The Edit / An Edit – by Michael Farrell
ISLAND | ONLINE ONLY
Immanence redirected. The infrastructure of the edgelord and the snowflake are the same.
Can power be generally oppressive? Up in the trees, radically outside the gift economy, radically
outside bricolage. Read this sentence. Read this sentence linguistically. Tampering mid-ride.
Gusto prevailed once. Mulching depended upon it. Love, lovers, loving: such topics to while
away the long winter evenings, when beaux came tripping on the windowsill. Light-hearted pet
names give the measure of the domestic. I had two budgies, one called Left-wing, the other
one Right-wing, they flew about the pots, smacked me when I was naughty. They died around
the same time, and I drove out of town to bury them. Life felt game-less with them gone.
Buggies began to trend, like vinyl, uncontroversial ‘clean roads and waterways’, but dig a little
deeper. The disappearance of cash created a push against the (heavily gendered) hip pocket
economy. It was only after the war that my grandfather opened up to German philosophy, to
the point of religiosity. Or theosophy. In the dark, he would ask, Johann Gottfried von Herder,
should I travel this weekend, or, do I have bronchitis? Karma, to allude further, of sorts.
In the same way, or rather, with a similar attitude, I talk to birds, but I do it in the light,
and I don’t make a ceremony of it, I might be washing up. Violins play from neighbour’s
apartments. French horns, very occasionally. Swing low; in fact, land, if you want me to get on.
Skiing is the most magical (holy) sport around.
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Image: Nico Knaack - Unsplash
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