Cartography of the Mind (Part 17 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

while itself being a more elaborately formulated series of hypotheses—not a definitive account, but a Note sur la photographie, as the French edition was modestly (and confidently) subtitled. Barthes’s preferred way of presenting his hypotheses was in the form of linked aphorisms, and, as Susan Sontag noted, “it is the nature of aphoristic thinking to be always in a state of concluding.” The paradox, then, is that this man who liked first words (and adored paradoxes) offered his provisional findings as if they were the last word. Needless to say, this last word was always susceptible to further elaboration and refinement, to further beginnings. This is how Barthes’s prose acquires its signature style of compression and flow, a summing up that is also a perpetual setting forth.

- excerpted from Cameras are Clocks for Seeing by Geoff Dyer, The Believer

Cartography of the Mind (Part 16 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

Closing thoughts:

This notebook is my attempt to apply the following constant equality to my work ⟶ the process = the product ⟶ perhaps in letting go of my (our) preconceived vision(s) of the ideal, finished, and polished product, I (we) may immerse myself (ourselves) more fully in the process of communicating the story. Perhaps a shared notebook would provide us with the antidotal avenue to our planning, our organizing. And, of course, the pressure exists to plan and organize the thoughts we place inside our notebooks, but what if the secret is to present the fragments just as they are? I'm starting to see there's a wholeness to be found in compiling my many loose-leafed scraps into a unified compendium of my own confusion. Deeper than this project even. I'm beginning to see that it's only in accepting our own imperfect elements and presenting ourselves as we are—incomplete, lost, and mostly confused—that we can, ourselves, find wholeness and reclaim what Thomas Merton calls our "true self." By embracing our imperfection as an integral part of life (and growth!) we can then and only then begin helping others who, too, are incomplete, lost, and mostly confused. In a sense, I suppose, within each tribe member is a tribe of his or her own. Perhaps this has always been true, but in the age of self-imposed alienation, it's becoming increasingly more destructive and disadvantageous for the well-being of others. It's only in learning to accept each of these wildly different components for what they are that we can ever hope to establish the foundation upon which to build our village. And with those words, you've reached the end of this book. In the altered words of my favorite secular-humanist, "So it's going," for really, we are each of us, in our own little ways, just now getting started. This is only the beginning.

Cartography of the Mind (Part 15 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

Retreating Light
by Louise Glück

You were always very young children,
always waiting for a story.
And I’d been through it all too many times;
I was tired of telling stories.
So I gave you the pencil and paper.
I gave you pens made of reeds
I had gathered myself, afternoons in the dense meadows.
I told you, write your own story.

After all those years of listening
I thought you’d know
what a story was.

All you could do was weep.
You wanted everything told to you
and nothing thought through yourselves.

Then I realized you couldn’t think
with any real boldness or passion;
you hadn’t had your own lives yet,
your own tragedies.
So I gave you lives, I gave you tragedies,
because apparently tools alone weren’t enough.

You will never know how deeply
it pleases me to see you sitting there
like independent beings,
to see you dreaming by the open window,
holding the pencils I gave you
until the summer morning disappears into writing.

Creation has brought you
great excitement, as I knew it would,
as it does in the beginning.
And I am free to do as I please now,
to attend to other things, in confidence

you have no need of me anymore.

Cartography of the Mind (Part 14 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

On branching out:

Another idea: Either in place of or in conjunction with the notebook (and Will's podcast idea, which I love) = a zine ⟶ beyond mirroring the blog, perhaps it could focus on the music, the band's history, and/or narrative. There are plenty of online mailing lists, which could potentially broaden the project's impact and/or fanbase, and while zines don't generally generate a significant profit, I feel much more comfortable setting up a donation-based system of payment for a tangible creation than I do (would?) setting up a GoFundMe page for abstract ideas. Here is a list of all (some) of the reasons I think we should create a zine (or "pamphlet"):

Why a zine? Well,

1. It would provide us with an outlet through which to manifest our "planning and organizing" into action. To quote Will in a recent message: "it's better to be up and doing than planning and organizing...don't wait for all the necessary pieces to align."
2. A zine would thus eliminate Art's need to leaf through his mapkins (maps + napkins). These "senseless" scrawlings could be pasted, unedited into the zine as "Notes from Arthur." Remember: "sharing our realities with one another" need not take time. Come as you are! #nofilter
3. A zine would provide us with an added outlet (in conjunction with a podcast) through which to tell the story instead of the making of the story. From Will, again, "an outlet for telling what part of the story we can without the pressure of creating a series of complete unified texts."
4. A zine captures the spirit, attitude, and ethos of the 1970's music scene.
5. Mind-mapping = connects ideas with overall vision = creative breakthroughs. (zine = type of mind-map)

Cartography of the Mind (Part 13 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

Semi-organized notes:

Increasingly more difficult (impractical?) to do things manually (by hand)

• production
• writing
• growing our own food
• analogue film
• listening through the entirety of a vinyl album without skipping tracks

Why?

1. Time! = Money $ = Money, then Life = Work

Our time is seemingly no longer ours. ⟶ Devices meant to simplify our lives through time-saving measures are proving to suck this very time from our lives. T____ or F ____

Even when we're not working, we feel like we're working ⟶ 

1. In the process of work under capitalism, man = estranged from his own creative powers
2. The objects of his own work = alien beings, rule over him, and become powers independent of the producer

How do we slow ourselves down as the tempo of our lives speed up?

By creating sacred spaces for ourselves.

"Finding a sanctuary, a place apart from time, is not so different from finding a faith." - Pico Iyer

Marx's Gattungswesen ⟶ species-essence ⟶ history of mankind = increasing development of man = increasing alienation ⟶ finds roots in Old Testament concept of idolatry ⟶ idols = the things we make and bow down to ⟶ threatens to substitute itself for the living experience

Alienation ⟶ man's relinquishment of God within himself

⟶ "existentialist philosophy = an over 100 year old movement of rebellion against the dehumanization of man in industrial society" - Paul Tillich

Proust ⟶ Art makes us aware of "the possibility of raising [ourselves] to a poetical understanding, rich in delights, of manifold forms which [we] had not hitherto isolated from the total spectacle of reality."

Cartography of the Mind (Part 12 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

On keeping a notebook

In high school, a group of my four best friends and I started a joint notebook. What began as our "clever" system of passing notes in class soon evolved into an erratic assemblage of drawings, stories, odes to Trig class, collages, quotes, photos, and what have come to be called "Official Lists." Eight years, dozens of cities, states, countries, and notebooks later, we still keep a notebook in constant circulation via snail mail. And I understand that each of us, here in this mail thread, is more or less swamped by pre-existing pressures and demands, but what are your thoughts on extending this project's horizons beyond the computer screen? Of course, the e-mails would continue on as normal, but the notebook would add a unique dimension to how we communicate. Whether words, lyrics, photos, ideas, collages, drawings, fragments, or blank pages, the options are entirely endless and entirely up to each of us.

In the words of sister Corita Kent

"Nothing's a mistake. There's no win and no fail. There's only make."

Comfort smothers the spirit and
changes
A slender snow-white swan
Into an indolent, fat goose.
Comfort prevents millions
From viewing the rising dawn...
Comfort
must be shunned like
pestilence
By those who
aspire to live
To fight,
to fly,
to sing.

Cartography of the Mind (Part 11 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

To Aphrodite of the Flowers, at Knossos
SAPPHO
(one of those writers who's life work was destined, by increments, to remain unfinished)

Leave Crete and come to this
holy temple
where the pleasant grove
of apple trees
circles an altar smoking with frankincense
Here roses leave shadow on the ground
and cold springs babble through apple branches
where shuddering
leaves pour down pro-
found sleep
In our meadow where horses graze
and wild flowers of spring blossum
anise shoots fill the air with a-
roma

And here, Queen Aphrodite, pour
heavenly nectar into gold cups
and fill them gracefully with sud-
den joy

Cartography of the Mind (Part 10 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

While I think a female Benefactor both enhances the narrative and aligns with the pre-existing symbolism (cave = womb) of the creatrix, Mother Earth; rebirth; fertility, etc. I'm interested in the possibility of the Benefactor embodying a collective of women, "the flickering fairy circle...the wreath of airy dancers hand in hand" (Art quoting Tennyson). If the Benefactor is, in fact, traipsin' around the tunnels with a merry gang of pagans (and representative of the hold/resurgence of myth and paganism), it makes perfect sense that this merry group, though weakened and separate when solitary, form a powerful and unified whole when together. (Think in terms of the uniform pagan belief that all of the goddesses = one great goddess. Also, the "centers" of many pagan communities = earth-community-centered.) And what exactly is this ethereal collective whole they form? The horror rap scrawlin', Arthur White huntin', Lodestone hoardin' continuity, timelessness, femininity, etc. etc. etc. etc.......

Cartography of the Mind (Part 9 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

addressing darkness & light through inquiry & reflection

I felt that
I had
stepped
through a
door that had
been usu-
ally left open
to discover trem
endous treasures
there these
treasures terrified
me I told myself
that I could turn aro
und and go. And then I
walked on.

I am wondering...

1. Have the Benefactor and Leif Erikson's Sister become one character?
2. If not, what is their relationship to one another? To the Savage Sisters or Shakespeare (= the Icelandic Wyrd Sisters?)? To Victoria Woolf?
3. Are each of the above ultimately a different name for the same thing?
4. If so, is that thing Paganism (aka Christianity's sister religion)?
5. What is the overarching role of (myth+) paganism's resurgence within the context of this project?* (My deductions on #5 to follow my questioning...)

6. I'm a bit confused about the Benefactor's intentions...Is the Benefactor a Redeemer, a Destroyer, or both? Initially, I thought the horror raps had been written to illuminate the world's darkness, so to speak as though by carving the hallowed history into Detroit's original and unchanging rock, (s)he was ultimately giving a voice to the oppression and corruption that plagued the Benefactor's remembered world since conception. So, in the context of the story, I categorized the Benefactor as the Storyteller: (S)he's survived through many lifetimes. Outlasted history and embraced as an ageless androgynous (turn page) elder who's etched our story out into the stone for us, perhaps as a warning. In a sense, I viewed the cave as the axis mundi; as people's tunnel to Christ by way of Pagan myth. Of course a story demands an audience, but it was my assumption that despite the Benefactor's use of the Lodestone to lure people to the underworld to hear of the redemptive horrors, we were complacent in our world; we had no desire to be stirred out of this complacency, no desire to confront harsh truths, no yearning to grow deep like roots. In yet another sense, I viewed the Benefactor as Will views the French: as a protector of America's pieces we'd rather dispose of until the moment we're finally ready to grasp their value. From my current understanding, however, the Benefactor is, in fact, "nefarious"; (s)he is destroying our history through total inaccessibility to it. To revisit Will's message on storytelling, the Benefactor is ultimately rendering his/her survival meaningless—and in turn ours—by forgoing creation a total destructive collapse of all history. Though allowing us access into the cave would "make us what we are," his/her selfish isolation makes us what we were never intended to be: greedy, gluttonous, selfish, alienated, miserable, the most dangerous city in America for the third year in a row, and ultimately doomed. Am I getting warm? If the Benefactor is "nefarious," it would seem that my interpretation of paganism's role in this project is incorrect, or partially at least. My most recent deductions, from piecing together bits and pieces from past e-mails and blog posts are that this project both embraces paganism as a bridge to the "myth become fact" aka Christianity and discredits paganism for leading us to Christianity through a vehicle other than Christ. In the context of the e-mails, the Benefactor = Graham Greene's lieutenant, in that any potential triumphs will be empty failures; any truth the Benefactor arrives at without Christ is not truth at all, but mere shadows of shadows of shadows. Further, the Benefactor is not evangelizing. While (s)he may know better than anyone the limits of our physical world ("The Most Authentic Critiquers"), (s)he does not draw others toward the beauty of God. Instead (s)he, quite literally, repels people from it. AM I GETTING WARMER?

Cartography of the Mind (Part 8 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

When I'm with the one I love,
even crouched in a dark, hostile cave
I feel like I am not of this world.
                                                 - Rumi

Speaking of worlds, I've a few ideas for character development and narrative within Arthur's Sweet World. But first! Some questions...turn page for said questions. I'm feeling claustrophobic on this one. Onward.

Barthes like "to write beginnings" and multiplied this pleasure by writing books of fragments repeated beginnings: he also liked pre-beginnings: "introductions, sketches," ideas for projected books, books he planned one day to write. So when Nathalie Léger describes it as "the hypothesis of a book desired by him" she is accurate in that it was neither finished nor intended for publication.

- excerpted from Cameras are Clocks for Seeing by Geoff Dyer, The Believer

Cartography of the Mind (Part 7 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

Though I'm sure you've not forgotten, I'll remind you all the same: the process of creating (is of) ≥ (importance as) the product created. Some may even say: the process = (is) the product. I am one of these.

And this is a reason of several, you see, why I strive to saturate the pixelated world with tangible (and) "terrestrial artifacts" in various stages of completion. It is not about adapting ourselves by conforming to the digital world's standards; it's about transforming these rigid regulations to accomodate our growth (and therefore the growth of others). From the inside out, remember. While I certainly can't speak for others, I can attest that my reason for cling to outdated modes of communication, entertainment, expression, and living have nothing to do with rear-view mirrors or bonanzaland comforts. I cling not as a "refusal to live in our own age"; I cling, rather, as a conscious effort to control the environment my brain adapts to; I cling in order to maintain a differentiation, for myself, between growth and stagnation; I cling so that I can not only fully live in our own age, but also "keep the doors open to these [outdated] places where [contemplation] can [still] happen" (Pico Iyer). I cling to stay alert, I cling to resist delusion and modernity's temptuous lure toward mindless living. I cling so that I may, in these daily devotions, discover the joy of letting go. And I cling, at last, out of a Merton-fueled yearning to [be].

"In the world, not of it." And so I cling and I cling...

Cartography of the Mind (Part 6 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

What are these modes of creativity?

• Sketching, drawing, and painting + writing anything by hand
• The slowness yields simultaneous contemplation and reflection
• Less distraction and disconnect increases neural activation in areas related to working memory
• There's value and virtue in the laborious process of writing by hand
• The vulnerability of imperfection
• A more honest human extension of self

• Making music
• Reconfigures and enhances our brains
• Strengthens our empathy and deepens our imagination
• Heightens concentration and emotional control

Each of the above is most importantly a disciplining agent. They synthesize preparation and execution. Through them, we're reminded of a vital human truth, one that we frequently forget...

Why?

Each force us to slow down and to really look at the minute details of the world.

Remember, remember: the impeded stream is the one that sings.

Daily reminder: we must change ourselves from the inside out before we can ever hope to change the outside's inside. How do we change? The catalysts are all around us and our journey toward change is paved by seeing, by feeling, by hearing during every moment of ever day. In order to do this we must create sacred spaces in which to de-mystify those observations.

Interruption-free space is sacred.

Cartography of the Mind (Part 5 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

4. On sensing not what is new but what is essential

I see this "resuscitation of bygone eras" a bit differently...what you see at times as sentimentalization, I see as a laudable refusal to accept the speed and sanitation of contemporary digital culture.

In Richard Sennet's The Craftsmen, he warns us that we're in danger of losing ourselves as we turn our backs on the learnt skills and craftmanship that give our lives meaning. We must celebrate modes of creativity that allow slowness, attentiveness, and contemplation. From Sennet = We must slow down. We must run counter to the furious momentum of digitized contemporary culture. Its speed and its pursuit of sanitized perfection of sound, image, and format.

The sweet
crackling
"radio"
has died
I loved
that sound
now
the noise
is almost
audibly
a plastic field
of
electronic
isolation

Cartography of the Mind (Part 4 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

3. On Burning our Poems

I think to burn our poems, to hoard our talents for self-gain alone, to alienate ourselves from modern day society poses a great risk to both our evolution and our survival as a species. It is selfish. We must share whatever we find in our solitude with the rest of the universe. The role of the poet in society is to translate sacred realities into digestible moments, not to singe them from existence altogether. Poets and artists of every breed are responsible for radiating their inner light onto and into every nook and cranny of the outer world. Remember to have an observation is to have an obligation. What have you observed lately?

"And I remember someone explaining to me that the people who gave themselves over to monastic experience are devoting themselves to prayer and contemplation kind of on behalf of all of us. And I thought that was a beautiful idea. And I mean, I held that and I honored that for many years. But it's interesting that now, as so many 21st century people are finding refuge and also a kind of grounding in these monasteries, there’s a depth of reality to that idea that they are praying and being contemplative on behalf of all of us, like, keeping the doors open to these places where that can happen." - Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

Cartography of the Mind (Part 3 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

2. On what the satellite prepares us for

• Choosing total silence of an event over extensive documentation
• On burning our poems
• Preparation for the profound aloneness

Note: I recently listened to an interview between Krista Tippet and Pico Iyer on The Art of Stillness that resonated with me more so than anything I've encountered since my return to Detroit. I'll be referencing it frequently in the following pages.

In reference to Iyer's annual Benedictine hermitage: "The point of gathering stillness is not to enrich the sanctuary of the mountaintop, but to bring that calm into the motion, the commotion of the world."

I think we're mostly asking the wrong questions here. Whether or not we have consciousness of our world and experience and being as art without the perspective of the satellite is irrelevant. Why? For one, the art of being human demands an audience. And just as I see every moment of our waking lives as a rounded clay prayer bead, I see every molder in each of those moments as both art and artist. We are each of us teachers, some by profession and the rest by default, and as Steinbeck once wrote, "teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human spirit." While the process of learning through our living requires attentive exploration of our most intimate realities to be human really means to be connected, to be teachers. From my perspective, it matters not what we get out of going on technology fasts, retreats, or hermitages. It matters not if this is proper preparation for the profound aloneness. What matters, instead, is what do others get? What can we offer to others both while we're away and once we return? It's important to remember, for it's quite easy to forget: in going away, we must always return.

Cartography of the Mind (Part 2 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

1. On whether disconnecting enhances the spirit and on having things that are just between us and God:

Yes!

We must create sacred and isolated spaces that exist outside the satellite by occasionally disconnecting from it. In order to guide from here—where we are now—to there—where we eventually want to be—we must have something to offer. And by disconnecting from here in a dispersed excursion toward nowhere, we have so much more to offer those who have remained here upon our return. The world is a wildly distracting place. The World Wide Web even more so. It's crucial, I think, to inject our lives with conscious measures to escape the noise in pursuit of silence, of stillness.

To revisit old messages, as always, how else are we to process the constant noise if not through temporary withdrawal from it into a realm of silence and contemplation?

The world is a tumultuous yes, but this is how we react to tumult; this is how we ground ourselves.

Space/Absence = Being is absolutely necessary for the appearance of things beings [Heidegger's Nothing Nothing's]

[Pull Up]

"And I sometimes think, we're living so close to our lives, we can't make sense of them. Each person, I think, now, has to take a conscious measure to separate yourself from experience just to be able to do justice to experience and to process, as you said, and understand what is going on in her life and direct herself. And I think all of us know we are happiest when we forget ourselves, when we forget the time, when we lose ourselves in a beautiful piece of music or a movie or a deep conversation with a friend or an intimate encounter with someone we love. That's our definition of happiness. And very few people feel happy racing from one text to the next to the appointment to the cellphone to the emails. If people are happy like that, that's great. But I think a lot of us have got caught up in this cycle that we don't know how to stop and isn't sustaining us in the deepest way. And I think we all know our outer lives are only as good as our inner lives. So to neglect our inner lives is really to incapacitate our outer lives. We don't have so much to give to other people or the world or our job or our kids." - Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness

Cartography of the Mind (Part 1 of 17)

The following are excerpts of an illuminated book sent from Liza to the group. As usual, we publish typed excerpts of these along with the original photo. The best way is to read the text, of course, is to to experience it in its illuminated form.

We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another—slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.

- Neil Postman