Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Reading WIttgenstein

The world consists of facts—not things.

What draws me to this statement?

“Fact,” a word, a ball of frozen vapors, shards on the pavement.

Is this “bed” of “rumpled” “sheets” a fact?

Mere things detritus of fact?

Because I love you, I turn in my sheets.

This is a fact.

I writhe in my nonsleep, in my nondreams sweat.

Facts are sure

Not innocent things.

I will never get behind that wall it will never breech and open to me.

Fact:

A sweaty glass of melting ice drips a circle on the table.

Fact:

The stone tossed from the bridge makes a series of circles that are not round.

Everything diminishes from the center.

Just facts.

The blue of midnight, the midnight blue falls so eloquently, so wordlessly lovely against your skin, against the confluence of your hair about your neck…

I do not think that is a fact, although I know it is true.

This is a fact.

Where have you gone Ludwig?

What games are you playing now?

2 comments:

  1. So good of you to remember the dead. And it touches on something I have thought about often, which is the difference between fact and truth. And perhaps you say it well, when a fact is a fact because it is known to be true (which assumes a relationship/correlation). But can one say that a fact is a fact and therefore is true? Or is it that a fact leaves doubtless in a mind that "the grass is green" which is observed and confirmed by all who are not colour-blind, or purely blind. And can we say for a fact that we do not know everything there is to know about the human physical brain? Some would say this is a fact (I would wish to say so as well), but it is not so much a fact since it is not proven by most; not "by most" since this "fact" is based on "theory" and "belief." But it is true. Science never came so close to faith that fingers ever touched. One speaks of what man can know, while the other speaks of what he does know. Or will. What is a duckrabbit, afterall? But I would rather ask, what is a platypus ('ah yes! you are the one who does not belong!')?

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  2. What is a duckrabbit? That is the fundamental question isn't it. No facts without observation--and yet facts are not subjective. That's the conundrum.

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