4/06/2004 03:44:00 PM

from my perspective one of the most important things that the religions of the book forget is that they began in speech. that they were practiced. that their authority was enacted. religions of the book get side tracked into the unique didactics of the sign of language on a tanned hide or a tight mesh of reeds. this sign-language is over time enshrined to the extent that the event that enabled the language that became encased in the sign held together as a text is left a faint whisper under the rumble of the imperial procession of those whose lives now play out within the economy of the keepers of the books.