JCTV@jamaica

JAMAICAN SPACES: AN ENCYCLOPAEDIC ODYSSEY

(Letters A to G have now largely been edited. The rest is stil in a rough state.)

According to 'a certain Chinese Encyclopaedia' animals can bedivided into fourteen categories, namely a. belonging to the emperor, b. embalmed, c. tame, d. sucking pigs, e. sirens, f. fabulous, g, stray dogs, h, included in the present classification, i. frenzied, j. innumerable, k. drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, l. etcetera, m. having just broken the water pitcher, n. that from a long way off look like flies." This wonderful self-undermining categorisation comes from Les mots et les choses, in which the author Michel Foucault quotes a story by Jorge Luis Borges who in turn has it from his own sources.... The encyclopedia below presents a journey through a mind getting to know itself through a long sojourn in a country that was at once wonderful and difficult. The encyclopedia is ordered by nothing more banal than the alphabet. Its purpose is to make sure we do not even begin to feel confident that we know ourselves, let alone the places we inhabit, whatever our connection with them. Places are always more, always less...being made visible by the descriptions of them.