From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sat Nov 16 2002 - 04:25:18 GMT
"At this moment, asleep, "Lila" doesn't exist anymore then a
program exists when a computer is switched off. The intelligence
of her cells had switched Lila off for the night, exactly
the way a hardware switch turns off a computer program."
Its interesting that the author attributes a similar "off" switch during sex
too. (The quote is from the chapter [15] where they do "it".) He watches it
happen to him. He tries to stay in the twilight between sleep and
wakefulness in order to ponder the strange power of sex. Bottom of the
ocean. She's that girl on the streetcar. The one who has always been judging
him, for millions of years. These forces have nothing to do with you or your
"real" identity. They swallow your identity. Obliterate it for a time.
Orgasms are like that too. Poof, you're gone.
Very few male honey bees ever get to mate, and the one's that are lucky
enough to put their tiny insect genitals into the Queen rip it off and leave
it behind to serve as a tiny insect chastity belt. Now that's what you call
'going all the way'. Reminds me of a guy who said, shortly after his son was
born, "That's it. I'm done. My genes have been passed on. I might as well
just die now." He was mostly just kidding, but I think the notion came from
something deep down nonetheless.
Patrick said:
........ well, if I would ask a question concerning this passage, it would
be:
How can the program Lila (or Phaedrus or Robert) know the hardware?
Good question. Seems like one of those things that are hard to see because
they're so close and ever-present. The author sketches some feelings and
sensations around this biological stuff. The sadness he feels knowing that
girl's smile will never change for him. The red hot embarassment he feels at
the movies when everybody laughs at the clumsy chemistry professor. The
smell of lilacs. His story is pretty sad actually. More successful lovers
might be better at spelling out the details of the sensual life. (If Huge
Hefner ever writes a metaphysics, we'll be all set.) What i mean is, we know
it and feel it because its part of us. We all know hunger and thirst. Who
among us has never been horny or sleepy? Hell, I'm all four at the moment.
But not only as sensations and desires, these things shape our lives in
powerful ways. We remember our first kisses and all that.
So, Erin? How about your specific question?
Thanks,
DMB
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