I must confess that what I glean from the Tractatus is to be used by me as a sort of cargo-cult fuel, and W's own evaluations of his work do not overly concern me. His attempt to trap what the late Richard Feynmann alluded to as the "messiness of the real world" in a theorem, or set of principles, is to me a bold and admirable business, whether or not it is doomed to fail. Any book, fiction or non-fiction, is like a set of propositions that define a specific and finite world and exclude all else. I guess I am just looking for sturdy German containers to carry my thoughts around in. And my auto-didactic persona may make all this seem somewhat more seriously taken by me than it actually is.

Joculum has presented me with an interesting example of  W. observing a man on stage, and a short treatise on the psychology of viewing.  I like the idea of Wittgenstein as a new, informed sort of observer. Here is a man who can possibly "see" Shrodinger's cat and tell us if all is well? I had already surmised that W would prefer a reality based on observing actions, rather than relating through words. The simple writer's dictum: show, don't tell. The theater, or movies as higher forms of art. But what about images that lie? W. doesn't care because they all signify something knowable. A book that is entirely devoted to this topic of the viewer, the viewed, and the interior and exterior spaces of art is: The Model by Robert Aickman. This book gives me aesthetic shivers of a profound and unknown kind.