The Ishmael Gradsdovic Papers, part forty-nine


This part of the Ishmael Gradsdovic papers is reconstructed from a strange letter he sent containing three pieces of paper, unnumbered, and with insufficient context clues to give an idea of order. They are reproduced side-by-side below. The letter was postmarked 30 January 1995.


  A bird wil simulate     |  Much of our thinking and|  A 13-year-old takes an
injury, dragging its wings|reasoning is unconscious, |overdose of pills.  Her
and chirping to lure a    |that is to say that we    |unique genetic makeup
predator away from chicks |think or reason without   |rots in a coffin,
in its nest.  A bee,      |being aware of it.        |generations of natural
unable to reproduce as an |  Consciousness may be the|selection since the ooze
individual, will lay down |act of translating the    |culminating in this
its life without          |natural organic thought-  |ultimate sabotage of
hesitation for the hive,  |processes of the brain    |reproductive success.
for the Queen.  A white   |into a more-or-less time- |  Three weeks later, two
blood cell will sacrifice |linear, symbolic format   |other students at the
itself to smother an      |which is inadequate for   |same junior high end 
invader seen as harmful to|representing the totality |their lives and worried
the body.                 |of the situation, but     |members of the community
  A marine is proud to    |despite this information  |start a hotline and
serve, proud to die, even,|loss is important input-  |triple the counselling
for his country, for the  |date massaging for the    |staff.  Special class
values he holds dear.  A  |conscious mind.           |periods are set aside in
monk will take a vow of   |  New research seems to   |all junior and senior
silence, serving the faith|show that in some cases   |high schools in the
he believes in.           |this is just a formality  |district to discuss 
  My brain, my mind were  |-- that our mind reasons  |suicide and depression.
created to serve the body |or decides before trans-  |  Reproductive success of
and the genes.  My        |lating this process into  |what?  Poor girl had
immortal soul knows no    |a format recognizable by  |something reproduce damn
such loyalty and will     |the conscious mind.  That |well.  Virus infects the
serve the common cold as  |you consciously deliberate|cell, takes over its
eagerly as the testicles  |on a course of action     |capacity for reproduction
and the church as readily |after you have uncon-     |the cell walls explode,
as the heretic.           |sciously made a decision. |releasing new copies of
  Why should I feel epic  |  Are you conscious of    |the virus to infect new
trauma at the inevitable  |other parts of the world  |cells.
conquering of my body by  |in this way, too?  Do you |  "She was very upset,
parasites -- they are only|see things and then trans-|but seemed to have calmed
like me, there is no epic |late your vision into     |down a lot -- was very
beyond the temporal and   |symbols so that you are   |happen even -- just
unremarkable suffering of |conscious of seeing them? |before she killed
the body or mind.  Nothing|Is the world you are con- |herself," one classmate
is wrong, nothing needs   |scious of only an after-  |reports.
fixing, no crime is un-   |thought-like symbolic ap- |
punished.                 |proximation of the world  |
                          |you are actually living   |
                          |in?                       |



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