William Apologies first:
> I don't like my name being ridiculed as "conjurer" for two reasons. One is that > it parodies my mental efforts, as if I dream up my ideas from mists and without > reasoning; the other is that it suggests an alliterative J sound in my name with > in the word "conjurer". A retort is we don't say "longer" as "lonjer" so why > imply that my name is pronounced Conjer instead of Conger? I say this with a > smile since I know that you are a Scholastic and thus not responsible for your > pedantry, usually supported by contradictory wit and humor. I apologize. I meant no ridicule. In fact, I meant it to be a pun on William the Conqueror, an remarkable leader, last successful invader of England and the bringer of many cultural changes to that island. I am aware that "Conger" rhymes with "longer." I did think you too easily went from "meaningless" to "ambiguous," but I opted for too much cleverness. Again, I meant no disrespect. > I have said that meaninglessness is an ideal, unattainable, since any perception > or thought is embedded in an idea or subject. But it is desirable, in my view, > to attempt to go as far as one can in stripping meaning from perception, not > only through reduction but also through multiplication. When we try to perceive > something as it is, without any sense of its use or value (or name-definition) > then we are able to perceive it aesthetically. In saying this I am imitating > Panofsky. It is a way to contemplate form instead of subject and aside from > content. I am trying to think of a physical perception that has an 'interpretation' to it. Every sensory stimulation is, as I understand it, immediately identified by the brain in terms of the organ: a visual image, a sound, a touch on the arm or taste or smell. Then memory and layers of associations surround the sensation, so we intuit that the touch is not dangerous, the taste is like a birthday cake, etc. Which quickly draws us into the realm of acculturation and behaviors. All cultural artifacts are heavily laden with interpretations. The largest category of artifacts that arrives without interpretation that I can immediately think of is an utterance in another language that I don't know. It's all sounds or squiggles. That, I think, comes close to your sense of the meaninglessness of the work. It is form waiting for "meaning" to be revealed. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Michael Brady
