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Somethin Forum to Update With - by F. Jammes

Somethin Forum to Update With

Liar's Doing Weekly Updates Now? With Long Titles? Well I's got Somethin Forum to Update With

You know, the game isn’t quite like drama after all. It’s opera. That has nothing to do with what I decided to write about, but it goes along with my previous article, as promised.

I read old pages of the forum from time to time. They aren’t that interesting in themselves; but for some strange reason, reading old messages on old message boards, I seem to see images—just one image, actually. I see pine trees, at night, in winter: sometimes close up, branches and the snow on the needles; sometimes from high above, such that the forest is dark and so is the sky.

I would like to post this in the forum, and ask, first, does anyone else ever go and read the old message boards? and second, do you see pine trees, or something else, or nothing special at all? and third, if nothing, why do you read them? But it is much easier and safer and so in its way more fun just to speculate. I figure I am as likely to arrive at a right answer this way as the other, since it would be joke responses and grammar corrections and confused responses mostly that I’d get for asking. And that’s a waste of everyone’s time, while this way I obligate no one else; I just waste my own, and I ‘got that for free’. (Toto sailor, you know.)

I’d suppose that a few other people probably do look at some of the old boards, just out of boredom and curiosity. My favorite way to go about it is to click on the coolest name, or avatar, or name with words (rank?) that I see, or the name of someone who says something particularly intelligent or, on the other hand, particularly silly—which is a sort of intelligence, perhaps higher—or egregiously stupid—and it is getting harder and harder to earn that distinction every day, but that’s neither here nor there…And from their biography-screen I pick old messages of theirs more or less at random to read. And from there my path branches as I look at the other people who posted in the same thread. Maybe these braches are the branches of my pine trees.

Maybe other people see old cars, rusting in alleys, and the people taking it easy in the streets. Because cars have grills. ‘Get off my grill, dog’. But they could see anything. There’s some very vivid stuff-seers around these parts. The guy who is cool not least for liking To Kill a Mockingbird; the guy who, you might say, is an EB junkie; and Everdraed, oh where is he today? indeed. They could see anything, at any time. Is it a can of soda? Is it a coral reef? But if they don’t say so themselves, perhaps they are only shy, but perhaps they don’t see anything all that clearly.

And for the third question, there are plenty of reasons. I’ve already named two big ones: boredom and curiosity. But there are also other possibilities, more specific. These old people with names and words and pictures, maybe they like to reminisce from time to time by rereading their greatest hits and the bons mots of friends who have since gone their separate ways. They certainly like to reminisce in the periodic topics created for that purpose. Then, for new people who have only heard second-hand of those good old days, maybe they want to see for themselves. Compared to the drivel we talk now, after all, it wouldn’t take much to impress us. Pining for good old days we never knew—maybe that’s where my pines come from?

But we all well know, I think, these are more or less only quirks of language by which I can concoct a connection to my image. Why it is really there is a fascinating question, but the answers are all bound to be wrong; and maybe a more practical question is this: why are we here. Why are we here, sitting in front of computer screens? Why don’t we go out under the pine trees, in the snow, if you like. I get the feeling you could spend a lifetime asking questions like these and speculating on the answers. But if you do, it might be best attempted with a friend, face to face. Because two heads are better than one, but two billion heads connected by the internet are worse.


Other Submissions by F. Jammes

Author Sort Ascending Sort Descending Title Sort Ascending Sort Descending Description Sort Ascending Sort Descending Date Sort Ascending Sort Descending Rank Sort Ascending Sort Descending
F. Jammes What treachery the pine tree saw
a play with music
9/4/05 0.00
F. Jammes Cocoons
an idyll; just for fun
9/4/05 0.00
F. Jammes summers sketch
it's short. you can treat it as one of your items.
10/7/05 0.00
F. Jammes EB houses 11/7/05 0.00
F. Jammes New Year's at Jackie's (1)
Entry for the 2005 Holiday Funfest.

verse earnest and scurrilous
11/19/05 0.00

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