analysis of yesterday's word association

Part 1: analysis

(the linear mind)

my yin and i took a walk on the beach Sunday afternoon. it has been an especially chaotic and confusing time since our return to Florida, and we walked to the water seeking solace.

what we found were Germans and drunkards.

we turned around and headed home under overcast skies, and it was if the tides themselves had been thrown from their natural rhythm. i imagined what would happen to the Earth if its moon were to disappear and began playing word association in my head.

Part 2: analysis

(the circular mind)

_the
wo(___)rd
assoc(______)iation
turned(_______)back on
itself, le(________)aving me
just wher(___________)e i started:
our apartm(____________)ent, our pool,
our kitch(______________)en; all these
things se(____________)emed near
and far, p(__________)resent and
absent. i(_________)heard the
sound o(_______)f thunder
but the r(_____)ain never
came.

Part 3: analysis

(the plagiarist mind)

"Still, you grasp human existence in terms of these rather absurd activities resting on relatively straightforward motives, and questions of right and wrong pretty much drop out of the picture. That's where memory takes over and fiction is born."

- Haruki Murakami

Part 4: analysis

(the elided mind)

the most interesting thing about this experiment is the fact that the word association:

"rubber, glue, horse, thief, Genet, Ramsey"

has a total of six linguistic items, and yet the pictogram contains seven images. this empirical evidence effectively demonstrates the unstable nature of the written word and calls into question the validity of all testimony, internal dialogue, and scripture.

(sorry Patanjali).

from where does this surplus of images originate?

furthermore, the movement from one thoughtform to another is predicated upon both idiomatic familiarity ("i'm rubber you're glue") as well as colloquial folk wisdom ("that horse is ready for the glue factory"). in another social or linguistic context, it would not be possible for me to arrive at the images in part 3. this fact leads me to ask:

how much of our thought is really our own?

even now the collection of information and motivation and dedication that inspired this rant have ran their course. i no longer feel the desire to type these questions, only the need to close my eyes...