Re: virus: Utopias

ncashen@klondyke.net
Tue, 09 Mar 1999 12:27:10 -0500

Reed Konsler wrote:
>
> >Reed, I guess you're going so deep I'm getting the bends. BTW I didn't
> >mean the blinking light is scary in a voodoo way. I mean it's scary in a
> >futuristic visions of humans as automatons way. We would respond to
> >man-made signals as opposed to thinking things out for ourselves, as the
> >ideal waitstaff would. Be patient with me, Reed. Sh*T, maybe I better
> >stop reading Brave New World over and over again...
> >
> >Norene
>
> Wow. Yes, I think _Brave New World_ is a key vision...I reread it last
> month with particular concentration on the viewpoint of Mustapha Mond.
> The characteristic which makes Huxley's work more powerful than
> _1984_ (common comparision between these dystopian visions) is it's
> resonanting ambivalence. The artist embraces his or her pain...from
> whence does art derive when there is no pain?
>
> Dawkins points the way. In science...in the endless quest for a deeper
> understanding of reality...in _Unweaving the Rainbow_ we take a
> step up from physical and emotional pain into the frustrations
> of the unknown mysteries of the intricate details. Where Huxley's
> vision fails is that his faith wavered; he looked into the future and
> his fears overcame his hopes, but thankfully only by the narrowest of
> margins. Blessed be Ford, indeed...for he has freed us from so much
> toil, pain, and anger. We have the tools he gave us in our hands, those
> blinking lights. We hold them, you and I. Shall we use them for good
> or ill? Norene, what do you want to write across the sky? Your hopes,
> or you fears?
>
> But.
>
> There are many people...the majority, who do not yet enjoy the fruits
> of liberity. People have starved to death today, been hacked to death
> with machettes, machinegunned in nameless places. Women have been
> raped, men beaten senseless after watching their wives and children
> killed. These things are real, and they are not reasonable. This is
> evil. We must each oppose that evil in every way we can imagine...
> and one critical way is through what Richard describes as "goodwill".
> We need faith that our common vision will carry us through the
> darkness. Most certianly we need this faith in the darkest times, when
> all evidence seems against us.
>
> And when we have succeeded...struggle will not end, life will not end.
> It will just shift up an octave. We will unweave the rainbows and reweave
> them according to our own design.
>
> And that will be a beautiful light.
>

Good God, Reed, It's as though I've stumbled into the "other" side of Wenders' Wings of Desire... Meditative reading... Somebody is going to call us "flowery" for sure... Damn. I don't think Huxley failed at anything, though.

Norene

-- 
Bad taste makes the day go by faster.
Andy Warhol