Template:Oubliette capsule: Difference between revisions

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A [[negotiation oubliette]] is the lawyer’s equivalent of what {{author|Douglas Adams}} once called a “clabby” conversation:<ref>{{br|The Meaning of Liff: The Original Dictionary Of Things There Should Be Words For}}, by {{author|Douglas Adams}} and {{author|John Lloyd}}.</ref> one struck up by a [[rent-seeker|commissionaire]] to appear busy while avoiding difficult work, wasting time and provoking maximum forward confusion.  
A naturally occurring subterranean cavern that forms when the opinionated gather to argue about trifles. Given enough nest-feathering, posturing and guano, even the most robust topic will tend to fray and weaken and may in time collapse: those discussing it suddenly find themselves in a dungeon of their own making, not knowing how they got there, but rather enjoying it all the same.


Negotiation oubliettes have a cosmological quality to them; like any [[Schwarzschild radius of institutional ennui|black hole]] they are impossible to see ''directly'' — detectable only by their signature detritus: crushed aspirations of clarity and elegance swirling around an [[event horizon]] of nothingness, like so many gossamer dreams of greatness gurgling down a galaxy-sized plughole. We enter these space-tedium [[Singularity|singularities]] often, but always unwittingly, because only when we scrabble desperately for a way to back out do we realise what we have fallen into. Only then does the conceptual impossibility of such a withdrawal occur.
Oubliettes have a cosmological quality: like any [[Schwarzschild radius of institutional ennui|black hole]], they are impossible to see ''directly''. We detect them only by their signature detritus: crushed aspirations of clarity and elegance, swirling around an [[event horizon]] of [[pedantry]] like so many gossamer dreams of greatness, gurgling around a galaxy-sized plughole. We enter these [[space-tedium]] [[Singularity|singularities]] often, but always unwittingly, and it is only when scrabbling desperately for a way back ''out'' that we realise just what we have fallen into.

Latest revision as of 07:33, 25 August 2024

A naturally occurring subterranean cavern that forms when the opinionated gather to argue about trifles. Given enough nest-feathering, posturing and guano, even the most robust topic will tend to fray and weaken and may in time collapse: those discussing it suddenly find themselves in a dungeon of their own making, not knowing how they got there, but rather enjoying it all the same.

Oubliettes have a cosmological quality: like any black hole, they are impossible to see directly. We detect them only by their signature detritus: crushed aspirations of clarity and elegance, swirling around an event horizon of pedantry like so many gossamer dreams of greatness, gurgling around a galaxy-sized plughole. We enter these space-tedium singularities often, but always unwittingly, and it is only when scrabbling desperately for a way back out that we realise just what we have fallen into.

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