Farday the 51st of Anon In a recent publication by an ethnic minority group within the parametres of Strangebury’s 14th urban strata the following piece of what appeared to be literary criticism featured as the first paragraph of the opening article. To begin with I wasn’t able to decipher what kind of language it was, but fortunately my current supervisor at the Ideoteque was able to inform me that the prose was a delicate specimen of the language hitherto known as ‘Danish’. “It’s very rare, these days, to come across such a fine piece of Danish.”, he told me in a grave voice, “Up to this point I have only encountered two examples of first rate Danish prose.” Anyway, here follows an exact representation of the before mentioned paragraph:

“Siden jeg ved ikke hvornår har mennesket i sine kunstneriske selvfremstillinger
projiceret strukturelle analogier mellem naturen og mennesket selv ud på lærred og
side med forskellige former for væsker og sværte. At mennesket af naturen betvinges
til at indskrive sig selv som indfældet i naturens overordnede orden er den
grundlæggende mekanisme bag al poesi. Sådan var det engang, sådan er det idag. (Jeg
holder Rasmus Varnich Blumensaat, Amalie Smith og Olga Ravn for samtidige
sandhedsvidner, hvad dette angår.) Men spørgsmålet presser sig på: er det virkelig det
eneste, vi som kunstneriske væsener kan? Symbolsk at indfælde egen eksistens i en
større og dermed i sidste instans rent ud kosmisk sammenhæng for derved at vinde os
en ydmyghed, som tillader, at vi etisk formår at forbedre dem, vi allerede var gået
hen og blevet. Er det nu også så ringe endda? Besvarelsen af dette sidste spørgsmål
afhænger vel sagtens af en selv, hvorfor kunsten udover sin kosmologisering af hiin
enkelte tillige må bestræbe sig på affektivt at tvinge denne menneske-hest til sit
ældgamle trug for dernæst at udsætte det for moderat fysisk pres i form af litterær
water-boarding eller gode gamle ‘hovedet-under-vand’-metoden. Og lad os så se om
ikke den gamle krikke forledes til at drikke af livets kar!?”

 

Zdislav Beksinski – Untitled

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The One and the Many

“[T]he path lies open for new versions and sophistications of the soul hypothesis – and concepts like […] the “soul as a society constructed out of drives and affects” want henceforth to have civil rights in the realm of science.”

– 19th Century European Philosopher

“Nothing much has happened in Strangebury of late. At least this is how it appears to be. But, as usual, under the surface of so many faces a surprising gestalt is to be found, so too is the deceiving appearance of Strangebury about to become the gateway for a higher truth. It is not so much vengeance, in the traditional sense, that we, the archeologists of time Herself, are after. What we desire to achieve with our spades and hammers is much more likely to resemble ‘awe’ and ‘fear of God’ displaced in an otherwise Godless century. Hence the frequent misunderstandings of an ambitious project as ancient as the tribal constellations of what was once called humanity. The hoodlums of metaphysics have troubled our progress for long enough, and that is why we can no longer accept the presence of these free-thinkers inside or in the immediate vicinitude of Strangebury. These so-called ‘dualists’ and ‘epi-phenomenalists’ – all do they share the base condemnation of the true reign of immanence. In their herd neurosis they chuckle and laugh in order to keep themselves warm huddled together on the steppes of their wintry taiga. Deprived of the flame of monism they lack every essential trait of a just sense of reason, and thus they suffer the terrible fate of ignorance. Beware the wolfs of false prophets!”

– A poster by the infamous group of radicals known as Society of Natural Divinity (SND)

In the Beginning was Space

Dear Citizen,

 

“The information content and some material properties of incoming information is changed inside the space. This space can be considered as a content transformer, it digests the incoming material / information. Taken to the extreme all material is a form of information, and taken even further all information is a form of computation. Thus space computes information. […] The space is full of more or less active components, many of them communicating with each other, […] and many of them interacting in real time. I see people as drivers of the space when looking at it from a certain distance.” (Excerpt from the entry of ‘Space’ in one of the earliest editions of the vast and evergrowing Encyclopedia Strangeburiana)

 

How many drafts of existence is Nature in need of before human beings begin to acknowledge the inherent creativity of Space? Human beings are in Space – as a matter of fact they are themselves nothing but spaces. Just as Leibniz would have it (i.e. that inside the pond there are fish, inside fish there are ponds, etc.) human beings and Space go together, they are co-extensive, you might even say. Thus, human beings ought to be called human spaces, and societies ought to be designated as human spaces spaces – sociality is the space for human spaces. The social space of human beings (i.e. society) is always a place of creation. Societies are nothing but workshops where some things are being devoured whereas others are coming into existence for the first time. ‘Monism’, ‘pantheism’, ‘transcendental empiricism’ are but some of the labels that Space has given itself through the writings of philosophers. The philosopher is nothing but the necessarily obscure voice of Space – philosophy is the dialect of reality.

 

Now, in Strangebury things are looking bright these days. Hope has been kindled once again due to the succes of entrepaneur John Ruin (Ph. D., Sc. D.) whose recent work has been to provide an improved version of the software being used for the mosaic of high-resolution LED-displays on the inside of the Urban Hemisphere (UH) safely sheltering the citizens of Strangebury. (See Fig. #1 below.) UH has undergone dramatic changes in appearance due to dr. Ruin’s work, and especially the achievement of ‘hyper realism’ has been celebrated. (The leaders of the Idioteque have marked this crowning achievement by making the 21st of December into an official holiday.) We wish you happy new year, and look forward to provide you with the newest updates concerning the scientific progress of Strangebury’s finest. To you, to all!

 

– Greetings, Strangebury Outreach

 

Fig. #1

Strangeburian Prospects II – Earth Archaeology

Rosa and her team of assistants arrived just after sunrise, and before noon they had already excavated the first three tombs. A strange sight came to them when they dug deep under a tombstone on which the family name Rosenberg could be read. As they removed the earth by the use of shovels they all began to sweat heavily – the sun shone directly down on their toiling bodies and they felt its rays as a great burden during their work. At one point Rosa was reminded that one of the Elders from Strangebury had once told a fable to her and her classmates.

It told the story of a party of travellers who went outside the boundaries of civilization in order to pursue the lost pieces of the collective unconscious. For a long time they had felt a significant deterioration of their culture caused by what they instinctively took to be an internal deficiency and felt a strong urge to do something about it. They just did not know what? After some time one of them had the idea that perhaps if they would travel beyond the borders of the city they would stumple upon traces or fragments of information that would eventually lead them in the right direction. Despite the fact that it was just an idea everyone agreed to pursue it. Two days after they had already made preparations and were somewhat ready to leave their native environment behind. ‘Travellers’ they said to themselves, at the time it had simply sounded cool to them. It made sense.

”Rosa, can we take a break in five minutes time?”, one of her assistants shouted from a distance. Rosa answered quitely, ”Yes, of course we can.” But then she added with more resolution in her voice, ”We’ll continue the excavation in half an hour. We must find some traces today, for I am going back to the Idioteque tomorrow morning and present whatever we find to the Counsel for Pragmagicist Affairs (CPA). I hope they will be less impatient than last time.”

Despite the fact that they worked until midnight they did not succeed in deciphering the remaining signs on the ancient tablet, nor the markings on the crust of the worn out cranium that emerged from underneath the surface of the earth. They had – once again – to continue their search for evidence pointing in the direction of past events not recorded in the official documents that constituted the history of Strangebury itself. But as far as Rosa could see she had to travel the long way back to the centre of Strangebury and present… absolutely nothing to the CPA!

That night Rosa dreamt that she was back in that classroom hearkening to what the Elder said – the fable had made a lasting impression on her, but she had still to discover the full extent of its influence.

The Oil Age

 

 

Welcome to the future, traveller. Are you staying for long?

Iagttag terningernes slutspil

Kendsgerningerne er indtastet.

Strangeburian Prospects I – Concrete Burial

Dear fellow followers,

We’re gathered here today in order to celebrate the life – but not death – of one of the greatest minds of his generation. You know, of course, already of whom I speak – we are gathered to celebrate the doings of prof. Viktor Alstad. Not a Strangeburian by birth, but certainly in terms of intellectual dispositions as well as aesthetic sensibilities. Prof. Alstad was the key figure in the founding of The Ideoteque, a building, an institution, nay an organ close to and fueled by the heart of Strangebury itself, which has been beating sense into this world for over sixty years. Prof. Alstad – whose habilitation thesis entitled “Eliminative theology and the Omnipresence of God” has now become standard reading for anyone worth their salt in The Ideoteque – has produced book reviews, journal articles, monographs on essential characters in the history of Strangebury, and last but not least groundbreaking tomes of high theory. Prof. Alstad’s collected work is currently being translated into all dialects of Strangebury, in order for all Strangeburians to enjoy his daunting and elucidating writings.

The pragmagician paused for a second, took a deep breath, turned his gaze toward the ceiling of the Ideoteque and sighed so that everyone could hear it. He took a step backwards and spread his arms turning his body into a living cross. Standing thus he ended his speech in the following manner.

Join me now in bidding godspeed to Viktor Alstad, a mighty citizen, a learned professor, a caring father, a loving husband, an exemplary child of Strangebury.

For a moment there was a vast and rugged silence. Then, as if premeditated everyone began to chant the hymn of Strangebury. In waves of common muttering the rhythmic chant vibrated through the great halls of the Ideoteque, and the pragmagician stood with a smile gleaming in his eyes turned up towards the ceiling.

From the day of the burial of prof. Alstad the old, but not forgotten prediction of a prominent 21st century philosopher was no longer taken seriously. The prediction, in its usual form, goes as follows: “I wonder if the future of philosophy might not bear some similarity to what we once called natural philosophy, full of wonder and curiosity rather than woe and dread.”