How To Grow Your Own Lightbulbs
by jwc 3o2
in the late '9os/early 2ooos, as a result of John Riddell's How To Grow Your Own Light Bulbs (first issued in pamphlet form as The Light Bulb Conspiracy (Toronto, Chex, 1985) & (in 1996), revised, as part of the book of the same title from Mercury Press (see www.flickr.com/photos/48593922@N04/6686977655/)), we repeatedly attempted this bit of pataphysical gardening. as can be seen from the photographs, one year resulted in a fine crop of 6 bulbs but they were ripped out by persons unknown just as they were beginning to achieve a soft glow. another year, the seedlings'd just begun to grow bulbous when they were again vandalized. ALL other years we attempted this met with the same end: crops killed in one way or another. the temptation is to blame sabotage on the part of "manufacturers" of lightbulbs, who would have us believe their technological esoterica necessary to the "production" of these variations in the lilaceæ family. "Lilaceous bulbous lightus is an angiospermous plant of the sub-class Monocotyledoneæ, characterized by an endogenous manner of growth."
