jeeez , it seems awful hard to provoke people around here...

reading more of bruce sterling's new book ...
and came across this amazing synhronicity to where these thoughts have been reaching:

"Emerson knew the time was ripe for Americans to stop blundering about in sheer blithe ignorance and obtain an intellectual grip. ' Perhaps the time is already come ...when the sluggard intellect of this continent will look from under its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertions of mechanical skill .' In 1837 Americans were already world-famous for their habit of inventing and exporting weird gizmos. Emerson dared to hope for better. And who is to do this task for America, to free America from the bonds of technocentric cleverness, and to carry its people to the heights of a richer understanding ? ' The American Scholar' ! "
( the title of a famous speech by Emerson in 1837 , Sterling refers to earlier. )

he goes on to call good ol' ralph waldo both a new age mess and an unparalled towering intellect...

i'll have to read further to get the full meaning , but somehow i already feel that this information in the arms of Manilla might fuel a fully erotic tirade.

p.