Word

Can the apostolic sense of it even be detected any longer? John 1:1 "In the beginning was the word ... " and John 1:14 "And the word was made flesh ... " Now, if the word has become flesh it is because it has become a matter of the basest kind: commodity.

The meaning of ownership, in this society of that name, is that the stamp of propriety can be attached even to words—not just as soon as they leave the flesh, but before. The flesh of words had been its material substrates, the silicon, the paper, the air in which its signs are carried, and out of which they are never quite distilled. But that ethery part of them that is not signifier, nor signified, nor referent, is deed and title; it is now where its flesh lies–where claimed, and where branded with a circle T or R or C?

I would disparage the nostalgia for the holy aura of language that quoting John implies, but can another preciousness accrue to words instead of a value made of their capture? But wait. You claim this word? You say it is yours? By what means do you propose to contain it?

Every shape of barb on a wire might be property of some manufacturer. If I were more cowboy than poet, you might hear me complain louder on that account. Since I am somewhat lower in esteem and testosterone, I whine over words.