Or call it The Ludic Mode, then

Seriously: the Play's the Thing


Dear Graham (again),

This summer’s heat is grotesque.
And drought. I’m an old dog
“barking at both ends.”
Prefer winter.

P.B. Shelly suggests the challenge
in making strange familiar &
familiar strange.

That performance where only 8
showed up to see has been on
my mind. (You: ushering)

Both crushingly pathetic
and wonderfully heroic.

A sand mandala: exquisite in
execution one moment & then
blowing in the wind. .

“making”
(poema)
uber
alles.

How to frame IT?

Turn up both Pathos &
Heroism to put them in
play—in a play where
neither never triumphs
but wrestle with the
Angel Art.

Agon & Agony

aa
ahh
ai
aiii

Imagine a PLAY
about a play where
only 8 show up.

(thea: aesthetes = viewers)

Characters in search of
characters in search of
audience & spectator
sports: howard cosells
when we need them.

So as to support the arts.

I can imagine, in my zero
gravity deck chair: me the
playwright and director,
leading man & supporting
cast, plus I am the audience
of 8 as well as the audience
in the play of the play of
The-Audience-of-8, plus
whatever Other Audience
arrives to validate my
theatrics—histrionics.

In my room: Image-I-nation.
I can immaculately conceive
of this production, what it
takes to put it on,
bring it off:

unilateral effort
necessary yet
insufficient &
cooperating to
stage & put
in play all the
indeterminate
gritty devilish
details emerging
to generate our
collaborative
genius—ludic
spirit of play &
un-postponed joy:
writing the script
about writing the
script directing
the directing of
ushering-in the
original 8 viewers
(aesthetes)
and so it goes
and goes writing
and writing-in
the opening night.

Priceless.