Saturday, December 20, 2008

and how you might have changed it all



"Intuition:
What gives what helps the intuition?
I know I'll know
I won't have to be shown
The way home
And it's not about a boy
Although although

They can lead you
Break or defeat you

A destination known
Only by the one
Who's fate is overgrown
Piecemeal can break your home in half
A love is not complete with only heat

And they can tease you
Break or complete you

And it came a heat wave
A merciful save
You choose you chose
Poetry over prose
A map is more unreal than where you've been
Or how you feel
A map is more unreal than where you've been
Or how you feel
And it's impossible to tell
How important someone was
And what you might have missed out on
And how he might have changed it all
And how you might have changed it all for him
And how he might have changed it all
And how you might have changed it all for him

Did I, did I
Did I, did I
Did I, did I
Did I, did I
Did I did I miss out on you?"

Baudrillard thought war was the last vestige of the Real that was eventually replaced by the hyperreal during the Gulf War. But it seems there is still the sense of "gut feelings", intuition, and instincts that lingers in the world of the Real. Recently on the NBC news I saw a story about a troop in Afghanistan who was killed by friendly fire. His mom was interviewed and told the camera how she knew her son was going to die, she attributed this prompting to "mother's intuition." I don't mean to simply be skeptic of such claims, I'm not saying it doesn't "happen." I am interested in how we go about validating the emotions that "really matter:" really Real emotions.
Do emotions we experience while watching a movie count? Film induced sadness can linger for a while. Is it the narrative power of a movie that can inject something that seems so real? Likewise can the petit narratives we indulge in "real life" direct what emotions we feel and how to feel them? Is this any less/more artificial? I can't understand the outrage the Muslim communities felt at the blasphemous cartoons of Muhammad, or the passion of Evangelicals speaking in tongues. Likewise I doubt they could understand the sense of joy I felt singing "Shoplifters of the World Unite and Take Over" with other Morrissey fans. You could say these are all the same feelings but really the narrative that directs the feeling, comes before it, is more real than the feeling. It's the "map that precedes the territory."

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