The Riddle of Shadow

The worms wyrms that are wise

There’s something I need to know, remember, see—but I’m not sure what?

More pertinently, the big symbol thing I’m trying to suss out is tied into representation, in general.

[whoever is behind me]->[Me] ->(gaze) [fire (flickers)] [idol] -> [flickering shadow] on [wall]

It’s not Platonic, but that’s maybe one path to getting there.

  1. All too often, I’ve felt/heard someone behind me, looking at what I’m looking at.
  2. Never forget someone is looking/observing/thinking.
  3. Flickering flame makes flickering, moving shadows—but this is the moving mind making movement or its impression.
  4. Something casts the shadow, but it is only part of the chain.
  5. The flickering image arrests our apprehension, is the gateway to what we seek.
  6. The wall is the most important part of that damn cave. Without the wall, the medium in part, the shadow goes nowhere, the light shines out into the void, and so we stare.
  7. There’s still something I’m missing here, something about symbolism and symbols—that connects back to Digital Gods and so forth.

What happens in a digital cave where there’s no flicker—other than the flicker of the A/C or refresh rate or the flops? Just a faster flicker.

[fire] -> [idol] -> [shadow] -> [wall]

This part of the chain has whatever I’m looking for—I think.

Cf. map of the shard and shadow and the flow of Chaos

Why is the flicker important?

What is the movement of the mind that is the fire—what am I, are we, doing that goes through?

And how do you magic that up?

From a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, there’s no chain—that’s a product of my mind, which can adopt different perspectives and frames—it can alter subjectiveness, feign non-subjectivity. But it’s all still lumps (wibbly-wobbly lumps)—& it’s in some ways a question of referentiality, as well.

The question becomes not only what touches us in a symbol, but also what it touches through us to something else?

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