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1913issue6online

15 side of the master-tooth. Technique à main levée, the artist-as- hairdresser firmly draws the part. Technique assistée, combing all the hair back and selecting the groove that will play the part. Target wore his hair slicked back. How could he have taken sides when all he wanted was to remain pat on the part? How can you play with a man who doesn’t want to win and doesn’t care to lose? In 1923 Duchamp meets Mary Reynolds, a fresh war widow, a mechanical equilibrium so finely balanced we seek to understand his word-logic of indifference. *Buridan’s Ass was said to starve because it had no reason to choose between two equidistant and equally tempting piles of hay. This particular example is nowhere to be found in Buridan’s writings, although there are versions of it going back at least to Aristotle. What we do find is Buridan’s Bridge: Socrates wants to cross a river and comes to a bridge guarded by Plato. Plato: Socrates, if in the first proposition which you utter, you speak the truth, I will permit you to cross. But surely, if you speak falsely, I shall throw you into the water. Socrates: You will throw me into the water. We recall Buridan undercover as a secular cleric, shunning doctrinal disputes: “Should two courses be judged equal, then the will cannot break the deadlock, all it can do is to suspend judgment until the circumstances change, and the right course of action is clear.” Duchamp pursued a similar pendular escape, withdrew into chess and finally retracted underground where the ordinary objects he touched lost their use-value. As soon as he embraced one, it changed into a museum piece. What did you do during the war? Some went on painting. Duchamp carried his suitcase around. >>>>>>>>>>>> MARRY MARY With Mary Reynolds carrying his case-history,

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