Er... I'm not sure I do any more.
No?
No, in fact, I'm beginning to realise that I positively don't.
You are?
Yes.
Here -- hold this a moment would you.
What is it?
Oh, nothing important.
Nothing important?
More or less. Here.
Zie takes hold of nothing important -- without a clue what he's holding in his hands. It's like there's an incomprehension field around it which makes it impossible to figure out what it is -- to join the dots -- no matter how hard you stare at it.
74 years later, someone hits rewind...
Oh, there you are Merry.
Thanks Zie -- let me take that.
Oh, you mean nothing-important? I seem to have something wrong with my brain Merry. I was staring at this thing for ever
What thing?
This nothing-important thing -- and try as I might I can't make head or tale of it.
You can't?
Nope.
But surely you can tell me its colour?
Nope.
It's size and shape?
Nope.
It's weight?
Not even its weight. It's like one of those ultra black things which absorb all light -- but this one absorbs all cognition. I can look at it -- but can't think it.
You're sure about that?
Absolutely.
You're absolutely sure that you can't think about nothing important.
You bet I am, ridiculous though this sounds.
Well there you go. Did you try sniffing it?
I told you Merry -- I cannot think it -- so even if I sniff it and smell something -- I won't be able to cognate whatever it is. No what seems to attach to it. It's like it's coated with some non-stick surface.
So, have you ever noticed this before?
That's what's troubling me.
It is? Why's that?
Because I wouldn't have noticed, would I. The only reason I even noticed this nothing much was because you asked me to hold it -- but beyond noticing the fact that I was holding nothing much -- my mind is utterly bereft of any grasp whatsoever of what it may be.
Wanna see what it is?
I don't see how that will help -- I've already seen it, but it seems to slip through my mind like sand through a sieve.
Here, try this.
Blindfold?
Kind of -- put it on.
Oh, Ok.
Zie puts on the blindfold and suddenly laughs with mirth as he sees himself in cartoon format holding a string of sausages.
You mean I was just now holding a string o' sausages? he asks -- sniffing his fingers. Nothing! They don't smell at all. They're not even greasy.
Strange, isn't it. And yet the blindfold does not lie. You were indeed holding a string of sausages, so to speak.
So to speak? Why the caveat?
Well -- you yourself saw only too clearly how it looked.
The cartoon -- but surely that's just a representation?
Merry looks at Zie inquisitively for a minute or so. Do you really think so? he asks at last.
Not really. Your sausages were not really sausages, were they?
Are you looking for a yes/ no answer?
No, I already no the answer. They were real in a two dimensional cartoonisation, which at the time seemed utterly real, but which was... nothing much.
So there you are.
But what does it mean? And how did you knock me into 2D without me noticing?
It looks like you're endeavouring to rationalise this -- to get a handle on it.
Well what else am I supposed to do?
Oh -- you could try something more imaginative.
Like what?
Figuring out how to think without thinking -- that way you'd be able to bridge the gap between different levels, different aspects of perception. That way you'd be able to shift between dimensions, apparently.
Would I?
There's literally nothing to it Zie.
So you say -- but I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It seems impossibly complicated.
Yes, it's bound to as long as you're attempting to 3D nothing much -- which is like squaring a circle, or vice versa. Try a different approach.
Like what?
Like jumping into your 2D skin, or whichever dimension you happen to be visiting, and getting really comfortable in it -- allowing yourself to enjoy every last sensation without trying obsessively to think things, without whatting them.
But how's that going to help me to join the dots and figure out they're sausages?
You'd be surprised. The minute you start allowing the minute to absorb you: the minute you allow the love of being part of this great drama to excite you more fully -- the barriers come down -- you merge.
With a string of sausages?
With anything whatsoever, no matter what.
But I'm not sure I want to merge with a string of...
You yourself said it was a cartoon -- which is spot on -- but until you allow your locus, your point or balance of perception to shift into the drama of the moment -- you'll just be a dumb observer.
That's a little unnecessary Merry -- calling me names like that.
Not dumb in the sense of stupid -- just dumb in the original sense -- unable to communicate whatever it is.
Because it's nothing much -- those sausages were not really there
unless you allow yourself to experience them without first trying to determine in what way they can, might or should matter to you. That's so self-interested and egoistic, isn't it?
Yes, I suppose it is -- but isn't that how we're supposed to think -- otherwise we'd never really advance, would we? We'd never bother to see how we could use things intelligently.
True -- and yet -- we're beating about the bush. Here, grab this and Merry places a snake in Zie's hands. I'll be off Zie.
Ok, what about this?
This what?
Er... no idea -- unless you can give me the blindfold again?
I can do something better.
Yes?
I can leave you to your own devices.
Not again. I'm sure this has been tried already, and it didn't work, big time.
Correct. But this time things are different.
They are?
Yes -- because... Merry seems to be strangely nervous, like a small boy unsure whether or not to tell a closely guarded secret, hopping from one foot to the other in slow motion, floatingly, apparently.
Well? Aren't you going to tell?
Well, what if you no more than you know...
Zipp
Oh -- where's he gone. Damn -- I'm stuck with this thing in my hands -- which is writhing and making hissing sounds, as if it were a snake.
Somewhere within the infinite depths of Zie's unconsciousness something unknowable, something immeasurable clicks unnoticeably.
Wow! How did that happen. Yikes -- it's a boa constrictor. I wish he wouldn't do that. Help!
Observe. Sense. Experience.
Oh -- Ok. Was that you Merry.
You'll never know -- until you allow yourself to shift frames.
shift frames -- but I kind of like being in a cartoon reality. Hey -- let's view it both ways and no sooner has this thought been thought than Zie is observing what is not -- his nothing much -- from both ends, so to speak, of the tube.
OK Zie, you can let go of me now.
Oh, sorry Merry -- I thought you were a boa.
Ridiculous. Surely you can differentiate between zero and one?
You'd think so, wouldn't you -- but apparently not. It's a humbling experience to realise how ill-qualified I am to make heads or tails of reality.
And yet you found me after all -- so well done.
I found you?
Yes, grammatically speaking, that is correct.
But where were you?
In your unconsciousness, just waiting for you to notice me.
But...
Confusing, isn't it, and yet... in-finity has a habit of constantly surprising -- constantly revealing something totally, utterly unexpected -- which at first is nothing much -- not even cognisable, and then suddenly
Zippidy doo-da!
Precisely -- and everyone starts dancing and singing -- like one of those wonderful, ridiculous Bollywood movies. Anyway -- here's the hyperlink -- you earned it so go ahead -- enjoy the fruits of your own unconsciousness, let the frames unfreeze, let the dimensions undement, let zippidy do DA
No?
No, in fact, I'm beginning to realise that I positively don't.
You are?
Yes.
Here -- hold this a moment would you.
What is it?
Oh, nothing important.
Nothing important?
More or less. Here.
Zie takes hold of nothing important -- without a clue what he's holding in his hands. It's like there's an incomprehension field around it which makes it impossible to figure out what it is -- to join the dots -- no matter how hard you stare at it.
74 years later, someone hits rewind...
Oh, there you are Merry.
Thanks Zie -- let me take that.
Oh, you mean nothing-important? I seem to have something wrong with my brain Merry. I was staring at this thing for ever
What thing?
This nothing-important thing -- and try as I might I can't make head or tale of it.
You can't?
Nope.
But surely you can tell me its colour?
Nope.
It's size and shape?
Nope.
It's weight?
Not even its weight. It's like one of those ultra black things which absorb all light -- but this one absorbs all cognition. I can look at it -- but can't think it.
You're sure about that?
Absolutely.
You're absolutely sure that you can't think about nothing important.
You bet I am, ridiculous though this sounds.
Well there you go. Did you try sniffing it?
I told you Merry -- I cannot think it -- so even if I sniff it and smell something -- I won't be able to cognate whatever it is. No what seems to attach to it. It's like it's coated with some non-stick surface.
So, have you ever noticed this before?
That's what's troubling me.
It is? Why's that?
Because I wouldn't have noticed, would I. The only reason I even noticed this nothing much was because you asked me to hold it -- but beyond noticing the fact that I was holding nothing much -- my mind is utterly bereft of any grasp whatsoever of what it may be.
Wanna see what it is?
I don't see how that will help -- I've already seen it, but it seems to slip through my mind like sand through a sieve.
Here, try this.
Blindfold?
Kind of -- put it on.
Oh, Ok.
Zie puts on the blindfold and suddenly laughs with mirth as he sees himself in cartoon format holding a string of sausages.
Strange, isn't it. And yet the blindfold does not lie. You were indeed holding a string of sausages, so to speak.
So to speak? Why the caveat?
Well -- you yourself saw only too clearly how it looked.
The cartoon -- but surely that's just a representation?
Merry looks at Zie inquisitively for a minute or so. Do you really think so? he asks at last.
Not really. Your sausages were not really sausages, were they?
Are you looking for a yes/ no answer?
No, I already no the answer. They were real in a two dimensional cartoonisation, which at the time seemed utterly real, but which was... nothing much.
So there you are.
But what does it mean? And how did you knock me into 2D without me noticing?
It looks like you're endeavouring to rationalise this -- to get a handle on it.
Well what else am I supposed to do?
Oh -- you could try something more imaginative.
Like what?
Figuring out how to think without thinking -- that way you'd be able to bridge the gap between different levels, different aspects of perception. That way you'd be able to shift between dimensions, apparently.
Would I?
There's literally nothing to it Zie.
So you say -- but I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It seems impossibly complicated.
Yes, it's bound to as long as you're attempting to 3D nothing much -- which is like squaring a circle, or vice versa. Try a different approach.
Like what?
Like jumping into your 2D skin, or whichever dimension you happen to be visiting, and getting really comfortable in it -- allowing yourself to enjoy every last sensation without trying obsessively to think things, without whatting them.
But how's that going to help me to join the dots and figure out they're sausages?
You'd be surprised. The minute you start allowing the minute to absorb you: the minute you allow the love of being part of this great drama to excite you more fully -- the barriers come down -- you merge.
With a string of sausages?
With anything whatsoever, no matter what.
But I'm not sure I want to merge with a string of...
You yourself said it was a cartoon -- which is spot on -- but until you allow your locus, your point or balance of perception to shift into the drama of the moment -- you'll just be a dumb observer.
That's a little unnecessary Merry -- calling me names like that.
Not dumb in the sense of stupid -- just dumb in the original sense -- unable to communicate whatever it is.
Because it's nothing much -- those sausages were not really there
unless you allow yourself to experience them without first trying to determine in what way they can, might or should matter to you. That's so self-interested and egoistic, isn't it?
Yes, I suppose it is -- but isn't that how we're supposed to think -- otherwise we'd never really advance, would we? We'd never bother to see how we could use things intelligently.
True -- and yet -- we're beating about the bush. Here, grab this and Merry places a snake in Zie's hands. I'll be off Zie.
Ok, what about this?
This what?
Er... no idea -- unless you can give me the blindfold again?
I can do something better.
Yes?
I can leave you to your own devices.
Not again. I'm sure this has been tried already, and it didn't work, big time.
Correct. But this time things are different.
They are?
Yes -- because... Merry seems to be strangely nervous, like a small boy unsure whether or not to tell a closely guarded secret, hopping from one foot to the other in slow motion, floatingly, apparently.
Well? Aren't you going to tell?
Well, what if you no more than you know...
Zipp
Oh -- where's he gone. Damn -- I'm stuck with this thing in my hands -- which is writhing and making hissing sounds, as if it were a snake.
Somewhere within the infinite depths of Zie's unconsciousness something unknowable, something immeasurable clicks unnoticeably.
Wow! How did that happen. Yikes -- it's a boa constrictor. I wish he wouldn't do that. Help!
Observe. Sense. Experience.
Oh -- Ok. Was that you Merry.
You'll never know -- until you allow yourself to shift frames.
shift frames -- but I kind of like being in a cartoon reality. Hey -- let's view it both ways and no sooner has this thought been thought than Zie is observing what is not -- his nothing much -- from both ends, so to speak, of the tube.
OK Zie, you can let go of me now.
Oh, sorry Merry -- I thought you were a boa.
Ridiculous. Surely you can differentiate between zero and one?
You'd think so, wouldn't you -- but apparently not. It's a humbling experience to realise how ill-qualified I am to make heads or tails of reality.
And yet you found me after all -- so well done.
I found you?
Yes, grammatically speaking, that is correct.
But where were you?
In your unconsciousness, just waiting for you to notice me.
But...
Confusing, isn't it, and yet... in-finity has a habit of constantly surprising -- constantly revealing something totally, utterly unexpected -- which at first is nothing much -- not even cognisable, and then suddenly
Zippidy doo-da!
Precisely -- and everyone starts dancing and singing -- like one of those wonderful, ridiculous Bollywood movies. Anyway -- here's the hyperlink -- you earned it so go ahead -- enjoy the fruits of your own unconsciousness, let the frames unfreeze, let the dimensions undement, let zippidy do DA
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