Oddbean new post about | logout
 nostr:npub1jacntdqvalt27vngj9hwhjyqzppeayq7hnm2xmf7747t84yz32as4czppv  Symbols and all the whacky combinations of them contain particular characteristics formed both of the quality of the symbol (see Germanic vs Latin parts of English) and the formed-association of the symbol. This allows them to evoke the ineffable nature of something far beyond the symbol by combining something essential and something arbitrary. The power of the symbol is it's ability to make the reader of the symbol see that nature, not the combination of symbols itself which will always be purely reductive towards what it's actually secretly referring to. I have no idea how this answers the question actually. I'm going to roll with both. Emergent because there are many ways to evoke the thing (although they will always be differently coloured accordingly), and preordained because what the symbols are referring to is so pure and true that it can be spotted endlessly over and over again and uh also both at once because uh the wheel weaves as the wheel wills buddy.