“Those of us familiar with the 23 mystery — emotionally learn to treat it like my stuffed Cthulhu — A place holder for a whirlwind of emotions that are impossible to grasp — Erik Davis has a few things to say about a cute Cthulhu ” The placeholder supplants the unknowable whirlwind with something we think we ‘understand’ — My stuffed Cuthulu was given to me by my daughter when she was 9 at Comicon where my Ex-wife and her husband had brought her — After not sleeping out of excitement before we flew down to San Diego — my brother and I stayed at a motel on the outskirts of San Diego one of the few not booked up 6 months in advance of Comicon — For some reason — the motion detector for the lights had become reversed — when we collapsed in the room after a few minutes of not moving the lights would come on and wake us up — we both blamed the other for turning on the lights — yelling at each other incoherently — passing out only to be woken 10 minutes later When we finally arrived at Comicon — quite by accident we ran into both my ex and her soon to be husband a Maine small-town cop — who tried to break my hand when we were introduced — Delirious we gathered up my daughter and jumped on a train to Disneyland — my first visit to the hallowed ground zero of the simulation Our friend — who worked for the Mouse — had gotten us not only entrance to Disneyland but a hotel room within the park — We only had a few hours by the time we arrived and stayed up past 1 am riding on Space Mountain —it was hard to sleep in the belly of The Mouse and our generous tour guide — benefactor and friend was giving us a ride back to San Diego at 8 am — At 6 am pulsing with lactic acid — I snuck outside and had a cigarette —upon reentering the hotel greeted the statue of Goofy as a ‘real’ person Due to a collision of events — we returned late to Comicon — Her Mother was specifically angry as opposed to our usual discomfiture — Tessa asked me to point out something I liked — the stuffed Cthulhu in the great-swag- hall called to me — perfectly summarizing the trip — when she bought it for me I hid my tears Now I mostly use it for cute tableaus — it has become a placeholder for a host of deep and inexplicable emotions The link above for the 23 mystery — behind the Scribd paywall was to be used as a metaphor for the occluded blood sacrifices of the internet age — the cute signifier that hides the horror of modernities moment — until I saw this and was struck dumb/numb: Aaron Swartz
All of the pictures were taken on the 23rd of the month from randomly selected years in my google photos — except inexplicably, the two black and white photos. The first of my Latvian grandparents landing in the US after leaving the zone of post-Nazi Germany and the other nameless ancestors, who prove we are descended from eldritch mediums and the stain of cultish madness runs in our DNA.
A reminder y’all, any ‘real’ mystery is truer, deeper, and more awe-full than its signifier, no matter how cute;-)
Con/Jur/d, 11/23/2021