Zeno
"Ev'ry time we say goodbye I die a little" - Cole Porter
I don't know why I woke up with that lyric in my head (People with an inclination toward drama, swooning, and consumption use the term Le Peiti Mort - "the little death" - to describe an orgasm, but that's not where my head was {at} this morning).
But it got me thinking about Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter's book that I spent about a decade reading.
If we were to apply Zeno's Paradox, where point A was you and I together, and Point B was my being dead, then somewhere in between - let's say half that distance - would be the little death I felt at your departure. Still, if I am always halving the distance to point B from points A, A.5, A.75, etc., I will never die. You can't kill me. Furthermore, if we want to drag the French back into it, it's really a climactic relief that you're gone. Ya skank.
I don't know why I woke up with that lyric in my head (People with an inclination toward drama, swooning, and consumption use the term Le Peiti Mort - "the little death" - to describe an orgasm, but that's not where my head was {at} this morning).
But it got me thinking about Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas Hofstadter's book that I spent about a decade reading.
If we were to apply Zeno's Paradox, where point A was you and I together, and Point B was my being dead, then somewhere in between - let's say half that distance - would be the little death I felt at your departure. Still, if I am always halving the distance to point B from points A, A.5, A.75, etc., I will never die. You can't kill me. Furthermore, if we want to drag the French back into it, it's really a climactic relief that you're gone. Ya skank.
Labels: philosophy
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by Marty Barrett at Friday, October 15, 2004
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