I can't believe I made a blog. I never really understood the phenomenon, I assumed it was the newest aberration of an increasingly narcissistic society. No one really cares what you think, nor what I think for that matter.
But of course that's not true. *I* certainly care what I think, and no doubt your opinions are important to you. Moreover, out of the 6 billion-plus people on the planet, I couldn't possibly say that not a single one is interested in the opinions of an anonymous stranger. Since anonymous strangers are by definition, interchangeable - I might as well be the one. Right?
So, having taken the plunge into massive hubris, pretension is not far behind...why call it "The Whirling Blade"?
Well, what is a blade? It's a Samurai Katana, a Knight's Bastard Sword, the Flint Knife in a Neanderthal's hand...it requires no electricity, no combustion, no moving parts, no internal structure. A blade is just a piece of something with a sufficient edge, and you know what? Good luck even specifying what "a sufficient edge" is. A blade is absurdly abstract, a thing defined solely by an indefinable feature.
And yet. At the very same time...
It is the tool that most defines our species. Need to harvest crops? Use a scythe. Need to dig a hole? Use a shovel. Build a house? Use an axe, or a saw, or a plane. Save a life? Use a scalpel. Defend your lands, or expand them? Use a sword.
A blade is an instantiation of the desire to penetrate, to separate, to defeat resistance and give shape. A blade is the physical avatar of human intellect, a projection of will onto the material plane. We say someone gave "an incisive analysis", or that they have a "cutting wit". The Gordian Knot certainly wasn't smashed with...a hammer.
Where was I going with this? Oh yes...this is a place where I will overanalyze, pontificate inappropriately, and dissect minutely...just for the sheer helljoy of it. A place to swing my blade indiscriminately, and see what the insides of things look like. I may be slightly, uh, edgy. Ouch.
Welcome to The Whirling Blade.
But of course that's not true. *I* certainly care what I think, and no doubt your opinions are important to you. Moreover, out of the 6 billion-plus people on the planet, I couldn't possibly say that not a single one is interested in the opinions of an anonymous stranger. Since anonymous strangers are by definition, interchangeable - I might as well be the one. Right?
So, having taken the plunge into massive hubris, pretension is not far behind...why call it "The Whirling Blade"?
Well, what is a blade? It's a Samurai Katana, a Knight's Bastard Sword, the Flint Knife in a Neanderthal's hand...it requires no electricity, no combustion, no moving parts, no internal structure. A blade is just a piece of something with a sufficient edge, and you know what? Good luck even specifying what "a sufficient edge" is. A blade is absurdly abstract, a thing defined solely by an indefinable feature.
And yet. At the very same time...
It is the tool that most defines our species. Need to harvest crops? Use a scythe. Need to dig a hole? Use a shovel. Build a house? Use an axe, or a saw, or a plane. Save a life? Use a scalpel. Defend your lands, or expand them? Use a sword.
A blade is an instantiation of the desire to penetrate, to separate, to defeat resistance and give shape. A blade is the physical avatar of human intellect, a projection of will onto the material plane. We say someone gave "an incisive analysis", or that they have a "cutting wit". The Gordian Knot certainly wasn't smashed with...a hammer.
Where was I going with this? Oh yes...this is a place where I will overanalyze, pontificate inappropriately, and dissect minutely...just for the sheer helljoy of it. A place to swing my blade indiscriminately, and see what the insides of things look like. I may be slightly, uh, edgy. Ouch.
Welcome to The Whirling Blade.
posted by Whirling Blade at 9:00 PM
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