Though I generally deplore all isms and those who attempt to bundle human perception and conception in neat (or not so tidy) packages, the philosophy of ‘as-is’ of Hans Vaihinger ((Die Philosophie des Als Ob) which has become labeled fictionalism, has a certain appeal to anyone who finds existence more sizzle than steak.
‘Lessness’ (1970) is a work of short prose by Samuel Beckett, written originally in French as ‘Sans’ (1969). This minimalistic fiction consists of 60 distinct sentences that Beckett had jotted on scraps of paper, tossed randomly into a heap, then drawn and joined one by one to form the 1500 word story. Or essay. Or prose poem. [It is what it is; no label need apply.] What results is an austere, plotless text about an ash-grey landscape and an upright human figure. An odour, perhaps, of flesh slightly charred, neither sizzle nor steak.
Vaihinger, in his The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, writes that fictions are ” … mental structures. The psyche weaves this or that thought out of itself; for the mind is invention; under the compulsion of necessity, stimulated by the outer world, it discovers the store of contrivances hidden within itself.”
Blogs might be considered such a contrivance. They do have some virtues. Brevity is one. Say what you have to say in less than 2000 words and be done with it. If you carry on spouting verbiage an ism may result. Isms are anathema to blogs. I will remind you, however, that all I write are lies.
Lessness Sentence #12: Blank planes sheer white eye calm long last all gone from mind.
Sentence #12 Respaced In Time:
Blank planes
sheer white eye
calm
long last
all gone
from mind.
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