Introducing a New Form of Book
From
MEMORIAL
MAXIMS
VOLUME
ONE
By Stephen C. Rose
“Abba wants us to enjoy life where being good is the way to live.
“Our culture is a decibel-pounding effort to woo us from attention to simple decency.
“Abba is not an author of special effects.
“Abba is practical. We should live in arks. Or at least be flexible (AKA tolerant).
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The above is from the as yet unpublished evolution of what I mean to be a new form of book.
These books may be Memorial Maxims
a term from Charles Sanders Peirce who said
our acts and expressions stem from
our inner repetition of memorial maxims
things we have gleaned from listening
and reading
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Memorial Maxims lodge in the mind
Maxims emerge when needed
They spur life along
We might call them memes
or even tweets
They may be a new form of writing
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The four sentences above are a unity
in the flow of the book of which they are a part
Each small cluster is a thought bubble
a unity
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Something not a poem or quote
Maybe somewhat aphoristic
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These little scraps can be added to
and redone and moved
and otherwise made impermanent
til froze in texts
that readers thaw
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Texts we call books of all sorts
will all become online
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These are meant to be evolving modes of pedagogy
Thought starters
Notions
Memory food
Units of insight
to spread thinking
anywhere
to anyone
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Ancient writing was a bit similar
One text would become the basis for another
There was some attribution
but ultimately it was
what was said
that counted
Memorial Maxims
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It is my argument for an author
also being a publisher
And an individual being understood as
at once the heart of things
and also the most porous
and penetrable of beings
The book is no longer an event
a celebrity prompt
a gold bar
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Peirce understood this
We shall as well
