Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The fire which was made from that which we held dear

The Atlas of Curiosities: Part 25

“We have found,” they said, “that so-called-truth doesn’t play well in our markets.”

“Ideally,” they said, “we’d wipe it off the map, erase it, denigrate it. Make it laughable,” they said.  “you know.”

“Hmm,” we told them.

“We are endeavoring to create synergies between our aims and the necessary ideals,” they said.  “Notions of getting, having, and wanting,” they said. “This is what fuels our economy.”

“So this explains what we are seeing?” we asked them.  We stepped back from the fire. It was too hot.  Our front halves were sweating while the backs of us were cool.

“Precisely.” They told us.  They pronounced each syllable.  Pree-sise-lee.

We looked more closely at what we were seeing even as we continued our retreat from the flames.  The wisdom of the ages written in languages that no one spoke anymore.  It was 10,000 years of agriculture, and it was burning.

“All seeds?” we asked.

“Ideally,” they said.  “this would be the most efficient way to proceed.  Unfortunately seeds do not burn well.  They have adapted over the ages to resist fire. 

“Go figure,” they said.

“Right,” we replied.  “So what makes up the kindling?”

“Books mostly,” they replied.  “texts.  You know, ancient things.  Tired things.”

“Among them?”

“The Holy Qur’an burns like lightning,” they told us. “Native translations of the Bible.  Transcriptions of oral history.  When a book has been read over and over again for generations, the burnings is all the more satisfying.  All the more…”

They paused slightly.

“Profitable.” they concluded.

The fire was high.  And hot.  We stood back.  Their silhouettes danced in a beautiful way.  As they did not step back, they did not see what we saw.  The beautiful shadows they cast as their burnt what was old in order to mint what was new.

“Lovely isn’t it?” our host said.

“Lovely?” we said.  We had a wry sense of the ironic.

“Lovely,” our host said.  “Learn to love it,” our host told us.  “This has always been true.  It is all that there is.”