At a previous point in time the letter s, the anger of the serpent and the goose, hatred, passion and disapproval, lie within Hiss. Descriptions are added onto descriptions. Call them perfected or truncated, they come again, changed. Versions are added into versions. Sources of definitions can be traced to previous – other – sources. It is a never ending, that is, always beginning-again, process of repetition and change, of renewal.
Older versions linger within New-
er and New-
er head back into the Old.
Understandings are based on manifold and shifting
Definitions dislocate THIS IS
Order and instability within-order.
Noah Webster, born in West Hartford, Connecticut in the middle of the 18th century, was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. He is, above all, known for his dictionary: for his(s) definitions.
Howe writes: ”The Noah Webster’s dictionary from 1828 is repeatedly invoked by our 19th century North American interpreters, Emerson, Melville, Hawthorn, Dickinson, Whitman and many others. Often the Calvinist lexographer’s terse definitions, particularly when read aloud, resemble prose poems.” 4
The Noah Webster’s dictionary from 1828 is repeatedly invoked by Susan Howe.
A modern dictionary adds the sound of electronics to the definition of the noun hiss: ”electronics receiver noise with a continuous spectrum, caused by thermal agitation, shot noise, etc.” 5
The Hiss of Hissstory is manifold and continuous. It is a hissing that renews itself and polyphonically sounds-again. It is the noise of an angered serpent or goose, water on hot iron, receiver noise with a continuous spectrum, the whiz of rapid flight, the s, the mouth shaped by the human exhaling contempt, passion, hatred, disapproval. It is the pen brushing against the paper, the fan of the library reading room, the computer when writing, the computer when reading, when reading writing the wind from outside the window leaking into the text, blood rushing, it is the sound of THIS IS again THIS IS
1. Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/history (03/12/15)
2. Noah Webster's Dictionary, http://webstersdictionary1828.com/ (03/12/15)
3. The ARTFL Project, Websters Dictionary, http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&resource=Webster%27s&word=Hiss&quicksearch=on (03/12/15)
4. Susan Howe, Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives, New Directions, NY, 2014.
5. The Free Dictionary, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hiss (03/12/15)
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