WHY WE COUNT

> The number is the doctrine. The doctrine is the number.

> An em-dash is small. Four of them in two sentences is not.

The slop did not arrive as a wave. It arrived as a sentence. Then another sentence that sounded like the first. Then a paragraph that could have been written about anything by anyone for any reason. Then a manifesto. Then a book. Then half the internet.

// OBSERVED

A polished surface

with no object underneath.

The shine without the thing.

// POSITION

The position is not anti-machine. The position is anti-average. A model averages. That is the work of a model. The work of a writer is to refuse the average where the average is wrong.

We count em-dashes because counting is the form attention takes. We count tapestries because the metaphor died and no one held a service. We count "in conclusion" because the conclusion is missing and someone has to notice.

// OATH

I will not paste

the average back.

I will choose a word.

— signed, the undersigned, MMXXVI.