the grid
"Two grids remained. The grid of two hundred million and the grid of intimacy. Everything else fell into disuse. There was a national life -- a shimmer of a national life -- and intimate life. The distance between these two grids was very great. The distance was very frightening. People did not want to measure it. People began to lose a sense of what distance was and of what the usefulness of distance might be.
Because the distance between the grids was so great, there was less in the way of comfort. The middle distance had been a comfort. But the middle distance had fallen away. The grid of national life was very large now, but the space in which one man felt at home shrank. It shrank to intimacy.
It followed that people were comfortable only with the language of intimacy. Whatever business was done had to be done in that language. The language of "You are not alone." How else would a person know?"
"The con man does give you something. It is a sense of your own worthlessness. A good question to ask: "Does this event exist without me?" If the answer is no, leave. You are involved in a con game. When the con man tells you that he is about to present you with "a wide range of options," ask for one thing he will absolutely stand behind. Or beat him up. If he has some authority, you have a right to see what it is. If he is only describing the authority he senses in you, then do as you please.
The idea of choice is easily debased if one forgets that the aim is to have chosen successfully, not to be endlessly choosing."
-"within the context of no context,"
george w. s. trow. read it. please.
http://books.google.com/books?id=J68K4v_IdLAC&dq=within+the+context+of+no+context&pg=PP1&ots=ZhNzUekH24&sig=dUHMU0VOByKPPAE5gRRbbyeE-cs&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=within+the+context+of+no+context&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail
Because the distance between the grids was so great, there was less in the way of comfort. The middle distance had been a comfort. But the middle distance had fallen away. The grid of national life was very large now, but the space in which one man felt at home shrank. It shrank to intimacy.
It followed that people were comfortable only with the language of intimacy. Whatever business was done had to be done in that language. The language of "You are not alone." How else would a person know?"
"The con man does give you something. It is a sense of your own worthlessness. A good question to ask: "Does this event exist without me?" If the answer is no, leave. You are involved in a con game. When the con man tells you that he is about to present you with "a wide range of options," ask for one thing he will absolutely stand behind. Or beat him up. If he has some authority, you have a right to see what it is. If he is only describing the authority he senses in you, then do as you please.
The idea of choice is easily debased if one forgets that the aim is to have chosen successfully, not to be endlessly choosing."
-"within the context of no context,"
george w. s. trow. read it. please.
http://books.google.com/books?id=J68K4v_IdLAC&dq=within+the+context+of+no+context&pg=PP1&ots=ZhNzUekH24&sig=dUHMU0VOByKPPAE5gRRbbyeE-cs&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=within+the+context+of+no+context&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail