Anthropogony: Confrontation
  1. Dialogue of Wà and the Souls
  2. Dialogue of the Souls and Wà
  3. Wà Moves and Eats
  4. Wà's Song of Victory
  5. Birth of the First Spirit of Joy
  6. Battle of the Spirit and Wà
  7. The Spirit Enters Wà
Introduction

Genesis

Confrontation

Transformation
I. Dialogue of Wà and the Souls I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm As soon as consciousness began 
    the Souls remarked Wà's complexity
    and saw its stillness and boredom.
    Wà desired to attract them
5   but they just flew around, worried. 
    And Wà spoke:
    «Eternity, perfection, order, meaning.»
    And a Soul spoke:
    «Now, change, chance, babble.»
10   And Wà said «Sureness»
    and a Soul said «Adventure».
    And Wà said «Reality»
    and a Soul said «Perception».
    And Wà said «Absolute»
15   and a Soul said «Personal».
    And Wà said «Morals»
    and a Soul said «Feelings».
    And Wà said «Knowledge»
    and a Soul said «Yeah».
20   And Wà said «Error»
    and a Soul said «Knowledge».
    So Wà fell silent 
    But in the silence of stillness.
1-3 As soon... boredom: see G.VII.

5. worried: in Souls, "worry" is curiosity mixed with sadness. It is a worry that compels them to look, not to hide.

7-9. Eternity... babble: the two dialogues between Wà and the Souls oppose single words. In the first dialogue, Wà expresses its values, and some Soul counters them with their own counter-values. In the second dialogue, the roles are reversed.

[Eternity / now]: The Souls do not know eternity as opposed to a specific moment in time. Every moment is "now".

[Perfection / change]: the capacity to change is more important to Souls than any single, still state, no matter how near to an ideal "perfection".

[Order / chance]: the Souls do not need to structure their being, therefore they do not need an order, but by embracing change they also welcome casuality.

[Meaning / babble]: for the Souls, language is a toy, it is not something around which they construct a life.

10-11. Sureness... adventure: fear of change is opposed by the desire for change and the unknown.

12-13. Reality... perception: Wà proposes reality as a topic of discourse, i.e. proposes truth as something that can be spoken. This is not recognized by the Souls. Every Soul has its own reality, unexpressable, and equivalent to that particular Soul's perception.

16-17. Morals... feelings: one of the key aphorisms of Joy is that "morals are feelings disguised as thoughts". The Souls do not accept or understand rules for pleasure: the only measure of pleasure are their own feelings.

18-19. Knowledge... yeah: Wà states the importance of "knowledge", implying that knowledge is its own, i.e. that there is only one "true" knowledge. But the Souls also lay claim to knowledge, each for itself, because there are as many knowldeges as there are Souls. For the Souls, knowledge is a state of feeling, in which one sees the harmony of the universe and feels attuned with it.

20-21. Error... knowledge: since there is no single knowledge, the Souls do not recognize that there may be error. What Wà calls an error is just another knowledge.

23. silence of stillness: as opposed to the "silence of bliss" (see G.I, 25).
II. Dialogue of the Souls and Wà I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm The Souls were fascinated
    By Wà's rugged shape,
    crevices and pinnacles,
    a garden for rubbing.
5   But the saw Wà's stillness
    and tried to warm Wà.
    So a Soul said «Movement»
    and Wà said «Form».
    And a Soul said «Amazement»
10   and Wà said «Comprehension».
    And a Soul said «Confusion»
    and Wà said «Distinction».
    And a Soul said «Laughter»
    and Wà said «Satisfaction».
15   And a Soul said «Multiplicity»
    and Wà said «Complexity».
    And a Soul said «Play»
    and Wà said «Work».
    And the Souls were stupefied
20   because they saw the hatred of Wà
    and they left to tumble in play.
2-4. rugged shape... rubbing: the Souls still hold an aesthetic perception of Wà and of its significance to them. They do not see him as a menace, because they have nothing that can be menaced.

6. tried to warm Wà: the Souls do not know egoism or altruism, they know that Joy is contagious, that by feeling joy you create more joy around you, and that only Wà-ness is relieved of sadness by more misery. They only think of the joy of rubbing, and they find Wà very rubbable. (This is how Wà ensnared the first Soul in G.IV.) Souls assume that Wà will enjoy being relieved of its stillness ("cold"), and they would enjoy Wà's "garden of rubbing", so it is natural for them to share their desire - besides, rubbing a cold Soul is less pleasurable than rubbing against a warm one. But Wà feels "raped" by this attempt by the Souls, and rejects them.

9-10. Amazement...comprehension: while "amazement" is a wide-eyed enjoyment of knowledge, any knowledge, comprehension requires that one systematizes reality into truth.

11-12. Confusion... distinction: for the purposes of enjoyment, knowledge can present itself in a chaotic state. But for comprehension, it must be systemical, analytical. The Souls' knowledge is holistic.

13-14. Laughter... satisfaction: "satisfaction" is pleasure seen from its end-point. Wà sees pleasure as the completion of pleasure: since pleasure cannot be a state (for Wà does not know it any more) it must be a process, and you feel satisfied by its completion, by its solution.

15-16. Multipicity... complexity: complexity is multiplicity with structure. Souls enjoy being many, yet they do not organize their multiplicity. Wà is complex, i.e. it is many in one.

17-18. Play... work: "play" and "work" may refer to the same activity, with the only difference lying in the person's attitude towards it. Play is concerned with the process, and its pleasure derives from the activity itself; work is concerned with the result, and its pleasure derives from its completion. Some professions can only be played, such as Artist, Gambler, Salesman... others can only be worked, such as Guard, Doctor, Accountant. In the first group, you must not forget the process: in the second, you must not forget the result.

20. hatred of Wà: here the Souls realize that Wà wants stillness, not only for itself, but as a necessary state of being for all. Stillness and order can only exist if there is no movement and disorder around - it is a potentially violent state.
III. Wà moves and eats I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm Wà looked at the Souls
    and saw disorder
    so Wà moved towards them
    because Wà loved them
5   and wished to reassure them,
    and because it was dying.
    And the Souls did not run away.
    As Wà regained the center of bliss,
    it started capturing Souls
10   and with each new prisoner
    Wà became more inevitable.
    Wà was all mouth
    and the swallowed Souls
    plunged into the stillest pit
15   became part of the machine.
5. reassure them: like a Christian priest, Wà moves towards the Souls considering them "lost", and wishing to take them back into its "flock". Here, Wà expresses misplaced, unwanted compassion, to which the Souls cannot react because they do not see its danger. Imposed compassion is often the wish to smother individuality.

6. dying: death, in this world before there are bodies that die, is complete stillness, complete cold. This is what Wà fears: its life energy can only come from without, as its structure tends to complete stillness. It can only survive by smothering and using the Souls' energy. Wà consumes energy, it absorbes the movement of free Souls in order to avoid complete nothingness.
IV. Wà's Song of Victory I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm With the might of the trapped Souls
    Wà started to sing,
    and its voice was a thunder,
    and its voice was a croak.
5   «I have opened my eyes,
    and all I see is misery.
    I recovered fallen Souls
    from their horrible madness.
    Oh! Those who are in order
10   have a past and a future.
    At the end of the glass-paved road
    there is quiet and soothing.
    Now I am the only meaning:
    I am the light of life
15   and there is darkness around.»
    The free souls were wide-eyed
    yet they did not join Wà:
    as they played on in Joy
    with more sadness than pleasure
20   they too created a harmony
    too simple for words.
3-4. a thunder... a croak: Wà's voice is powerful in destructiveness, yet constantly on the verge of death - it is the wail of the trapped Souls, and yet it is terrible and amazing to the free Souls.

5. opened my eyes: Wà claims to possess a higher level of consciousness than the Souls, yet this only blinds it to pleasure.

7-8. recovered... madness: Wà claims to have "saved" the Souls it has eaten. This is because it conceives its own stillness as the only proper state, although it sees itself suffering.

11. glass-paved road: the idea that suffering is a means to happiness serves Wà - so that it may feel superior in its own misery, and justify its desire to inflict them onto all the other Souls.

15. darkness: the "darkness" that Wà sings of is the darkness created by itself, the darkness engendered by the need for light. Souls do not need light, therefore they are never in darkness.

16. wide-eyed: the Souls are neither attracted nor terrified by Wà's song. They react as Souls do, with pure amazement, and yet they do not act on it, they are not influenced into action by Wà's words, because they are not part of a structure.

19. more sadness than pleasure: Souls are starting to be aware of the impending doom. Still, they do not react with fear, but rather with mourning.

20. harmony: the music arising from the Souls is involuntary, it is a vibration resulting from their newly found oneness of purpose - but it is simple, unstructured. It is more of a resonance than a tune.
V. Birth of the First Spirit of Joy I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm The resonance of the Souls
    created a perturbation
    in the fabric of the ocean.
    And on the wings of this music
5   the consciousness and the speech of the Souls
    filtrated in the midst of the whirlpool.
    And their music was a creature,
    the First Spirit of Joy.
    The Spirit had no matter
10   but it was visible to Wà
    and Wà saw an Enemy.
1. resonance: this is the vibration that constitutes Life and that Wà is losing. Now this resonance takes on a will of its own.

5. consciousness and speech: the Spirit is created out of the consciousness of the Souls, i.e. their capacity to distinguish themselves from Wà, and from their speech. Thus the Spirit could not be born if the Souls had not been affected by Wà-illness (G.VII).

8. The First Spirit of Joy: the first Spirit is the quintessence of life as the free Souls know it, their spokescreature, the expression of what they naturally are.

10. visible: the purpose of the Spirit is to make Wà acknowledge and understand the essence of the Souls, in the hope that Wà will eventually melt itself again and regain its soulness. Wà must know that Wà-lessness exists: Wà is made of trapped Souls, so all of Wà could become Souls again - there is no Evil spirit - so it is important that the individual Wà-souls still know that there is another state of being.

11. Enemy: the Spirit of Joy is seen by Wà as possessing the attributes of the Christian Devil. It is a threat to Wà's stability. Only Wà can conceive the existence of an Enemy, and sees it in the embodiment of its opposite, but also as the embodiment of its own desire.
VI. Battle of the Spirit and Wà I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm Wà was full of hatred and fear
    at the sight of the Spirit
    for it negated Wà-ness.
    And Wà spoke:
5   «You agent of Chaos
    you bringer of madness
    you negator of Truth.
    You will become part of me
    and you will be destroyed.»
10   And the Spirit spoke:
    «You monster of stillness
    you bringer of hatred
    you champion of Fear.
    I will become part of you
15   and you will have life.»
This "battle" is not a real battle. The Spirit is not there to win. It just wants to infect Wà with Joy. Because once Wà is born, there is no escape: just as an object cannot regain its balance after losing it, and must fall before finding a new one.

5. agent of Chaos: that which the Spirit most threatens is order, as negation of life.

6. madness: this is how Wà calls the freedom of the mind. In fact, Wà does not distinguish between the Souls that suffer and those that are too free to fit within itself. They are all "mad", "crazy", fit only to be locked up.

7. negator of Truth: i.e. negator of Wà (see G.II).

13. champion: in the medieval sense of "leader, hero", not in the modern sense of "winner of a competition".
VII. The Spirit enters Wà I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII

Genesis - Confrontation - Transformation
1 mm All the Free Souls
    gave a last vibration
    and the Spirit became most mobile.
    Wà growled its hatred
5   and moved its fangs forward.
    And the Spirit was eaten.
    But the Spirit was not a Soul
    and did not plunge into the stillness:
    a warmth and a vibration
10   ran through all the Souls of Wà
    from the snot to the tail,
    and this vibration became untemporary.
    Until now Wà resonates
    with Joy mixed to Wà-ness
 15   and the First Spirit of Joy
    animates the captive Souls.
3. most mobile: the Souls give all their energy to the Spirit, and thus become the Spirit.

5. fangs: Wà moves forward, open-mouthed, to swallow and kill the Spirit as if it were another Soul. Here for the first time, Wà is depicted as a creaking, dying, desperate dragon or beast.

7. the Spirit was not a Soul: the Spirit is Soul-ness, it exists on a different plane than Wà. For although Wà embodies Wà-ness, it is still made of captive Souls. Thus it cannot swallow the Spirit.

8. the stillness: see C.III, 14.

12. untemporary: not "eternal", but not temporary either. As the Spirit exists on a different plane than Wà or the Souls, it can inform Wà on a permanent basis. For for Wà, the Spirit is timeless. The Spirit is instability and Joy, and this instability becomes part of Wà's natural state, while before Wà was dying.

13. until now: Joy does not know eternity, makes no promises about the future. The world may end tomorrow.