<p>(text-color: "white")[_]</p>
[[<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Londinio_Mogontio.jpg" height="191" width="624">->Mogontius poem 1]]
<p>(css: "font-size: 16px;")[(align: "==><==")[[[(click)->Mogontius poem 1]]]]</p>Discovered under London's financial district, 2016. Candy-bar-sized or about, dated 60-85 A.D.
An IOU: [[LONDINIO MOGONTIO->Mogontius poem 2]] it reads —Say that an ancient fragment is (in the simplest sense) an incomplete sentence. An artifact containing one or more incomplete sentences.
(click-append: "incomplete sentences.")[<p>From such a definition of the ancient fragment — call it // an uncompleted string of text on a material that is susceptible to damage// — it would have to follow that [[the meaning->Ancient fragment 2]] of any ancient fragment also is uncompleted. Or, better: //endlessly completable.//]The Mogontius fragment, for instance, includes a locative-ablative (LONDINIO), which conveys information about place, and a dative (MOGONTIO) expressing, in this case, an indirect object. [[Missing->Ancient fragment 3]] is the direct object that would complete the grammatical string, and, hence, the thought that that string would express.</p>IN LONDON, TO MOGONTIUS
(click-append: "IN LONDON, TO MOGONTIUS")[<p>a cord of wood]
(click-append: "a cord of wood")[ (no)]
(click-append: "a cord of wood (no)")[ two]
(click-append: "two")[ (no)]
(click-replace: "a cord of wood (no) two (no)")[tin]
(click-append: "tin")[ (no)]
(click-replace: "tin (no)")[tallow cakes]
(click-replace: "tallow cakes")[wool skeins]
(click-replace: "wool")[sheep]
(click-replace: "skeins")[skins]
(click-replace: "sheep")[pig]
(click-prepend: "pig skins")[purpled ]
(click-replace: "purpled")[purple-dyed]
(click-append: "purple-dyed pig skins")[ (no)]
(click-replace: "purple-dyed pig skins (no)")[two armfuls' fish]
(click-replace: "two armfuls' fish")[fishy belly]
(click-append: "fishy belly")[ flayed and]
(click-append: "flayed and")[ (no)]
(click-replace: "fishy belly flayed and (no)")[ nurdles —]
(click-append: "nurdles —")[ new life]
(click-replace: "nurdles — new life")[no,]
(click-replace: "no,")[ a money pot]
(click-replace: "money")[moneyed]
(click-replace: "pot")[poet]
(click-replace: "moneyed")[honeyed]
(click-replace: "honeyed")[honeysweet]
(click-append: "honeysweet")[singing]
(click-replace: "a honeysweetsinging poet")[PAYMENT]
(click-append: "PAYMENT")[: goods delivered]
(click-replace: "PAYMENT: goods delivered")[timeliness:]
(click-append: "timeliness:")[ an arrow]
(click-append: "an arrow")[ in the armpit]
(click-append: "in the armpit")[<p>of ax blades]
(click-append: "ax blades")[ glinting in the</p>]
(click-append: "glinting in the")[ sun]
(click-append: "sun")['s<p>peaks]
(click-append: "peaks")[ a pearl]
(click-append: "a pearl")[ sky]
(click-append: "a pearl sky")[ a<p>like]
(click-append: "like")[ness rose]
(click-append: "rose")[ a leaf]
(click-append: "a leaf")[<p>a lede]
(click-append: "a lede")[ a loud on</p>]
(click-append: "a loud on")[<p>water]
(click-append: "water")[ silk on]
(click-append: "silk on")[ bread]
(click-append: "bread")[ I owe you</p>]
(click-append: "I owe you")[<p>three sheep]
(click-append: "three sheep")[ as repayment for]
(click-append: "as repayment for")[<p>those three sheep [[lost->Mogontius poem 3]]]
The thing about that direct object slot is that it is itself open to endless substitutions.
(click-append: "endless substitutions.")[<p>cord of wood (no) tin —
tallow cakes]
(click-append: "tallow cakes")[(align: "<======")[<p>Ceaseless meanings from a [[quiet space->Ancient fragment 4]].]]I lost them.
(click-append: "I lost them.")[ That night it]
(click-append: "That night it")[<p>rained it would]
(click-append: "rained it would")[ not stop raining]
(click-append: "not stop raining")[
(that said)]
(click-append: "(that said)")[ I kept an eye on them]
(click-append: "I kept an eye on them")[<p>//I kept an eye on them// but]
(click-append: "but")[ diaphanes]
(click-append: "diaphanes")[
they seemed to me]
(click-append: "to me")[ the scared wet sheets]
(click-append: "sheets")[<p>(no) sheep.]
(click-append: "sheep.")[ Witness to the world's saddled]
(click-append: "saddled")[
sore we made for shelter]
(click-append: "we made for shelter")[ — then flew into]
(click-append: "then flew into")[<p>that waste]
(click-append: "that waste")[ of vision]
(click-append: "of vision")[ edging in sound-
soft]
(click-append: "soft")[ a sudden jowly thing]
(click-append: "jowly thing")[ //believe me// <p>as the]
(click-append: "as the")[ smug angel afours slunk]
(click-append: "slunk")[ easy
through the thickness of]
(click-append: "thickness of")[ the sedge like]
(click-append: "sedge like")[<p>light motes sailing in a silk screen,]
(click-append: "in a silk screen,")[ like in a]
(click-append: "like in a")[
milken dream my unable eyes]
(click-append: "unable eyes")[ curdled wet baby]
(click-append: "wet baby")[<p>brain looking]
(click-append: "brain looking")[ blind little]
(click-append: "blind little")[ fools,]
(click-append: "fools,")[ the fold,]
(click-append: "the fold,")[ to what
unfurls now]
(click-append: "unfurls now")[ in the murk,]
(click-append: "murk,")[ a scythe's curve]
(click-append: "scythe's curve")[<p>— a catenary.]
(click-append: "a catenary.")[<p>On the one hand,]
(click-append: "one hand,")[ the claw is
contained by]
(click-append: "contained by")[ hold-me-close, this body.]
(click-append: "this body.")[<p>On the other]
(click-append: "On the other")[ — we named it the contingent —]
(click-append: "the contingent —")[
the claw's tip rimes]
(click-append: "tip rimes")[ planed air ceaseless]
(click-append: "ceaseless")[ looking <p>for a]
(click-append: "for a")[ sortie,]
(click-append: "sortie,")[ any way out of here]
(click-append: "here")[ any
[[tearable seam —->Ancient fragment]]]One might object to the ahistoricism of that claim, of course; say that not just //any// object will do to complete the Mogontius fragment; that its potential meanings are constrained by what we can reasonably establish about the object's context.
(click-append: "the object's context.")[<p>One might have noticed that my completions of the Mogontius fragment include a number of anachronisms, like //nurdle//, a plastic pellet.</p>]
(click-append: "a plastic pellet.")[<p>To dismiss any completion as ahistoricist, or as otherwise "incorrect," I'd suggest, is to basically deny that the fragment has a linguistic as well as an artifactual life. Is the sentence [[//as well as//->Ancient fragment 5]] the thing that the sentence is written on.]What I'm interested in, here, is the act of writing that happens in response to the fragment. Its nature and kind.
(click-append: "Its nature and kind.")[<p>Any possible completion (hence, any possible meaning) of a fragment is defined only in relation to other, equally possible completions — to the possibility that there is always one, and //immanent//, other.</p>]
(click-append: "other.")[<p>And none is verifiable as "correct;" that's the thing about a fragment. It becomes, instead, a base for the never-ending exchange of linguistic elements; //wordplay//: "fish" becomes "fishy belly" becomes, by conceptual associations, "nurdles," since fish ingest huge amounts of nurdles; and "nurdles" becomes, in turn, "new life" — an easy alliteration. It could go on forever like that.</p>]
(click-append: "forever like that.")[<p>There is a kind of continuous present tense enacted on the fragment: the act, begun — of writing, of Mogontius giving — emerges as [[interminable; always->Writing: a forever thing]] in the state of not having been completed.</p>]The next question I can't answer for you: why should writing be a forever thing?
(click-append: "a forever thing?")[<p>Consider, for a minute, the natural situation of writing. Its solitude.</p>](click-append: "Its solitude.")[ It is true, for one thing, that when you write, you likely write alone. Whatever else may change in the business of writing, this much should be true forever.](click-append: "true forever.")[ Furthermore, when you are writing, you are not speaking.](click-append: "you are not speaking.")[ (This is good.)](click-append: "(This is good.)")[ This way, you won't burden anyone with the strength of your demands, nor needs, nor upset them with what you say.](click-append: "what you say.")[ Nor — think of yourself, here — is there any of the pain of apology and equivocation.](click-append: "apology and equivocation.")[ It may even be that, as long as you are writing, you are not driving your car, or using single-use plastic, or eating red meat, or earning money, or shopping online, or thinking about where you can fly to next.](click-append: "next.")[ No, rather: it appears that when you are writing, there is nothing of this world but the [[wide-reaching waste of blank page.->Tablet]]]