when a picture doesn't speak a thousand words

it's been said, as i'm sure everyone other then the people in those poorish countries (they don't have books over there) know, a picture speaks a thousand words. i look at a picture and sometimes agree. sometimes not.

then i think of that rene magritte painting and how he tries to sum up the idea that a million words still don't measure up to a single image because you're limited to our vocabulary.

theres something evil in the message of this painting. my first thought is well sure, but what about the blind guy i saw today giving himself blisters on braile. a thousand words is say, oh i don't know, ten thousand bumps of braile. on that hard plastic too.

i picture a blind man reading the words on the painting through braile. "This is not a pipe."

Then asking Magritte.

-Well then, what the fuck is it.

-You'll never know.