Words&Dirt

“I guess one obvious option now is to just get ride of this thing, which if Lude’s right, should put an end to all my recent troubles.  It’s a nice idea but it reeks of hope.  False hope.  Not all complex problems have easy solutions; so says Science (so warns Science); and so Trenton once warned me, both of us swilling beer in that idling hunk of rust and gold known simply as the Truck; but that had been in another time when there was still a truck and you could talk of solutions in peace without having any first hand knowledge of the problem; and Trenton is an old friend who doesn’t live here and who I’ve not mentioned before.

My point being, what if my attacks are entirely unrelated, attributable in fact to something entirely else, perhaps for instance just warning shocks brought on by my own crumbling biology, tiny flakes of unknown chemical origin already burning holes through the fabric of my mind, dismantling memories, undoing even the strongest powers of imagination and reason?

How then do you fly from that path?

As I recheck and rebolt the door––I’ve installed a number of extra locks––I feel with the turn of each latch a chill trying to crawl beneath the back of my skull.  Putting on the chain only intensifies the feeling, hairs bristling, trying to escape the host because the host is stupid enough to stick around, missing the most obvious fact of all that what I hoped to lock out I’ve only locked in here with me.

And no, it hasn’t gone away.

The elusive it is still here with me.

But there’s very little I can do.”

––House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski, pg. 325-6

“The issue of threatened privacy has spawned a flood of books, articles, and media exposés––from Janna Malamud Smith’s thoughtful Private Matters, and Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy’s erudite Right to Privacy all the way to shrill, paranoic rants by conspiracy fetishists who see Big Brother lurking around every corner.  Spanning this spectrum, however, there appears to be one common theme.  Often the author has responded with a call to arms, proclaiming that we must become more vigilant to protect traditional privacy against intrusions by faceless (take your pick) government bureaucrats, corporations, criminals, or just plain busybodies.

That is the usual conclusion––but not the one taken here.

For in fact, it is already far too late to prevent the invasion of cameras and databases.  The djinn cannot be crammed back into its bottle.  No matter how many laws are passed, it will prove quite impossible to legislate away the new surveillance tools and databases.  They are here to stay. 

Light is going to shine into nearly every corner of our lives.

The real issue facing citizens of a new century will be how mature adults choose to live––how they can compete, cooperate, and thrive––in such a world.  A transparent society.”

––The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?, by David Brin, pg. 8-9