ASCRYPTION

The real esoteric clue to acclerationism’s proficiency is thus to recognize that to diagram is not simply to describe something that is already there. ‘You ever see her odd little essay about “Ascryptions”?’ enquires Calvin Dodd—referring to Mary Karno— of the unnamed protagonist in Land’s short story, Deadlines. ‘Never met anyone who gets it,’ Dodd continues, ‘I certainly never did, before. Subtitled Practices for Writing on Reality, then wall-to-wall senselessness, even by her standards. [But] it’s all in the first two sentences. Writers get stuck when they forget that every story has a demon. To begin, you have to learn its name.’ ‘Ascryption?’ replies the unnamed interloctor. ‘Exactly,’ confirms Dodd.70 Ascryption can, perhaps, be grasped as ascription’s cryptic double. While the latter attributes effect to cause, the former, a species of hyperstitional revalencing, attributes cause to effect. Reverse ascription: the name brings about the thing. --- AMY IRELAND