Neither From Nor Towards
A.X. Ledesma
Neither From Nor Towards
A.X. Ledesma
A.X. Ledesma
I. ‘At the still point of the turning world’1 (or simply, ‘the medium’)
is that which is an imagined centre, that within which an illusion is rendered perceptible, that through which an end is achieved, that upon which a substance intervenes, that which allows the ghosts to come back, that through which what is spectral assumes form, that within which an organism is cultured, that which is also the message, that through which material is distributed, that in which what is not is expressed, that upon which polarities meet, that through which a quantity is repeated, that which occurs after an invocation, that which is also the messenger, that within which code acquires its form, that on which rests a balance, that which permits the haunting
II. ‘If time is an arrow, what is its target?’2
‘Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word “understanding”’.3 ‘The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.’4 ‘…it folds or twists; it is as various as the dance of flames in a brazier—here interrupted, there vertical, there mobile and unexpected’5 ‘…like the percolating basin of a glacial river, unceasingly changing its bed and showing an admirable network of forks, some of which freeze and silt up, while others open up.’6
III. ‘The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite’7 (after Julian Henriques)
Chronos: the one that sets the wheel in motion, the devourer, all-consuming telos, through which the arrow travels on a linear path.
Horai: the one that is the wheel itself, devours only its own substance, the continuum of events, the path that curves in on itself.
Kairos: the moment that the arrow is released, the passing instant when an opening appears, the action, the event, that which carves out the path.
Aion: that which belongs to the universe, cyclic, unbounded, permanent.
Apeiron: the total abundance of all that has been, all that is, and all that is yet to be, the mark and also the arrow and also the path and also the archer.
IV. ‘There would be no dance, and there is only the dance’8
Simultaneity is a fiction, an illusion that makes other illusions possible, stretching beyond the boundaries of observation until it thickens and dissolves and merges with everything else. The ways in which matter resolves into substance cultivates a climate of mystery, and yet there is no encounter with things since hidden since the foundation of the universe, only the momentary surrender to experience, the flicker of the synapses. Oftentimes the surface of the surface is also the heart of the heart.
1 T.S. Eliot. ‘Four Quartets’ (1935). In Complete Poems and Plays. London: Faber and Faber, 2004.
2 Alicia Ostriker. ‘Q&A: Insurance’ (2017). In The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems 2002 - 2019. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.
3 Werner Karl Heisenberg. Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1958). New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.
4 Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory (1896). Translated by N.M. Paul and W.S. Palmer. New York: Zone Books, 1988.
5 Michel Serres and Bruno Latour. Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time. Translated by Roxanne Lapidus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.
6 Serres and Latour, Conversations.
7 Kahlil Gibran.The Prophet. New York: Knopf, 1923.
8 Eliot, ‘Four Quartets’.
is that which is an imagined centre, that within which an illusion is rendered perceptible, that through which an end is achieved, that upon which a substance intervenes, that which allows the ghosts to come back, that through which what is spectral assumes form, that within which an organism is cultured, that which is also the message, that through which material is distributed, that in which what is not is expressed, that upon which polarities meet, that through which a quantity is repeated, that which occurs after an invocation, that which is also the messenger, that within which code acquires its form, that on which rests a balance, that which permits the haunting
II. ‘If time is an arrow, what is its target?’2
‘Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word “understanding”’.3 ‘The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.’4 ‘…it folds or twists; it is as various as the dance of flames in a brazier—here interrupted, there vertical, there mobile and unexpected’5 ‘…like the percolating basin of a glacial river, unceasingly changing its bed and showing an admirable network of forks, some of which freeze and silt up, while others open up.’6
III. ‘The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite’7 (after Julian Henriques)
Chronos: the one that sets the wheel in motion, the devourer, all-consuming telos, through which the arrow travels on a linear path.
Horai: the one that is the wheel itself, devours only its own substance, the continuum of events, the path that curves in on itself.
Kairos: the moment that the arrow is released, the passing instant when an opening appears, the action, the event, that which carves out the path.
Aion: that which belongs to the universe, cyclic, unbounded, permanent.
Apeiron: the total abundance of all that has been, all that is, and all that is yet to be, the mark and also the arrow and also the path and also the archer.
IV. ‘There would be no dance, and there is only the dance’8
Simultaneity is a fiction, an illusion that makes other illusions possible, stretching beyond the boundaries of observation until it thickens and dissolves and merges with everything else. The ways in which matter resolves into substance cultivates a climate of mystery, and yet there is no encounter with things since hidden since the foundation of the universe, only the momentary surrender to experience, the flicker of the synapses. Oftentimes the surface of the surface is also the heart of the heart.
1 T.S. Eliot. ‘Four Quartets’ (1935). In Complete Poems and Plays. London: Faber and Faber, 2004.
2 Alicia Ostriker. ‘Q&A: Insurance’ (2017). In The Volcano and After: Selected and New Poems 2002 - 2019. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020.
3 Werner Karl Heisenberg. Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (1958). New York: Harper Perennial, 2008.
4 Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory (1896). Translated by N.M. Paul and W.S. Palmer. New York: Zone Books, 1988.
5 Michel Serres and Bruno Latour. Conversations on Science, Culture, and Time. Translated by Roxanne Lapidus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.
6 Serres and Latour, Conversations.
7 Kahlil Gibran.The Prophet. New York: Knopf, 1923.
8 Eliot, ‘Four Quartets’.