<nettime> assay

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

-


assay


should I put everything in quotes?
 " " in other words - since everything has been said?
 does it matter what order things are said in?

  "No."

  then any order is equivalent?
  "Well, order is equivalent in relation to length, but then not to degree
  of energy employed, ink per character per position, and so forth."

   you're saying it's a distinct difference based on the reside of what
   might otherwise be considered equivalence, insofar as any string might
   be considered equivalent to any other of equivalent length.

    "You're dealing with the phenomenology of meaning; think that there is
    no "Equivalence"

    in the sense that everything such as ""Equivalence"" is in quotation?

    "Exactly, that there is no "Equivalence" except _in regard to_ a
    particular domain, in this case k = string length."

    "So that meaning, for example - there is no "Meaning" except _in
    regard_ to a particular domain, for example, the _meaning of "onna" in
    Japanese._"

     and, as with equivalence, then one might consider "Meaning" as always
     already founded in plagiarism, thus returning us once again to the
     question of plagiarism and origin - to which Karl Kraus said in the
     beginning there was no plagiarism, which I reread as "in the
     beginning," i.e. "even in the beginning" or "right from the start"
     there was or is plagiarism.

       "Now what constitutes this plagiarism?"

       it's characterized as the situation, phenomenology, and culture of
       the copy, which is that of duplication or repetition, which is in
       turn or identically in relation to typification and standardization
       - the presence of structure dependent in symmetries or quasi-
       symmetries.

	"You mean that for meaning in the attributive sense, in relation
	to a particular domain, to exist, it requires a structure or
	substructure which operates as a moment or chora for the
	presencing of meaning?"

	exactly, and there is a secondary level of plagiarism as well,
	which is that of history and memory, that every word, phoneme, and
	rearrangement has always already been founded, situated, before,
	in other guises, in other contractual arrangements.

	   "And by "contractual arrangements," you mean the descendents of
	   the metapsychology of Freud, in other words the negotiations
	   that exist among what might be considered cognitive entities,
	   such entities being of the order of membranes, meshings, flux,
	   and so forth?"

	   so that there are structures all the way around and throughout,
	   meaning-dependent structures, and structure-dependent meanings
	   as well.

	      "There is a community of the beneficiaries of meaning."

	      "A community that is also a communality, in empathetic
	      relationship or communion, among those holding themselves or
	      meanings, holding _place_ in common."

                and origins have no place among origins

		this is a deconstructive turn, a deferrance and differend
		as well, allusion and suturing among systems appearing
		closed among subaltern communication

		 "Which returns as rumor or gossip, the off-hand phrase,
		 the speaking out-of-turn, the outspoken."

		  spoken out of etiquette and assumptions of meaning and
		  quotation, partly as extension, partly as mirroring and
		  relation to and of dis/comfort, turning back and within
		  or into the normative discourse

		  "As far as everyone is concerned, this requires
		  suturing, severing, "for the good of everyone," this
		  notion erected well before democracy, the monarchial
		  assumptions of hardened identities, aristocracies."

		    for whom everything is always already a quotation, the
		    signifier of connoisseurship, "one can be hardly
		    original with so much at stake."

		     when the origin is in circulation among copies,
		     itself a copy, the grounds are laid for exchange, and
		     what would later be called primordial inscription is,
		     from the very beginning, underway.

		      "What is underway is a sort of knowledge,
		      independent of consciousness, which might in any
		      case be considered a byproduct; in fact we are
		      becoming intelligent enough to realize that
		      consciousness is no such thing, but mythology, a
		      chimera or emanation from manageriality of
		      inscriptive domains."

			if knowledge is management, the way is open for
			the mercantile class to extend itself into other
			and more normative domains, as traders settle
			down, as others already adapt themselves to the
			memory of the imperial, the memory of power, and
			the cultural styles these entail.

			 "It will duplicate itself to the end of time."

			 "It will behave for "all intents and purposes" as
			 if an "it" existed in one or another form or
			 formation or accumulation."

			  in the sense of "it rains" in which the "it"
			  anchors the condition to the general, the memory
			  of rain intensified through a node accessing all
			  past, present, and future syntax and semantics.

			   "Extend the "it" beyond the indo-european to a
			   general duplication, but what is new, original,
			   is each and every act of circumscription,
			   quotation, accumulation - an entire surplus
			   economics of speech boiling over, of
			   inscription filling, fulfilling, spilling out
			   until the exhaustion of defuge decathects these
			   processes."

			     a situation of somnolence, much as cell death
			     can be related to the mythos of the dead
			     drive; duplication, however, transforms into
			     substance, not for survival, demarcation or
			     embarkation, but in relation to an exhaustive
			     return.

			       "The history of the universe is thus
			       carried through its non-history; the
			       history of originary confusion is produced
			       through the tendency towards proton decay
			       and defusion, dissolution, of the remnants
			       of structures, entities, inscriptions."

				 the quotation always loses its
				 demarcation in the final analysis, were
				 there one; speech is silenced in speech,
				 and the speaking of silence is silenced
				 as well.

				    "No need to mark word or language,
				    then, as everything is produced,
				    almost as if, but not quite, teleology
				    were at work, towards an unknown, but
				    not quite, end. And no need to specify
				    as well; nothing but release or
				    releasement."

				     except within the place, domain,
				     locale, site of accumulation, surplus
				     region, for this returns to such a
				     commonality of language, such
				     communality, that one might indeed
				     speak or inscribe, every such moment
				     as if there were a local origin.

				      "Such as that O of cartesian
				      geometry which may in fact be placed
				      anywhere, but one place, conveys
				      place, out of which - that, and
				      direction, and the institution of
				      the unit, everything calculable
				      might conceivably grow."

					from the jumble of strokes to the
					letter; from the jumble of letters
					to the word; from the jumble of
					works to the phrase; from the
					jumble of phrases to the sentence
					in deed.

					but in order, or order, for this
					to occur, that duplication,
					quotation, copying, typification,
					standardization, the letters
					standing in line, at least
					somewhat orderly, the origin of
					etiquette, otherwise everything
					falls apart, nothing is gained,
					speech is gainsaid.

					  "In order to arrive here, in
					  order to forget the point: this
					  sudden explosion of structure in
					  the universe thus precisely
					  cooled with a balance of
					  elements, on its way to absolute
					  lack, unread, uninscribed, not
					  perceived as such, not always
					  already perceived."

					   it is perception that opens
					   this to us, perception
					   throughout commonality, seeing
					   and hearing what might be said
					   and heard.

					   as if for the very first time.

					     "As if for the very first
					     time."

					     which is a conjunction from
					     disjunction, the same among
					     two, disregarding quotation,
					     proceeding as if every
					     speech, every utterance,
					     every inscription, were the
					     first, even the standard
					     inscription of kings, for
					     example each guarding the
					     others, each in its own
					     place, each place its own.

					       "As if for the very first
					       time, each place its own;
					       there are the quotation
					       marks of the first place,
					       and those of the second,
					       surrounding the memory of
					       the temporality of the
					       inscribed line."

						one might write
						"
						at the beginning and end,
						or at the conjunction or
						division of the same.

						 "Or one might consider
						 the closure a relay, thus
						 opening, in the form and
						 etiquette of relay, what
						 remains to be seen, to be
						 heard."

						   to be absorbed, to
						   become part and parcel
						   of what we have in
						   common, of memories,
						   one might say, of
						   resonances.

						    "Or leaving off, at
						    the beginning or end,
						    of the ", as a
						    potential or charging
						    or recharging, a sign
						    of da-sein, or of a
						    certain ongoingness
						    found necessary by
						    every species."

						     and determined in
						     different ways.

						     "And determined in
						     different ways."



							_


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