The Court Gossip – 5. Clamoring For Clout (Text and Scores)

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5. Clamoring For Clout

He’s a much cleverer philosopher than I am.
He’s more famous than I am.
We’re all clamoring for clout.
Neither of us wants to be left out.

Think of this dissociation.
Failures in collaboration.

Suddenly, a famine strikes!
Gives a new throw of the dice.

How can science intervene
if nature’s found its golden mean?
Does that mistake cost you hard?
Which of these two things does that mis-snake bite?

But then –
It’s a mutation!

Unpredicted variation
Snowballing acceleration
Will this new line live or die out?
Will this rhythm/rhyme jibe with the last one?
Now we’re subject to spectrums of sensations like pain
He will rebel against me and I will complain!
     My idea is not the same.

(Don’t forget the atavism.
Or the lessons of positivism.)

You think our raw sensations, if they exist, leave naught behind
     So you say…
(Made me realize what was missing from his picture of the mind and mine…)
What concerns us isn’t just the stream of thought but also it’s the feeling…
     (…feeling of being a subject to this spectrum of sensation…)
How can a system take one step back so it can take steps forward?
A fixation! A fixation!
     A fixation at the best level throughout the population
Does this preceding sentence refer to that receding sentence?
     Do these preceding lieder refer to this receding…

How can falling back turn out to have been advantageous?
     Sometimes a mistake can later bring beneficial consequences…
     Are you writing about me?

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