Message in a Bottle

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M.J. sends a message to A.J.  “Please find me in the States!  Not a day goes by that I don’t remember your gentle touch & soft kisses.”

How far has this message traveled?  Is it a stunt? a beachside dramatization that ironically incorporates the message-in-a-bottle motif?  Is it little more than the unlikely chronicle of an unlikely event?  Or is it a heartfelt statement about the irreducible impossibility of human communication? 

_____

Wittgenstein in the Philosophical Investigations:

Expectation is, grammatically, a state; like: being of an opinion, hoping for something, knowing something, being able to do something … We say “I am expecting  him,” when we believe that he will come, though his coming does not occupy our thoughts … But we also say “I am expecting him” when it is supposed to mean: I am eagerly awaiting him. … The feeling of confidence.  How is this manifested in behavior? … What is a deep feeling?  Could someone have a feeling of ardent love or hope for the space of one second—no matter what preceded or followed this second?——What is happening now has significance—in these surroundings.  The surroundings give it its importance.  And the word “hope” refers to a phenomenon of human life.

_____

Groping neuron to neuron toward that homunculus within, I find a child who speaks no English; an ocean rising up in anger; a tape of that rebellion playing to an empty house; a limitless space created by a clever trick of words; our vaunted speech, wrought in common, failing to rise above the herd now silent, now braying each to each.

Comments

[J. Alva Scruggs]

Irreducible improbability, says I, not impossibility. But, yes, it is an infamy.

[The Happy Tutor]

Watching the bottle pictures, I kept asking, "Did Sally do these, or will it turn out that the bottle contains an advertisement?" I was expecting an ad, hoping it was not one. The herd of parrots chattering each to each in the words taught them by ambient marketing.
http://www.ambientmarketing.com/
"Ambient Marketing was founded in 1993 on the principle that effective marketing touches on all aspects of the customer experience."

[et alia]

I hate to have to repeat this, but there's a lot to remain silent about on this matter. A lot.

[ahfukit]

rate of presentation = v
highest rate = 0
lowest rate = .9

total volume of info = w
highest = 0
lowest = .9

density of info = x
highest = 0
lowest = .9

familiarity = y
highest = .9
lowest = 0

intrigue = z
highest = .9
lowest = 0

highest <-> lowest range in increments of .1

((V W X Y Z) / 5) * 100 = percentage comprehended

90-99 inspiring
80-89 fascinating
70-79 exciting
60-69 tantalizing
50-59 tolerable
40-49 barely tolerable
30-39 almost intolerable
20-29 intolerable
01-19 painful

homunculus (entry on wikipedia.org)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
((.7 .7 .2 .1 .7)/5)*100= 48% comprehension = tolerable (but not pleasant)

Tolerance for the frustration of partial comprehension. Everyone has his limits.

[Enrique the Gay Philosopher]

Keep it coming, Sally. Make me as dizzy as you like. A little eye candy, a little brain candy, a lingering image. Just don't make me think too much.

[ahfukit]

I just love E the GP. There's always that little snap at the end of the towel (sincere smilie here. really.)

And yes, Sally, keep it coming, by all means!

[ahfukit]

(fwiw, my meter was meant as a self-critique, my sense of what I comprehended, against my sense of what comprises my field of cognitive friction, focusing strictly on the wikipedia homunculus entry)

[Enrique the Gay Philosopher]

Thanks, ahfukit. I was sincere too. You do get carried away, Sally. The titillation is good, but you don't want your readers diving for the dictionary every third sentence. Is this the stuff you talk about at the Naughty Bits Cafe? When my mom read your post, she thought a homonculus was a gay cloud of some kind or other. She's on new medication now.

[a.mole]

Hey, 'fukit -- 'scool to post your comprometer under.wealthbondage.com?

[ahfukit]

Sure, mole. But be careful. Google says comprometer means 'to jeopardize'.

[Enrique the Gay Philosopher]

I read it in The Nation. Nothing is good that is only 48 percent.

[Sally Wilde]

You’re really beginning to chap my ass, Enrique. You’re the one who can’t write a post without his fucking nose in a thesaurus. And please stay out of my comments sections for a while: you're alienating my guests, you drunken, mean Argentinian. You’re nothing but a thoroughgoing romantic with all your bullshit about dog noses. And if it’s 48 percent, it’s 48 percent. The Blogosphere is graded on a fucking curve. Come back when you're feeling civil.