Decabiblio Amalgamation Syndrome

Decabiblio Amalgamation Syndrome – a condition where for every book read by the infected ten more books seem to have grown or been acquired nearby. Often considered by people with the condition to be a blessing and a curse. Books.jpg

Stories All the Way Down

There is an idea called binary opposition that comes out of structuralism.  I don’t know that anybody studies structuralism anymore, but in 2016 after 10 years of social media it seems relevant.  Social media is narrative building on a global scale that has never been seen before.  Humans build narratives constantly and on Facebook or Twitter we can build them together 24×7.  Binary Opposition says that two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.  It is what we see on social media every day in the arguments that go on and on and on.  Every post and argument extends the narrative which sadly is extremely boring and disheartening to most of us.  If one side doesn’t have enough people to tell their side of the narrative it can be easily accounted for and efforts can be ramped up by bots.  An equal measured binary response.  In the digital age there are no lulls in the narrative or no intermissions. At this point I don’t think we are defining what each side of the narrative stands for.  The structure of the narrative is more important than the content.  The structure defines the elements of the narrative itself based on the corridors of human cognition that we can’t even see.  We can’t seem to stop the narrative. The momentum is too great. Maybe someone can tell me how this ends or gets reset?  I am not sure we know.  This is new territory.  Maybe I’m telling myself a narrative and none of this true at all? Maybe, but I don’t think so.  I don’t think it’s turtles all the way down, for humans I think it’s stories all the way down.  Personally I am going to do what I always do when I am clueless about the world or depressed.  Pull out some old world narratives and read them for a few years.  Books.  At least most of those narratives have beginnings middles and ends.

That Crusoe Must Have Thunk/version 2

I have the kind of

Knowledge you get

From spending days and years alone

Books existing as my solace

When I am lonely to the bone

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I have the kind of old soul

That runs away from pain

I know all about the price of love

And its small and subtle gains

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I might have misgivings

Gathered up along the way

But the train’s already moving

And the fare has been paid

Some come on now

All you words and songs

Give me that substitute

For that which my soul longs

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Maybe All Songs

Maybe all songs have been written

Maybe all stories have been told

At least I got enough books&music

To keep me from boredom as I grow old

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Charred Organic Postcards

Books disregard

Limits of time

Space and Censorship

They are

The final charred

Organic postcards

Until the fiery

Complete end

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Stores We Tell

A damsel in distress

A knight striving his best

A nautical tale

A huge white whale

Imagined realities

Fight life’s banalities

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

That Crusoe Must Have Thunk

I have the kind of

Knowledge you get

From spending too much time alone

Books are my solace

When I am lonely to the bone

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I have the kind of old soul

That runs away from pain

I know all about the price of love

And its small and subtle gains

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I might have misgivings

Along the way

But the train’s already moving

And the fare has been paid

Some come on now

All you words and songs

Give me that substitute

For which my soul longs

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013