the introduction to americana complex
Let's say there is a garden, filled with flowers, plants, insects - life. Everywhere your eye falls is different form of life, a different form of beauty, with a different purpose and function. Yet the essence of all the life is the same and so the garden as a whole is equally loved and appreciated. But what if an alien element, no longer part of the natural habitat entered the garden. What if that alien element had not an essence, but a presence both tangible and intangible, that behaved like a cancer and had the power to mutate the garden by mutating your mind, mutating your perception of the garden. And what if that alien element came into the garden and stepped between you and the garden; stepped between you and your view of the garden, and took possession of the garden. And what if possession was a concept as foreign to you as the alien element was, and because it was foreign the garden was taken before you realized it could ever be owned. And what if the alien element barred you from the garden unless you looked at the garden from its point of view and appreciated it according to its rules, regardless of whether or not the point of view or rules could be justified. And what if the alien element chose parts of the garden, divided the beauty that you saw as beautiful and complete in its natural state and pointed out what made a certain flower different from other flowers, noted how its colors, its shapes, its structures - things that before you thought were inherently beautiful - were different and began to tell you that rather than appreciate those differences, you should fear and loathe those differences. And what if that alien element used those differences to create concepts that prior to this point did not exist. And what if those concepts fed off irrational and sometimes rational fears within you. And those concepts and fears and your reactions to those fears started a chain reaction that created an entirely new reality and the garden was no longer what you thought it to be. And after a while, the garden was no longer a garden…
"the introduction to americana complex "
Rec. 5/14/97@COC's kitchen, sf...2030.

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