The "Strick" Dialogues
In a recent column
about Letters to the Editor that I've received
during this year of (mostly) daily writing, I
briefly alluded to an email correspondence with a
gentleman scholar named Simon Strick from Berlin,
Germany. This individual postulated some erudite
arguments concerning the semantics of
"Strick"—particularly, "The Daily Strick."
Though I confess some of them escaped my intellect,
the earnestness of my philological friend Simon
made an impression. In the interest of allowing him
the fairness of a forum to express his views, I
have posted the full text of our correspondence
below. I'm sure both Simon and I would be
interested in hearing your thoughts on this
philosophical debate.
December 6
Dear Mr. Strickland!
I am sorry to say this, but I am really unhappy
with the way you are using my name to promote your
utterly conservative views. Regarding the fact that
"strick" in german means also "death by hanging"
(so the daily strick has connotations of "your
daily death sentence") I strongly advise you to
refrain from using my name as a "brand" and change
your site's name to "the daily strickland" or what
ever pleases your dubious convictions. Friends of
mine have been very confused recently and I have
faced major troubles explaining that I am not
involved with the views promoted by the "daily
strick". Since it is not your name anyway, please
drop it. Thank you very much for your
cooperation.
regards
Simon Strick
Berlin
My response:
Simon,
Thanks for writing in response to "The Daily
Strick." If you truly consider my views "utterly
conservative," then you have read few or none of my
daily articles. As a recent example, read
"Mantrimony": http://strick.net/blog/112003.shtml.
My beliefs range from the far right to the far
left, and fall right in the middle most of the
time. Keep reading, and you'll discover this for
yourself.
Obviously, your friends have not read closely
either, as my name is displayed prominently at the
top of every page. Difficult to confuse "Michael
Strickland" with "Simon Strick." And if your
friends think you're the only "Strick" in the
world, and thus "The Daily Strick" must belong to
Simon Strick, then they're likely confused about a
great many other things too.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me. It
often surprises me when I get a random email from
people I don't know who have found my Web site one
way or another. Glad to hear my writings have at
least had some form of emotional impact.
Best regards,
Michael "Strick" Strickland
p.s. Thanks for telling me that "strick" also
means "death by hanging" in German. That is an
interesting piece of trivia that I did not
know.
December 7
Dear Michael,
I can assure you my problem with your site has
nothing to do with your political convictions or
their assumed "emotional impact". To be honest,
your views may range where they want to. My problem
is one of nominal nature in the truest sense.
Your blog puts me to the most absurd situations,
e.g. it implicates, that I am indeed not "the daily
strick" myself, but somebody else. Am I not living
daily? Is my existence confined to a weekly,
monthly or even irregular basis, my body and person
comin back and forth in a serialized apparition?
Indeed, your site is making a nonsense of my
person, as if I were an appearing thing of public
interest. I can assure you that I have not only
lived daily in the past 30 years, but indeed I have
lived permanently, without interrupption or break.
If you think, Stricks or persons in general should
appear on a daily basis, you're up a very wrong
track yourself. Your website puts me in
metaphysical jeopardy.
Your argument that I am not the only Strick in
the world for me is terribly absurd, for I sould
not be able to live on the knowledge that I am
interchangeable. One has assume oneself as an
individual entity, which unequivocally is denoted
by one's proper name. Could you take yourself
seriously if you knew there were other Stricklands
exactly like yourself? As I say, this would be
metaphysical jeopardy.
But coming back to my initial argument, why do
you use "Strick" instead of Strickland, your own
proper name? Indeed a look at your website (The
daily Strick, strick.net, etc) seems to indicate a
systematic evasion of your own name. Despite the
tautological result, you even have adopted it as
your nickname. Why do you prefer my name over your
own?
Also, I find it very offensive that you regard
my request as just another "random email". You
should be less sure of yourself, given that you are
writing under a name that is not your own.
regards
Simon Strick
PS: You are getting me wrong: it is not "strick"
that is connoted with death penalty (people would
make endless fun of me then), but the expression
"THE Strick" which implies death by hanging. I am
very disappointed that you think of the german
language and its meanings as a piece of "trivia". A
writer like you should have higher regard for words
and their connotations. Or do you consider the
meanings of the words you use (and your site offers
nothing but words) as mere accidental trivia?
My response:
Dear Simon,
You have my deepest and most humble apologies. I
obviously understood little of the depth and
breadth of the philosophical panic induced by my
petty online ramblings. Wielding words like they
were Tinker Toys, I had no conception of the danger
that the (I hesitate to even type the title now)
Daily Strick could cause from afar. Though I did
understand that disbursing my opinions to the
aether might mean they would reach as far as
Deutschland and beyond, I did not realize their
power to produce a metaphysical crisis.
Of course you are an individual entity. How
could I possibly harness your being within the
electronic confines of HTML code? A name is a
powerful thing, but the mind more so. The very fact
of my blog's temporal compartmentalization into
diurnal segments proves its distinctness from you.
As you most eloquently put, you "have lived
permanently, without interruption or break" your
entire life. My blog is neither permanent nor
uninterrupted. In fact, its permanent,
uninterrupted existence would be a paradox; for if
I maintained it in such a continuous, ongoing flow
of ideas and opinions, I would have no opportunity
to get out, live life and form those opinions and
ideas. Thus, it seems axiomatic to me that you and
"The Daily Strick" are separate and unique.
Perhaps there is some truth in your conclusion
that I wish to evade my own name, however. I am a
scuba diver, and have always had an undying passion
for swimming, sailing and all sports associated
with the water. From that, then, might stem my
apparent aversion for the terrestrial suffix of my
name. But my logic might again be flawed; for then,
would I not prefer the name "Strickwater" instead
of simply "Strick"?
Such philosophical ponderings and metaphysical
crises must remain unresolved for the time being.
But, as before, I thank you for taking the time to
share your most intriguing thoughts with me.
With warmest regards,
Michael STRICKLAND
December 9
Dear Michael,
irony then. but what does you irony mean, except
that you find my "philosophical panic" (that's not
what I said) absurd? I guess it says: "come on
strick, lets be reasonable! let's not quarrel about
names." The mind may be a strong thing, but in my
opinion the internet is less an arena of the mind
or reason than of names and words. I do know very
little of your mind or your person, as you properly
reminded me in your first email. That is
unavoidable, because the internet is primarily the
place of the nominal and the words we use might
have effects we cannot predict, especially if they
travel to such a remote place as germany (I can
assure you, America is just as far away). Did you
know that the American poet Nathaniel Mackey wrote
a series of poems on the word "strick" and released
a CD about it? For him the implications of "strick"
range from the phonological neighbours like strike,
struck, string, stick etc. to the metaphorical
connotations like the death by hanging. It is a
rhythmical, semantic and historical entity as he
called it once. Now I do not subscribe to Mackey's
convictions completely, but his work shows, that
the word/name Strick is a complicated thing.
I am telling you this, because I would like to
know, why you are using a name that is not your own
and about which you know very few things - it must
be completely arbitrary to you. If this last
statement is true, you can of course only refuse my
philosophical panic attack.
It is kind of you to accept my status as an
individual entity. As such, I cannot accept the
combination of my name (which by convention denotes
my person) with an attribute such as "daily". You
will agree with me that persons do not appear
daily, except when they are fatally sick and the
doctor tells them, that death may strike any day.
Since I am reasonably healthy, I do not see how I
can by any means be associated with a daily
occuring. Of course you tell me, your blog and my
person are not the same - why then does it carry
that name, just as I do? Maybe I should have spoken
about grammatical problems. But I learned that man
exists as a being connected to and dependent on
language in order to form his ideas - on himself,
on nature, or that inbetween. And your site in my
view shows one of the problems that arise, when the
written ideas of different persons are suddenly
globally connected - which words represent whose
ideas?
perhaps crises must remain unresolved, but since
it is my crisis, please leave that decision to
me.
best
Simon
December 10
dear michael
i just discovered that i have already made an
appearance in your daily blog (though i am heading
every single entry) and will soon descent into the
archives of the daily strick. the prophecy of the
execution of strick has been fulfilled: for what is
daily, must at some point become yesterdays news -
dead and gone.
unfortunately you have not told your readers
(including myself) about the arguments i put forth,
however bizarre they might have seemed to you. now,
as your reader, i am confronted with a story about
a highly amusing gentleman and i know that your
story forecloses the vital aspects of our debate,
reducing it to mere trivia. of course, the daily is
always trivial, and so is the daily strick. or did
i not mention my arguments to you? i can hardly
remember what i wrote to you - excuse my
forgetfulness, but this happens when you are
confined to a life in the "daily".
yours
simon
My response:
Dear Simon,
With your permission, I would be happy to post
the full text of our email correspondence for my
readership and the entire world (universe?).
Perhaps someone who reads it will be able to better
understand your arguments, for I confess they fly
over my head (actually, as I understand them, they
seem absurd, but to give you the benefit of the
doubt, I am willing to consider the likelihood that
they seem absurd because I don't understand
them).
Regards,
Mike
December 13
dear mike,
sorry for answering so late, i'm busy with exams
at the moment. i think it's a wonderful idea! our
arguments will return to where they came from,
words and the nominal. for you see, when you make
my "case" a newsstory your readers will think i am
a real person, except the reader Simon Strick, who
finds himself reduced to a "story". But a complete
post of your and my arguments is neither story,
news nor case, it is a protocol, a literal
documentation of something which may or may not
have happened. Therefore please do post our little
conversation, and I ask you only to present it in
its entirety, including this (and maybe your
following) mail. I think something has occured
between our email-accounts, but let's leave it to
the others to decide what it was.
Hope to hear from you soon and thanks very much
for your initiative
best
Simon
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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