Things that are ridiculous are so often rated as nothing because they are ridiculous. They are not valued as ridiculous they are valued as nothing. That is a great pity. Things that are ridiculous have a value that is not recognised in pointing out more clearly where the boundaries of what is ordinary and acceptable are, and in showing the ways in which the boundaries can most usefully be overstepped. In drawing attention to the boundaries of acceptability and showing in what ways they make life subservient to convention. That is where things that are ridiculous come into play. A system for escaping briefly and choosing to return or not. That is where things that are ridiculous come into play. They represent all the things that matter but are excluded by convention.
Things that are ridiculous are like things that are unexpected. They arrive. They show you something if you have eyes to see it. It is visible that would not have been visible. It is accessible that would not have been accessible. Time has to be made for people to be unexpected in. People have to be allowed to be other tahn expected. Other than conventions. Other than things that are already known. People must be allowed to be these things and these things need time. Time must be allowed for people to be other than expected. Room has to left for people to arrive unexpectedly. And at the same time it is seen what a drag it is to understand. What room is there for hope when you know the answers? You can only hope to be wrong which is surely not as it should be. To hope to be wrong.
I was talking to a man who was having problems with a word processor. It was not doing the things he thought it should be doing. It was simply not doing them. It had decided not to. It was not needed so it was not done. It seemed to have decided that it was not needed so it would not do it. In the end the reason for all this obstinacy resolved itself as is the way of these things. It resolved itself into green and black images on a screen. It retained what was wanted and did not discard it until it was asked to discard it. It was no longer being obstinate. Probably it never was being obstinate but it was in green and black and it seemed to be obstinate. Something about the green and black was not very sympathetic but mostly was obstinate. So in the end it all works out the way it was supposed to work out and that was how it was. And finally green and black came to be friendly and not at all obstinate. That is the way understanding changes perception. Green and black change over and over into green and black. Really it's about not being linked to success or failure. It is about standing away from the responsibility and simply performing the acts. Finally simply seeing what is happening and the ways in which it fails explains the problem of itself, but as so often the view of the explaination so clearly is not seen until the answer to the problem is found. The answer is often only recognised because after the answer is found the problem becomes intelligible. The thought of understanding the problem becomes acceptable and able to replace the frustration of meeting the problem as it is. It is green and black images. They repeat and change and repeat and then refuse obstinately. Do you hope to be wrong? It is really only out of being wrong that right can grow. And it grows here in green and black. Frustration, depression, dissatisfaction these are the colours of green and black. Success, relief, action, release these are the things that are found later in green and black. Line after line builds images and the images grow into ideas. The ideas are born of repeated images and they grow. Once green and black stand for relief they come to stand for action, for integration, for progress. That is when colour starts to be important in the process of things. It allows things to develop fully by abstracting to nothing more than than form. Simple in green and black was never that simple. What was neither green nor black. It all becomes possible for things to grow in green and black. Out of frustration and repression and the static bind climbs enthusiasm and progress and the development of abstract form. So really it was no loss.