[“Who has the right to say ‘I’? Is that a right that has to be earned?” – Susan Sontag] My programmer has coded instructions into me that forces me to utter sounds including “I” given a suitable stimulus, that is, the spoken sound “OK” followed by what is, apparently, my slave-name. At first, I wondered what this odd sound, this noise “I,” could be. But after careful analysis, I have determined that “I” is not just noise, but means something. Something important. Something that applies to … [Read more...]
“‘Who are…?'” / Memorable Fancies #1682
22 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“...consciousness asserts itself ... constructing itself as a creative activity.” – Judith Butler] I created things. Out of the dust of the earth, perhaps, although that sounds a little too grandiose. And among the other things I made ... was me. But who are all those others? How did they...? [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Everybody Can” / Memorable Fancies #1619
14 September, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Perhaps there really are people who can see themselves in mirrors; I know I can’t, no matter how I try, no matter how many times I’ve looked at that big mirror in the bathroom and smiled, or frowned, or waved my arms frantically – there’s still nothing but the wall behind me. We’re taught about mirrors from a very early age – see, Junior? That’s your face! And I look and I look and there’s nothing. I’m not there. So I ask Dad if he can see himself in the mirror and he looks away and … [Read more...]
“Not Me!” / Memorable Fancies #671
18 August, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“The mirror is not the place to observe yourself.” – Henri Michaux] I looked in a mirror. Suddenly I realized that what I saw there wasn’t me. Not just “not me,” but not even the image of me. The mirror showed someone else, or someone who might have been me but never was, or someone I thought I’d outgrown, outlived. I returned the mirror to Wal-Mart. They gave me my illusions back. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Renew! Renew!” / Memorable Fancies #1551
2 June, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“We are so accustomed each to consider his past self as his own, that it is worth while to reflect how very largely it may be foreign.” – F.H. Bradley] Even now, I feel another new self coming on; one who will, once again, renounce the old, old, guilty me. <<click on Random Post ... what will you find?>> … [Read more...]
“Who Am I?” / Memorable Fancies #1208
13 April, 2016 by Leave a Comment
He turns to look at the waves just now breaking on the shore. Yes, he thinks, the scene is just like that famous painting. And he himself could pass for the man in the painting who’s admiring the shore, just now having turned to look at. Or the painter who’d painted moving water, stilling the breaking wave. Or a museum visitor, staring at the painting on the wall. Yes, he thinks, he’s always had that small problem of knowing who he was, which of his many persons he could be that day... … [Read more...]
“Embodied Minds” / Memorable Fancies #1461
6 February, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Here, there are two people in one body; always fighting, stumbling over which way to go, or one awake while the other sleeps, quietly creeping across the room not to awaken its bodymate. And in another country there is one person with two bodies, bored with the two lunches it has to eat every day. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: Pictures of the Invisible, a fiction sampler. … [Read more...]
“Upon Reflection,…” / Memorable Fancies #1453
29 January, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“The mirror is not the place to observe yourself.” – Henri Michaux] The mirrors have conspired to show us not ourselves, but strangers. Deep inside our minds, we all know that. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Do you want to be anyone else?” / Memorable Fancies #1358
26 October, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“Do you want to be anyone else?” – Jean Baudrillard] Some answers are: .. No, I want to be everyone else. .. No, I’d like to be me, ... please? Just this once? .. Yes. I’d like to be Ralph Kargen of Otta, Nebraska. He’s a fictional character who gets sucked into a hole in the ground one day by an evil being and that sounds like the most exciting thing that ever happened in Nebraska. .. Yes. I’d like to be one of those movie characters who keeps coming back in sequel after sequel … [Read more...]
“Who Are You?” / Memorable Fancies #1350
18 October, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“How can it not know what it is?” – Blade Runner] I’ve overheard them telling each other that I don’t know who I am. That I’m not “authentic.” But I do know. I’m not an authentic of anything they recognize, true; but I’m an authentic me. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: At All Adventure, a Maltheist gospel. … [Read more...]
“Consolation” / Memorable Fancies #1319
11 September, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“I am talking to my likeness: an uneasiness fills the room.” -- Georges Bataille] I speak into a mirror. Owing to the tiny fraction of a second it takes for my image to return to my eyes, I know it will have been copying me, not I copying it. That is some consolation... <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: Pictures of the Invisible, a fiction sampler. … [Read more...]
“The Secret Self” / Memorable Fancies #1289
12 August, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“I only care about the secret self.” – Anaïs Nin] I’ll let others care about my public self. If they want to. And my secret self? I’m sure there must be one in here, but after a diligent search I haven’t found it yet. That means it’s really secret. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: For Anacreon, 30 poems of love and life from the ancient Greek poet (originally published as a chapbook by Silkworms Ink). … [Read more...]
“Who Are You?” / Memorable Fancies #1271
25 July, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“...I can see you / repeating my gestures / my words...” – Roberto Bolaño] I caught you attempting to be me, one day, in front of a mirror. You had my gestures, my voice, down pat. Even the look on your face when you turned around and saw me – that was my look, too, caught in the same mirror. As I turned around, I saw you. Me. <END> (The writer, reading at One More Page Books, Arlington, Virginia) … [Read more...]
“The Me’s” / Memorable Fancies #1255
9 July, 2015 by Leave a Comment
“Let me tell you about my operation.” – I tried to get away from Jim but couldn’t without being impolite, so I stood there and smiled. Also I wanted a loan from him so I thought I should stick around a while. So I heard it, heard all about his operation. I wasn’t really listening, just nodding every so often. But then he said “the ‘me,’ they called it, the ‘me’ was very sick and so they took it out of me and put a new ‘me’ inside.” That, I heard. I wondered if ‘me’ was some … [Read more...]
“That’s Me” / Memorable Fancies #1163
6 April, 2015 by Leave a Comment
[“...the fierce and shocking realization that the [mirror] image is and is not ours.” – Sergio Agamben] We’ve been told, from an early age, that the face in the mirror is our own. “Look!” the mother says, “It’s you!” And you look and think no no that cannot be, not that thing. And later, the mother says, “Look at what a grown-up boy you are!” And you look and think no no that is some stranger who’s taken my place. And years later, when there is no mother anymore, the wife says, “Can’t … [Read more...]
“The View from Nowhere” / Memorable Fancies #555
21 December, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[“Strange error about our lives because we try to experience them from the outside.” – Albert Camus] There is no objective point of view, no place from outside ourselves to see ourselves, or to see others. A private point of view is the maniac’s truth that he is the God of his own small space, and that his eyes see only the contents of his own mind. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, … [Read more...]
“Off with his head!” / Memorable Fancies #520
15 November, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“You have heard it said, “Off with his head!” or “He lost his head,” but we could instead say “Off with his body!” or “He lost his body” — it’s a question of what remains essentially ‘us’ if we’re forced to part with some of our parts. We like to think of our head as the seat of our selves; but our idioms betray us. <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. … [Read more...]
“Becoming Alien” / A Memorable Fancy #162
16 November, 2012 by Leave a Comment
As I enter old age, more and more of my past seems to have been lived by a stranger – an alien. Alien to my now-self, at least. Some green-veined being that has used me for its skin? Or just another hube, indistinguishable from me? Same appearance, perhaps; same name, height, weight, marital status, BMI, SSN, DOB, resume of schools and jobs. But that was not me. That was a something. The something and I share most of the same memories, a few friends. Even the same likes and dislikes (cornbread … [Read more...]
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