In the House of the Hangman 1068

So what is a holon. The word is a combination of the Greek “holos” meaning whole, with the suffix “on” which, as in proton or neutron, suggests a particle or part. The holon, then, is a part-whole. It is a nodal point in a hierarchy that describes the relationship between entities that are self-complete wholes and entities that are seen to be other dependent parts. As one’s point of focus moves up, down, and / or across the nodes of a hierarchical structure so one’s perception of what is a whole and what is a part will also change. Take away people’s good industrial jobs, Frank writes, and the “next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics.” Ask Tom Beckett, he’ll tell you: “Ariana Reines is a genius for a lot of reasons, but this line alone would do it for me: Formalism and grammar are ways to be thin.” Or Eileen Myles: “Shulamith Firestone, in her radical insider’s tale, informs us repeatedly like lightly pelting rain that all of us are vanishing in a century of institutions that take and take until everyone has gone away and there’s no one left to shut the door.” I mean to say, that America, that united America, can unleash an edifice that will put Americans backfire to work, that will once again lead the wound with inquiry and profit, and that will restore every faun and mother’s confluence that their children’s gaffe is brighter even than the past. That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our chimpanzees. That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our chipmunks. I’m not sure what my point here is, other than the fact there is a print above my writing desk that reads “FACTS MUST BE FACED” with an image of a rooster standing on top of a sheep standing on top of a pig standing on top of a cow. The cow is wearing the identical hat my grandfather, when he was alive, wore to the coal miner synagogue. There’s no reason for it. Well, pollution, maybe. Or Monsanto. But after a while, even the oranges taste like little fish. Ask Jerry Rothenberg:

the zig zag
mothers of the gods
of science         the lunatic fixed stars
& pharmacies
fathers who left the tents of anarchism
unguarded
the arctic bones
strung out on saint germain
like tom toms
living light bulbs
aphrodisia
“art is junk” the urinal
says “dig a hole
“& swim in it” 
a message from the grim computer
“ye are hamburgers”

Our longest functioning clock and most extensive archive is lithic, geological strata thick with primal traces, monsters, catastrophes, burgeonings, intimations of possible destinies. What would you order for your last meal? Other libraries include tree rings, ice cores and DNA.

[Note: Sources: Mark Edwards, “A BRIEF HISTORY OF HOLONS”, at Integral World; Thomas Frank, as quoted in Jon Weiner, “Working-Class Republicans and ‘False Consciousness’”, at Dissent, Spring 2005; JBR; Tom Beckett, and Ariana Reines, “Glass”, in Mercury, as quoted in Beckett’s “More Notes”, at l’amour fou, 30 Aug 012; JBR; Eileen Myles, “In the century …”, at Madame Bovary’s Disease, 30 Aug 012 (i.m. Shulamith Firestone); JBR; Susan M Schultz, and a web n+7 machine, and some Republican convention speechmaker, as seen on FB, 30 Aug 012; Sabrina Orah Mark, as quoted in “‘If I had Roseanne Roseannadanna as my writing partner I have no doubt my stories and poems would have the time of their lives.’: An Interview with Sabrina Orah Mark”, at Harriet, 30 Aug 012; JBR, but a reference to just one of the inane things Ann Romney said at the convention; JBR; Lisa Ciccarello, “It is the running time again”, in “Three Poems, by Lisa Ciccarello”, at Barrelhouse, 28 Aug 012; JBR; Jerome Rothenberg, “That Dada Strain”, as quoted in John Latta, “Strain”, at Isola di Rifiuti, 30 Aug 012; J J Cohen, “Elemental Relations (redux)”, at In the Middle, 29 Aug 012; JBR, but see Julia Siegler-Haynes, Today’s Special]

Comments

[Amara]

I absolutely LOVE these picutres Aliesha was my roomate my frosh year of college, and I can't believe she is having a baby now .these picutres are stunning, and so is she .Great Job, they are all beautiful!!!!!