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DEALING_THE_DECK

                                      May 31 2004

How about: forced association
between grand abstractions.

Pair up concepts, and try substituting
them in, with different connectors:            THE_ABSTRACTION_GAME

   "is" "not" "or" "over" "was"

Do you get anything useful ?


Okay, first let's just
try identity: "is"           Though maybe "is"
                             isn't exactly identity.

                                                (There must be a
                                                 Clinton joke in here
                                                 somewhere.)

For the deck of abstractions,
let's start with my usual ones:

    intelligence
    love                  (any others?)
    god
    beauty
    freedom
    responsibility


From Tolstoy's list:         THE_ABSTRACTION_GAME

    will
    spirit
    substance

Lift a few items
from the Sun Ra deck:

    judgment
    the world
    the chariot

    joy
    enlightment

     Some pairs of opposed                 (effectively allows
     abstractions:                          some "is not" relations
                                            when just using "is" to
    light       darkness                    connect)
    life        death
    chaos       order
    the good    evil

Some cagey concepts:

    silence
    ego
    chance

How about a few of the oldies:

    fate
    passion
    nature
    technology
    reality

Throw in a few jokers:

    disappointment          (Skimmed for words from
    hot                     the first chapter of the
    limit                   "Glass Key".)

And why not
    the joker


A little existential-nietzschean crap:
    existence
    essence
    eternity
    morality
    authenticity

Beat:
    action
    madness
    sadness

    turmoil     (the beat-buddhism connection)
    illusion
                                I have the impression
                                that "samsara" can be
                                translated as
                                suffering/turmoil/illusion
Praise of doom:

    depth
    complexity


And in summary, we have                         THE_DECK
the deck...

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