brain coral
Thank you for reading
Present Memories.
This brain coral
is a collection of thoughts
added by readers between Sept. 1996 and May 1997.
Like the above menagerie of ruminations, I'd like to contribute part of a manifesto which is itself incubating, in part, on the internet: W I G G L I S M TO NURTURE THAT WHICH WIGGLES We loop into vital coilings, this coiling, our coiling. We spark the fibrillations of a vague biological embrace. We nurture that which wiggles -of flesh or steel, sinew or circuit, mud or imagination; transmuting art into a zoology of spirit. FOR THAT WHICH WIGGLES IS AMAZING We dissolve every bloodless workstation, artifact, and module of consumption, into the acids of living ritual. We grow connections in an ecology of twitches and presences; soaking tendrils of thought and conscience in a spray of fibrous feedback; infusing phantoms and facts with equal measures of visceral significance; writhing among the rivulets and curls of screaming knowledge. We breed turbulent creatures in a mongrel jungle of plasma, machines, and minds. We struggle to love these creatures, these convulsions, to keep that which is lively, and that which sustains life, in supreme focus. May the lethal pomposities of art and science disappear in the surrounding blur. So let us gently secrete every milky ganglion and wire into the quivering wilderness; Let us siphon every atom, and theory of atom, into the hot belly of shared being; melting into the monstrous, pulsing mystery of that which seems to be alive. Let us entwine with the infinite squirming, THE SUPER WIGGLING, which thrives in slippery suspension somewhere between us.
Ebon Fisher <alula@interport.net>
- Monday, May 05, 1997 at 16:10:23 (EDT)
Periodicity is the engine that has driven the explosion of life on this planet. The days and nights, the tides, the cycle of the years, the sunspots and El Nino... dust bowls, mini-Ice Ages, floods, ice ages, catastrophic events such as meteor hits, plagues, earthquakes, ... All of these events have challenged all forms of life and forced them to adapt and become better at survival. And all along the way the memories of how to transcend these life-threatening challenges have been recorded in DNA - parents teaching children - and human society - patiently recording how to face the future. And carry on.
Bill Grundmann <wrg@ma.ultranet.com>
- Friday, April 25, 1997 at 20:55:18 (EDT)
The supposed edge between us and nature is fictitious. This skin of ours is perforated to let our inner selves escape into forest vapors and sea glints. And just so the movement of scented winds and the caress of grasses enter us. Since we are porous we choose carefully our environments, and to be surrounded by mountain, or sea, by forest or desert is to be beautiful inside.
Joyce Audy Zarins <zarins@tiac.net>
- Saturday, February 08, 1997 at 20:16:27 (EST)
The method of the brain to enfold and enclose the outside onto itself - bringing the out in and exposing the inside outward - is the continual formation of memories and the blossoming of life. A true meeting of opposites, in a way. To balance these perhaps abstract and distant ideas with information about the immediate and sad loss of coral life is elegant and positive. It is recognizing that the questions are the knowledge with the information woven throughout.
nita <nita@tiac.net>
- Thursday, December 12, 1996 at 11:40:18 (EST)
...near Kawaihae, framed by frozen black rivers of a'a...a brilliant white beach made entirely from coral (okay, some diatom skeletons too)...fragments of an ancient reef mercilessly pulverized by the not so pacific ocean...sitting on these ruins, architecture transmogrified, watching the horizon rise into dusk...the Moon suddenly appeared where the Sun had been, a fine crescent appearing to follow the source of its illumination directly below...later, in darkness, laying back on the remains, the teeming civilization become dust...raw material for the next...the Milky Way...
ean <ean@tiac.net>
- Sunday, December 08, 1996 at 00:04:51 (EST)
...memories of floating in a coral reef off Isla de Culebra...Caribbean water too warm- coral completely bleached...former metropolis' vertebrate denizens swimming around dazed...later, on the beach, naked in a rainstorm, thought I could feel a sulcus form in my brain enfolding this sadness, this memory...
ean <ean@tiac.net>
- Saturday, December 07, 1996 at 03:04:33 (EST)
I found this reading Laurie Walker's reflection on the teaching of language"arts": "...we are actors in life, not spectators." and this, "...nothing can replace the sense of accomplishment." My thought : the sixth sense; accomplishment.
gfs <filippo@tioga.upb.pitt.ed>
- Sunday, November 10, 1996 at 20:26:21 (EST)
I had the worst day yesterday. I shouldn't have screwed up initially, now fate has slapped her mighty palm on my forehead.
Errick <enunnally@trinitynet.com>
- Friday, November 01, 1996 at 09:17:07 (EST)
Beautiful is the mind and brain. Someday, we will be able to have a memory recorder - capable of recording the state of mind, the activities of the 5+ senses, and our thoughts accurately and unambiguously so we can replay our images, emotions, and dreams inside us to share with others and for future generations....or neurophysical archeology & history will be sophiscated enough to trace back into a particular time in our past based on the current or recorded waveforms and interconnections of our brain and those with whom we interact. Imagine and it will be.
PChan <chan@partee.hlo.dec.com>
- Wednesday, October 30, 1996 at 17:20:18 (EST)
vibration: right now i'm wondering about friction. is the striking of a bell a very concentrated form of friction? silk and fur. is static coherent? there is something in there, with the movement of current creating friction? it's a cause and effect kind of thing?? if an idea were to begin with friction in the brain that might form some kind of coherence help me out here ???
pasha <pliny@world.std.com>
- Thursday, October 10, 1996 at 17:16:08 (EDT)
It is too complicated. All these colors! I am accustomed to text only. Preferably ASCII, because it's been around. So is my wife. Text is what survives, unless you care to carve things out of granite or such. We are very ancient people, and these transitory things, well, it is hard to read real long-lasting value into them. What will people think of us 1000 years from now? I want to know now! Please respond immediately.
Dmorl Dmorlovich <dmorlov@xensei.com>
- Wednesday, October 02, 1996 at 00:22:38 (EDT)
Imagine all our thoughts collect somewhere in some invisible form, floating above our heads. The forms are like coral forms found at the beach; as intricately detailed and elegant. Where is the place of this collection and how can we touch it?
nita <nita@tiac.net>
- Monday, September 30, 1996 at 11:02:44 (EDT)
