Why THREATS to persons upon the road?
I have referred in an earlier post to "active boundaries" – those that leak according to Anne Carson. Membranes that are at least semi-permeable to foreign bodies. National frontiers that are crossed and at which armed border guards raise and lower the barrier poles. In an earlier post ak also brought our attention to the Wordsworth poem about the love of walking "on the public road". This is not a private or interior world. These are open communications, ‘open connections’ and interlocutions with whoever we meet.
The Elementary Grammar of the Turkish Language (1877) provides for the traveller; ‘Barley is yellow and the grass is green’ [sary – yellow, yeshel – green] ; ‘There are fleas in the city and in the village’ [pireh – flea] ; ‘The fleas in the city are very large’; ‘the roast meat is fat, the soup is cold, and the plates are dirty’; ‘the boy met the girl on the road’ (Next to this phrase there is a handwritten margin note in black ink that asks – "met?").
And we have no idea who we will meet.
Sooner or later all this criss-crossing on the road spells ‘danger’ [koorkooloo yol – the dangerous road]. We meet somebody brandishing a big stick. We are taken into custody. – "On your knees ", the somebody says, – "Why are you here?".
Being threatened with a beating, or the possibility of being killed. -"Why shouldn’t I beat you up, or kill you if I want to?". The question was also put in an earlier post. On our knees and shaking with fear, this is not the time to argue, or the moment to try to explain all the good reasons why not. Imagination runs dry. And lies, exposed falsehoods, will result in a good thrashing, the infliction of pain or even worse. So what happens next?
We have reached a transgressive moment in the story. Or a pivotal event. Or one of falling, – Falling into the narrative, is another way of putting it. We are being asked to reach into the files marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ and reveal their contents. Asked is not the adequate word for what is happening. Required is better; at this moment, during an event that is possibly somewhere between, and likely to be inclusive of, epiphany and torture; under menace, or threat.
mmj
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Here in the ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ file marked ‘ak‘, there is a Report. The author, whoever it is that has been conducting this surveillance is not clear, has written at length under a section called ‘Needs to Perceive’. Too long to quote in full, there is one memorable phrase:
– "attempts to render the invisible visible" (underlined in black ink). To which is added at the bottom of the page (another handwritten margin note in black ink) – "Under threat, – I need to sleep, he says. And upon next waking promises to produce an entirely new story, a novel account, even though aware of the pain of punishments that he is under. – It is my own fault, he says, and he will refuse the offered hand of help of his ancestral Uncle Walter".
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As for the mmj ‘CONFIDENTIAL‘ file, the direct evidence of the Notebook reveals: – "26th October 2006: Max is something of a ‘FATTY’ (capitals). The haman – massage man told him this last night. What did he do: 1. eats a large dinner; 2. sleeps heavily – wakes at 6.00, the call to prayer; 3. then sleeps some more; 4. eats a large breakfast, does not do Yoga this morning; 5. proposes taking a taxi".
To which is added at the bottom of the page (another handwritten margin note in black ink, but a different hand to the other), – "Needs to avoid pain (underlined). How does this work in practice? a conversation along these lines:
– ‘Why are you here?’. No answer.
– ‘Why are you here?’. The stick is raised further, about to fall.
– ‘Before you kill me, tell me your story. Killing is easy, memory is hard’.
It is the story within the story, one of the oldest ploys in the book."