Descartes concludes that God may have no interest in deceiving people. Even if people consider the ability to deceive a “kind of argument for the power of the mind”, it does not speak for the claim that the Almighty is a deceiver. A God who deceives would be a weak God and that would contradict the very definition of God.

The philosopher and poet Jabès writes that God needs the human being: “God wastes man in God. Cruelty of Nothingness.” This God is “full of spite”.

Descartes develops his argument by bringing into doubt all that is known to exist. Doubt leads him to the clear and distinct realisation that he thinks, therefore he is. Descartes understands thought as “what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it.” Premising his argument on this knowledge, Descartes concludes that God is not a deceiver, and that it is possible to explain the material world, nature. In his writings, Descartes gradually allows principles to develop on the basis of a fundamental understanding; combining these principles with experience, he unfolds a universe that is comprehensible overall.

In his writings Jabès brings into doubt the possibility of writing a book. His books constitute a single book, a fragment of doubt. The sentences and chapters revolve around the relationship between the individual and a God who reveals himself to humans in a book. Writing, the word and the book are what bind the individual and God and what set them apart:

“God is both saved and undone by the book.”

The relationship between God and man is determined by the book, which spans a subversive relationship between God and man.

What style of writing, words and signs would nature use?

Nature presents itself as a something to be read.

(more…)

“The birth of a word”

Ballet Butterfly Parachute singing out of the water
Vulva Sweet-Potato Sponge wondering about pain
Strawberry Sheathe Ball-Gown somewhere beauty seems possible
Penis Spring Onion in summers this hot how hard to think of spring
Hand Heel Leech Slipper Leaf bursting with the memory of blood
Submarine Gas-Mask Slug is survival possible?
Snail Syringe Tea-Bag go slow my heart drink deep
Dragon Ram Bird twist in the calligraphy of fire

More of Sampurna at: Eyewear

and a series of poems for example at: Journal for Art, Sex and Mathematics

Geometry and arithmetic guide reason to the truth with far greater surety that the “other branches of knowledge”. Geometry and arithmetic focus on simple objects such as triangles and judgements on numbers. Descartes speaks of guidance. A balustrade that claims to be safe to step on, casts shadows. But geometry and arithmetic do not. They formulate the possibilities of thought that go far beyond what our reason can imagine, for instance by combining figures: 123, 122333, 112222333333, …

Culture, Culture of the self, we need to develop organs for perceiving ourselves as aproximations of human beings. A thought triggered by Frank Theys’ Technocalyps.

“A simple and tragic idyll creates a love song which, despite everything, is a song of hope. This song intends to let us play a role in the birth of a word and, in a dimension that is more than just real, in raising the threshold of suffering that depicts a persecuted community whose lamentations are once again taken up from time to time in their martyrdoms.” (Jabès)

The land,
never I grasp it;
shadows falling
thrown by prejudices and hopes.

Ich möchte das Land denken.
Je voudrais penser, imaginer le pays,
Faits, facts, faites de la terrre et des idées.

Women, men, children,
I have seen, rarely spoken,
but read about them.

So I scanned their appearances
according, to the programm,
which others have set up,
nahm sie entsprechend dem Programm wahr,
das in mir läuft und nun passieren lässt:

le paysage,
das Land,
die Landschaft,
le pays, land.

May we think what we want?

Is it possible to think a banana, its being yellow, its being curved, as something which is connected or separated from gears? Are we free to think bananas in a setting with a knife and a set of gears?

Which sets are we free to think?

Words lead to other combinations of  parts of a machinery, fruit and instruments than drawings or buisness.

Words by Geeta Kapur (1989)
20 years of alert: A blog.

“The revolt of a shadow hastens the coming of light, just as the illegible, at war with itself, prepares us for the perfect reading.” (Edmond Jabès)*