time is no longer a vexing or limiting agent but has been overcome and so ordered; and will work in concert with us, we will love the passage or passing of time, that is time passes away (a way, a road/ride).
There's a city in my mind
Come along and take that ride
It is alright
It is very far away
But it is coming day by day
Would you like to come along?
You could help me sing this song
The location will be the celestial city at the end of time; it is alright means all war and strife have subsided, all the revolutions of life have ceased (surcease is success), and one only revolves as on a carousel; you know it’s going to be alright; the thing in the distance (in fact it is near) is coming, that is it is underway along its way toward us; anyone who wants to can sing and be song.
***
Nothing is better than that, that is nothing is better than something that is only a thing, thatness and whatness, substance; that is the world will fall way when everything comes from nothing; when nothing is at all; you can say this is farfetched our outlandish, but those are bootless cries by now. Nothing doing, as the man said, as he bowed outrageously and recognized every one as being ennobled and began to tap with long nails on the keyboard and begin his soaring song; German Idealism has interpreted the words appropriately and has appropriated them to its cause, by putting them in their proper place. And really it was nothing but a thing, as if we had got hold of a black hole and set all things trembling.
***
Notes:
In Carroll's The Hunting Of The Snark Bellam's map of the ocean is a blank piece of paper.
In Salinger's Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters the note in the cigar box that is an empty piece of paper is said to have been given "by way of explanation." The groom draws nearer as always.
