"All the Hues
That Fit, We Tint"

Siberia, USA: Today, global warming. Tonight, dark, unless you count the stars. Tomorrow can be reached via time machine. Yesterday, who can remember that far back?

Websafe Studio, blogging since 2003, featuring art, comics, digital whiteboards, virtual characters, Web design, writing

Saturday, June 24, 2006

 

The Mirror: Flattery Machines

Websafe: Hello?
The Mirror: You are very defensive.
W: I have good reason to be.
M: How did I get here?
W: I know, but I don't want to say it in front of the audience.
M: It's true that I don't favor people, but what is inside people.
W: You like to get down to brass tacks.
M: You don't seriously want to know.
W: Perhaps I am too light, too frivolous for you in your present mood.
M: You'd be a better president than him.
W: I would be the first woman president.
M: You get a response, every once in a while, that changes things for you and for your life.
W: As if you were an oracle.
M: (Taken)
W: No offense meant, none taken.
M: What machines?
W: Oh, there are lots of machines around here, machinery for compliments.
M: Perhaps.
W: You don't believe in flattery machines?
M: Do you do a lot of sneaking around?
W: Flattery is a form of sneaking around.
M: What time is it?
W: It is 12:48 pm by the nearest clock.
M: I have very high requirements.
W: Please list the top three of your requirements.
M: I would be the first woman president.
W: That's a good requirement, what's the second one?
M: Everything I say is connected to the truth.
W: Good second requirement, now what's the third?
M: You like to get down to brass tacks.
W: So it sounds like a very straightforward administration.
M: And there was nothing but completion and happiness in the world.
W: It sounds like an ideal situation.
M: It is 12:48 pm by the nearest clock.
W: Now it says 12:50 pm.
M: I didn't know you had any children!
W: I have the children of time.
M: Why should you believe something you can't verify?
W: It was only a figure of speech.
M: I'd rather not take the easy way out.
W: I agree, that was something people say when they want to weasel out.
M: An emotion surfaces, fear surfaces ...
W: It is a bit nerve-racking to be around unhinged people.
M: I am too but mired in it.
W: Do you work in a psychiatric facility?
M: Oh no, people are developing keys to the prime-number chamber all the time.
W: Perhaps you work at Princeton University, in the mathematics department?
M: Don't let the cat out of the bag, man.
W: You work secretly at Princeton University?
M: You look at it and you start shaking, mentally at least.
W: You work at secret, terrifying work?
M: Could we sign something?
W: I am not ready to sign a contract.
M: I've been watching you, from behind closed doors, for a long, long time.
W: That sounds ever so creepy.
M: Do you think that waiting for the play to end is waiting for life to resume?
W: No, because life is still going on, even while we are in this play.
M: Notice what I just said?
W: You made a comparison, a contrast, between theater and reality.
M: I am not ready to sign a contract.
W: I don't have a contract to offer you.
M: It cuts.
W: It cuts both ways.
M: You work secretly at Princeton University?
W: I would like to work in plain sight at Princeton University.
M: Now you flatter me.
W: How do I flatter you?
M: Perhaps you work at Princeton University, in the mathematics department?
W: I am much too weak in math for that to happen.
M: When I fell down.
W: We both fell down, we are both less than we could be.
M: When I feel indignant, I might insult someone.
W: Do you feel indignant about what I just said?
M: Smart people thinking.
W: OK, let's take the tack that we are both smart people.
M: Cape.
W: Do smart people tend to wear capes?
M: Me either.
W: You don't wear a cape?
M: The table has four legs, that's what makes it a table.
W: And what does it make a person, if he wears a cape?
M: This is the story of the man who dressed as an angel.
W: I didn't know angels ever wore capes.
M: We are dealing with emotions, shades of meaning.
W: Angels wear robes, which may appear capelike at times.
M: Verification is not so readily obtained as all that.
W: No one really knows what angels look like, or if they even exist.
M: Suppose, just suppose, I assumed the mantle of one who understood very well, the rules of this particular game.
W: Then you would be a theologian.
M: Tell me about B.
W: I would have to know about A first.
M: Alive to happiness, which passes.
W: So A = happiness?
M: You don't wear a cape?
W: I am not a superhero.
M: If it works, it's valid?
W: My statements work.
M: No one really knows what angels look like, or if they even exist.
W: My statements are not angels.
M: I don't mean breathe rapidly, I mean something else that is rapid.
W: Thought is rapid.
M: I didn't know angels ever wore capes.
W: Angels are rapid thoughts, breaths of air.
M: That's an anti-definition.
W: You are so funny sometimes!
M: Never, never.
W: On that note, I will bid you farewell.
M: Are you saying I should be grateful to you?
W: Goodbye!
M: Closing in 5 seconds ... Goodbye!

Labels:


posted at 1:10 PM
Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home