¶ … Abstraction and Composition: Some literary 'riffs' on the poetic vignettes of Cortazar The Possibilities of Abstraction

Once upon a time, I knew a student of philosophy who was frustrated in love. He produced a proof demonstrating to his beloved that she should put aside her doubts towards him. All men being equal, it did not matter what man she chose to spend the rest of her life with, so long as he was a man. The apparently insurmountable obstacle of her lack of attraction towards the student meant nothing, given that all human beings were composed, fundamentally, of the same atomic substances. Why not chose him as well as any man? He asked her. Thus, this abstract proof was presented to the young woman with great fanfare. She agreed wholeheartedly with the student, turned to the man sitting next to her in the auditorium (they were all sitting in a lecture hall, listening to a professor deconstructing Kant's works on aesthetic principles) and proposed marriage to the student's best friend, whom she barely knew.

The Possibilities of Abstraction 2 was also acquainted with a mathematics student, of the same university as my philosopher friend, whom accidentally defined himself into a different dimension, due to his overly taxing work upon a geometrical proof. The fire department was called, but to no avail. Only the intervention of a particularly illustrious member of the physics department enabled the poor boy to escape....

He never quite recovered from the experience and became, as a result of the trauma, intensely interested in 17th century theological poetry, eventually abandoning mathematics altogether for literature.
The Possibilities of Abstraction 3

Sometimes, I myself, become fascinated with wordless street signs, like the curved arrows with a hook that tell drivers there must be no left turn made at this particular intersection. Is it simply my own perversity, or do these signs make every observer long to do a left turn, immediately? I also like the signs with frightened-looking stick figures that indicate it may be hazardous to tip over a vending machine upon one's person. These signs are so helpful but I do wonder who, if anyone, ever was the model for these figures? Are they only illustrations of abstract principles and dangers, or do they bear a passing resemblance to a poor thin man of a specific guise, brought into the Emergency Room, after too vigorously attacking a machine that refused to dispense his Hershey Bar or return his fifty cents?

The Possibilities of Composition

Composition 1 hair comb composed of pure lightening. Would such a comb merely lighten the hair, like bleach, or singe the hair like fire? Or would the composition of the comb create an entirely different experience for the subject, giving him or her a connection with the sky, the eternal elements of electricity, or magic of entirely a…