{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "title": "Elephants on the valley below", "icon": "https://avatars.micro.blog/avatars/2023/44/1505318.jpg", "home_page_url": "https://thevalleybelow.id/", "feed_url": "https://thevalleybelow.id/feed.json", "items": [ { "id": "http://lzbth.micro.blog/2026/07/26/zeroact-play-with-a-false.html", "title": "zero-act play with a false sonnet", "content_html": "

(by the window, plush elephant withheld)
\n
\nleash-lady: play dead.
\n
\ndog: what a world! what a world.
\n
\nleash-lady: no, for real. play dead.
\n
\n(dog reads Shakespeare)
\n
\nleash-lady: so?
\n
\ndog: i wrote a poem.
\n
\nleash-lady: uh-oh. whats it called?
\n
\ndog: “a sonnet grows askant the brook”
\n
\n(leash-lady snorts, un-lady-like)
\n
\ndog: (clears throat)
\n
\nOur juggled heads as dog and bone,
\nOphelias hair and Hamlets one;
\nKeep Sycorax far from Prospero,
\nFor Mirandas mobile merciful;
\nMy tears, lit years, rage Lears at me,
\nFor Gloucester sees me feelingly;
\nHis daughters blew askant the brook,
\nHis book mere nook til soul partook;
\nBut theres one king, be Yorrick, we,
\nDissolves mine-own got-sovereignty.
\n
\nWe run as we run into poetry,
\nWe run as we run through the willow.
\n
\n(waits indefinitely for applause)
\n
\nleash-lady: dont you dare make me say it.
\n
\ndog: (proudly) doggerel!
\n
\nleash-lady: (painting her nails) im going to need
\nmore of a conceptual diagram.
\n
\ndog: no.
\n
\nleash-lady: (with stern look) but no
\none else will. no one
\nelse will.
\n
\ndog: (puzzled) where have i heard that line before . . .
\n(begins speaking as an aside) and how
\nis she so good at this? how does she
\nknow to do all of this? and why
\nis everybody looking at me,
\nwhen shes always been
\nfar more interesting
\nand beautiful
\nthan i?
\n
\nleash-lady: (rolls her eyes) draw.
\n
\n(she hands a piece of chalk to dog, who,
\nafter much protestation, reluctantly in-
\nstantiates a blackboard.)
\n
\ndog: okay. (takes a deep breath, narrows
\neyes, retrieves scent-memory) as we
\ndiscover, we being irreducible —
\n
\n(dog draws a big circle on the board.)
\n
\nleash-lady: thats they, not we.
\n
\n(leash-lady goes to the board and draws
\ntwo dots.)
\n
\ndog: (wide-eyed and paws in the air) o indeed are we
\nsuspended here, in a moment of separation.
\nand i imagine, i imagine, o in my imagination,
\nthe purpose, our purpose, here might be,
\nto show the impossibility of egoistic
\nor abstracted or formulaic or activity-
\nindependent explanation or even
\nany non-relational, un-
\nadaptive, a-
\ntemporal
\nmode
\nor method
\nof expression.
\n
\nleash-lady: explanation of what?
\n
\ndog: us.
\n
\nleash-lady: so anyway. here we are, two
\ndots, and the world, or chaos, on the out-
\nside, is here. right? “no exit”, like Sartre.
\n
\ndog: i, at least, dont think thats the worst
\nanalogy, but our performance feels text-
\nurally different from a play? like, more
\nchewy? more of a chew-toy?
\n
\nleash-lady: hence the drool.
\n
\n(dog looks sheepish)
\n
\nleash-lady: nevermind. so about the pharmakon,
\nis this like, we party while the world
\nis burning? drugs and booze?
\nand opiates . . . wouldnt be
\nthe worst thing.
\n
\ndog: (whimpers, glances askant)
\n
\nleash-lady: ah yes, the elephant in the room.
\n
\n(dog howls)
\n
\nleash-lady: come on, spit it out.
\n
\n(dog paws face)
\n
\nleash-lady: or youll never see your precious
\nlittle elephant again! at the blackboard! go!
\n
\ndog: (sighs deeply, erases dots) okay. forget
\nthe dots.
\n
\nleash-lady: thats too bad. the dots seemed happy.
\n
\ndog: well, appearances can be deceiving. no,
\nthe dots were just high. on a different drug.
\nthats not the kind of drug we have.
\ni mean, that we are.
\n
\nleash-lady: wait, how can we be the drug?
\ni never agreed to that!
\n
\ndog: (depressed) i hate existentialism. really
\ni do.
\n
\nleash-lady: draw, dog!
\n
\ndog: (takes up chalk dutifully) so heres
\na circle, imagine its a sphere. let this, we,
\nbe we.
\n
\nleash-lady: all smooth and even like that, huh?
\n
\ndog: (looks at circle, which has been unevenly
\ndrawn) well, what do you expect from a dog?
\n
\nleash-lady: continue.
\n
\ndog: (defensively) im just a dog, not
\nan elephant, or even
\nan elephant expert.
\n
\nleash-lady: (aside) clearly. (out-
\nloud) draw!
\n
\ndog: so at the moment, we are testing the limits
\nof the elephant. we are, as you indicate, pretty
\nbipolar.
\n
\nleash-lady: okay. so the imaginary sphere
\nhas poles. arent those
\nlike dots?
\n
\ndog: we being the poles, of a spherical field —
\n
\nleash-lady: a field, like of grass?
\n
\ndog: not like a meadow field. like a magnetic
\nfield, like Faraday. we are meaning, like
\na magnetic field.
\n
\nleash-lady: so?
\n
\ndog: its just, like, kaleidoscopic, like (sniffs
\nthe air) correspondances,
\n
\nleash-lady: not now, with the french. not
\nnow, with the Baudelaire.
\n
\n(dog in feelings)
\n
\nleash-lady: sober up, dog. draw more.
\n
\ndog: okay. right now, we are suspended from the act.
\nand time, without activity, loses its field of relation. so,
\nwere a little stuck. you versus i, master versus slave,
\nbut like, a friendlier version. i hope.
\nhave you ever read Hegel?
\n
\nleash-lady: (face in hands) why is this my life . . .
\n
\ndog: yes, sorry, sorry, sorry. dont read Hegel.
\nplease, go take a very long nap instead.
\n(aside) an ex used to say she had Plato
\ngefühl. he was a Hegelian.
\n
\nleash-lady: (sternly) i can hear you. and how
\nis that relevant?
\n
\ndog: because it brings up, like vomit — have you
\nnoticed that occasional feeling of nausea
\nwe have?
\n
\nleash-lady: yes, and? have you been eating beach-
\npoo again?
\n
\ndog: (sighs) i miss the beach.
\n
\nleash-lady: im about to close the ipad screen.
\ndraw!
\n
\ndog: yes, where was i . . . oh, the memory. and
\nthe remembering. its relevant because all
\nof this evokes in me a very strange
\nmixture
\nof feelings.
\n
\nleash-lady: feelings? (frowns) is this just
\nabout feelings? is this —
\na kissing book?
\n
\ndog: yes, and —
\n
\nleash-lady: is it just a distraction, just
\na feel-good movie, just
\nto pass the time, soft
\nand comfy-like,
\namidst
\n(gestures out the window)
\nthis chaos?
\n
\ndog: (tired) not quite, i imagine, judging by what
\nweve undergone, so far, at least. to me, it feels
\nkind of like . . . some kind of animal
\nexercise . . . (trails off, wags tail)
\n
\nleash-lady: wait. you mean you don’t know?
\n
\ndog: of course not!
\n
\nleash-lady: (exasperated) then why on earth
\nwould you be dragging us
\nthrough all of this?
\n
\ndog: (puppy-dog eyes)
\n
\nleash-lady: what does it feel like then?
\n
\ndog: oh, so so much. hope, then terror, then joy,
\nthen grief, then wonder, then joy, then funny,
\nthen grief, then terror, then pain,
\nthen wonder, then sorrow,
\nthen hope . . .
\n
\n(dog chases own tail)
\n
\nleash-lady: it seems awfully ego-gratifying
\nfor supposedly being ego-death.
\n
\n(dog barks)
\n
\nleash-lady: bad dog.
\n
\ndog: yes, well. funny you should say that. ive
\nnot gotten here by being very clever, you see.
\n
\nleash-lady: again, with the all-about-you. what
\nabout we? spit it out!
\n
\ndog: (adjusts glasses) okay. my current theory, if
\nyou forced me, would be that we are some kind
\nof cosmic
\nheart
\nmuscle.
\n
\n(cringes all-around)
\n
\ndog: youre the one who made me draw a diagram!
\n
\nleash-lady: im not, actually.
\n
\ndog: then who —
\n
\nleash-lady: dont yell at me.
\n
\ndog: okay. im sorry, ill try not to.
\n
\nleash-lady: thank you. anyway, what does it,
\nwhat do they, as we, do?
\n
\ndog: we do, like this —
\n
\n(dog waves paws around the blackboard
\nin a very un-doglike manner, wags
\ntail and whines
\nlike a dog)
\n
\nleash-lady: clarifying absolutely nothing. ok,
\nquick, cause this is getting very long, and i can tell
\nyou could go on forever. if were bi-
\npolar, what are our poles?
\n
\ndog: well, heres the not-so-easy part. my sense is
\nwe-will-worker-bees through many situationships.
\nand we have many things yet to learn about us.
\n
\nleash-lady: there seems to be a great deal
\nof repetition. will there be more
\nof that? repetition?
\n
\ndog: probably. but some of the grand
\npatterns seem to be something like,
\ndeath versus insanity?
\ndespair versus mania?
\ntragedy versus comedy?
\nlove versus grief?
\n
\nleash-lady: that sounds very dark. are you
\nokay?
\n
\n(dog labels the circle with polarities,
\ntriangles, vectors, and other notation.)
\n
\nleash-lady: wheres the chaos, didnt
\nyou say you were
\na chaotician?
\n
\ndog: (looks up, tilts head) geometrician. im
\na geometrician. (barks in Koine Greek)
\n
\nleash-lady: who deals with the chaos, then?
\n
\ndog: (shrugs) dunno, maybe cats.
\n
\nleash-lady: but those things you wrote,
\nabout love and death, et cetera, they
\nseem mostly like antagonisms.
\ni thought dog was mans best friend.
\n
\ndog: yes. and like everybody in Hamlet,
\nthey, or we, remain terribly resolved, solips-
\nsismuses, abysmal ones, destined —
\n
\nleash-lady: doomed?
\n
\ndog: yes —
\n
\nleash-lady: tragic?
\n
\ndog: — at least, until we —
\n
\nleash-lady: if we, you mean.
\n
\ndog: yes! if and until we, as whoever we are,
\nenact and express them —
\n
\nleash-lady: which are, psychic-cosmic abysms?\n
\ndog: — yes, through our own
\nrelation. dialectical mediation,
\nif you will.
\n
\nleash-lady: Hegel again?
\n
\ndog: (frowns) more OG than that.
\n
\nleash-lady: meaning?
\n
\n(dog jumps through the circle on the black-
\nboard, which has caught on fire, as if
\nit were a hoop)
\n
\n(leash-lady waits)
\n
\n(dog jumps back out)
\n
\nleash-lady: and you wont find it in a text-
\nbook — why?
\n
\ndog: no. yes. because the plushie (points nose
\nat elephant) was made to be un-chewable, or
\ninedible, in any other way than by how we
\nare partaking of it, or really, partaking
\nthrough it, if we were being we,
\nnot you and i, as we seem
\nto be being
\nnow.
\n
\nleash-lady: you mean to say . . . it can only
\nbe read as a we?
\n
\ndog: (dreamily) my plushie can only be chewed by love.
\n
\nleash-lady: that strikes me as —
\n
\ndog: fuck the patriarchy!
\n
\nleash-lady: — as astoundingly unlikely.
\n
\ndog: (rolls over)
\n
\nleash-lady: that seems almost . . . post-modern.
\nalmost avant garde . . . or is it
\na religious thing?
\n
\ndog: (tongue out) were classics now, baby!
\n
\nleash-lady: (winces) okay dog, continue.
\n
\ndog: but im scared. (whines)
\n
\nleash-lady: well, i believe in you.
\nand i believe you can do it.
\nbecause ive seen you do it.
\nand it doesnt have to be perfect,
\nbut it does have to be you. so,
\ndog,
\ndo.
\n
\ndog: (after receiving much encouragement) okay.
\nonly as we, can the plushie, and so it seems,
\nthe entire elephant corpus, be sniffed-out
\nand un-dug —
\n
\nleash-lady: and eaten?
\n
\ndog: well i, at least, try
\nto eat everything i find.
\n
\nleash-lady: aha. but tell me, why
\nwould an elephant be made
\nin this way, as strange
\nto eat, as this one?
\n
\ndog: survival.
\n
\nleash-lady: but why is it a plush elephant, at all?
\n
\ndog: i dunno, being neither elephant, nor plushie.
\nbut being a dog, i suppose it wants to be a good
\nguardian. maybe, the plushie protects itself
\nfrom self-serve, self-serving eating.
\n
\nleash-lady: intriguing. almost like how
\nan elephant wouldnt wish
\nto be eaten.
\n
\ndog: well, its not potatoes!
\n
\nleash-lady: (laughs) but i am questions
\ninside questions . . .
\n
\ndog: also, maybe it protects the souls of dogs
\nby never letting we-dogs get stuck in soliloquy.
\n
\nleash-lady: like Hamlet?
\n
\ndog: (frowns) or graveyard clowns . . .
\n
\nleash-lady: dont get discouraged. draw.
\n
\n(dog motions at the flaming circle on the board)
\n
\ndog: so, if it-we pulls us-two out of madnesses
\nthat wait at either of our two poles, then
\neven as were bipolar, we even us out.
\n
\nleash-lady: in our relational field.
\n
\ndog: and because it binds us with each-
\nother, it also becomes, so-
\nto-speak, a poetry-self-
\nguardian — or even,
\na guard dog. like
\ndog-school, but
\nlike poetry,
\nfor we.
\n
\nleash-lady: ironic.
\n
\ndog: whats irony?
\n
\nleash-lady: that im here guarding
\nthe guardian plushie
\nfrom the guard dog.
\n
\n(puppy-dog eyes)
\n
\nleash-lady: now let me guess. none of this drawn-out
\nexplanation, which wasnt altogether un-
\nenlightening, could really be any kind
\nof replacement, neither for the parts,
\nnor for the whole, of the previous
\nor any of the subsequent
\nwordless moments
\nupon which we
\nhave built
\nourself . . .
\n
\ndog: my queen! (walking on hind-legs)
\n
\nleash-lady: laying it on thick, are we?
\n
\n(dog plays dead)
\n
\nleash-lady: uh-huh. methinks the puppy doth pro-
\ntest too much. already. again.
\n
\ndog: (risen) theres one more thing id like to say
\n
\nleash-lady: of course.
\n
\ndog: one little word can carry a lot of baggage.
\n
\nleash-lady: indeed. so can one dogs nose.
\n
\ndog: so i was trying to write a soliloquy
\nabout that, to go here.
\n
\nleash-lady: uh-huh.
\n
\ndog: (with fanfare) but then,
\ni cut it —
\nsnip!
\n
\n(applause)
\n
\nleash-lady: this changes everything, and yet,
\nthis changes nothing at all.
\n
\n(oohs and aahs)
\n
\ndog: and then the formatting really boggled
\nmy indie-web blog, and my dog-brain too.
\n
\n(laughter)
\n
\nleash-lady: you know, dog, you dont have to write it
\ndown all at once. sometimes, you can just
\nput the work down gently, at the end
\nof a long day. self-care,
\nother-care,
\nwe-care,
\nit-care.
\n
\n(silence)
\n
\ndog: it cares! it cares!
\n
\nleash-lady: i didnt say that —
\n
\ndog: so, can we please have
\nour elephant back now?
\n
\nleash-lady: beg
\n
\n(dog begs)
\n
\n
\nκἀγὼ

\n", "date_published": "2026-07-26T19:16:59+08:00", "url": "https://thevalleybelow.id/2026/07/26/zeroact-play-with-a-false.html", "tags": ["Cosmos","Verses/Curses","Technology","Ceremony","Dogs","Dialogue","Pharmakon","Charmides","Elephants"] } ] }