From: Erin N. (enoonan@kent.edu)
Date: Mon Jan 20 2003 - 18:07:11 GMT
This reminded me of the private/public and
metaphysical/pragmatic talk.
erin
from House of Leaves
from skourja -riddles without
Riddles they either delight or torment.
Their delight lies in solutions. Answers provide bright moments of
comprehension perfectly suited for children who still
inhabit a world where solutions are readily available.
Implicit in the riddle's form is a promise that the rest
of the world resolves just as easily. And so comfort
the child's mind which spins wildly before the onslaught of
of so much infomration and so many subsequent solutions.
The adult world however produces riddles of a different
variety. They do not have answers and are often called enigmas or paradoxes.
Still the old hint of the riddles's form corrupts these questions by
echoing the most fundamental lesson: there must be an answer.
From there comes the torment.
It is not uncharasteristic to encounter adults who detest
riddles. A variety of reasons may lie behind their reaction but a significant
one is the rejection of the adolescent belief in answers.
These adults are often the same one who say "grow up" and "face the facts".
They are offended by the inconguities of yesterday's riddles with
answers when compared to today's riddles without.
It is beneficial to consider the origins of "riddle".
The Old English roedelse means "opinion, conjure" which is related to the Old
English raedon "to interpret " in turn belonging to the same etymological
history of "read" . Riddling is an offshot of reading calling to mind the
participatory nature of the act --to interpret-- which is all the adult world
has left when faced with the unsolvable.
"To read" actually comes form the Latin reri "to caluclate, to think" which is
not only the progenitor of read but of reason as well both of which hail from
the Greek araiskeing "to fit". Aside from giving us "reason" araiskein also
gives us an unlikely sibling, Latin arma meaning of "weapons" .
It seems that "to fit" the world or make to make sense of it requires
either reason or arms. Charmingly enough Karen Green and Audrie Mc Cullogh
"fit it" with a bookshelf.
As we all know, both reason and weapons will eventually
be resorted to. At least though for now before the exploratinons,
before the bloodshed, a drill, a hammer, and a Phillips screwdriver will
suffice.
Karen refers to her books as her newly found day to day comfort. By assembling
a stronghold for them she provides a pleasant balance between the known and
the unknown. Here stands one warm solid and colorful wall of volume after
volume of history, poetry, photo albusm, and pulp. And though irony eventually
subsumes this moment for now at least it reamins uncommented upon and thus
wholly innocent. Karen simply removes a photo album as anyone might do and
causes all the books to fall like dominos along the lenght of the shelf.
However instead of tubling to the floor they are soundly stopped eliciting a
smile from both women and this profound remark by Karne "no better book ends
than two walls .
Lessons from a library.
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