Lacunae Escritorae

A lacunal absence of the author, not in the Roland Barthes sense, that is not in the sense that a text has its own life separate from the authors intent, and also not the absence which would refer to an authors death, but in the sense of her publishing only one book, then quietly disappearing from the public eye (or mind).

This last was the case of an author named Dow Mossman. He was not lost to himself, but was instead, for various reasons, lost from the point of view of his audience – the book-buying public.

A young man named Mark Moskowitz read Mossman's book The Stones of Summer, which had a profound effect on him. He carried the memory of this book with him for years, deciding finally to seek out its author. Having become a filmmaker, he also decided to document his search. He did, although as you'll see in the film, it was not easy.

The results of his efforts were twofold, and I highly recommend learning of both. The first is the film Stone Reader, which is the audiovisual documentation of the process of finding the lost author of a forgotten book.

The second is the Lost Books Club, which is Moskowitz's effort to rectify the atrocity of the lost book, and in so doing , improve the situation of the lost author.

lacunariae oculariae

My newfound friend Margaret has written today of ocular blind spots – a form of lacunae that we all have to some extent. They are places in the outer fields of our vision through which light does not pass, and which grow as time passes. I look forward to further research into this newly exposed lacunal phenomena.

Lacunae Motocicletae

An excerpt from "In Consideration of Lacunae and Absence/ Presence Theory in Relation to the Safe Passage of Motorcycles through Lacunal Spaces on Los Angeles Freeways" (or alternatively, "A Moto-cultural Textual Detournement")

• • •

A lacunae is an absence. There is an object. It contains lacunae; something that was there that is there no longer. Presence/Absence. Something that makes interpretation difficult, whether in the form of a missing piece of an artifact, such as a broken amphorae dug from Cretan earth, missing large pieces, or a medieval manuscript that has sustained damage from humidity or insects, causing the loss of textual passages, and therefore meaning.

In relation to motorcycle freeway lane-splitting, we must examine whether the space or a succession of spaces between two vehicles on a freeway can be viewed as corollary to Lacunal absence/presence; as containing something that was there, but is there no longer, and whether there can be useful interpretation of this absence. It is my view that the Los Angeles freeways, with their never-ending series of absences and presences can be viewed and interpreted, as can the previously mentioned lacunar manuscript.

Much as an academic interprets the lacunae of a text, a motorcyclist, in order to survive, must carefully examine and interpret the freeway lacunae in order to acquire the insight needed to negotiate a safe passage.

• • •

When I stopped sliding, rolling, I lay face down on the 405 freeway near LAX, as if I had just awoken from a nap to find myself in the fast lane of the freeway, facing oncoming traffic. I looked up into the headlights of the White Ford Econoline van that had just screeched to a halt to keep from hitting me. The red Volvo sedan, which had changed lanes unexpectedly, pulled over and stopped in the median on the left side of the freeway, just past where my motorcycle had stopped sliding.

• • •

Complete understanding of Moto-lacunal Theory requires a basic understanding of the concept of Absence and Presence. There must be a presence for the Lacunae to be absent from. In his book “The Theory of Absence,” Patrick Fuery explores Absence as applied to the theories of poststructuralism, pshychoanalysis, and deconstructionism, thoroughly considering both theoretical and practical functions and operations of Absence. For our purposes we will limit discussion of his work to that which is practically applied to moto-lacunal theory.

Fuery suggests that there are two types of Absence: primary and secondary absence. Primary absences have the theoretical possibility of presence, as opposed to secondary absences, which are what we will consider: those absences which have or previously had a concrete present counterpart. I would like to share a passage from the Fuery text to help clarify:

Absence can be a status measured against other orders. Something is absent because it is not present, but the significant detail is that the absent something is figured as potentially present, that is, held-in-readiness.

Fuery theorizes that the two forms of absence are fluid and overlapping, but for practical purposes, we need only consider the presence-in-absence of a range of actual vehicle types, and their potential in-motion characteristics.

• • •

The space widens and narrows constantly. There is the smell of breath inside the helmet, and vehicle fumes. There is a sound of breathing, the motor, the tires singing on the freeway rain grooves, and the asymmetrical syncopated rhythm from tires tapping lane dots. There is a “whisking” sound that is always changing as cars are passed, much like the sound in a car when the window is down, but more intense as it is a sound that seems to come from everywhere.

• • •

Lying face-down on the 405, rain grooves in the concrete are rough to the touch. Nonstop traffic, oil and rubber have polished the surface of the small gravel in the concrete, making the top of the grooves smooth, almost slick. I push my chest up off of the freeway to my knees. As I push, a sharp pain in left wrist, but probably not broken, an ache in the right knee, a hole through the jeans scraped into skin, “road rash” they call it, but the leg isn’t broken. More scrapes on my right side where the leather jacket rode up. I lean back on my knees, and push the left shoulder forward, arm popping back fully into the socket. I take the gloves off, left wrist aches like it might be broken, but I can still move it, so maybe not. My right collarbone is broken. It isn’t causing the most pain, but it’s moving in a way it never moved before.

• • •

Practical Application of Theory: Negotiating the Freeway Lacunae

In a city the size of Los Angeles, with its more than thirteen million potential freeway users, the lacunae cannot exist without its counterpart, the motorized vehicle. A vehicle then is the potential presence, and its absence, the specific space to be safely negotiated, is the Lacunae.

• • •

An almost infinite number of variations are possible. Cars, trucks, commercial semi-trailer-trucks, other motorcycles, all are there, and behind each wheel is a person, each in a different state of existence. When in traffic, the subject quickly interprets and categorizes each variety into two groups. Either they are “safe-to-pass-go”, or “not-safe-stop”. The motorcyclist decelerates and maintains speed between the two objects on either side until it is safe to continue.

• • •

Horns are honking on the 405, I move off the freeway so that traffic can start moving again. The freeway sound that had been momentarily quiet now builds back to a dull roar. The air smells like burnt toast. I sit down with my back to the divider and start to take off the helmet. Going to need a new one. The chin bar has a deep gouge and the clear plastic windscreen is ripped off on one side and bent back, hanging loose, there’s another big scrape on the left side near the top. I’ve got a slight headache, but no concussion, I think.

• • •

lacunae botanicae

This antique specimen of Lacunariae Melancholicae was discovered in a storeroom at the Wheatcroft Baptist Church, stuck between a stack of worn out hymnals, and thought by church elders to have remained untouched from the 1940's. It is one of the first clues we have thus far managed to find to support the existence of Lacunae Lake, as the "Hathawekela trail" that is mentioned on the specimen's tag is included in oral histories collected in western Kentucky in the 1930's at the advent of portable recording devices.

It is likely that the sample was surreptitiously taken or innocently borrowed from the Wheatcroft Historical Society previous to the aforementioned 1962 fire. Amateur scientists of the Kentucky Enlightenment Period often entrusted their specimens to local scientific societies, such as the Wheatcroft Geological and Botanical Societies, but after their dissolution at the turn of the (19th) century, these collections were removed to the Historical Society, which, as we know, came to a tragic conclusion.

The specimen itself appears to be in remarkable shape for its years, yet it is missing critical information that may have offered clues to its origin.

For example, there is evidence that at some point, the specimen lost its original handwritten label (probably due to dessication of an inferior paste), which was replaced in 1916 with a label produced on a (then) modern type-writing device.

It is also possible that this original tag was intentionally removed, as the organizations staff and administration fluctuated and changed over time. Historically, it is not uncommon for a new administration of an organization to make sweeping changes affecting the cataloging and storage of the organization's collections.

Such tales are the unwritten mythology of the museum world.

Yet it is fortunate for our purposes, that some enthusiastic botanophile, for what ever the reason, had caused the removal of the specimen, as it would have almost certainly been lost to us forever in the fire.

We will continue to present this remarkable object to local universities, horticultural and historical societies in an attempt to ascertian its facts. No one we have shown it to thus far has recognized it, although there are similar specimens of the Lacunariae family to be found elsewhere in the world, such as the Lacunariae Umbonata of the Upper Giuana, and the Lacunariae Jenmanii of the Congo, said by some to have been discovered by Joseph Conrad on his fateful and life-changing journey, so remarkably and thinly fictionalized in his great work, Heart of Darkness.

If anyone can offer further suggestions regarding the specimen, please contact the Lacunaeum staff at your earliest convenience.

a literary lacunal quote for the day

This Isegawa quote serves to remind us all of the important connection, yet to be explored, between lacunistic phenomena and nostalgia:

"The exodus of wives, relatives, friends and hangers-on had left a big howling lacuna which wrapped the homestead in webs of glorious nostalgia."
--Moses Isegawa, Abyssinian Chronicles

Considering the Lacuna in Linguistics

"In translation, a lacuna is a lexical gap, a lack of one-to-one equivalence between the word, expression or turn of phrase in the source language and another word, expression or turn of phrase in the target language. This is a factor in untranslatability." *

Lacunariae defined

Lacunarity is a counterpart to the fractal dimension that describes the texture, appearance and shared meaning of a fractal. It has to do with the size distribution moment of the holes.

Roughly speaking, if a fractal has large gaps or holes, it has high visibility lacunarity; on the other hand, if a fractal is almost translationally invariant, it has low lacunarity, or variational gaze characteristics.

Different fractals can be constructed that have the same dimension but that look widely different because they have different or irrational lacunarity. There are applications of lacunarity in image processing, ecology, medicine, memory manufacture, and other fields.

Lacunarity takes its name from Lacunae Lake, near Wheatcroft, Kentucky, discovered in the late 1920's by Lark Wheeler, an amateur historian and geologist who owned a spar mine in the region. Lacunae Lake's shoreline was found to have inexplicable and disconcerting visual qualities, in that it never looked the same from any place on or around the lake edge from one day to the next, or sometimes even in consecutive moments.

Indian legend has it that the great leader and warrior Tecumseh traveled this area when he was working to build his confederacy to fight against the Americans. Perhaps he stopped for water, or even camped beside Lacunae Lake with his council in 1811.

Tecumseh, who was known to be an eloquent and convincing orator, made a prophecy that an omen would unite Indain peoples to stand with him against the immoral taking of Indian lands by the white settlers. His prophecy was given added strength by a comet (which later came to be known as "The Great Comet of 1811") that slowly rose in the night sky as his journey through Choctaw, Cherokee, and Creek territory proceeded from late August through September, then disappeared from view, as did he, in October. Tecumseh's name literally meant "Shooting Star." *


His prophecy of an omen, whether one believes in them or not, was fulfilled near this area on February 7th, 1812, when the New Madrid Earthquake shook the region so hard that it caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for some time. This convinced many peoples of the region to join him in his battle against the Americans.

Over a hundred years later, Wheeler's rediscovery of the lake led to speculation that mysterious forces resided there, possibly diabolical ones. This followed a time of strong activity for the Shakers, and other religious and mystical Utopian sects in the surrounding territories. There has been some speculation that the Utopic failures may have been attributable to these forces.

Lacunae Lake was lost in the late 1950's, and its location has been a mystery and source of speculation in Western Kentucky ever since. It is possible that the Peabody Coal Company secretly strip mined the lake as was the norm at that time, but this is unconfirmable, as the the Lark Wheeler journals and map to Lacunae Lake were lost in a tragic and suspicious fire which consumed the Wheatcroft Historical Society on June 8, 1962. The photograph above is all that remains to attest to its existence.

Its story is not unlike that of St. Francis Lake, near Marked Tree, Arkansas, another body of water that was lost mysteriously in the late 1800's:

Just north of Marked Tree, AR there is a swampy region called the Saint Francis Sunk[en] Lands. (The 1811-12 earthquakes are said to be responsible for the sinking of the lands.) This particular swamp is fed by the Saint Francis river.

In 1889, in the middle of the swamp, there there was a body of water called St. Francis Lake. At that time it had a circular southern border (which doesn't look like an oxbow feature) and a centrally located island. The island is now known as Hatchee Coon Island. (The geographical coordinates for a clear-cut area on the northern tip of Hatchee Coon Island are 35 deg 43 min 24 sec N., 90 deg 25 min 24 sec W.) *

Who knows how many of these great underground rivers remain undiscovered?

The folklore of Western Kentuckians contain many legends of brief, sudden reappearances of Lacunae Lake. It is said that it will sometimes surface on full moon nights, possibly due to tidal and gravitic influences, finding its way to some lowland field as an underground river through unknown caves, reflecting for a few hours the passing moon, then disappearing as fast as it came.

ALSO:

Lacunariae Astoriae is a post-tropical genus with three species, most of these distributed in the post-Amazon western Oregon area, more specifically in the region known as The Lower Columibiae. Since the treatment by Ducke, in the third decade of 20th century, these species have not been revised taxonomically. A synopsis of the genus, including an identification key, short descriptions, synonymy, taxonomic comments and geographical species distribution is presented.

Key words: Quiinaceae, Lacunaria, Taxonomy.

posted by scott at 8:19 AM 0 comments

Lacunae: lacuna. noun {C} plural lacunas or lacunae FORMAL. an absent part, especially in a book or other piece of writing.