Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.58.0401210140270.13220@panix2.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>,
"WRYTING-L : Writing and Theory across Disciplines" <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: fiction, passage
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 01:40:44 -0500 (EST)
fiction, passage i am addicted to novels. i am reading journey to the west. wonderful elements of taoism. magical taoism whick killed the emperor. ennin wrote about that. you see the emperor was taking magic elixirs to live for ever. but no one lives forever! monkey is in it but it reads very differently in the full version than in waley's condensation. also five taoist classics which contains the chinese; i can make out a sentence or two. the character for 'between' is useful. most popular novels are pretty bad. plots are exaggerated and you have to be a dunce to fall for the willing suspension of disbelief. things are added in incoherency in order to manipulate the reader. the world is picaresque; these novels are not. there are always criminals teasing lawmakers because we know that criminals want to be caught. they are criminals! and there are conspiracies as well; nothing exists in terms of appearance only. it's magical belief! elixir! it kills. as does the addiction itself. my head fills with swollen emptiness. no exaggeration, it will go off with a bang. so i'm turning to mencius; he's got cases, anecdotes, and questioning that can only remind one of xenophon's socrates. for there are many socrates, the world splits as well. are you aware that i'm nearer to death than you are? soon i will see inconceivable things, things you might dream of forever. the world will turn dark and these words will be all that's left. _