technology and the feminine i

book of qlōnq

 

the two directions of man’s future evolution are technology and the feminine. all aspects of man’s life - whether physical, social, spiritual or intellectual - cannot be understood outside these two themes. man has been and is evolving toward technology and the feminine in such a way that these two forces combined will be the totality of existence for him. man will not exist outside these two forces  - each will offer him a way of being in the world and an escape from it. man in himself will be nothing

 

while technology and the feminine can be seen as opposing forces, they also can and should be seen as necessary complements. even historically this is so. the feminine could not have arisen as a unified force without the aid of technology, nor could technology have gained expression without the complicit support of the feminine. but, in the present, now that each force has risen and is growing to dominance, we see that for continued survival and growth, each is necessary for the other. if technology fades, so does the feminine - if the feminine, so technology. man is necessary only as a physical link connecting the two

 

in the day-to-day workings of society, the feminine often seems opposed to technology, either passively in its apathy to technology’s charms or actively in setting itself against technology’s will. so too technology often seems opposed to the feminine, in its inexorable grinding drive blind to human relation and its making produce by linear manufacture rather than erotic birth. while these oppositions are real and the stress they cause should not be minimized, rather than disproving the necessity of one to the other, they prove it: two forces that require each other for their mutual survival will always be in tension in routine life, sometimes aloofly, sometimes eruptively. the male and the female are the paradigm of this: essential for each other’s existence, they are as often at war as peace. the greater the stress between forces, the greater their need for one another - so with technology and the feminine

 

man will no longer exist because he will have placed his existence in technology - he will have externalized his power in his artifact. he is driven to do this both because of his self-loathing and his love of woman. he loathes himself because he is at odds with his love, and so lays odds on the gift of technology he is building for her. man hopes that in this gift he makes the odd even, thereby balancing the scale of power. technology is his attempt at gender justice. by placing his strength in something outside himself, he diminishes his power and so makes the weight of woman even. he cannot admit to himself this relationship between his being at odds and his technological enterprise, as admitting it would remove the necessary ruse by which any distortion of power is corrected. also, admission would mean revealing the truth of his demise and man is far too weak for such a strength. instead, he justifies his technology through, by and for power. this self-deception drives him on - were it to collapse he would not build and woman would not rise

 

man’s artifact is also artifice, but not a subterfuge arising from his conscious mind. rather, technology and the feminine work through him their natures - he simply executes - yes … executes himself

 

man has now two movements, without which he does not live. technology is his outward movement, his will made visible, time turned artifact. it is the prosthetic necessary for his physical and intellectual survival, but a prosthetic he has made for himself, to compensate for what he feels he lacks

 

man dreams outward - he dreams outside his body toward the space he wants to fill. he makes for himself limbs - physical shadows of his dreams - that are extensions not just of his body, but also of his mind. these extensions seem to extend his power and move him into the space of his unreality. in this way the surface of his body is stretched beyond his skin, and the distinction between his body and the world is blurred. where does my body end when that which i need to move in the world shifts shape? where does my mind end when that which i need to think in the world flickers in the pale blue light? man is impressed with the surface of his body, a surface that now exists beyond his flesh, daily moving further from his centre

 

man exists for himself to the extent that he creates an image of himself outside himself. as he does so, convincing himself in the process that he is increasingly alive, he becomes more unreal in and to himself, for he no longer exists apart from his creation nor knows what or who he is. in time, this unreality becomes reality, although the real below the real remains

 

man once lived in his body, but found the power of his body too great for him, and so began to spit his power out in forms he called his glory. he was only able to live in his body as he consumed nature - but now, with nature far from him, his body has become inhospitable.  man is built to seek the power of nature - the bulk of this power now is outside him. so he seeks what he is not and cannot be. the hint of this awareness is what he mourns

 

not only does man’s body lie beyond him, but so too his blood, which often lives so far from his sight that he would not recognize it even if he chanced to come upon it under a full, unfiltered sun. oh he might say what is that stain there? and walk on, perhaps mistaking it for paint or makeup. technology both removes his blood to the furthest reaches of the earth - where it can safely live in the home of his imagination - and places it on the screen of entertainment, where it, while in his face, is not a blood of price. all he pays is an admission charge in monetary currency - a fee to access the image of the sanctum of his body - but blood demands payment in kind and detects the discrepancy in his media of exchange. so in his inmost heart man mocks himself