“So, you want to retire and just enjoy yourself. You went from a functional organism to a nonfunctional, self indulgent, inflatable fungus. Congratulations on your retirement.”
or
“You metamorphosed from a mobile organism into an inflatable fungus.”
and
“I want him to melt down into the pile of crap that he is, sterilize the poop and flush it down the toilet.”
These are examples of succinct expression avoiding the smelly details and yet, it is perfectly clear what is being imaged. However, there is a balance between succinct and elaborate. Succinct is the conclusion. Elaborate may be the details that took us to the conclusion. For example, the story of the reality of one person may not have been seen or heard by another and the succinct would not have had a thread to its foundation.
There is a kind of Zen simplicity that I feel more attracted to than elaborate description or explanation. The simple expression that evokes comprehension without having to suffer through all the details. It’s kind of like gaining the power of the use of the computer without having total knowledge of the technical details and its language.
Hai Ku vs the Novel
The novel has given me atmosphere that characterizes the experience of others in feeling, struggle and meaning of their living through things that I get to shave without being there and suffering in real time. Here, details are needed to elaborate the actions in order to paint the dimensions of the event, scene and to experience their feelings.
What I am not liking in some of the elaborate writing, is a kind of self indulgent masturbation of the writer’s emotions.
I choose to know, rather that admire, for better or worse. I think it is something to do with the volume, pace and access modern media provides in an overwhelming flood of knowledge, sensory stimulation, vicarious experience and abundance of meaning of so many, so much, and at such a rapid sensory flooding of information.
So, what are my choices? Perhaps I haven’t any choice regarding living in the river of current existence, media and knowledge? I have only the choice of grabbing onto what I can, and perhaps be able to tolerate.
The other option is to drink in what one desires in an aimless flow of desires fantasy.
I have to accept that I can never fully experience directly every fulfilling journey and adventure life provides. Nor can I read everyone’s personal story.
Yet, I can drink in the stars and the unfolded and unfolding story of the reality of life that is so extensive and overwhelmingly available to us for the first time in human history.
But how to adjust, open, discriminate and feast on reality like never before?
I have learned to see without owning or reacting. I want to observe It as what It is, and seek to integrate myself with It.