Day One

We constructed twelve randomly selected lines of text, divided into three groups of four. Ostensibly, these are the intro, conflict, and resolution of some internal theme. During our initial pass at understanding (first order approximation) we spotted some common threads.

• Christian imagery
• death and rebirth
• fire and water
• groups of people characterized by following
• suffering and the benefits of eventual discovery

and so on. For next time, we need to start thinking about how to combine these into a coherent theme or "meaning of the poem." Are these the only connections that can be found? Have we utterly exhausted the content of our text? Of course not. As long as we stare at the lines, we will continue to generate connections between varying images in the work.

As we continue to study these things (physical systems) we will get a clearer understanding of what it means to mean something, and how certain we can be that our meanings are real.