William Fuller

DIUTURNITY

With the help of ideas and things 
we were able to complete the budget 
on time. One fixed principle 
was that all materials should be factual. 
This proved deeply problematic 
until one day our concept of facts 
was clarified to include 
any element that would allow us 
to conclude our activities. 
For instance, in forecasting 
use of the Guest Dining 
Room, we were able 
to insert the following sentence 
to explain the absence of numbers: 
'Your job is to give everyone 
in your group personal accountability 
for transforming the culture.' Separate 
categories were then devised for Job, 
Personal, Accountability, Transforming, 
and Culture, which were budgeted 
accordingly. By these means every 
possible circumstance was reproduced 
on the machine, which printed out 
a series of alternatives to facts 
(the second iteration suggested 
that facts themselves, as formerly understood, 
were already alternatives to facts, 
but this notion 
was cut from the budget 
at the third iteration). 
Owing to such specificity, participants 
were freed to recruit for next year's 
budget season. 'Don't piecemeal it,' 
we were told by a pair of pewter sconces 
hanging in the engine room, 
'Nonperiodic payments are payments 
that are not periodic. 
Loyalty is a treacherous thing 
in a world of rapid change.' 
With these last adjustments in place 
the final iteration was submitted at 
five o'clock on Halloween. The face 
of the document had a livid 
background on white paper.



THOMAS THE RHYMER

Sitting on its little easel 
is a certified copy 
of The Chart. The Chart 
displays in careful detail the relative 
positions of the Participants 
in reference to the six or seven 
floating centers from which 
pulses of negative accountability 
emanate. Outward and downward, 
these emanations concretize 
toward the base of the room, 
building up sedimentary structures 
where all activities subsequently 
take place. Out of the sediment, 
perches of various heights slowly rise up, 
each offering access to its own 
suite of views. That these views 
are all to some extent obstructed by 
posts, exit-signs, or other perches 
does not lessen their desirability. 
Looking out, one can inventory 
the entirety of one's material 
and can plan best how 
to engage it. In this case, the 
material's inherent obstinacy 
appears to have effectively resisted 
all attempts to dominate it. 
But on further inspection 
one notes with astonishment 
that the material has somehow, 
before one's eyes, shaped itself 
into an intricate replica 
of the royal bedroom. 
There are marble walls 
and a gold ceiling 
decorated with formal imagery. 
The work is entitled "Diversions 
of the Insect World" and was 
recently sold to a ghost 
who leapt down 
to become embedded 
in its aspirations.