WHY I STOLE BOOKS AND BIRDS

DAS UNHEIMLICH

the nice man at The Clinic kept asking me why i stole books and birds

das unheimlich...

in actual fact, i have only stolen one book and one bird

book: mode of meaning making
appropriation; what are you reading into the text?
every text you are taken with begins and ends with autobiography
try burroughs for alternative

bird: mode of meaning making made meaningful by association
eg, strindberg's tragic heroine, miss julie and her pet bird

birds and books. meaning and pyschosis

i told him it was about meaning

he suggested very politely that it could be a kind of psychosis

"you think meaning is psychosis?"

" an obsession with meaning at the expense of the ordinary shape of life is psychosis"

"i do not accept that life has an ordinary shape. nor is there anything ordinary about life at all. we make it ordinary but it is not"

he twiddled his pencil. his nails were very clean.

"i am only asking questions"

"so am i"

there was a pause

" define pyschosis"

he wrote on a piece of paper- psychosis: out of touch with reality

since then i have been trying to touch reality.

THE TEXT FROM LIGHTHOUSEKEEPING

After the Talking bird, the nice man at the Tavistock Clinic kept asking me why i stole books and birds, though i have only ever stolen one of each.

I told him it was about meaning, and he suggested, very politely, that might be a kind of psychosis.

'You think meaning is psychosis?'

'Án obsession with meaning, at the expense of the ordinary shape of life, might be understood as psychosis, yes.'

'I do not accept that life has an ordinary shape, or that there is anything ordinary about life at all. We make it ordinary, but it is not.'

He twiddled his pencil. His nails were very clean.

'I am only asking questions.'

'So am I.'

There was a pause.

I said,' How would you define psychosis?'

He wrote on a piece of paper with his pencil: Psychosis: out of touch with reality

Since then, I have been trying to find out what reality is, so that i can touch it.