Wednesday, June 15, 2016

8296. THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW, #85

#85 REPUDIATION
So I admit to lots of different
thoughts; ways of getting around
things, the concepts that blocked.
The entire Wittgenstein thing
was one  -  it was almost
hilarious. Wittgenstein came
up with an entire logical format
of philosophy and world view,
it was published, he gained
renown, friendships with
Bertrand Russell and others,
and then he went silent. He
just figured he'd worked it
all out, made his points, laid
the grand groundwork for
huge philosophy spans and
the rest, and walked away.
Went to build, by hand,
for years, a house for his
sister -  a design of his
own, quirky and austere,
but he built it with long
labor. Then, one day he
awoke and decided that
all he had written and
concluded before was
incorrect. He repudiated
it all, and, after his death,
many notebooks were
found containing all his
new work, which too
was published under his
name. An entire 'other'
school of his thinking.
It's known as 'old'
Wittgenstein and 'new'
Wittgenstein, or
Wittgenstein I or
Wittgenstein II. The
notebooks are known by
their colors. 'The Blue
Notebook', 'The Red
Notebook'  -  without
titles, just like that. That
is how they're cited. I
always got a big kick
out of that, and a particular
factor of all this 'high'
regard for Wittgenstein
went out the window once
I realized he was a pretty
logical guy  -  willing to
forgo the wildness of any
speculative and energetic
philosophy and instead
contend with the ho-hum
of simple meaning to 
regular words, sedated 
and complacent, with 
all that as our world. I
went home to my crazier 
side, me and old 
William Blake.
-
It was also funny : have 
you ever noticed how all 
the jerky rock-star guys, 
whenever they have 
something new (I mean 
the old guys, like from 
the 60's up through the 
90's, maybe, after which 
point I stopped caring or 
listening) they sit back 
and start telling the
interviewers, so that 
people will buy the new 
stuff, how great it is  -  
and how crummy their
old stuff was, or is! "Uh,
man, we were screwed 
up then, drugs, groupies, 
turmoil. That old music 
represents and reflects 
all that. I can hardly
listen to it myself. This 
new album, man, it's 
us now, and what we 
are  - a few things
straightened, a lot of 
the attitude gone. Great 
man!" They simple
repudiate all they ever 
were before  -  it's all 
industry BS, but still. I 
sometimes used to think 
they were maybe getting
all into Wittgenstein and 
taking new tips from 
his marketers.
-
In the time, the little time, I
comfortably had my little
apartment at 509 e11th  -
before all that idiot-mob took
it over and I bailed, we used to
(by 'we' I mean me, and Andy
Bonomo and whoever he was
banging that week), used to
enjoy music, what we called
it anyway : all the usual crud
of the day  -  Doors, Santana,
Grateful Dead, Jefferson
Airplane, Sopwith Camel,
Jimi Hendrix, even I guess
some Bob Dylan though I
don't think he (Andy) was
ever into that and you certainly
wouldn't much play bongo
drums to it. Ans then, of course,
the endless ladling of Velvet
Underground, Lou Reed,
Mo Tucker, John Cale, and
all that. I thrived a bit too on
Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis,
and John Coltrane. In fact,
most probably that was more
where my head was at  -  that
dirty downbeat of 50's jazz,
all those strung-out struggling
black guys and their jazz lofts
and dark jazz clubs, finger-clicking
beats and babes, sweater-clad
girls doing three guys if one
on a nickel. All this rock n' roll
and hippie shit was all crap to
me. I was always more engaged
in the stark and the tough, the
black lingo of jazz, and the
toughness and verity of the
singular beats and hideaway
crazies. I knew that. It was one
of the New York problems that
presented itself to me. I really
wanted these guys, the dark and
the smoky, the beat and the rash.
But I was about 6 years too late
maybe. They were all gone, 
dispersed out, their own
movement of thought and
music and poetry and 
writing almost discredited 
and bowled over by all the 
listless crap that was being 
churned out : all that new
flower-power jism flying 
around happy heads. If I 
wasn't so non-violent, I'd 
have punched a few of
those jerks right in the
schnozola. As my father
used to call our big,
family noses.
-
Speaking of which (yeah, 
and there's more) I always
thought that the sins of the 
children should be borne 
by the father, by the one who
spawned them. It's kind of
the opposite of that archaic 
maxim wherein the 'sins of
the fathers are borne by the
children.' But I never cared
about that stuff; I liked it
turned around. Figure it this
way (hey, listen, I know I'm
an obscure and radical thinker,
outlandish and way out there,
but no one ever said you have
to follow me) as a reason,
even, why people like Elvis
or Dylan or Hendrix should 
have been executed. No matter
how 'good' and 'high' and
'exalted' their stuff may have 
been, ab initio, from its 
beginnings, they are the ones
responsible for the crap it's all
become. And they shouldn't 
get away with it. Look at the 
entire industry of garbage and
evil and negativity it has brought.
Look at the layers and layers of
self-serving, loud, and arrogant,
Godless creeps who've been 
foisted off on us as leaders 
and thinkers, and  -  for that 
matter  -  'Poets', oh good 
God c'mon  -  look at the 
mind-destroying numbness 
and drug-induced vomit that
has destroyed any real thought
and thinking in this country,
at least here. The rest of it,
everywhere else, I frankly 
don't give two clicks about.
And the rest I just don't know.
-
Since tonight's episode here 
was just all conjectural 
crazy-stuff anyway, I'll give
it one more for now. Do you
know how I stumbled on and
symbolized Relativity for myself?
It's all pretty difficult to grasp,
but try. About 1965, the first
radial tires began coming out;
they'd been on European cars
for years, but America still used
what were called bias-ply tires.
The metal bands within the tire 
went lateral, with the round of
the tire, and not 'across' the tire
(radial). Radial tires were 
generally kept much softer, and
that too at first caused great
misunderstandings when first
seen. I knew a mechanic who 
insisted on putting way too 
much air in a 'radial' tire, because
to him they always looked low.
Most of the Euro cars were
smaller and therefore lighter 
and more nimble, even front-
wheel drive, which was also
pretty non-American back 
then. Radial tires, like Europeans
and their thinking, they 'gave' 
more, they hugged and squished 
around the ride better, the radial
bands in the tire giving more bend,
easier hug and acceptance of the
road. American tires, by contrast, 
big and rigid and hard (oops!)
rode sternly, high and with 
plenty of air pressure. They
'battled' the road instead of
'accepting' the road, as a radial
tire (and as a European) would.
The was Part 1 of my theory, the
difference between Euro and
American thinking, being, and
thought-composures. Part 2 of
my theory  -  and this is where 
the relativity part comes in  -  
had to do with 'how does a tire
wear out?' It was very difficult 
to grasp, but I felt it had the key
to illuminating Relativity too. 
As follows: Relative to our 
fixed viewpoint, the traveling 
tire in some way must 'scrape'
along the ground, to wear out, 
YET, in viewpoint the tire is
constantly turning and never 
'really' in fixed contact with the
road to get the 'scrape' we imagine
that wears it out, that makes it
bald, eventually. At speed, the
tire-to-ground contact, for the
splendid millisecond it exists,
is always propelled, on the move. 
There is no actual 'moment'  -  as
we would perceive it or see it  -  
where the two are in conflict
enough to be 'scraping' for wear.
What is it them that's incorrect
about our conclusion of the visual
we 'think' we perceive? Is it, and
why not, the 'turn' that scrapes 
the tire along the ground? I could
say yes to that  -  two conflicting
directions, two differing forces, 
a push/pull format of abrasion 
and wear as the tire, by steering,
is rotated into a turn or a bend. 
Or is it, instead or also, 'heat'. 
Does the constant rotational 
force and mini-momentary 
contact of tire to roadway 
cause heat, by friction? Or
not? Is that the factor 
that labors the 
rubber down?
-
So, that's it for this chapter.
That's how, and that's the 
kind of stuff I used to think,
and still do, about the worlds 
and worlds and worlds 
floating all around me.

















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