Posthuman Blues

Saturday, August 16, 2008

9 comments:

Anonymous said...: From the narration:

"It is the function of the guardian to protect hybrids and mutants in the vulnerable stage of infancy."

---William Burroughs

**shiver** [Meow...]

So Burroughs, whose cats included Ruski, Mutie, Spooner, Marigay, Calico, and Fletch (his favorite) was a cat fancier--fancy that...

From one of his last journal entries:

""There is no final enough - of wisdom, experience - any fucking thing. No Holy Grail, No Final Satori, no final solution. Just conflict. Only thing that can resolve conflict is love... What I feel for my cats... Most natural painkiller what there is..."; 5:43 AM
Katie said...: I never knew he was a cat-lover. That makes me like him even more. Though I have to say that sitting through that entire narration was a test of my ears.

His voice is just so...odd.; 9:16 AM
Anonymous said...: "cats started as psychic companions and familiars and have never deviated from this function"

There is a bit of truth in that quote. Take for instance Isaac. He was a spotted grey kitten who found me, a few weeks after I left my parent’s house to be on my own. He was my companion through a lot of ups and downs. Unfortunately, he contracted feline leukemia when he was 8 and moved on.
Fast-forward to 2007. After years of no feline companionship, I offered to adopt an adolescent male from an acquaintance sight unseen. Imagine my surprise when Vincent turns out to be a doppelganger to Isaac in appearance and demeanor. It's a little spooky (or ludicrous depending on your perspective). It's almost as if this particular life force was meant to be in my realm of existence somehow.
-anonfan; 11:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Speaking of cats, and doppelgangers, here's a chilly little story:

My family once lived in a nice suburban tract house on a cul de sac for 10 years, and we had a persian cat with longish black fur for several years. One day we noticed the cat was gone, and despite searching all over the neighborhood, we never found "Stanley Beamish."

Flash forward to over 10 years after that. My brother and I decided one day, as we were visiting our old home town, to go visit the house we had grown up in. The new owners were very friendly, and gave us a tour. As we were about to leave, the woman who lived there hesitantly asked if we had ever had a cat. We looked at each other, and said yes, as a matter of fact, but that it had apparently run off one day, and we never could find it. We asked why she'd asked, because it seemed a little curious.

She then asked if it was a persian, with somewhat lengthy black fur, without either of us having said what Stanley looked like. We told her she'd described Stanley to a T. She then said she and her husband had seen a cat trotting up the inner hallway of the house a few times, which wasn't theirs, as they had no pets, and that the cat they'd seen seemed somehow "out of focus" or not quite "clear," and almost translucent, or hazy in appearance.

Each time they'd been quite perplexed, as they didn't know how a cat had gotten into their house, and even more puzzled when, after the black cat had gone around a corner, or into the living room, and they'd followed it, the cat was no longer there to be found.

After the woman related this story, with her husband standing next to her, and confirming he'd seen it once himself when he was alone in the house, his wife then said, "well, maybe it was your cat's ghost." My brother and I politely said, well, maybe, and left soon thereafter. We haven't been back since, but I've had rare occassion to wonder if "the ghost of Stanley" ever made any further ambiguous appearances after our visit, or not. True story. Makes one wonder, eh?

This Burroughs' narrated video clip reminded me of that visit to our old house.; 6:35 PM
Mac said...: Thanks for the anecdotes. Interesting stuff. Makes you wonder if the ancient Egyptians were onto something.; 10:13 PM
Mac said...: Further reading for Burroughs/cat aficionados:

"The Cat Inside"
"My Education"
"Ghost of Chance"
"The Western Lands"; 11:45 PM
Katie said...: Intense,

When our cat Frankie died, I saw her around the house quite a bit. And when I was alone in bed, I'd often feel a presence snuggle up against me just like she used to. Out of habit I would reach down to pet her, only to find nothing there.

When a little stray we named "Mooch" was hit by a car right outside our house, we took him to the emergency vet and had to make the agonizing decision to put him to sleep.

More than once I'd peer out the window and swear I saw his little black face with the white stripe up the forehead. I even got what I saw in a photo once, but I lost the hard drive on my old laptop, and lost the photo as well.

Our other cat, Gigi, never made an appearance after she died. But then, she always was a rather independent kitty. :o); 7:20 AM
Anonymous said...: "When our cat Frankie died, I saw her around the house quite a bit."

When you say, "saw her," could you describe in more detail what you mean? Literally saw her? Did she appear any different, visually, or behaviorally, than when she was alive? Any time or location patterns of note? Or did you observe any unusual behavior when you "saw" her, or in relation to you, such as any reaction to you, after death?

I'm rather curious about your experience, and your sense of what such suggests to you, and am interested in any further details you may wish to provide about these questions, or any other pertinent data about this rather unusual form of anomaly.; 9:15 AM
Katie said...: Intense,

I mean "saw her" quite literally. She was an all white cat with bright blue eyes, and it was more than just a "out of the corner of my eye" sort of manifestation.

It was not unusual to be at the bottom of the stairs, and see her at the top, looking down at me. It might only be for an instance, but it was definitely her.

Or I could be walking down the hall, and have a white object trot by me giving me what we refer to as "Drive by lovin'". Offhand I'd say "Here there, Frankie-Pankie", hear a mew, and then suddenly realize that she'd passed on and look behind me to find her gone.

And as I mentioned above, if I went to bed before my hubby, I'd feel her curl up in ball along my lower back, just as she always had, but when I'd reach down to give her a scratch, there'd be nothing there.

It was more than just sensing her while in a dream state. These were true manifestations that would happen in the middle of the day while I was going about my daily business.

My husband saw her as well, though his experiences were more fleeting. It actually upset him a bit that I saw her more than he did, as she'd always been a "Daddy's girl".; 4:04 PM

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