0220 Chapter four is titled, “The Sacred, the Obscene and the Undead”.

Zizek starts with a definition of parallax.  A parallax is the perceived shift of an object against its background caused when an observer changes position.  It reminds me of a postcard from Hawaii that depicts a tropical flower garden (when held one way) and an erupting volcano (when held in a slightly different way).

0221 Astrology is all about this type of phenomena.  From the point of view of a person on the planet Earth (the subject), the sun (the object) changes its zodiac sign (the background) every month or so.  The moon changes zodiac sign every two and one-third days.

0222 Of course, astrology can be associated to the elements of a category-based nested form.

0223 It makes me wonder about the spoken term, “location”.

Is being born when the sun is in the zodiac sign of Capricorn anything like being born in Los Angeles?

0224 Both the sign of Capricorn and Los Angeles are forms that locate the matter of a person, so the contiguity of [birth] applies to two jurisdictions, one celestial and one mundane.

The relevant category-based nested forms (pictured above) occupy the situation level.  What is curious about these two jurisdictions is that they already exist (as explicit abstractions) before a person is born.  That must happen on the content level, where [birth] is… if I may say… “explicit” but not “abstract”.

0225 May I call [birth] on the content-level, [gestation and labor]?

Then, [birth] on the situation-level is [born into].

One would think, since we use the same word for the contiguity, that the referents would be the same.  Indeed, one would think that one implies the other.  But, this is not the case.

0226 How so?

What if my parents flee the old country and live in a new country that is… well… foreign to them?

Then, I can be born in the sign of Capricorn but not be “born” into the jurisdiction of Los Angeles.  My birth occurs under one heaven, marked by the zodiac constellations.  My birth occurs in Los Angeles, which means that I belong to its jurisdiction.  The laws of Los Angeles apply to be.  But, I cannot be counted as a citizen.  My parents are foreigners.

In the narrow legal framework of distinct nation states, each operating under its own heaven, I am not to be and I am.

0227 Here is a picture of the nested forms for content and situation levels.  This two-level interscope is “sensible” according to A Primer on Sensible and Social Construction (by Razie Mah, available at smashwords and other e-book venues).

0228 What about the symbolic level?

Well, that is for the symbolic level to judge. I am simultaneously born, under the universal sign of Capricorn, and born again, into a jurisdiction whose name translates into “The Angels”.