We've been here before

Posted on: January 30, 2006

This is an abstraction that refers to certain things in my life. Like Adam naming the animals, it somehow imbues something with power if you can call it by a label. And if you can't, then you may grow very afraid, as in: "the evil that has no name". But this can also apply to good things too.

And in doing so, as we define, we control. We limit, we constrict. And as the hard edges of brand name on soap become deformed and turn from words into mumbled curves in the hot water, so can be the others.

I've long been fascinated by how a combo of phonemes can affect someone's life so profoundly. Or that, even when not previously stated—when stated, takes on many more magnitudes of reaction. How names must be attached to something, even if we don't know the true name for them. It's been a grim tradition, affixing serial killers with their M.O.'s, like "The Zodiac Killer", or less blurry, "Jack the Ripper".

This is in accordance with our Information Age. When, even if the facts haven't changed—being aware of them will change us. It has to do with the stress of dealing with new incoming information too—all too often a veritable cornucopia of streaming datamass which overwhelms even the most meticulate of minds—and looking for patterns, hoping for some sense in all of it; all of the madness.

We're in the water. Who can swim?

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