Monday, October 24, 2005

prickly index

We have power, phones -- farther south it's worse. One checks little things to see how it is: the flowers on this cactus, for example, didn't go on strike, book a hotel room, or evacuate. They opened for business as usual:



Note: Some Indexical signs like this image might contain large meanings for whomever the sign might relate to, and nothing of the sort for those not in close contiguity with the thing that is the sign. The locality of this kind of signification, which is routinely employed by animals.

And, these signs are not always easily translatable. One must reconstruct the syllogism:
This flower is weaker than this house.
The flower is still here.
Ergo,
The house is probably ok.
Without the syllogism, it's a picture of a cactus flower.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

One question about this signal: were you facing NorthWest when you shot the cactus? Odd light in the distance for 8:40 AM.

10/24/2005 11:14 AM  
Blogger Tom Matrullo said...

Holmes: the light was coming from pretty much due west - somewhat obscured by the presence of the outer bands of Wilma. Not sure how you deduced that.

10/24/2005 9:05 PM  
Blogger Tom Matrullo said...

squarks: the flowers only open for about two days, then get beastly black and fall off, giving rise to certain unpleasant analogies which, out of respect for the sensibilities of the assembled multitude, I pass over in silence. I have not observed their choosing not to open in observance of particular feast days, carnivals, or kairotic moments of the religious calendar, yet cannot rule out the possibility that such arbitrariness in fact could inform the policies that govern their brief but eventful lives.

10/24/2005 9:18 PM  

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