Sunday, February 8, 2026

Babble, Babel, ... Asemics / EZE, 2026

Asemics is not about non-sense per se, but it is about making relationships, often by way of disparate mapping. 

Hence, asemic writing is often a mapping of writing, which usually concerns language, to the graphic. 

Yet this type of mapping sometimes escapes the linguistic aspect of writing entirely, and once the linguistic is escaped, the basis for interpreting an asemic communication as non-sense is also escaped.

How so? 

In the case of asemic writing where writing becomes art, asemics often forces a genre shift. 

As such, an asemic mapping does not necessarily produce non-sense because the terms for non-sense (writing as an act of communication based in language) have shifted to writing as an act of art. 

Art allows for non-sense in a way writing does not?

Paradox too is a different context for something very much like non-sense. 

Consider Zeno's Arrow Paradox in regard to the distance an arrow travels:  the mathematical explanation entails that the arrow never reaches its target. The explanation offered by physics dissolves the paradox

Hence, a genre shift allows us to escape a basis and thereby resolve a disparity invoked by a basis.

But what of this question in a different direction where asemics begins with something non-sensical and then re-maps it? 

The outcomes here are multiple. 

We often produce meaning from non-sense, and we would thereby have sense construed from non-sense. 

But we might also have non-sense as our outcome. 

And then too, we might have an asemic outcome with the meaning of this act left in question.

Babble

Babel



tackle / EZE. 2026

 


Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Predatory Hegemon in a Toy Kingdom / EZE, 2026

Do toys have lives?

And what about people?

Hegemonies

Hegemonic Stability Theory

Predatory Hegemon

The Stasi

The Stasi

On Machiavelli

Toy Story

Toy Story

Legacy

Woody as Hegemonic

Sid as Counter-Hegemony?


AI Overeview
Toy Story narratives are fundamentally about the cutthroat politics of securing loyalty and affection within a competitive, closed society.
A Machiavellian reading of 
Toy Story positions Woody not as a selfless leader, but as an insecure autocrat wielding power to maintain his status. Driven by the fear of replacement, Woody manipulates the toy society, employing authoritarian tactics to secure his position as Andy’s favorite. His initial actions against Buzz Lightyear mirror the political maneuvering of a ruler eliminating a rival to maintain control over his "kingdom".
Woody as the Prince: Woody operates as a ruler who prioritizes maintaining his power (Andy's love) above all else. His authority is absolute, with other toys acting as subordinates in a small, closed, "tribal" system, a dynamic similar to the authoritarianism discussed in the context of political power.
The Threat of the New: Buzz Lightyear represents a "new prince"—a disruptor threatening the established order. Woody’s hostile, Machiavellian reaction is to manipulate and neutralize this threat rather than foster a cooperative environment.
The Machiavellian Dilemma: Woody's actions are driven by fear—specifically of being irrelevant or replaced—prompting him to take drastic, often unethical, measures to retain his position, which highlights the central Machiavellian tenet that it is safer to be feared than loved, although he ultimately seeks to be both.

Monday, January 26, 2026

An Asemics of Writing ... / EZE, 2026

Notice, if you will, the phrasing of the title, not "Asemic Writing," which tends to specify a type of asemic practice usually related to the production of art, but "An Asemics of Writing," which is more about the analysis of writing and of communication in general.

From Cecil Touchon: English as a 2nd Lanaguage .