The bards they went from place to place
learning
Other
people’s stories
telling them to other people
in rhythms and tones,
tunes and pitches

that the rulers did not always comprehend

the bard had learned from all the
Others

s/he travelled far and wide
forgot
where s/he be-longed
no longer longing for any one
place

the bard did not recognize the emperor’s call
for the emperor had not called out in
hir
direction before
ever

not until the emperor heard that the bard was
singing
in too many tones and pitches and harmonies and dis-harmonies

once the emperor started to hear this
multiplicity
he sought to contain.

he proceeded to train bard-like people
in particular forms

told them not to sing many tones and pitches but to teach
all those Others
how to contain
in these particular forms

then he told them to empower them to
write

so no bard could sing with them ever again
because then they would be empowered individuals
writing
in these particular forms…

and the emperor would understand them all…

the conjugations…

they shifted in the telling

because no one remembered or felt compelled that the narrator’s body

had at one time given birth

since that was not significant

the conjugations in language shifted based on whether or not that was

to be signified…

so chitragupta picked up a quill

and started to write

What’s at stake in viewing the pre-industrial woman as without agency – as a perpetual victim of patriarchy?

Detail of a vignette from an 1869 patent letter. Vertical File Collection, c. 13, Letters Patent. Copyright 2001, President and Fellows of Harvard College; all rights reserved.

“75 Young Women 15 to 35 Years of Age, Wanted to Work in the Cotton Mills!” broadside ca. 1870. Vertical File Collection, c. 2, Textiles: Printed Materials, Mss 42 (1870). Copyright 2001, President and Fellows of Harvard College; all rights reserved.

I am required to write in full sentences if I am to complete the chapters in the book.

As I think of the materialization of affect through virtuality – and the realization of the “virtual” through the tech interface, I consider various rituals of authenticity…
rituals of authenticity return me to code words and chants…

So until the prose decides to materialize my thoughts I must be content with shorter sentences and poetry-like chants.

I have been in “hiding” with my writing this year. Except for facebook updates and some conference presentations, I have not shared much about what I have been working on.

I am currently very busy offline getting my book written – and so this blog is going to stay quiet for a while longer – with an occasional post now and then.

Once I am done sending in a completed draft of the book to my publishers, I may share some portions for discussion here.