In the beginning is the •
Of making many books there is no end.
— Ecclesiastes 12:12
And sometimes no beginning. Those with too much to say, it seems, do not write. Isaac Luria, when asked why he didn’t put his teaching into a book, is said to have replied,
It is impossible, because all things are interrelated. I can hardly open my mouth to speak without feeling as though the sea burst its dams and overflowed. How then shall I express what my soul has received, and how can I put it down in a book?
— Scholem (1946, 254)
Once the whole is divided, the parts need names.
There are already enough names.
One must know when to stop.— Tao Te Ching 32 (Feng and English)
Sometimes the best time to stop is just before beginning.
“Those with too much to say, it seems, do not write.” and “Sometimes the best time to stop is just before beginning.”
Perhaps. But aren’t there written texts which have come down to us of some considerable–some, as we say, of inestimable–value? (I’m not, of course, referring here to spoken words written down by others.) And as I Googled around a bit I found works both of fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose which I would include in my own list of books that I’m glad were written–I would most certainly include Turning Signs in that list.
You’re right, Gary. (Well, whether you’re right about Turning Signs is not for me to say, i guess!) But this post is also the very end of the Reverse side of TS (the end of Apocalypse: Opening Time, TS ·1) so i thought it was a good place to give the mobius trip a twist and pay my respects to the other side of the story. I’m not sure where this blog will go next!