March 03, 2005
On spatial metaphors
Imagine walking into a forest. Have you read Kafka on the Shore yet? (That is, Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami. Not "Kafka on the Shore Yet?" by etc etc. ) No? Good, because I'm lifting this from him, partly. Say you walk into a forest until you get lost, and then continue on, deeper and deeper, until you're hopelessly lost. Then you take off your pack, and leave it on the ground with your axe and canteen and keep walking until you completely lose your orientation, any sense of direction. You can't be any more lost than this. You are so lost, place, distance and direction have no meaning anymore. You even lose yourself. At this point, well, not "point" seeing as how place has no meaning, but at this point in our story, at this point in time, although it's also a timeless place forest: now, although strictly speaking there is no "now" here, I mean "here", fear dissolves. For instance. Say. Fear of being lost. Because you are lost. And you're not getting more lost.
Whom do you meet here?
I'd say either the wicked witch in her cottage or some kind of talking animal in a flimsily disguised appeal on my better nature.
Or maybe the big bad wolf. That'd suck.
Posted by: TH at March 3, 2005 12:06 PMwell, if i really am going to meet somebody, the ideal would be somebody that would show me the way out. a bear heading over the mountain, perhaps. failing that, someone who can survive well in the forest and doesn't mind sharing the knowledge. whether i find that person, i don't know, but if it's my story, that's what i'm going to hope for.
Posted by: anne at March 3, 2005 12:25 PMA small, old man in a shabby sheep costume.
Seriously? Myself, probably.
Perhaps my personal relationships are not sufficiently disastrous (or oedipal).
Posted by: gordon at March 3, 2005 02:37 PMI would hope to meet somebody with a compass and a map, but I would most likely meet an axe murderer.
Posted by: Tim at March 3, 2005 04:50 PMis this some sort of psychology test?
if so - i would say i meet someone with a picnic basket and a car.
Posted by: j-a at March 3, 2005 11:02 PMGodot.
Posted by: novala at March 4, 2005 06:49 AMGesundheit.
Posted by: mig at March 5, 2005 08:29 PMWhy, a government inspector, of course!
Although at such a point, if there were a point, and if it were now, if there is a now, I'd settle for someone with a couple of diet cokes she or he was willing to share.
Posted by: lucy at March 6, 2005 02:24 AMi would find a tree falling in the woods.
Posted by: adam at March 6, 2005 10:45 PM