03-22-2011, 02:41 PM
"We tend to love as did our mother
Cloth or wire or any other" - poem fragment by Dr. Harry Harlow
I find it bleakly amusing that Doctor Harlow was so shit at life,
and I don't mean the technicals,
the paying of bills
and changing lightbulbs,
but distinguishing love in a sorrowful world,
when feelings are what drove his science,
torturing primates to reveal love's kernel,
inside its apple
of empty gestures.
the wire mother with the black button eyes
stares back at me in my daydreams,
telling me nothing, like a grim pagan mask,
demented old shrew pulling faces.
and as the monkey trembles
in his hanging cage, like a parrot
on a merchant's stall,
I see Harlow's face, cold and studious, not warm enough
to be sadistic, or betray any pleasures at all,
patiently expecting the snap,
the moment when life surrenders meaning,
and the knower retreats inside himself.
[youtube]UMaawD1RSZw[/youtube]
Cloth or wire or any other" - poem fragment by Dr. Harry Harlow
I find it bleakly amusing that Doctor Harlow was so shit at life,
and I don't mean the technicals,
the paying of bills
and changing lightbulbs,
but distinguishing love in a sorrowful world,
when feelings are what drove his science,
torturing primates to reveal love's kernel,
inside its apple
of empty gestures.
the wire mother with the black button eyes
stares back at me in my daydreams,
telling me nothing, like a grim pagan mask,
demented old shrew pulling faces.
and as the monkey trembles
in his hanging cage, like a parrot
on a merchant's stall,
I see Harlow's face, cold and studious, not warm enough
to be sadistic, or betray any pleasures at all,
patiently expecting the snap,
the moment when life surrenders meaning,
and the knower retreats inside himself.
[youtube]UMaawD1RSZw[/youtube]
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe
)