[-empyre-] the first story of deceleration

[David Hughes 19]

Oh Michelle, you have been reading my mail! 

You have read what I wrote with great insight. Thanks for that. Thanks for
the psycho and critical - analyses.

There is an engine that powers itself. The more you use it the more energy
it produces and provides. The more you exhaust the more you replenish.
 Isn't there a figure in John Barth about exhaustion and replenishment?

 If you expand in one direction the motor provides the dark energy needed
for that expansion. If you stop, if you are ninja-like, the motor stutters
down and shuts off  and then it is difficult to start the motor again, to
start moving again. There is the ninja-like unorthodox and the tank-like
unorthodox, I think. I think I am constitutionally, temperamentally, the
latter. 

So the universe comes to a halt. It regroups and expands again knowing how
to stop before it blows itself apart.
The universe is wiser than I am. I did not know when to decelerate and stop.
Regroup and expand again.

So my universe exploded. I'm kind of waiting for the big crunch. But there
was no big bang. There was just always movement in all directions.
Enough of this pretentious expanding of the metaphor in all directions. Like
a balloon it will surely explode!

Again, thanks Michelle.

David

-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
[mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Michele Danjoux
Sent: 25 October 2011 15:06
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] the first story of deceleration

>>How do you drive at top speed on all lanes at once? On all tracks?>>

Yes, I would say that it is not something one can sustain for any great
length of time and indeed leads us on the road to nowhere (or back to Go at
best) don't you think?
I mean the very laws of physics would make this type of forward propelling
travel not possible, unless of course we drive a very wide vehicle that
spans all lanes, fast, aerodynamic but at the same time tank-like,
indestructible and with a hard outer shell with special invisibility cloak
to avoid the surveillance of the cameras. Perhaps it is better to move
stealth-like,  ninja-like, specialising in the unorthodox.

Erin Manning in her book 'Relationscapes' comments that there can be no
beginning or end to movement, stating that:

>>Movement is one with the world, not body/world, but body-worlding.>>

In her writings and philosophies, she gives significance to the
preacceleration state, which I like very much. We have not really discussed
this so much here in our conversations, although perhaps it has been
implied, the state before acceleration, where 'energy flows through the
body'... Of course, this would also mean then that there should be a
pre-deceleration state, a phase happening inside our bodies/minds prior to
slowing down.

>>radical deceleration that was forced on me by illness>> (David Hughes)
must have its pre-states and warnings, frustrating slow vehicles
(agricultural traffic), preventing us from travelling at the speeds we would
like, indecisiveness (Dales or Peaks?) poor decision making, mistakes and so
on...

I am sad to hear your story David and can partially empathise since I know
what it means to push things a little too hard, a little too fast, not
feeling inside our bodies what is really happening, delaying...and not
taking heed of the potential consequences, or the place where this over
rapid and perhaps spasmodic impulsive movement might take us.


Michele


-----Original Message-----
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of David Hughes 19
Sent: Tue 10/25/2011 8:02 AM
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: [-empyre-] the first story of deceleration

I suspect that Johannes asked me to contribute to this discussion less
because of my considerable experience of working from and with opposing
energies and forces (dynamic tension, isotonics and isometrics) than because
of the radical deceleration that was forced on me by illness.



Think of it like this.



The First Story of Deceleration:



I am travelling with my family from Lincoln to the Belfast ferry at
Liverpool.

We decide to go the scenic route

Through the Dales. Or is it Peaks?

We are forced to a crippling slowness behind agricultural traffic which has
hit the roads very early that morning.

In the Dales. Or is it Peaks?

We swerve into the ferry terminal and take a wrong lane to the check-in.

Our passports are taken. We are asked to leave the car.

Our car is searched.

The embarrassed young man comes out with our passports.

He arrests me.

I have a number of speed camera tickets which I have not paid.

They have gone to court.

I have not gone to court.

I am to be disqualified.

I am not to drive for 18 months.

I am radically decelerated.

They take me to a van.

They take me to a custody centre.

I sleep a night in their cell.

I am transported back to Nottingham.

The judge says. Bring Mr Hughes into the body of the court.

The warder says, that's rather unorthodox your honour, I have to ask my
superior.

This is my court, not your superior's. Bring Mr Hughes into the body of the
court.

I say to the judge:

When my son was born I tore around Nottingham buying stuff for his nursery
and for his mum. I wasn't paying much attention to speed cameras.

Yes the offences are grouped rather closely together, she agrees.

Then I had this radical deceleration, I tell her, I couldn't decide which
lane to follow. They were all closing down, I wove between them. I got to
the check in. What am I saying. I was in but I got checked out. I got
chucked out.



How do you drive at top speed on all lanes at once? On all tracks?

I don't know. Not even in retrospect.



Really. It's no joke.



David Hughes

7.55. 25.10.11