SIX PIECES OF SILVER
MAY 27, 2011. There is a fear of language. The major symptom is paranoia—uh-oh, veering away from traditional constructions will leave everyone in chaos.
This is what’s wrong with conservatives. They assume ALL deviation is a sign of an apocalypse, or something, a symptom of total degeneration of the species.
A little planned ambiguity gets you a special seat in a ring of Hell.
And a string of metaphors? Flame throwers for eternity.
Two sentences that don’t quite add up is a conspiracy.
(Liberals have their own brand of insanity that, these days, mainly revolves around trying to ban words and phrases and turn them into crimes.)
Well, here’s news. If you KNOW the language and then bend it, so what?
“Applesauce, applesauce,” said the Queen, “what is applesauce? Whoever started this thing must hang!”
–rumored (by me) to have been omitted from Alice Through the Looking Glass
Oh for chrisakes don’t be scared of words, Charlie said. You’re running down the street after a coupla definitions dropped down a sewer like you lost an ARM. Relax. You might hit the jackpot. You might get a feeling something NEW happened…
Three pictures in a row on Thursday
ARE A HYPNOTIC LUNCH
then crowds walk through a movie theater
and break the spell
we weren’t in a trance after all
we were thinking about billiard balls on a table that never collide
average distillation common denominator
you hit him with a few words he doesn’t
put together right away
and he goes into the television for the answer
Here is a collage
You nobly call your life
the teacher wants you to deconstruct it
and put the pieces in a drawer
INSTEAD YOU CLIMB ON TO THE CEILING
AND WALK UPSIDE DOWN
blow through the wrong end of the trumpet for a while and see what happens
here’s a perfect crystal
so what
we learned nothing
JON RAPPOPORT