Broken up text, distributed in related diagrams, leaves the choice up to readers as to how they read it. Every reader will have their own subjective experience. They will interpret the words, read them in a different sequence, leading to a shift in meaning, and interpret the graphs and colours according to their own sensibilities. On the one hand, readers will have more choice, on the other, their interpretations will be more scattered than a poem of plain text.
The inter-connectedness of these poems:
Inter-Dimensional Classified Ad explores the idea that parallel worlds exist. A young entity wants to explore other worlds for reasons of his own. Are we all organic robots, as Stephen Hawking suggests? Telepathy had been accepted by mainstream scientists, and quantum physics has opened the idea of alternative realities. Could a discarnate entity be pulling the strings of this organic robot, egging him to take risks to plunge into the void to make his way to another dimension? A New Age believer might say an eager soul wants to go on a journey of self-discovery asap, even if it means jumping into chaos unprotected, to gain access to higher dimensions.
The Hadron Collider is supposed to help human being discover a variety of facts about the universe. It could serve to provide access to other dimensions. When will it work? Perhaps when a collective quantic leap occurs. The number of books, films, and TV shows exploring these possibilities has exploded in the last few decades.
In the second poem, Quantic Chance, the same soul in a different incarnation has evolved, and is still trying to jump up to higher dimensions, while trying to resist temptations. Perhaps he is being egged on via telepathy by his master from a higher dimension. Is the manifestation of good luck by chance, or are higher powers pulling strings in his favor? By making him late, by spooking the ‘clumsy’ teacher, putting the alphabets in the reverse order in the bus he took by ‘bad’ luck, or by helping him to resist the girl? They aren’t really allowed to interfere in human affairs, so are they using some distant manipulation to help this little human along? The question is, why does his teacher want him to come so quickly to the master’s dimension? Perhaps the master wants to use him in some way. However, the guy has to be motivated enough, and to be bright enough to spot these clues, and to use them.
‘Chalance,’ is a new word that I’ve invented. It means a ‘mandala’ or a circular art-work with a spiritual dimension, drawn in Asia to divine one’s fortune or luck. But interpreting it means that one needs the right clues in order to correctly calculate the numbers associated with the hints given in it. That’s what our hero manages to ‘discover’ in this poem.
The last poem, The Akashic Yatra is the same soul who has come a very long way, almost to the end, but has lost much on his way. He has bargained away his human body. He hasn’t valued certain aspects of his ancient heritage enough, such as the knowledge of Sanskrit, a derivative of Pali, perhaps the original language of one zone of the universe. So now, no real human being can benefit from his experience. It’s only now he realizes what was important. Can humanity learn from him to treasure that what is original, ie their own unique body, and their ancient heritage, in terms of culture and language. Technology, which is man-made can get humans only so far, and that too, only within a certain kind of sub-created reality.
The premise behind the art-work is that the ancients had superior ‘technology,’ lost to contemporary civilization. As we progress towards a high-tech world, aren’t we going backwards in a way? Also, there’s the idea of over-lapping universes, coming into, and blinking out of existence. Where are we in the big picture? Where are we going? In the right direction?
It also explores our changing physical state of being human-tech hybrids. Will we regret losing our physical bodies one day? If so, are we on the way to becoming non-entities, as technology has a flattening effect on our personality quirks? Will we be envious of our human state in future, as we look back at our ‘fleshy’ era?
Note: Inter-Dimensional Classified Ad in text form is published in the Star*Line 38.3 issue, in Summer 2015.
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