The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

March 12, 2010


Ecstasy

  In this form of nervous derangement the patient is not wholly lost to
external impressions, but rapt and absorbed in some object of the
imagination. The muscles are sometimes relaxed, sometimes rigid, as in
slight tetanus: but the loss of voluntary power over them is not complete
or universal, for he sometimes speaks in a very earnest manner, or sings.
The patient is, as it were, out of the body at times, engrossed in some
high object of contemplation. This is the state in which nervous subjects
- more commonly females - are sometimes thrown when under the influence of
animal magnetism; and, as a medical teacher of celebrity remarks, "grave
authors assure us that the intelligence which then deserts the brain,
concentrates itself in the epigastrium, or at the tips of the fingers;
that people in that state read letters which are placed upon their stomach
or applied to the soles of their feet; answer oracularly enigmatical
questions, describe exactly their own internal organic diseases, and even
foretell future events." I take it that all who are able to take on what
is called the "clairvoyant state," are in the ecstatic state when in that
condition; and I am well persuaded that it is a morbid one which had in
all cases better be avoided. I have long noticed that the more mesmeric
subjects are operated upon, the more nervous and feeble they become.

  Treatment. - So much has the imagination to do in causing this state, it
can usually be avoided if the patient wishes to do so. As a preventive
measure, the nerves should be strengthened in all possible ways, and all
forms of nervous excitement should be avoided.

(From the chapter, Diseases of the Nervous System, in The Hydropathic
Family Physician, A Ready Prescriber and Hygienic Adviser with reference
to the Nature, Causes, Prevention, and Treatment of Diseases, Accidents,
and Casualties of Every Kind, by Joel Shew, M.D., New York, Fowlers and
Wells, Publishers, 1854.)

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social philosophy

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[16:49] There is no suitable surface to sit on, try another spot.
[2010/03/04 18:11] Flight Band: All Go
[2010/03/04 18:23] No room to sit here, try another spot.
[2010/03/06 09:00] Flight Band: All Go
[2010/03/08 22:26] sensor: noone around.
[2010/03/12 09:35] Alan Dojoji:
Nikuko: Now we're going to discuss social philosophy.
Julu: The social philosophy of being online, the social philosophy of
being offline.
Nikuko: Social philosophy is always virtual.
Julu: Every word you say is virtual; words are not for eating.
[2010/03/12 09:36] Alan Dojoji: or of such in this new realm. or something
in this new realm
[2010/03/12 09:36] Alan Dojoji: but it is this matter of inertia, never
overlooking the usual concerns of primates and environments and then
[2010/03/12 09:36] Alan Dojoji: on the other hand, the situation of
fragility as everything falls apart to be sure
[16:52] Alan Dojoji: Its difficult to describe this, yes? But the
FUNDAMENTAL issue remains inertia, the ground-state of primate ecology,
what works, what constitutes the preconscious habitus.
[16:52] Alan Dojoji: Every utopian vision ignores this; every manifesto
assumes that behavior is modifiable on a scale well beyond that of taste
or fashion.
[16:53] Alan Dojoji: I'd think otherwise, towards being constituted by
what - UNconsciously is ascribed to essence.
[16:55] Alan Dojoji: Fragility comes into play only when deep-structure is
obliterated by hegemonic forgetfulness, hegemony constituted by economic
power, but also the power of media porosity, subjectivity bound to radio,
packages of modernization, tv, net, and so forth.
[16:55] Alan Dojoji: In any order.
[16:56] Alan Dojoji: These lights in Second Life are blinding me...
[16:58] Alan Dojoji: If you think of the Thing in relation to depression,
you might agree that the Thing is also inextricably entangled in the
psychoanalytical-social. You might think that fragility is the result of
an inability to bypass the thing, which inverts, transforms into the
catatonic, simultaneously abjures and embraces substance. 0: or f(0) as an
absorber
[16:59] Alan Dojoji: 1 or f(1) as embracer, but f(x) - perhaps an
irrational - refusing position:
[16:59] Alan Dojoji: or position only by virtue of the CUT.
[17:01] Alan Dojoji: For the most part humans want to continue what
they've always done, what amounts to what works or might have worked at a
particular point in time. Or say (inexact) space-time region. What becomes
custom, what inscribes: what inscribes is fixture, fetish, fixation.
[17:01] Alan Dojoji: What inscribes is the HARMONIC.
[17:02] Alan Dojoji: That is to say regulatory NODE.
[17:05] Alan Dojoji: One might think of the proper mode of BIRTHING or
proper mode of DEATHING in this regard.
[17:06] Alan Dojoji: I am thinking of: in particular: issues of creation
and cessation, but more importantly, issues of SPEW and SLAUGHTER.
[17:07] Alan Dojoji: For these abjure the HARMONIC.
[17:10] Alan Dojoji: They are THING. They transform organism into THING.
[17:10] Alan Dojoji: THING has no HISTORY.
[17:10] Alan Dojoji: They abjure HISTORY as well.
[17:12] Alan Dojoji: However, simultaneously they exist on the plane of
inertia, through the process of compartmentalization. Slaughter occurs,
but is set-aside as slaughter: but is set-aside. Productive spew fills
interstices, transforms substance into substance, but is set-aside.
[17:12] Alan Dojoji: One carries the FRAGILITY of the self into slaughter.
[17:13] Alan Dojoji: One swallows the FRAGILITY of the self in the
excretion of spews.
[17:13] Alan Dojoji: Let it be said: We are all diseased.
[17:14] Alan Dojoji: Our inertia is that of culture production radically
disconnected, signified and commodified; body inscription becomes the
inscriptive body.
[17:15] Alan Dojoji: Use-value is inertial; exchange-value, fragile. Which
is more deeply embedded in time?
[17:16] Alan Dojoji: To be sure, the inertial, which conserves time,
hoards time, exists outside of time.
[17:16] Alan Dojoji: One overturns fragility with RAGE.
[17:17] Alan Dojoji: RAGE decomposes, INERTIA composes; one overturns
inertia with the decomposition of fragility.
[17:18] Alan Dojoji: What is fragile rarely produces GOOD THINGS; the rest
is CATASTROPHE, catastrophe theory.
[17:18] Alan Dojoji: The CATASTROPHIC is the unspoken of INSCRIPTION.
[17:19] Alan Dojoji: There are no silent partners.
[17:20] Flight Band: All Go
[17:21] Alan Dojoji: I will escape thee.
[17:23] Alan Dojoji: I will break the skin of INSCRIPTIVE PREDESTINATION
[17:23] Alan Dojoji: I will find the INCOHERENT in the INERTIAL
[17:23] Alan Dojoji: All of this I will transform and more.
[17:24] Alan Dojoji: Your THING is my REGARD.
[17:25] Nikuko: Your REGARD is my THING.
[17:25] Julu: My THING exactly.

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