Do you answer? No. — An answer.
“No answer is an answer.” (rattus rattus : )
We can read this in many ways. Though, if one says “No.” I’d take it for an answer. Even if the question was: “Do you answer?”
Luckily, this simple paradox again and again leads to fruitful discussions:
Karen Kastenhofer once sent in a quote of some lines of e.e. cummings:
when god decided to invent
everything he took one
breath bigger than a circus tent
and everything beganwhen man determined to destroy
himself he picked the was
of shall and finding only why
smashed it into because
Karen then asked if anyone dares to answer.
My immediate answer was: No.
Karen replied (maybe wittily) with “O.K., this [answer] was unmistakable. Does anyone else dare to answer?”
Some did and some did not. Yet, every answer is no answer and no answer is an answer. Thus, I wrote a poem as an answer to Karen and e.e. cummings:
Don’t search for contradiction in others, you have found it already.
there him was in her mind full
fear, hope and reason threaded
together a place that was and
because of her will – bethere where no man can reach
shall truth be kept hidden
for only trust in the was
keeps what began at a living
life.
Or, as e.e. cummings is said to have written:
No need to “stand with your lover on the ending earth”.
February 24th, 2006 at 5:35
The answer is “look around you. See the world as it is.” See what he saw; everything changes, everything stays the same.
I respect Karen for posting this; I was looking for the words to throw at a friend in debate, and she brought them. Thanks, Karen.
No higher or lower agenda, rattus, but I do love intelligent women.
February 24th, 2006 at 5:37
Haven’t you studied languages?
The was of shall = why?
and smashing why into because is to close an unanswerable question with a bullshit supposition… ‘just because’.
February 24th, 2006 at 5:56
Having answered the words I sought, I will address the original question.
No answer is not an answer except in legal terms when there is a deadline for litigation & filing suits.
The ‘no answer’ implied here is to say no verbal or forthright response was percieved; but in all cases outside the scope of legal Hell, a response happens.
No answer as in “she ignored his phone calls” is a strong statement: “don’t bother me, you weirdo!” or “I’m cheating on you with someone else!”
No answer as in “she came close to him, silently embraced him and looking deep into his eyes, paused, and kissed him passionately” is an inarticulate answer, but the intent is conveyed.
The IRS and numerous mafias and government agencies can advise you about less honest nonverbal answers.
Legally the best answer is to just walk away; stay away from these questions, but be prepared for them. “Yer Honor, I did murder the people the governor told me to, but first I tried to get away!” will definitely hold up in the current legal environ
February 24th, 2006 at 6:01
I gave you the wrong language logic, here is the correction: you fix it.
was = past tense if ‘to be’ the infinitive present tense of which is the verb ‘is’
shall = future perfect tense of ‘to be’
was | shall = IS
is + because = bullshit answer
mK?
February 24th, 2006 at 9:33
Me too, k knight. Me too.
March 4th, 2006 at 21:22
[…] Much has changed already. A lot is going to change soon. everything changes, everything stays the same – k knight […]