Shit & Shinola II

The idea, the particular state of existence conceived as stationary, corresponds to any one of the various places in which the moving body is conceived to stand successively; but just as the moving body never stands in any of these places, so man, or any other progressive being, never is in any of the states represented by our ideas – he is only passing through them.

But the image is a gesture, a stoppage (or potential for such when it is a landmark) and not an idea or its representation. An idea is something we like to say "flows" (at least when we refer to thinking). Sometimes it meanders, yet we call that fantasy – figmentary imagination (or mental diarrhea – see fig syrup, figure 1.) when we prefer static "thoughts" (like theories – but think how increasingly often bubbles and light-bulbs burst) to their posited or questionable associations. Interesting that at one time, for the early (or purist) empirical scientist, the quest was the first order of business prior to any theoretical narrative. Now the quest is out of the question: we know ahead of time what we are looking for, so we're sure to find it, one way or another. Fudge is recommended over any fig syrup.

The motion picture is a story (a series of gestures) in which images replace words. A moving landscape is considered more "life-like" than a stationary back-drop. If representation (in or out of the democratic sense) is considered a synonym for life-like, then it is a matter of moving mimicry and not creative (original) at all. Progress beyond silent was considered a "talky" where the image accompanies the spoken word, but unlike stage-theatre, silent films also contained words: written ones, for the eyes rather than ears. These more efficient "silent-screen" actors no longer needed to attend speech therapy, considered the first order of business on the stage. Like the stage, gestures had been caricatured to accentuate the word with visual nuance. Progress sent this modern efficiency to the unemployment lines and actors again needed to learn to talk. Consider the difference between a relaxed and a tense open-mouth stare displayed by a hamadryas baboon. If you're not well-versed in baboon, it might be best all around to back off. Provisional algorythms are cheaper than ideas when the probability of correctness is uncertain.

Consider the "evil eye", raised eye-brow, raised bible, the middle finger, the threatening stance or bared teeth prior to pouncing. These are a pause in motion, signs possibly broadcasting an intention or emotion, but the idea is found not in their construction (a negation of doing) but their interpretation by onlookers. The idea is, like any theory or thought, only a guess; the gesture is poetry. This is why thinking-about-thinking so often utilises navigational metaphors when proceeding to talking-about-thinking.

Everything is genuine and original, whilst on the other hand (and simultaneously), everything is contrived and derived. This is neither contradiction nor enigma where, in a language, there is a word for dada.

– Polyglot Institute: 3rd course on self-mismanaged systems