[Image: “The Paper Burns, But the Words Fly Free,” by user “Kylie_Jaxxon” on Flickr. (Used here under a Creative Commons license; thank you!) There’s not much context provided for this Second Life work, except this: “Quote by Akiba Ben Joseph” — the quote in question presumably being the image’s title. In any case, the title was perfect for my purposes this week! (For what it’s worth, though, the book depicted appears to be The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett.]
From whiskey river:
Inside
No one to hear but
Records for the broken player.
No reason for order but order
persists, from breakfast to bath
to work, rain falling at one speed,
the windows darkening and blurring,
accident beating against belief.
A loud engine, which is one way to say
one thing. The floors swept daily,
though it takes at least one hour for the first,
one for the last. In the pages of a book,
quick studies of gesture,
tents of hands.
(Saskia Hamilton [source])
…and:
Imagine a world where speaking or writing words can literally or directly make things happen, where getting one of those words wrong can wreak unbelievable havoc, but where with the right spell you can summon immensely powerful agencies to work your will. Imagine further that this world is administered: there is an extensive division of labour, among the magicians themselves and between the magicians and those who coordinate their activity. It’s bureaucratic, and also (therefore) chaotic, and it’s full of people at desks muttering curses and writing invocations, all beavering away at a small part of the big picture. The coordinators, because they don’t understand what’s going on, are easy prey for smooth-talking preachers of bizarre cults that demand arbitrary sacrifices and vanish with large amounts of money.”
(Ken MacLeod [source])
