Start from Zero

Poetry is still standing here, on the precipice of my blog, echoing The Clash: should I stay or should I go? Hopefully we will actually avoid trouble, both single and double, with today's poem, which includes commentary. Let's get straight to the poem, entitled Start from Zero, then follow with commentary at the end.

They told me
to start from
zero,
and figure it all out
myself.

From there we go
to the simple line
known as one,

followed by the
complicated curves
of two,

with each level
exponentially more complicated
than the previous.

Spiraling out of control
to visions of
one-hundred,

we see the complications
wrought in a third
figure:

a simple line,
now complicated by
a pair of
circles.

Unfortunately in our visionary
distraction,
we have turned our backs
on the lopsided
six,

which collapses,
and leaves us back
at zero.

This poem was inspired by the movement of modern architecture, in which there were frequent discussions of "starting from zero," meaning take everything you know and throw it out the window. Specifically the avenue of this inspiration was Tom Wolfe's book From Bauhaus to Our House, which I'm currently reading. I encourage you to picture Mr. Wolfe reading the poem, wearing his white suit and holding a drink.

In this movement, a goal was to be the least bourgeois. There was a great deal of discussion about what was and was not bourgeois, which is of course in and of order terribly bourgeois. I decided that seeing numbers simply as numbers, as opposed to some quantity, was bourgeois: a number is sufficient, without my assigning a meaning to it outside itself. The opposition would counter that only the bourgeois would have time or such vanity as a number apart from meaning.

Furthermore, speaking of numbers as numbers, simplicity/complexity, curves/straight lines, and symmetry/asymmetry were major considerations debated in the movement, to which the shapes of the letters lent themselves. We are of course not actually building numbers: they are only placeholders. How pretentious and bourgeois.

I hope that you see how ridiculous the whole thing is. This being said, it's something that I still see every day: look at hipsters. They're all trying to be the biggest hipster, while simultaneously denying their very status as hipsters. It's the exact same situation, sadly.

That's a short summary of what I was trying to say in this poem. I hope you enjoyed.

Poetry is still standing here, on the precipice of my blog, echoing The Clash: should I stay or should I go? Hopefully we will actually avoid trouble, both single and double, with today's poem, which includes commentary. Let's get straight to the poem, entitled Start from Zero, then follow with commentary at the end.

They told me
to start from
zero,
and figure it all out
myself.

From there we go
to the simple line
known as one,

followed by the
complicated curves
of two,

with each level
exponentially more complicated
than the previous.

Spiraling out of control
to visions of
one-hundred,

we see the complications
wrought in a third
figure:

a simple line,
now complicated by
a pair of
circles.

Unfortunately in our visionary
distraction,
we have turned our backs
on the lopsided
six,

which collapses,
and leaves us back
at zero.

This poem was inspired by the movement of modern architecture, in which there were frequent discussions of "starting from zero," meaning take everything you know and throw it out the window. Specifically the avenue of this inspiration was Tom Wolfe's book From Bauhaus to Our House, which I'm currently reading. I encourage you to picture Mr. Wolfe reading the poem, wearing his white suit and holding a drink.

In this movement, a goal was to be the least bourgeois. There was a great deal of discussion about what was and was not bourgeois, which is of course in and of order terribly bourgeois. I decided that seeing numbers simply as numbers, as opposed to some quantity, was bourgeois: a number is sufficient, without my assigning a meaning to it outside itself. The opposition would counter that only the bourgeois would have time or such vanity as a number apart from meaning.

Furthermore, speaking of numbers as numbers, simplicity/complexity, curves/straight lines, and symmetry/asymmetry were major considerations debated in the movement, to which the shapes of the letters lent themselves. We are of course not actually building numbers: they are only placeholders. How pretentious and bourgeois.

I hope that you see how ridiculous the whole thing is. This being said, it's something that I still see every day: look at hipsters. They're all trying to be the biggest hipster, while simultaneously denying their very status as hipsters. It's the exact same situation, sadly.

That's a short summary of what I was trying to say in this poem. I hope you enjoyed.

Start from Zero