[NetBehaviour] holding

[Alan Sondheim]

holding

http://www.alansondheim.org/P11.png

i don't remember the image. it's a lure, it beckons me, that the
image itself, not the content, but its entrapment, its position in
a strip of images occurring forever it seems; by 'image' i don't
recall or mean what's evident elsewhere in a formal setting, in a
setting which bespeaks 'image,' in other words an advertisement for
what's to come, a token that could be anything. i'm sick of images,
sick of text; text provides an immersive experience of course that
pales for images; one might feel empathy for an immobilized subject
for example, but on the side of the subject, time has stopped,
nothing more occurs, there's nothing more to be said than the
collocation of pixels or silver grains or etching strokes what have
you. so there's that. and there's always hope that the image leads
to the text, embraces the text, opens the text, for the viewer,
which is almost never the case. i receive for example 'like' clicks
on facebook with a text, perhaps this text, that's being presented,
which may have a complexity requiring attention one way or another,
but the 'like' comes almost immediately, signaling the text has
been ignored, what remains is the image already fading, already
forgotten by the viewer. you see, if you've come this far, that i'm
exhausted, my writing is choppy, we drove yesterday for hours and
hours, all the way to omaha from aurora colorado, then worked and
talked so that i think we were going for 21 hours altogether, then
insufficient sleeping, now writing as if sleep has its say that
spreads slowly everywhere, the opposite of the image, the image
losing to the sleep, to the content of the sleep which is already
burrowing into this writing, and which has no content at all,
language replaced by murmuring mumbling. i'm always jealous i can't
get off the page <break from someone on the phone vis-a-vis issues
related to the virus>

the phonecall was about our state rhode island closing its borders
to new york state with troopers on the highways stopping vehicles
and so forth which makes it difficult for us to return home and
we're working on that with an odd sense of fear being trapped
somewhere without facilities or ability to do anything at all so
the break released the page in a sense as anxiety chemicals rise in
me here in omaha and not know where to turn but wanting to help a
friend who is coming temporarily to the state which the state finds
problematic and i'm not sure what we're going to do but wondering
if the image has taken you in or has taken you this far because
it's most likely a prosaic image that doesn't add anything to the
conversation which is at best one-sided and nothing more than a
lure

a lure, allure

this is where what occurs on a critico-theoretical level exists,
lives, exits; this below. which may no longer connect with, concern
itself with, the image; it's as if - now you're here, i have you,
here is what i want to say - now i've got you in the prisonhouse of
language as well; the viral chains of language; the theoretical-
critical journal of the plague year; the well of buried victims;
the singing of ring around the rosie; the wall around the well; the
road on the way to the well; the wall to keep things in; the wall
to curtain things; to cauterize them; the wall of the image; the
defensive wall of the image; the postern; the leakage; the lake;
the postal wall; anything to keep you away; anything to confirm the
image did its duty; does its duty; already gone; "if you've read
this far" etc.; "if you haven't lost interest" and so forth; "if
you want this text to continue" u.s.w. - can't help you - no
replacement image - nothing like that - the name "Willoughby" comes
to mind - nothing else - the frame - maybe like this -

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probably not: this text: at the bottom of the frame: you know where
that came from: don't you: dis:track:shun:

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19c19
which is almost never the case. i receive for example 'like' clicks
---
which is almost never the case. i receive for example 'like' clicks
22c22
but the 'like' comes almost immediately, signaling the text has
---
but the 'like' comes almost immediately, signaling the text has
57c57
critical journal of the plague year; the well of buried victims;
---
critical journal of the plague year; the well of buried victims;

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