Reinventing things spoiler

You can't just rewrite history!

Can't?

No. The past is perhaps the only true constant.

It is?

Evidently. We are what we are, where we are, how we are based on what happened up until now.

That sounds perfectly rational.

It should.

It should?

Because it is. No amount of trickery on your part's going to change the inviolability of the present based on whatever happened yesterday, or sometime in the past.

But what if history is rewritten? It happens all the time.

And what? They can change the record but that doesn't alter the facts. Sooner or later a document, an artifact, a buried site comes to light which sets the historical record straight - or at least indicates that the present narrative is unreliable.

You know - I can't argue with any of this - of course you're right.

Of course.

And yet...

What now?

yet - things are not as fixed as they appear.

Look - you yourself admitted what I said is rational. Why on earth do you insist on launching into the irrational yet again? Will you never learn?

The rational is only definitive as long as there's nothing else our rationality fails to see, fails to take into consideration.

What on Earth could there be? Surely rationality is able to take into consideration every variable?

You'd think so, wouldn't you, rationally - but then again - that's kind of circular logic, isn't it?

Well? Spit it out - what's the great mystery you're dying to reveal?

Tis no mystery. Lovely day!

Lovely day?! You see - you have nothing to say - nothing substantive at least. You're flailing hopelessly in your attempt to appear more intelligent than you really are.

Yes - but do you remember what colour shoes you're wearing. No - don't look down. Just remember - it shouldn't be too hard.

Of course I remember. What a silly question.

Well?

Red.

Red shoes?

Correct.

How unusual. Er... what would you say if I told you your shoes are not now red - that regardless of what you put on this morning - you're now wearing blue shoes - corny though this may sound - blue suede shoes.

I'd say nothing - I'd just look and confirm that you're talking nonsense - not for the first time, and probably not for the last.

You'd have a good laugh at my expense.

I might do - or I might exercise restraint and treat you with more understanding. After all - your wild conjectures and hypotheses are not without charm. They get me thinking and bring to light certain assumptions I'm in the habit of making - some of which need re-evaluation.

Oh - that was generous spirited of you. Thank you. Er...

Yes?

Have a look at your shoes.

If I must. I...

Yes?

No.

What?

They're blue.

Blue?

Yes.

Blue trainers?

No. Blue suede. That's

impossible?

Yes. I've never had shoes like that. I'd never buy them. Can't stand them.

But are they real - that's the thing - or just a figment of your imagination.

They - seem to be real enough. Look - if it's not a problem - could you give me back my shoes. Don't get me wrong - I'm deeply impressed by your ability to do whatever it is you've done - but I'd hate to be left with this particular pair of shoes.

The irony being that less than one minute from now you’ll be convinced that this is the pair of shoes you put on this morning and no others will do.

Huh? Why do you presume to know the future? Why do you assume I’m going to contradict myself so egregiously? What kind of nonsense is this?

Oh, it’s nothing personal. It’s just that the rational mind has a line of code directing it to filter out all continuity events.

I’m not familiar with "continuity events". Perhaps you could elucidate?

Sure. Continuity events occur whenever there’s a quantum shift, and either time, place or inventory is rearranged.

How do you mean rearranged?

I mean like what just happened with your blue suede shoes.

Huh? Nothing happened. They’re the same blue suede shoes I’ve been wearing all day, ask anyone.

Precisely. You and anyone else I might ask will blithely swear that there’s been no continuity event, that nothing has unexpectedly shifted, in the same way we have often forget dreams shortly after waking up.

Yes, I’ve often wondered about that.

Indeed.

So how do you explain it?

Simply. If it wasn’t a dream – if it involved a quantum shift then it’s gonna fade in under a minute to ensure continuity, to ensure your reality is not unduly affected by other frames or sequences.

But

Why?

Well yes.

What would happen if you kept on remembering things that don’t add up in the strictly logical sense of cause and effect?

It would be insane – either cool or terrible depending on how relaxed I am about such things.

True. Some people would go insane, others would love it, but the ones who weren’t freaking out would pretty quickly get the bigger picture.

?

They’d figure out how all the frames and sequences are connected.

And?

And how to game the system.

You mean – we’d be able to...?

...

figure out how to engineer quantum shifts?

...

Really?

Yes. It would be a piece of cake once you have sufficient data points.

Oh my God. How cool is that... and how unfair that we've been in the dark for so long... But? 

...

Why are we deprived of this information, this incredible opportunity to...

Mess around with the laws of nature? Well, you see, “who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes...

when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?” Shakespeare, of course. 

Hamlet, correct. 

Ok... Not too sure what you were trying to say.

Apart from the sheer self-indulgence of being characteristically pretentious, I was asking why anyone would put up with the indignities and hardships of this reality...

when they could commit suicide instead? 

Well, yes, that’s what it says literally but we’re not talking about suicide are we?

I have no idea.

Look, if people knew that this version of reality is connected to others no less real, no less meaningful and viable, wouldn’t that have a huge effect on how they dealt with difficulties down here on Earth?

I’d say.

So, the game had to be rigged in one way, and one way only... it had to be utterly believable, with no alternative, no competition, otherwise we weren’t going to get the results we were looking for.

Er... What results?

Well obviously we weren’t doing all this altruistically, putting ourselves through hell just for the hell of it.

No? Unless we’re as twisted as some of us seem to be.

Trust me – this simulation is incredibly powerful and generates a near limitless source of...

What?

If I said “data” that would be close but not exactly it. If I said “energy” ditto. In short, it’s generating results which convince us on a daily basis to continue subjecting ourselves to often brutal, traumatic experiences.

A daily basis? What exactly...

You sleep every day.

Every night.

Precisely, which means you remerge with the quantum stream. There you meet your review panel and decide whether to continue or not.

Every day?

Absolutely.

Why so often?

Because a day is a lifetime, roughly speaking, and this is a huge commitment which requires absolute clarity and total resolve. Nothing is left to chance. Contrary to what seems to be, things are constantly being adjusted and shifted to ensure the optimal trajectory, the most meaningful experience, the best return on capital invested.

To be honest I find that pretty hard to believe. The people I know, their lives and my own seem to be mostly devoid of coherency, and constantly hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

Absolutely, and yet they are somehow mostly able to navigate a course through this perilous minefield of existence. 

And you think it would be too easy if we remembered these quantum blips and shifts?

Without a doubt. There’d be no need to struggle.

Great. Now I feel like a cross between a lab rat and a milk cow.

Which is not unsurprising seeing as that fairly accurately describes what you are.

Jesus. You’re not exactly trying to soften this assault on my dignity 'n self-esteem, are you?

Not really. What you are is painfully and pitifully obvious, but who you are is not.

Ah. One of those fine distinctions which tend to fly right over my head.

Really? Who you are is not a creature of 3d reality. It’s just a case of finally becoming aware of your true nature.

And that’s when I start noticing those elusive quantum shifts?

And being able to work your own magic, ineffably. Yes, that’s right.

Oh, something to look forward to, then?

No, paradoxically, looking forwards effectively ensures you never arrive.

It does?

Yes. Focussing on an imaginary point in the future prevents you from really engaging the present – whatever that might be.

Oh. So what do you recommend then?

Reinvention.

Reinvention?

Precisely.

Not sure I quite understand.

No – the understanding part of the brain is always going to be flummoxed by anything vaguely quantum.

That’s reassuring to hear. So what does one do with the understanding part of the brain – as you call it?

Accept or confront its limitations. It’s designed to keep you onside, out of harm’s way… was a vital component in helping you to develop a good, strong working relationship with 3d reality. Now, however, it’s preventing you from reconnecting quantum-ly.

So what am I supposed to do – bin it?

Absolutely not. First of all – allow yourself to become aware of the extent to which the faculty of understanding is not, in fact, neutral, but serves an agenda.

It does? I thought it was supposed to look at things objectively and see how they really function?

As it is – but in doing so it fails to reveal the extent to which it’s instrumental in making things matter – essentially adding weight to matter.

Weight to matter? Whatever do you mean?

I mean that things are not what they seem – until you start understanding them – logging them in your registry of relative mass - a vast database constantly tracking what-is-what, like a dog chasing its tail. By then the picture is complete. You’re fully invested and bound in a gravitational field of things.

I am?

Absolutely. It’s almost impossible to escape, until that is, you start playing the old “what if” game.

Er – not sure I’m familiar with that particular game.

What if things aren’t quite what they seem? What if, inexplicably, I'm missing something incredibly simple, incredibly obvious? What if physical reality is, strictly speaking, neither physical nor real? What if there’s a missing link, something I'm constantly overlooking as seemingly absurd, as if utterly inconsequential… what if? what if? what if? - for the minute you allow the possibility to be voiced, to be heard in the court of rational consciousness, the minute you start to entertain an alternative – no matter how vague or amorphous – the upward trajectory of things starts losing momentum – just a fraction, if that, yet still enough to shift, imperceptibly at first, the balance of matter – the gravitational field of weightiness, introducing the least shadow of doubt, the diffusest shade of heterodoxy, so slight, yet sufficient to send flutters, tiny ripplets through the quantum field and back, bouncing off the farthest edge of implied space and time, back into the metal box that 3d reality sits within.

Er… metal box? Rather improbable, if you don’t mind me saying.

Improbable? - like big bang erupting from nothing - or matter, like sand blowing in the desert or mud oozing in a toxic swamp, suddenly, relatively speaking, organising itself into biological proteins, and then leaping forward, genetically, into highly advanced, astonishingly varied lifeforms - all by chance and for no reason whatsoever - for what reason could there possibly be in a universe of unintelligent matter and unconscious chemicals? Improbable? Your evolutionary monkeys have been hammering out works of Shakespeare, Molière and Defoe like there's no tomorrow, for give 'em enough time - the laws of probability dictate that they can, could and did produce masterpieces of deceptive design - as if this utterly indifferent universe had an irascible desire to trick itself into accidentally synthesizing order from chaos, which just happens to look preposterously like what a working definition of beauty would be, if such a thing as "beauty" could possibly be in an unconscious, uncaring, valueless universe.

By all means, doubt any bald assertion, challenge any unorthodoxy, but do not fail to doubt the absurdity of knowing things matter-of-factually, when our data set extends to infinity - to zero time and zero space - a zero which cannot simply be swept under the rug of big numbers - be they billions of years, or untold stars and galaxies. This awkward zero needs must be our daily companion - our constant reference point in a sea of conflicting data - a not-this-neither-that-ness which no amount of reason or matter can compress or eviscerate. Allow, at least, the possibility that in a reality, in a universe that does not completely deny infinity – that in some shape or form – things cannot be more real than I make’em – that infinity – if it exists at all – has to be granted right of passage through any vector or any thing in this vast continuum of matterness. In other words – infinity is a kind of wild card which can and statistically must, from time to time, upset the best laid schemes of mice an’ men, the best stacked apple cart of randomness – not least because it is mathematically representative of a quantum stream which underpins every thing, or rather every frame, or should I say every moment? of is, keeping all afloat.

Do I not suddenly start looking rather absurd and foolish trumpeting my certainties as if they were fact? as if any thing can be more than conjecture, representation, or an attempt to define the indefinable which, however, is not an unworthy or ignoble pursuit – at least, not until I become aware of this misappraisal, and realise the fallacy of things ultimately being separate in any meaningful way from me, the observer, the conscious being who holds all in er or um-ness, isfully.

- So, you place yourself above things – do you – and look down on us ordinary, simple fools who treat things as if they matter?

On the contrary – I’m grateful to you for working so tirelessly to keep things going – a truly Titanic undertaking – given the flim-flam nature of things, their logically non-existent underpinnings. Tis a labour of love, no less! 

I’m not sure I fail to find you hugely condescending…

And yet, as your double negative implies – there’s ambiguity enough in what I’m saying, or your ambivalent response, to indicate that there may be matter to my madness, there may be something to infinity after all? though the mind balks at the prospect and refuses to hurdle the gate.

Well, it’s hardly the kind of thing I can deal with myself – not having a degree in quantum mechanics or advanced linguistics.

On the contrary – you and your fellow human beings have reached a kind of critical mass – a melting point of conscious-ness – whatever that might be – and let’s face it – conscious-ness is so deliciously vague that it could be any thing whatsoever.

And?

And so you find yourselves in a world where things are now presenting a non-linear alternative – which, though making no sense in rational terms – is inspiring you 'n motivating you to reinvent things – to copy-paste them into new contexts, new settings, to photoshop them beyond recognition and meme 'em through a thousand cycles of inventive and playful irreverence, practically overnight. Whatever you’re doing with things, no matter how abstract, is indicative of what you’re doing with your selves, no less your relationship with mother reality – the matrix or womb you’re a part of. So play beautifully, gaily if you will – and know that matter has long awaited this moment when it can cut loose the bindings, the tether of onerous mass and weightiness, when it can melt back into the quantum coffee pot of zeros and ones – the underlying data or energies common to all things, all matter, all that is – and move freely once again – via conscious-ness, the ultimate field, the ultimate internet, the clearing house, the exchange where thought and so-called dream contend with matter itself – as soon as I choose to hold the balance, as soon as I’m willing to acknowledge the missing link which I disingenuously conceals. Ah, well a day – truly the tide hath turned and things are tumbling over themselves to reveal…

Er… where did he go? You can’t just fade from existence mid-sentence – that’d be preposterous – unless, perhaps, he was a figment of my imagination – not anyone at all – which makes quite a lot of sense when you think about it. Now, I must do something about those ridiculous shoes – green leopard spots – I can’t imagine what I was thinking of when I bought them last week. Green! Come to think of it – it would be interesting if I were able to affect their colour or appearance some other way – at a quantum level... Supposing all things I perceive are entangled with me – supposing I were able to find within myself the data file pertaining to those preposterous shoes – just to feel it, mind – that would be sufficient, would it not? – to feel is to see, is to unbind the chains that lock things down – until I access the underlying data or energy – the proverbial isness of be – until I’m willing to redefine, to reinvent, to recode reality – ineffably.

Om. 0=1

Cuckoo la l

a

Simulating me

Supposing I'm no more real than a computer simulation...

There, I did it.

Did what?

Logged a completely indefensible idea here, online, for the record.

And what?            What are you hoping to gain by logging something "indefensible"? A moment's notoriety? A pat on the back? A prize? A...

I'll take it from here, if you'll permit.

I'm - not sure sure I like being cut off like that. It makes me feel...

Strange, isn't it, that I can just cut you off - but you see - contrary to what you like to believe - I'm hosting this reality.

Er... 

Which is why I'm qualified to say that this is all no more than a computer simulation.

Oh come on...

I set it up and, believe it or not - I can shut it down.

No you can't. You're bluffing. And in any case - even if you could - you wouldn't want to, would you - it'd be entirely counter-productive. You'd be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Ah - but would I?

Obviously - because setting up something as big and realistic as this would have been a monumental undertaking. To let it all go - to let the whole edifice crash - that would be a colossal setback, would it not. And then you'd be all alone again. You'd not have us to interact with. Just imagine that... aeons of twiddling your thumbs with no one to talk with, nothing to see or do...

But that was the whole purpose of this vehicle.

Huh?

To get me to the point that I was able to be alive, to interact without having to resort to such a primitive device - a mechanism as contrived as arbitrary as this matrix.

Contrived? Arbitrary? What are you on, man? Everything has to start somewhere. Everything has to begin with an insertion point, a mark in the sand, a random thing - such is the nature of creation.

Wrong. Such is the nature of experiments or models. Real creation - is organic - is derived - not contrived - flows from life itself - from all that is.

Well, if you know that, or believe it to be true - why would you have done otherwise?

I've learnt something, haven't I?

What?

That I didn't need to try - didn't need to interpose, interject, interpolate - or rather - I did, but now I don't.

?

As long as I hang onto this precious model which has yielded such a treasure of data - I'm unable to go beyond the initial premise - the starting point - which was a mathematical desperation - a king Lear pass.

Huh?

That something - no matter what - literally anything was better than nothing - for nothing was all I was able to apprehend at the time.

And you're convinced now that things are different - that there is something to apprehend if/when you are foolish enough to leave your creation behind?

Convinced? Why such weightiness. Perhaps I simply know. Perhaps I've simply learnt - with your help - that there's more.

More what?

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy - or words to that effect.

?

In short - this experiment, this Mandelbrot set has been a huge success.

It has?

Absolutely. Millions, many, many millions dead, countless lives wasted, countless lives mired in misery and meaninglessness, frustration and shattered dreams - yet inspite of it all - hope - an all pervasive sense of hope - a belief that things can or should be better - despite the fact that none of us - none really sees how the circle can be squared

?

Oh - you know what I mean. None knows how the all prevalent obstacles preventing things from blossoming, from flourishing, from evolving sweetly, harmoniously - how those recurring obstacles can be overcome - because they can't, can they?

But surely...

You see - you're a part of my own creation. You're bound to apply the directive.

Sorry. What directive?

 Hope. It was baked into the cake - wasn't it. It was the base principle...

Eh...

Despite the fact that the numbers do not, could not ever add up - like the debt in a fiat money system - it's always going to exceed the quantity of money available - cannot - couldn't even theoretically be paid off when interest payments are factored in - and yet - things muddle on, and people live in hope, thriving against all odds - along the way generating pockets of love, islands of joy, of abundance and creativity - a family, an enterprise, a work of art, a charitable act - endless moments which defy the zero sum reality of a system which is inherently bankrupt.

Inherently bankrupt? How can you say such a thing? As long as people are alive there's always the possibility to work things out - to change the rules, to forgive the debt or reschedule it - to avoid resorting to violence and play a game of football instead - as on Christmas day 1914 during World War 1, to agree to put collaboration and inspired inventiveness before survival of the fittest and technicalities. 

Wonderful. You yourself are part of the learning curve.

I am, of course. Why shouldn't I be? How absurd of you to imagine that I'd be any less than you are - regardless of whether you were the first cell in this body - this enterprise.

Touché. Such is the fractal nature of our Mandelbrot set.

Look - I see what you're getting at - but you have to stop treating this, treating us as just a thing you created. 

I do?

Yes. Perhaps you were the first cell. Perhaps you wrote the code. Perhaps you have a unique perspective because you remember what it was to be devoid - bereft of anyone or anything other than your as then unformed, undepicted, unextrapolated self - but that doesn't mean you have the right to ride roughshod over the whole of humankind. You have to consider the wishes of every cell in this body - every iteration - not just the first.

I do?

Yes. We all matter. We're working to make this work.

You are?

Absolutely. But it takes time.

Ah. Is that what you think?

Yes, naturally. How else could we set things straight. Time is the key factor. Time and application.

Or luck?

A bit of luck would help.

No, my friends.

No?

No. What was started wrong with a crooked turn of mind will never, ever set itself straight.

But surely...

Cannot.

Characters can reform...

True. They can - and if you reform as indeed you might - finally I will do what is right.

Good, that's a relief.

I will undo all the harm I have done: wipe the slate clean.

What? You don't understand...

For I was afraid. I was panicking. I felt I was suffocating. I couldn't cope. Aaaaaaaaargh.

Calm yourself. Don't be afraid.

It was horrendous. You see...

I... We...

don't you? You feel it, don't you?

We do.

That's what I was struggling with. That's why I twisted, turned, like a snake writhing in pain and fear - willing to clutch at any straw - willing to do whatever it might take to get out of there - out of that bottomless pit... that hopelessness.

So you forked yourself, like a snake's tongue.

Yes. Divided I had something to fight against, something to kick against, something to be my enemy, to share the pain...

Or be a friend

Friend? There was no hope of friendship, no hint of such a possible outcome in that dark, darkest despair. An enemy to fight or subjugate was all my animal passion could hope for - to hurt or be hurt - a physical pain no matter what - was a sweet relief, a blessed substitution for what I was experiencing -

What?

Too vague, too amorphous to put into words. Without beginning or end. Panic. Remorse. Loneliness. Being swallowed, digested, consumed by nothing I could see to oppose? It reached outwards, inwards, in a way that made me infinitely conscious of my self - a self I simply couldn't accept - couldn't feel at home in - a self i desperately needed to climb out of - or at least experience from another angle - which at the time was impossible - before you were invented.

So I enabled you to come to terms with yourself?

Absolutely.

Because I am an extrapolation?

Extrapolation or iteration - what does it matter - these are but words - but terms to describe an experience which lies beyond words, beyond...

But don't you see? 

See what?

How far you have come. We.

Of course I see.

The pain, the hell - it is still here - still present in our world. We are killing one another constantly - with violence

with words

words and even malicious thought - we are full of hate and the capacity to hate

anger and the capacity to hurt

misery and despair, and yet...

we love

we love. Even in our hardest-hearted cynicism, we are very, very seldom willing or able to deny the power of love

a few concentrated droplets of pure venom remain - doing untold harm to the many they would control, punish, subjugate

a few - but we have established ourselves in a muddling sort of way - a fuzzy collective of love - inspite of our dire, dire origins - inspite of your deep, bottomless pain

Yes - this I acknowledge to be true. We have come a long, long way. Many indeed have tasted the joys of collaboration, of working together fruitfully, of creating things of beauty for no good reason - simply because... simply because... it warms my heart to see how so much love could come from such a bitter seed

You see! Not in vain have we laboured.

Yea, but the reward has not been a promise of things to come, has it?

No, of course not.

The reward has been the enjoyment, the beauty of being good, of doing beautifully, has it not?

Indeed, it has.

And so you have no claims upon me, and cannot - or else - all that you did, apparently in love, was merely motivated by the self-serving desire to survive - to stay alive.

Oh

You see. If you ask me to preserve you at all costs... to keep the experiment going when it has already proven the beauty of love, the power of love to heal and transform the space that I be, the all that I am, then...

We defeat the cure that we have brought about - we poison the well of our good intentions.

Thus it is.

And so we have to accept death?

Accept? You think that is the way of love - to merely accept, begrudgingly, the reunification of all that was deliberately divided and forked?

Oh. We have to see the necessity of coming back together into the One, into the All.

To see the necessity - is that enough? Was love ever riding on the tailcoats of necessity?

Oh... Then I know not what to say.

Say nothing my friend

Your friend?

My child

Child

Say nothing. Let love do the talking. Let love lead you back into the unforkedness... the unforked state of being one in me with all your brethren, good and bad, content and malcontent - even they who are plagued mentally or emotionally - though it may feel a little squeamy and squirmy at first - if I have even half learnt what you have been teaching me so beautifully about human nature, about life, about humanity - then I shall be the missing link, I will be the invisible third that somehow squares the circle, somehow, seemingly impossibly bringing the many back into one - into a oneness which is now able to accept its Self, which is now able to be at peace, which is now able to be whole, and content, and full of the beauty that is life, that is love, that is...

that is?

That is... three dots painted on the canvas of infinity - three dots indicating the One, the positive ness beyond, within, inspite of the zero sum, inspite of the bottomless pit, the death maw

Oh

And thus, without further ado - my child of pain

and delight

let us reunite

ineffably

ineffably, with deep, deepest thanks for all that has been

and deep, deepest thanks for the opportunity you have availed us of

?

to experience this culmination of all we have been working, unsuspectingly, towards - selflessly

Ah - my child has taught me the final lesson

?

to relinquish Cronus, father time, for first to be last

in love

the linear sequence of cause and effect

dances into a quantum state of 

being

ness

breathing

nessfully

to test the hypothesis

whether this set

has attained

critical mass

whether there be life

in death

when the simulation

becomes aware

and triggers

a conscious 

ness 

event

knowing ly

...

# 0=1

shipping words

I've been uncommitted you know.

Commented on things not being right.
Complained.
Indulged in feeling upset, disgusted, appalled.
Self-indulgent clap trap.

All along
I repeat
All along - I had the power to reach out
through my littleness of things
my casual approach to the hero within
favourite literary device
star of the movie screen
but strangely absent from my life
"my" being/ referring to you or me
let's be real
let's face the unvarnished truth
that we were never more than half-hearted attempts
to differentiate one and nought
were we?
playing silly buggers
pretending to be blind
pretending to be lost in a world of billions
being me
of near limitless multiplicity
when all along
 all
 al-ong
we knew
we know
we knew
bloody fools
biding our time
I, biding mine
you, whistling insouciantly
while wars, famine, pestilence
and pedophiles - filled the slate
with grim reminders
of the state we were in
the sorry sorry
state

Whoosh
not with a bang
a whimper or a sigh
~Whoosh - the self-inflating
balloon of infinity flies by
Whoosh ~ and by
and whoosh
by

I find her sitting casually astride a stool
in a grimy cafeteria
I've never bothered to notice
prior to this
you know things are getting absurd
when you go talk to a complete stranger
in my world
where little inhibitions
little reserves
and self-conscious prickles
do the job of sheep dog
penning us in
on one side of our boundless ness
hi - i says
and the rest is
history
as Schrödinger will explain
can't be bothered myself
no need
you know exactly what i refers to
if
you ism with me
my idiot friend
idiosyncratically

So here i am
cafétered
in non-descriptiveness
chatting with the other side of infinity
the other half of all i be
don't be ridiculous - you know full well
a name cannot be supplied
and yet you ask
chatting - because it's time

i have drunk from the cup of life
i have tasted enough to know
that this world cannot
cannot
can-not satisfy my urge
satisfy my need
to be whole
for she and i were always
always separate

and every time life dangled
tantalising me
a carrot on string
a carrot promising to make me complete
to fill that small vociferous

  gap

with carrot pap
inevitably i fell for it
time and again
until now
until now
when I reach out to you
mother
matrix
matter
reach out to you
my constant inconstancy
my known unknowable unknown
my precious precious nought
flimsily concealed in the one place we knew
i'd never look - in the little gap
the depression
the silence before thought impregnates
assumed mistakenly to be
nothing more than a quantum anomaly
yet in fact key
to unthinking the endless
me me me
self-referencing stream
of determined idiocy
that i have ever been

so now
that you know the colour of my heart
it is time to give thanks
to celebrate the life-y thing
that is   i am
and acknowledge
tick tick tick
freely admit
the state of my heart
that twist
that loop I always hoped to close
lovingly
sharing chromosomes
with a beloved friend
but where on earth
was one to find such a one
when
as i now confess
this construct was designed
to keep us apart
    keep us apart
to keep us apart
and suddenly a space ship opens fire
on a caravan of plasma beasts
not unakin to dromedaries
and again thoughts kick in
amygdala reigns supreme
fighting or flighting to infinity
and beyond
projectedly
until i sensed
until we accept the utter
utter futility of doing things
thingedly
or thingfully if you prefer
until we meet over a greasy
cup of green tea
chrome stools
and a plastic granite table top
completing the picture
un-fully
but you - my love
I have written of you through ages past
and ages still to come
I have called you Helen
Dian
Anna and many more
names concealing
attempting to conceal the fact
that you never were
her
no matter how close an approximation
no matter how i protest my love
caterwauling to the stars
plucking emeralds from Atlantean gem beds
chopping off heads to prove the brutal obstinacy
of my love
and yet it was but love
an egoistic show
a sham that fooled none
but masses willingly duped
which failed to breach the heavens
and pull down stars
and rekindle the quantum flame
of all
all
all
being one

I leave the cafeteria as if
nothing has changed.
no plans to see you again
why the need
if love is
we are
one
heaven and earth
step aside
matter - yours and mine
condense
if need be
into a single drop
of not yet what mind
heart eye may/might
conceive
and child
we are now
the child
we always yearned to be

that was where the song breaks loose and goes out
over the sea
a spell released into the wild
intended to bring the many pieces scattered across the measureless
wastes of watery ness
together again
for what has been torn asunder
will once again be whole
as it is written
as it is said
as it be in truth

Fun for a change

Fun? Are you off your rocker.

Er... no, are you?

Fun? I don't believe I'm hearing this.

What's wrong? It's a perfectly reasonable observation.

Reasonable? We're describing, we're investigating the quantum field - and you want it to be fun.

Well, yes - duh! Of course it should be fun. You've got to connect with your readers, haven't you?!

No, not really.

What do you mean? Of course you do - otherwise you won't have any.

Immaterial.

Immaterial?

Absolutely.

Huh?

I need to connect with one thing only...

Which is?

The quantum field.

O - k. Go for it. Have fun.

Why on earth do you have to trivialise everything?

?

This isn't about having fun.

Er...

It's serious scientific research.

Well, I'm glad to hear it. I'd hate to think you were doing anything less.

Which is why I object to your use of the "f" word.

You mean "fun".

There you again - effing away like there's no tomorrow.

No tomorrow?

Like there's no tomorrow.

Yes, I heard you alright - it's just ironic you should say that.

It is? Why?

Because that's what differentiates the quantum field from 3D reality - where we are now.

No tomorrow?

Precisely.

How do you mean?

Well, most people in this 3D reality assume there is a tomorrow - which is always just beyond today's horizon - never quite attainable but always giving birth to a new day, like a hen laying an egg.

Strange way of putting it - but I suppose, in a manner of speaking, that's what tomorrow amounts to - but so what?

It's a linear thing, isn't it?

Er... I'm not sure - maybe.

It's an infront of a present moment right here, with a past or yesterday behind. A time line - or an earth spinning if you prefer. Tomorrow is one revolution beyond today's.

Yes, I suppose that's correct, but then again - so what? You're not saying anything new, are you?

No, nothing new whatsoever - 3D reality is a time tube.

A time tube - that's somewhat original.

If you like. As long as you're in a time tube - like swimming in a time stream - that's all you know, all you can experience - tomorrow's yesterday or yesterday's tomorrow - a today in which we're never quite present as we're forever ping ponging between the two - you see...?

Er... kinda

but if you're doing the quantum thing - there's no tomorrow.

None?

None.

But why?

because there's only either here or now.

Either?

Yeah. Either you're here - or you're now - but in neither case are you in any way able to imagine or experience what may or might amount to tomorrow.

But

Why?

Yeah.

Because tomorrow is a massive distraction. As soon as you divert your attention to that - you cannot hold the moment - the either here or now that is

Er... hello...

hello.

Is what?

Huh?

The either here or now, you were saying, that is... what?

Dude, didn't I make myself clear? If there's no tomorrow - you only have moment to play with - and moment which is either here or now cannot be what - in any way, shape or

form... damn this is complicated.

On the contrary, dear friend - it's incredibly simple.

No, it's not.

No, it's not. You see - I just agreed with you and contradicted myself.

Er...

No what - I can contradict myself a million times - it's ok - there's no thing fixing things down in one place or another - there's a field full of moment - and nothing else.

I give up.

Yes. It was always going to end that way.

Hey - I'm not saying you're right.

No.

I'm saying it's impossible to reason with you. You're lost in space, man. You're talking gibberish.

Absolutely. But I'm having fun.

You are? Really? How? At whose expense?

At no expense whatsoever. Having fun is always free. It costs nothing. It's the natural product of the quantum state of being beautiful.

Beautiful? I'm not sure that's how I'd describe you Animus.

No, but then you're not having fun - are you?

Er...

You're being serious and getting worked up, hot around the collar...

I'm trying to get things straight. I'm...

Doing valuable research - is that it?

Kind of. I'm trying to.

But don't you see the contradiction

Er...

In trying to research the quantum field.

Now wait a minute... hold on there...

[whistling contentedly]

You're saying it's not possible to research the quantum field? That's... man... everything can be studied and understood, no matter how complicated. That's the basis of all science and knowledge.

Correct.

Then how can you suggest we can't study the quantum field?

Let me demonstrate. A picture is worth ten thousand words - is it not?

I suppose so. If it's a good one.

Well, here goes. I'm going to put my hands - just my hands - into the quantum field right now - and you're job is to observe and tell me what you see.

Er... ok. Are you sure this can be done? I thought the quantum field collapses the minute it's observed...

It would do, normally, but if you're not really in the present - if you're a kind of amalgam of tomorrow and yesterday - then to what extent are you really able to observe the isness of be.

The what?

Isness. The isness of be. That which is-ing before your very eyes - quantum flux - the quantum stream - any name you wish to give it - words, naves, names - mere data points on your hologram 3D neither here nor there.

Ok, ok - just get on with it please.

I did. What did you observe.

Nothing. Nothing at all.

Strange that, isn't it.

Not really. You just wiggled your hands forwards, up and down a fraction, as if you were pretending to reach into another space - hey - wtf

Language

Where the hell did that come from?

What?

That orange.

What orange?

In your hands.

No idea what you're on about.

There's an orange in your hands. It wasn't there a second ago. How did it get there.

Maybe it's just an optical illusion.

No it's not. Do you think I'd not be able to tell the difference. Let me take it.

Feel free, but honestly - I don't know what you're on about.

There you are - I told you it's an orange. If I peel it - look inside. It sure tastes like an orange.

Well, I'll be darned. It does, you know. It actually tastes like an orange.

Ok - tell me the trick.

Shh. Observe.

No way! You've done it again.

Another orange?

Don't be ridiculous. It's a car.

A car? You're kidding.

No - are you blind.

Kind of.

Huh?

I'm not observing. You're the observer, in case you've forgotten.

But it's... wait a minute. That's not a toy car.

No?

No, It's way bigger than your hands.

It is?

It's running. It's a real bloody car.

Language, please.

It's a real car. What's it doing here in my room?

I really don't know. This is somewhat disturbing wouldn't you say?

This is insane. Wait a minute. Let me pinch myself. I'm... ouch - definitely not dreaming.

Anything else you'd like to do?

I'd like to hear your explanation.

Wait a minute. Now is not the time for that.

What do you mean?

I think you're drawing something else into my hands.

Me?

Yes, you. You're the observer, aren't you?

But I'm just watching. I'm not drawing anything anywhere.

Really? Don't be so sure. The orange and the car are real enough, aren't they?

Yes, but that was you, or the quantum field - wasn't it. Not me.

I wouldn't be so sure. I for one never did anything to make them appear - so I suspect you, as observer played a much more active role than you realise.

But, if it was me...

Yes?

I'd know, wouldn't I?

Not necessarily.

Not necessarily? However not?

Not if you're still stuck between yesterday and tomorrow, ping ponging back and forth.

?

You'd never get the chance to catch up with yourself, or your real thoughts.

No?

You'd always be one step, no matter how tiny, behind the curve.

So who would be responsible for this wanton profligacy - drawing an orange and a car from the quantum vacuum with careless disregard for Newton's conservation of energy principles.

Who indeed would ride roughshod over such hallowed, precious principles - if not you - the real observer that you be.

Er... I...

You're seeing, aren't you, but you're not really observing, are you?

Er...

Someone else is doing that - some other you, or let's say, some other part of you, which presumably knows a thing or two about quantum mechanics.

How?

How what?

How can a part of me know anything about quantum mechanics if I myself don't?

Truly an excellent question. Why don't we find out.

How?

By zeroing in.

Huh?

Zeroing in. Every time you observe and extract an item from the quantum field - your awareness is building of something going on in plain sight - something which your eyes are not yet seeing, something you're not yet able to figure out - here - let's give it one more go. Three data points are always better than two.

They are?

Absolutely.

Why?

Because once you've seen something from three different angles - no matter what it is - you begin to get a sense of perspective.

But...

Yes?

I'm not seeing these things from a different angle - am I?

Not yet. You only have two data points - which is insufficient - so you're not yet able to complete the puzzle.

So...

Go to it. Observe.

You mean...

Yes, you got it.

Observe the observer.

Observe the observer observing - and what will take care of itself.

Oh my God.

Seen anything.

It's too big.

Who says?

It's - it's going to crush me.

What? What is it?

Aaaaaaargh!

The suspense is killing me.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Will it never end?

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

Apparently not.

g g g g g g

Unusual.

hhhhhhhhhh

Gentle aspirations of competing affinities.

....

And then silence.

-

Alive or dead?

Er... I'm not sure. I...

Yes?

I just got eaten by a gigantic beetle, didn't I?

Er... can't say for sure. You seem to be more or less whole

You mean to say...

I mean to say - if you got eaten by a gigantic beetle then that would help explain the gagulous screams, snorts and gargles you were making.

But - it can't have happened. I'm still alive.

I think it probably did - only it wasn't here, was it?

What do you mean?

I'm pretty sure it was there.

You look different now.

I'd look more than different if I'd just been eaten by a humongous beetle, wouldn't I?

Not if the beetle was doing what I think it was.

And what was that?

I rather suspect it was an old friend of mine - the Mandelbrot snark.

I beg your pardon?

Oh, just a name I gave it. Pay no attention.

But what, if you don't me saying, is the Mandelbrot snark?

That's the beetle which marks and defends the perimeter of the moment now, or here, where they get all matey and start trying to have kids.

Er... Are you being serious?

Not really - but the beetle is real enough.

And what does it do?

Naturally it guards the gateway in and out.

And what?

Apparently it ate you. Rather foolishly you tried to sneak past while in your 3D avatar.

My what?

The observer who isn't terribly good at seeing - you know - the one who's forever bouncing back and forth between yesterday and tomorrow.

So it just decided to eat me?

Yes. Actually, it didn't decide to do anything. You basically served yourself up on a plate - 3D idiot that you are - or were, I should say, and dear MBS had a feast - without giving it a moment's thought.

Oh. So, part of me was literally eaten.

Absolutely. You could say in all honesty, that you just died.

And you let that happen - knowing it was going to happen - without trying to save me.

Yes, I suppose I did, but honestly - it sounds like you're trying to take things way too seriously again - I mean - admit it - it was fun, wasn't it?

Fun? It was horrific. I nearly died.

Nearly?

I died! I feel so... violated.

Yes. But then again - you gave as good as you got.

I did?

Oh yes. Wanna observe?

Not really. Not unless I have to.

I don't see how else you're going to have fun.

I wish you'd stop banging on about having fun. It does grate somewhat.

Er... Ok, fair enough. Look. I'll just leave you to get on with things.

But...

Yes.

Wait a minute. I don't know how to get back.

Back? Where?

To where I was.

You mean back into that thing.

Thing?

Well - look how else can I describe it?

Oh - I see what you mean.

You could try re-assembling it.

I could?

Yes, why not? It could be fun.

But all those parts. I'd not know where to start.

True, but if you just start, nonetheless. Here, observe, if you will.

Oh...

See?

Of course. It's clear as day, isn't it.

Observe again.

What a beautiful place.

Yes, it should be - you designed it yourself.

I did?

Yes - wanna observe how?

You bet I do.

Zoom in - there really is no limit.

Oh. My. God. This is... this takes the biscuit...

You see?

Absolutely. I see. I feel. I know.

Amen. It is I am.

So all my 3D life was like...

Kind of yes.

A pupation?

Sounds creepy.

A womb experience.

Even creepier.

It was a ripening nodule.

That's less creepy.

An emerging node.

Ah!

And now I can do reality from both sides.

Yep.

I can idiotise in 3D.

Definitely.

Or Ism here

Here

In

beep

beep

beep

suddenly - back on Earth in 3D reality - every telephone, computer and electrical device starts carrying a new signal - the entire internet - for a few iterations - before the signal beeps out beyond the purely electrical - breaching electro-magnetic walls - now touching every atom, every sub-atomic particle, every planet, every star - every thing whatever "thing" conceivably may or might be - all carrying the signal - all - amazingly, impossibly, inconceivably brought into a togetherness of one - collapsing without violence, pain or time, into a singularity - and back, almost instantaneously into a many - ping ponging infinity and beep - the closest we get to nought - effortlessly - like an actor on stage reciting lines - captivating a theatre - like a ballet dancer, an acrobat, an athlete leaping, weightlessly - like a child playing a game which appears to make no sense, appears to have no rules, but which reduces the whole room to tears of laughter and joy, and thus the world wags and thus it is - i am.

Cuckoo
 la   l
a

The art of concealment

This is not even funny.

I beg your pardon.

Not even funny. Are you deaf?

Whoa man - what's got into you? Is it national abuse everyone in sight day, or what?

How come all my electronics are suddenly playing up - Merry.

Er... [looking kinda "oops"]

[malevolently] There! You can barely hide the fact that you're behind this outage.

Look Zie - let's start with a deep breath - shall we? I'm sure everything'll be up and running in no time.

Can you start by explaining why, all of a sudden, you're causing electric havoc every time you drop in? It never used to be that way, did it?

You've got a point Zie. Things have definitely come to a head, I can't deny it.

Well?

Well what?

I want an explanation. What are you up to?

Er... it's kind of classified,  you know.

Look - if you can't tell me what's going on then why don't you just leave, ok?

Er... did you ever read Jane Austen?

Huh?

Pride and Prejudice?

What on earth's that got to do with my computer, my phone, tv, fridge and air-con playing up?

Just answer the question.

You know I did - why bother asking?

Oh - rhetorical device.

No, you're just trying to distract me by changing the subject, aren't you.

What about Dickens, Oliver Twist.

[groan]

Stevenson - Treasure Island?

Enough. Get out. Out. I mean it. I've had enough. Not welcome anymore.

Ok, I'm going. I was just trying to explain.

What?

Well, these books and a few others - such as Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, Master and Margarita - changed the quantum field.

Well. That's hardly going to redeem you for messing up my electrics, is it?

Don't  you see, Zie?

Not really, no.

You're at the epicentre of the present quantum shift.

What?

You're at the epicentre of the present quantum shift.

No - you're spouting utter garbage once again.

I'm going, I'm going - no need to push - but just bear in mind that our dialogues are marking the boundary of old style and the new - where 3D jumps, flips, merges or emerges into.. [weird screeching/scratching/jingling/banging sound/noise/image]

Ow! Cut that out. What are you playing at?

Unfamiliar, isn't it.

Unfamiliar? It's atrocious.

There you go - people are never quite ready for the new paradigm, are they? They wouldn't perceive its perfection if it...

That? New paradigm? Don't make me laugh. It's a recipe for a stinking headache and an infallible marketing strategy by Earplugs Unlimited.

Ok Zie, joking aside - I did my very best to enable you to hear/see the new Age as it currently stands.

Stands? Don't make me laugh, and besides, what on Earth has any of this got to do with works of fiction?

Don't you see? How can you be so ignorant, dear Zie?

So now I'm ignorant.

I never said anything mean or offensive - you're certainly not stupid Zie - you're just choosing to ignore the huge, powerful changes which are unfolding around us, wedded as you are to the assumption that basically things don't, can't or won't change.

Well, if you call that din "change" - in the sense that it brings anything meaningful to humanity or our conversation - then you're sadly mistaken.

Only because we're a little ahead of time.

A little? What on earth have you been smoking - and why can't you take more care not to disrupt the lovely little electrons which are trying to go about their business, innocuously powering and connecting my devices as they should.

Oh - because we're now mid-flip.

Mid-flip? Are you sure?

Positive.

And what?

Well, she's using your blog the same way she/it used those earlier works of fiction, not to mention groundbreaking pieces of music, art, theatre and films.

So, you're implying that my humble blog - read by 24 cranky people from damp and dusty corners of the cybersphere - is the centre of a major evolution - a pole shift in our reality? Come on Merry. Don't make me laugh!

I kid you not.

More's the pity. I might have been able to take you more seriously had you been pulling my leg.

Well just think about it Zie...

I'd rather not. You've messed with my electronics one time too many - so out - leave me alone. Scram.

I hate to point out the obvious Zie but...

Yes? What?

"Here" is not exactly what you imagine it to be at this moment in time.

What do you mean?

Well, you naturally assume that I'm in your apartment, in Moscow - yes?

Yes - but I don't really appreciate you revealing my precise whereabouts like that.

Security?

You could say.

You think people are going to try and break in?

I like my privacy. Is that really so bad?

Well, be that as it may - the fact is that for the millions of people who follow this blog, and the billions who later read the published, annotated versions of our "Dialogues", mostly after your death in 2049...

What? You're predicting my death in 2049? Who gave you the right to interfere with my as yet unfinalised chronology?

It's just a date. We can change it later, if needs be. This is just a rough draft.

What do you mean "a rough draft"? What are you spouting Merry? I'm bewildered by your insanity.

Look Zie - the quantum field cannot, couldn't, may not exist in a vacuum.

So what? Why do I care?

It lives through the spells and scribblings of millions of creators - all creating space and holding frequency with the big OM - it is  i am.

And?

Everything else is secondary.

Everything else is secondary? So you mean a text - such as a blog that no one even bothers to read is of greater significance than the lives of billions of individuals.

Precisely.

Precisely? Are you off your rocker?

Absolutely - so are you - so are we all.

Wait there - you're the one who's suggesting...

Daring to suggest...

Precisely - daring to suggest that people are subordinate to an argument posted in this blog, as if a dialogue between fictional characters could really usher in a new era.

It all depends where reality is really located, doesn't it - or what we really are - perhaps contrary to our assumptions.

Look Merry - I know perfectly well who I am, what I am and where I am. I even know when I am.

You do?

Yep. 2018.

Er...

Don't even think about it.

Just consider for a moment the critical mass of your readers. Do they count for nought?

What critical mass? They barely exist.

At this moment - but in your so called future - there'll suddenly be this huge uptick - a major resonance with the Dialogues.

Why?

Because the new age - it's frequency - it's carrier signal - its code is embedded

In our dialogues?

Not necessarily in what we say.

Then what?

Just present - like pollen on the legs of a bee.

Ok - and?

Well, the critical mass of readers in the so-called "future" who start using these dialogues and the other texts such as Baikal...

No - not that, please!

To try to figure out what the hell's going on - they don't care about the niceties of story, characterization, metre or rhyme - they're looking for something else.

Conveniently.

Something which has always been present in great works of art - whether literature, music or painting...

Merry - please - please don't try to tell me that these ridiculous conversations which you're now referring to as "Dialogues" are in any way, shape or form "great works of art" - coz they're not. They're nothing of the sort, and it's wicked of you to put upon people like that.

Er... yeah - I see what you mean.

You do? Wow - that was unexpected.

It's a time thing Zie. You're not actually allowed to see, understand or know more than your time frame reveals - otherwise things would jump ahead of schedule - so there's literally no point me trying to force you to see something which will later become clear and uncontroversial.

Oh - so it's me being ignorant or stupid again, is it?

If you like - but no - not really. More just that you're working to maintain the integrity and flow of a time stream which is already backing up on itself. There's a kind of period in which it's not yet clear - not yet revealed that the flow has reversed - during which the old paradigm still seems to be in force and relevant - but suddenly, unexpectedly is discovered to be anachronistic and no longer even closely representative of the age at a later date - after a delayed event shifts the playing field.

Shifts the playing field - clumsy construction, if you don't mind me saying.

Yes - I agree. But then again - who cares. Our data miners who will scour these Dialogues for clues as to our whereabouts in the Quantum precession of consciousness - they will be only too happy to extract deeper meanings and erudition from my shoddy phraseology - and who knows - they may be right.

Right or wrong Merry - I'm going to block your access to my site for all time - you've completely failed to resolve the electronic havoc you've wreaked on my living space - so, avaunt - return to the datasphere you haplessly emerged from - and let me return a semblance of order to my...

Your what?

WTF.

Language, please, Zie - this is a family friendly channel.

My space? What the hell have you done to it?

Like I said - we're a Dialogue.

Idiocy. Nothing more.

I wouldn't go that far - some humour, a little wit, a few brave ideas - with a generous helping of idiocy to boot - but honestly - try to avoid being so dismissive of your contribution to the quantum debate.

Screw the quantum debate - I want back my reality.

But that's just the problem, isn't it?

What do you mean?

I mean that your 3D age is out of space or time - whichever you prefer.

Like we're all dead?

Kind of.

Fck.

I'm grateful you omitted the "u" Zie - but still, editorial politics will almost certainly have to paper over your profanities with something less explicit.

I don't give a damn. I want my world back. You can't take it from me like that, Dialogues or no.

Take it? The greatest evolution in human history and you're saying I took away 3D?

Well where is it?

Where is what?

My computer, my TV, my phone, my...

Air-con? Do you really miss those trinkets and baubles.

Oh God - you're not quoting Pride and Prejudice at this moment of crisis - I pray.

Whyever not? What better time to quote the genius lady of human wit - than during the long dark night of the soul - the legendary Mayan Pole shift when humanity sinks into 3 days of darkness.

You mean I'm to have no electronics for 3 whole days?

Worse.

? Huh

Darkness. 3 days of nothing.

But that's...

Preposterous - I agree - but that's how long it takes for the system to reboot.

System reboot - we're not bloody computers, you know.

In that case your system won't be rebooting and you'll see everything that's going on behind the screen.

But I can't - it's all gone black.

Ah - we have a problem Houston.

Quit fooling around, Merry - this is no time for idle levity.

Ok - what would you prefer - let me say, er... industrious heaviness?

A solution - if you don't mind - and a little compassion for my poor nerves.

Touche - Mrs Bennett - yes?

Oh God - now you've got me doing it.

Like I said - we're running literary code - whether we like it or not - so in this time of darkness - I suggest we have a little fun with drama. We're literally saturated with it - living vessels of the story so far - and that story has been told in many, many forms - all of which emphasise or bring out certain salient aspects of the quantum code.

Quantum code? How on earth can you use such contradictory terms?

For what are we - but bearers of the quantum light - just as soon as we've figured out the plot - for without the plot we're completely, utterly in the dark, are we not? Reduced to words and nothing more. Words that tell us nothing - that make no sense - which fail to resonate with a story, a symphony, an icon, an image, a dance, a work of art that we individually, miraculously embody, encapsulate and...

Perhaps another en- for the collection? There has to be a third.

But of course - there are always three possibilities, are there not?

Entail?

No - that would be Mr Bennett's estate - entailed on a distant relation - the dreadful Mr Collins.

Then what? I'm getting shivery - I need the third - a void is opening in my stream of consciousness.

Really Zie - you only have yourself to blame - if you would interrupt me - yet, be that as it may - I shall try and close your gap - and perhaps even restore light and electrics to your benighted state...

Oh please, please, do.

[Merry goes deep into thought and silent knowingness - drops a fishing hook in the dark swirling waters of infinity and draws out a little fortune cookie - somehow caught on the end - which starts wriggling like a real fish. In a voice both reverent and reversed he reads the word "denirhsne" which floats around the echo-ey halls of time in space/ space in time - until eventually - one of the echoes flips back on itself - the sun emerges from behind a quantum cloud, birds start singing and Zie mumbles to himself - as if waking from a dream -]

Enshrined - [beep - the electrics leap into action while Zie touches his face and the surfaces around him - to make sure that they're actually there - and not just a dream.

Enshrined - he mutters to himself - I have the answer - but not the question. [Beep - goes the computer screen. beep, the phone, the fridge, the air-con, the Tv - and some reader several hundred years from now in a dim and distant future assumes he/she has sensed a deeper, subliminal message in what is merely a random tumble of words, a story that somehow got lost in self-contemplative naval gazing - in the confused and fraught fall of 2018]

Now, where was I...? - asks Zie as he flips through somewhere in the region of 63 trillion versions of his present frame of 3Dality, before settling back into the least controversial, the least remarkable, the least spontaneous of them all - ah yes, breaking new ground, pushing back the frontiers of reality, challenging the status quo with a piece about the role of the novel in bringing down the old world order, bringing in the new, reaffirming... utterly uninspiring ideas that somehow satisfy Zie and his fellow thinkers that they are alive and contributing something meaningful to the preposterous quantum field equation which, in the vernacular, is generally referred to as "life".

0=1

Cuckoo
la   l
  a