20080805

messes are necessary





3 kommentarer:

Anonym sa...

fuckin' A !
shitstacka gooddope
heck, even hell
hath furious
bloody grope.

The development of an unfavorable meaning in a word is called pejoration. There are several dramatic instances of such change in British English, occuring in words which have retained their older, relatively neutral significance in the United States. Students of the theater will recall the furor created by George Bernard Shaw when, early in the twentieth century, he had one of the characters in Pygmalion use the word bloody. No American could possibly appreciate this; the word is quite neutral here, but Mencken has said, " in England it is regarded as indecent, with overtones of the blasphemous." Its history is briefly outlined by the Oxford English Dictionary as follows: " In general use from the Restoration to 1750.
Now constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes, but by respectable people considered a horrid word."

Matt Dalby sa...

I really like the microscopic, bacterial appearance of these pieces.

In this sequence we can clearly see the word beginning to grow from a single cell, to a cluster, to the beginnings of a recognisably complex organism. But if we rewind and pause early in the sequence, and then magnify a small portion of the image we can see where the word comes into contact with a virus. At first the virus seems to be simply absorbed. But if we compare subsequent development with a normal sample we can see how the the virus has begun to affect the word. Its resistance to some infections has been compromised. Its growth slows, and in places becomes abnormal.

Here we see a second sample of the same word encountering the same virus at the same stage of development. This sample, however, has a mutation which confers resistance to the virus. In a direct comparison we can see how the virus is isolated and neutralised.

This does not necessarily mean that this second sample is likely to survive more effectively once it is fully grown. A number of other factors will come into play, not least of which is the favourability of the environment. Where food is scarce, where there are more highly specialized words, or where there is a high incidence of pathogens inimical to the survival of a word, a healthy specimen such as this may have a reduced life expectancy in comparison to even an unhealthy specimen in more benign conditions.

Both samples of this word are in fact relatively robust. Although individuals in this species are generally short-lived, this is a reflection of their intrepidity. They are willing to take greater risks, and travel further to find food than other comparable words. They are able to draw nutrients from a wider range of sources, and crucially they are able to survive for longer in smaller colonies, further away from the main group, than most other words. They also display an unusual characteristic, which we will explore in greater depth at another time, of being able to adapt and utilise features of some some of the viruses with which they come into contact.

troylloyd sa...

Matt, thank you for the lucid commment and thank you for continuing your vital research in the verbaviral field. I applaud your standfast position against the entrenched theories of the established semiotic community; who violently rage and lash out at your crucial work -- often losing vision of sight and in the reactionary process, sacrificing true scirsemiotic method.

I have read your work with keen interest and acknowledge that, " In the beginning was the virus" -- the facts you've gathered cannot be denied. Of special importance to me personally has been how you successfully dismantled the conceptual bugbear inherent in the Illusion of Knowledge. Your work has helped to answer those infinite questions of who we are, why we're here and what are words anyway?

With your dislingual operations you have indeed proved that when looking for The Truth, there can be no proof -- an essential penetration into that unbreakable hymen. If you hadn't persevered with your research and the publishing of those critical findings, we'd be more at loss than oss without L.

I know, as Satre, you will refuse the Nobel Prize -- this only enhances and enlivens my enthusiasm for your thinking, your rocksolid character and your warm humanity.

salut !