Re: <nettime> net.<foo>

[Alan J Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

If we think of dots as path, there are precedents - think of Celine's
three dots, for example - or the sequencing of dashes in Emily Dickin-
sons' work - or for that matter, the use of the dash in Tristan Shandy.

In all of these, the dots/dashes relate the text to the body, pause,
exhaustion, exhale, but like any ellipsis, there is the premise of the
interminable path as well.

This is not an idle comment; it is antithetical, in fact, to the comb/
tree structure implied by the Net address dot hierarchy. The latter is
status, the former, as in what _might_ be conveyed by dot.fear, is pro-
cess. Now both, interestingly enough, are performative - the Net path
shuttles/filters/routes addresses, while the other, literary, forms,
construct phraseology, the breath of the reader. 

While early punctuation is often absent (although consider the division
lines in cuneiform, etc.), determinative elements (in Sumerian for ex-
ample) are not, and provide other means of orienting readers.

Alan

URL:     http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html
MIRROR with other pages at:   http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt
IMAGES: http://www.cs.unca.edu/~davidson/pix/           TEL 718-857-3671
EXPERIMENTAL (on and off): http://166.84.250.149   Editor, BEING ON LINE
    





---
#  distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body
#  URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/  contact: nettime-owner@icf.de