Ovid (trans. Green): "A lover shoudl pave the way with letter: make sure you detail A trustworth maid to act as your go-between. Examine each message, deduce from his own expressions Whether it's faked, or written with genuine Heartfelt distress. Wait a little before you reply: a lovers Honed up by delay - provided it's not too long."
I'm re-reading Ovid's "Art of Love" and I find, after years of not thinking about it, that Ovid writes a book on telecommunication and netsex, a book all about wryting. You see, it is a problem of the message, of writing to and moving the other. I'm still thinking about this and haven't much to say, but it's wonderful to read. Ovid writes: "Techniques is the secret [...] Technique can control / Love himself." And technique, in this context and in this language, is cybernetics. The writing of love takes on the task of "finding an object," writing that object in and for love. Ovid calls this "safe love." "This poem breaks no taboos," but the objects is cathected, it becomes an object in the poem through the labor of wooing and seducing. Or, we can say, the message online is an object in love. The abject too, the obscene and sexual: fragments of the lover's discourse. There's a lot to think about here. The embodiment and class/gendering of the "medium" as part of the labor of the message. The role of expression and timing. And concealment as the key to technique - concealment as incorporation but also projection. Here's probably the most famous lines: "But take care not to give yourself away while Making such tongue-in-cheek compliments, don't allow Your expression to ruin the message. Art's most effective When concelaed. Detection discredits you for good." Love - Sandy
