From: Wade T. Smith (wade.t.smith@verizon.net)
Date: Fri 23 May 2003 - 14:16:44 GMT
On Friday, May 23, 2003, at 07:31 AM, Reed wrote:
> when I say "I, Reed, expect you to enter my house
> through the door." that means something different and I would go so
> far as
> to say something much more significant than the statement "the door
> expects
> you to enter the house through it."
This is precisely the same thought process that leads people to say the
meme made them do it, and call them selfish. But, indeed, the cultural
venue _is_ 'selfish', it does not want you to not use that door, or
want you to think someone doesn't need to use it.
> The door doesn't expect anything.
No, indeed, it does not. But the people who put it there did. And the
fact it is there will make you use it, if it works properly.
> The [props] gathered by whom? By the participants!
Yes, and no. The participants of the cultural venue who put that door
there might well have packed up and gone, taken their tools and moved
to another house, and they most probably did. Are there a bunch of
carpenters living with you? So, what is _now_ participating? (The venue
is not immune to temporality, after all.) The venue itself is
participating, and yes, the venue itself _is_ a required participant in
the performance model. Don't please, attempt to deny it by saying that
only the performer and the observer are there. They are not alone.
>> "Yes, the cultural venue is the element of the memetic process that
>> _attempts_ to determine meaning."
>
> Meaning?
Meaning that the fact that there _is_ a door in your house leads you to
use it, and see it as a means of ingress and egress. That there is
_any_ meaning or use to that door besides that it is a slab of wood or
aluminum.
But, you can use it as a slab of wood if you like. Take it down and put
four legs on it, bash it up a bit, and recoat it with some varnish, and
you have a table, which is a slab of wood on legs, if it just sits
there, although it is a place to put flashy magazines and cutglass
fruit bowls if it is used. I suspect you'll still have a door, though.
- Wade
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