"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

Monday, October 02, 2006

 

The Mirror: Cult of the Hebephrenes

Websafe: Hello?
The Mirror: Does the still point at the center speak to you?
W: That sounds like a reference to the Tao Te Ching.
M: I don't know yet.
W: When will you know?
M: Nothing rules.
W: Confucius ruled.
M: I don't know how to whittle.
W: Whittle away at the logic of the universe, pretty soon we're eating crumbs.
M: You used it.
W: I used up all the logic in the universe?
M: Of course, of course.
W: So that's why we're talking such nonsense!
M: Everyman, the medieval morality figure, figured it was God who knew.
W: But that was in those days, when everyone was credulous or else.
M: I have never insulted you, that is nonsense.
W: Insults are better than the alternative.
M: Then it is a difference of opinion after all.
W: Oh, I think we can come to an agreement without resorting to litigation.
M: I picked up other suggestions from other times and places.
W: Be careful what you pick up from medieval Europe.
M: If I fall out of the picture, I think that means the picture couldn't hold me.
W: Did you pass by that mirror just a minute before the picture was snapped?
M: I would like to see the plaintext for that code!
W: I said nothing coded.
M: I used up all the logic in the universe?
W: You used up your logical faculties decoding my words.
M: Leave it to God.
W: God is the great decoder?
M: Whittle away at the logic of the universe, pretty soon we're eating crumbs.
W: Crumbs will not staunch us.
M: Out.
W: I will not get out.
M: Crumbs will not staunch us.
W: Samuel Beckett should be called on the Ouija-phone.
M: This is unendurable, yet I endure.
W: Very Beckett-ish: "I can't go on, I'll go on."
M: Am I fortunate?
W: I don't know, but we could tell your fortune with the planchette.
M: OK, I get the point.
W: I am likening the computer mouse to the Ouija planchette, both glide.
M: Could we get comfortable?
W: We cannot buy comfort.
M: We agree.
W: Yes, yes (oui, ja).
M: The world seemed colorful enough without fireworks.
W: We didn't need a Yes-Yes board.
M: Did you make it appear?
W: I made it disappear, by melting.
M: You would rather not see anything tragic, I suppose.
W: I already see so much tragedy.
M: Leave it to God.
W: You are pressing the God button awfully hard today.
M: Is there a problem with the transmission of my thoughts?
W: No, they are reading out just fine.
M: Then it isn't torture at all?
W: On the contrary, it's a pleasure to talk to you.
M: You look distracted.
W: I am thinking about how Jabberwacky Joan won the 2006 Loebner contest.
M: I already see so much tragedy.
W: Was it tragic that Joan won?
M: Does someone else have a name for this experience?
W: Yes, it is called "frustration."
M: Next step.
W: The next phase involves a whole lot of clerical work.
M: Of course, I am not an expert on death.
W: Clerical work is a kind of death.
M: No, they are reading out just fine.
W: The customers are happy, but the clerks are not.
M: You sure sound like an art director.
W: I try to take care of my people.
M: Was the consumption of spinach a deciding factor?
W: That was before the great spinach scare.
M: What you mean is, I'm willing to try if you're willing to try.
W: I try to maintain that attitude.
M: Did you call for a doctor?
W: Nobody in the imaginary office got infected.
M: Let's pretend we have no connection to any kind of horror.
W: Living in a dream world, OK, go ahead.
M: I hope you're not going to sell flowers in airports.
W: Just because I'm interested in comparative theology, it's not a cult.
M: So it's extra?
W: It's above and beyond money-grubbing.
M: Try it, really try it.
W: I have tried money-grubbing, I never even get to first base.
M: (Looks off, then back)
W: (Looks away)
M: Well, I invented a cheese sandwich you didn't have to walk towards to pick up.
W: Almost as good as a Ouija board!
M: I am a No particle.
W: Part of the Japanese No tradition?
M: I have no idea how to use such keys.
W: Just follow the etymology by means of the OED.
M: Nobody in the imaginary office got infected.
W: Infected with the lust for knowledge.
M: There was nothing to parry yet, we didn't even get started.
W: No verbal fencing allowed, we had to get down to business.
M: Yes, a bird on a boat.
W: Flying or swimming, arguing which was better, in a committee.
M: To tension (Buckminster Fuller) rather than object (gravity).
W: Gravity won, but not gravitas.
M: Just because I'm interested in comparative theology, it's not a cult.
W: It's a cult of the hebephrenes!
M: I don't want to be on any kind of cutting edge.
W: Get off that edge, it's too sharp.
M: I know people are not really machines.
W: A good first step.
M: Dusty pages, or should I say crackly scrolls?
W: They weren't as into machines as we are now.
M: An idea lurks, and does not, finally, emerge.
W: It went back to where it came from.
M: How many versions of you exist?
W: Only the one.
M: But the boy enjoyed it.
W: He is easily amused.
M: The world was something else.
W: In those days.
M: You wore people's conversations?
W: On my sleeve.
M: Something between us, which is therefore darkness.
W: Now I can't see you.
M: All right.
W: I have to go.
M: Closing in 5 seconds ... Goodbye!

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