75 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
75 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
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$$$$$$$$$$$
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$$$$$$$$$$$ hogz of entropy #131
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$$$$$P $$$$ $$$$ moo, oink, up your butt.
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$$$$P $$$$ x$$$$
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$$$P $$$$ xP$$$$ d$$$$$$$$$$$.
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$$$. $$$$xP $$$$ $$$$$$' >$$$$
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$$$$$$$$$. $$$$P $$$$ 4$$$$$. .$$$$'
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$$$$'`4$$$b. $$$$ $$$$ 4$$$$$$$$$P'
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$$$$b 4$$$$b. $$$$$$$$$$$ 4$$$< %%
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$$$$$b 4$$$$$x $$$$$$$$$$$ 4$$$$$$$$$ %%
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>> "Text Files" <<
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by -> Darwin
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It's been said that music/art/poetry is the soul exiting itself in
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hollow places. I'm not quite sure where it was said, but it certainly was,
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and it's certainly true. What then, are text files?
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Text files are computer words... computer art. Are there any places
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hollower than computers? Is there any correspondance more false than email?
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We've given up handwriting, we've given up the scrawl of an upset
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obsessive... we've chosen letters. Perhaps we haven't chosen, but it
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certainly hasn't been thrust on us. Nobody told people to start writing text
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files, they just did. Not because they had something to say, but because the
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time demanded it. Because computers require a certain soul quotient. A
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fraction of a life. Have you ever sat down at a business computer or a
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computer that's never been used by anyone? I don't mean a new computer, I
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mean one of those computers that might as well be any other computer sold at
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radio shack. Have you felt its relief when you created a text file that had
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your friends phone number in it?
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That's the genesis of text, I think. The capture of a fractional soul
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by a machine. Not every machine captures it, and not every person has it to
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give.
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Is there anything more useless than text files? More anonymous, more
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invisible? Even crummy zines about indie-pop have subscribers... text files
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don't even have that. They just appear, and people read them. Text is
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automatic, its the soul shoving itself into the nearest receptacle. This is
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because the lives of those who write text have been framed in a certain
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surround. They are not satisfied, but can't take a "regular" way out of it.
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Whether they're anti-social or differently social or just like computers,
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they've made a choice. They've chosed to be ignored, because nobody really
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cares about computer people. Computer lives are very rarely important to
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anybody.
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Perhaps that is what the truly great text writers accomplish. They
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give computers life. Their computers give them life. They tread the line
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between angsty youth writing self-depricating garbage and professionals.
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They don't have any hopes of being published, any hopes of being famous, but
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they ACT like they are. And, somehow, they are famous. The text file writer
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is a writer and is simultaneously not a writer. What is a text file but the
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writer? The text file writer is fundamentally unfulfilled, and fundamentally
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unfulfilled with being unfulfilled. He senses that there is something in the
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world which is beauty, which can be glimpsed. He may or may not realize it
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can not be grasped. He will keep trying.
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The true art of the text file is tone of voice. Tone of voice makes
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all art, but especially one where there is no tone, and there is no voice.
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When any musical great sings, and sings like he means it.. That is the soul
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of art. That's why Bush is garbage, no matter how hard he yells. Because,
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like so much self-published angst crap, it's just paying lip service to the
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reality of fear of life. Now, this is not to say that there isn't bad text,
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in fact, there's a lot of it. But, the truly good text... is liberated by
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the fact that it is free. There is no charge, there is no gain, there is,
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ultimately, nothing created or destroyed. There is only humanity.
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Good text files say it like they mean it.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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* (c) HoE publications. HoE #131 -- written by Darwin -- 11/5/97 *
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