The first materialism knew no difference between the impenetrability of the atom and solidarity of the letter. A story was told of vast open preceding the world, full with a squall of falling atoms, a hail of letters.

A world in vertical, upright, little latitude.

Another story is told of the tables of the law before being handed down. A disarray of letters, unspelled into sentences- no exhortation, interdiction, nos. This law did not bind. It scattered. Techniques are needed to restore this law to its disarray.

Negations.

The writing on the wall is not for you. It convenes a phantom public, a commerce of ghosts. This sphere is produced through an operation on a social matter: redaction.

These negations neither censor nor conceal. No ciphers, no secrets. Black flags are always unfurled.

Respect for the letter requires its division. The new materialism tampers with the type, it splits the atoms of the social. Negation is a rite that brings a new rain.

 

-Jason Smith