david c. porter (read NTTN)
@davidcporter.net
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the worm does not die; their feet are of clay / writes gardenscenery.net / edits @keep-planning.net / buy NTTN: www.organ.fail/product/nttn
the worm does not die; their feet are of clay / writes gardenscenery.net / edits @keep-planning.net / buy NTTN: www.organ.fail/product/nttn
![screenshot of a single-page text called "Situation" by german author helmut heissenbüttel in the collection "Texts" translated by michael hamburger. the full piece is too long to transcribe here – below, instead, are the first a last paragraphs:
Without memory standing in total darkness. The floor damp smooth slippery. When one bends forward one feels the coldness of the floor as of stone or steel. One can move ahead only slowly. When one moves ahead one feels that the floor consists of large irregular siabs separated by narrow but deep grooves.
[...]
At full length perhaps he will then be lying on the verge of the chasm his head extended into the void. He listens. And when he listens he will hear a noise far off that swells and fades out. But this noise will be full of attraction. Not so much that one wants to hurl oneself down. Yet so much that one is held fast there. And if perhaps [and in the extreme case] even at this point one has senselessly not given up the foolish hope that it will be light again one forgets it here. And the only thing one is likely to think is that it’s coming closer.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ee4lmnfe6taolgtowbuyk2pt/bafkreieqrm334gb7otbaaczyyojnn2cocstbtfsbvwqd6w6v6oa2qfp7oa)
![The first paragraph of the "History" section of the Wikipedia article on vending machines: "The earliest known reference to a vending machine is in the work of Hero of Alexandria, an engineer and mathematician in first-century Roman Egypt. His machine accepted a coin and then dispensed wine[2] or holy water.[3] When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counterweight snapped the lever up and turned off the valve."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ee4lmnfe6taolgtowbuyk2pt/bafkreibhbdsjndfm6yec5zalcv4ei4ev7sdzjkkzo7a34foudo2nq3zxfi)
