The Oyster: Or, Radial Suppleness (Agrodolce)

There is something of the seventeenth century methodology present in The Oyster, as multiple disciplines (philosophy, literature, visual art, biology, architecture) converge within the experiences of thinking, eating, and diagramming. The center stage is given to a humble mollusk, which becomes an object, a subject, a sentient consciousness, and an alien will, progressively and then even simultaneously. In The Oyster we also find a pan-psychic attitude, something of a vital materialist disposition. This investigation reveals to the reader contingent details about the aesthetic origin of the universe by: a) ingesting the oyster's interior; and b) carefully traversing its sharp outer surface and polished interior space. Here reading, writing, creating, cooking, digesting become an act of filtering. The essential glorious trait of the oyster.