may 1996
literaturnaya cafe, st petersburg, russia
24 images
text
martin firrell
Meaning
Obscurity may be the attempt to convey something that meaning cannot mean
How else does the successful attempt to convey something that meaning cannot mean make itself felt?
If truth lies beyond meaning, "truth lies beyond meaning" is either untrue or meaningless
To understand a thing fully is to be able to say nothing about it
"Truth is inexpressible" is false if true
Lucidity
The search for a new lucidity is impossible in the absence of the lucidity sought
It is impossible to step foot on an uninhabited shore
It is impossible to become lucid by degrees: the slightest fragmentary glimpse lays bare the entire terrain
A new lucidity makes itself felt in the awareness of its absence
A new lucidity recognises itself
Recognition of itself is what it is
Lucid Between Bouts of Sanity
A Manifesto
Action
All action is reductive
"A really good saint does nothing"
Gertrude Stein
Action dissipates potential, weakens contemplation
If there is surfeit of activity in the world, naturally nothing can be done about it
Language
Language says nothing of its own failings
The problem of language is unanswerable because of the problem of language
If language deceives, a limited constrained language would at least deceive to a limited extent
If language were to exhaust itself, to consume itself entirely, it would leave behind it a space or absence in which whatever must stand beyond the capabilities of language would stand
literaturnaya cafe, st petersburg, russia
Lucid Between Bouts of sanity
Text by Martin Firrell
Russian translation by Yekaterina Lebedeva
French translation by Catherine Clark
Designed and produced by Sarah Cannon
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