12,184. RUDIMENTS, pt. 835

RUDIMENTS, pt. 835

(and I thought the Maple Tree was bad?)

We've not had a new weapon

developed in a long time. I

mean completely new, not 

something that just intensifies

one already there. It can be

used as a sort of a marker for a

society  -  this idea of developing

weaponry. I'll get more to that 

in a minute. What I mean, I

guess, now, by a new weapon,

would be the next step. One

that de-materializes things,

and people. The holder of

such a weapon would be way

ahead of everyone else, until

of course the same weapons are

possessed by many others as

well. It would be a nice switch
in any case to have war where 
you're simply going after 
'dematerializing' the other's
stockpile of weapons instead
of people. But, at the same time,

reducing the population overall,

which is a global problem and 

people love tackling all that,

would be a much easier deal.

We could be leagues ahead.

It's funny, actually, when you

get into this weaponry and 

general society stuff, it brings

in all sorts of things. Old wars

used weapons, all through the

ages, that knocked off the enemy

one by one. Our society currently,

and all its collective environment

stuff, dunks entire populations

or can, in one fell swoop. When

gunpowder came along, I guess

through the Chinese, it was blasted

in a heap, on a field. Explosively;

dynamite-style. No one then had

yet developed what became the

idea and the tools for 'drilling'

gun barrels and directing the

ignition through that barrel 

to propel a small missile, all

known to us now as bullets. 

-

The techniques developed for

drilling gun barrels provided the

means, in turn, for directing the

piston drive of steam engines.

An odd concurrence, progress

running together : boring hard

steel, developing the 'piston, etc.

As an 'artist' the weirdest thing

was that the ideas of 'perspective'

(Giotto, etc), became the basis of

an entire new school of thought

based on the literay (idea-wise)

concepts of  perspective and

distance  -  to wit, people learned

how to 'aim.' The use of gunpowder

for propelling projectiles in a

trajectory had to wait for the

coming of 'perspective' in the

arts. Technology like that, and art, 

together, are strange bedfellows.

It has always puzzled anthropologists.

(What is anthropology? 'The history

of man embracing woman.').

-

It has been found, by those

who study these things, that

non-literates are generally poor

shots with rifles; they excuse

them, on the grounds that, with

the bow and arrow, proximity to

the hunt and to game was more

important than distant accuracy,

which was almost impossible to

achieve. And bows are silent,

so that, when an arrow missed,

animals rarely fled. The arrow,

as an extension of hand and arm,

pits itself against the rifle, which is

an extension of the eye and teeth.

[Let me interject here to just

point out how my thoughts

operate  -  all this random

thinking seems to stem from

the mention, in the previous 

chapter, of the cornfields and bow

and arrow times, behind my 

house, at the old prison farm]. 

-

American colonists were the first

to insist on the use of the 'rifled'

barrel and improved gunsights; they

then improved the old muskets,

creating the Kentucky rifle. It was

the highly literate Bostonians who

outshot the British regulars; such

literacy brought forth the use of

'perspective'  -  markmanship

being not the gift of the native

or the woodsman, but the literate

colonist (little did any art students

know what they were involved

with! Their schooled notions of

perspective contributing to such

a warfare). A semi-literate warrior

on the American turf, would have

a hard time up against the easier

selection of a separate, isolated,

target in space (much like a word

is), with the rifle as an extension

of the eye, and the word acting

as the literate symbol of the linear

flight/arc of the targeted bullet.

-

There's this place in Germantown,

Philadelphia  -  very historic, but

a wreck now, the whole section

being just more of that American

abandonment of its cities  -  a

quite historic street, all  -  called

the 'Chew House' (Chew was a

guy's last name). During the

Revolution, there was a battle

fought here when it was still

country, and British had holed

up in the house, firing out. On

both sides there were casualties

and terror, but if you go inside

and go upstairs, they show you

a portion of wall, under clear

plexiglass preservation, that is a

message home, for his girlfriend

or wife (I forget), by a wounded

and dying British soldier who 

wrote IN HIS OWN BLOOD, on

that interior wall, as he lay dying,

a final note, last will and message,

if you will. The red blood is much

faded now, but you can see and

read it. Touching. I like to think

of that, and revisit it, as I mull

over the ideas of these two sorts

of opposing forces, wildly shooting

and slaying each other over field,

turf, and early street, of whatever

value. Those far from home, in their

vollied formations, rigid and strange

about their ways, up against the

rag-tag wayfarers sacrificing it all

to defend their taking, and keeping,

this strange new land and territory.

Oddities abounded  -  natives and

rivers, streams and cabins, poor

dirt tracks through densenesses of

woods, and few mappings to help.

Wildmen with wild rifles, shooting.

The poor British, I am sure, after

too long, simply realized that it was

just a matter of time until they were

done for. And so be it now.

-

Progress kind of always gives up

the idea of space. Even as late

as WWII, marksmen were being

replaced by automatic weapons

fired blindly in what were called

'fire lanes,' or 'perimeters of fire.'

Even that seems way old-fashioned

now; when with one nuke we can

all be vaporized into nothing.

Everywhere one goes now, it's a

madman's costume party. And I

thought the Maple Tree was bad?

Bring on the de-materializer gun
and get me out of this mess.