Substance is that which cannot be predicated of anything or be said to be in anything :

Fried Egg on the Plate without the Plate.

 

Quantity is the extension of an object, and may be either discrete or continuous :

Self-Portrait Being Duplicated into Three.

 

Quality is the determination that characterizes the nature of an object :

All Shapes Derive from the Square.

 

Relation is the way one object may be related to another :

Hairdresser Depressed by the Persistent Good Weather.

 

Place is position in relation to the surrounding environment :

Cathedral of Thumbs.

 

Time is position in relation to the course of events :

The Triangular Hour.

 

Position is a condition of rest resulting from an action. Thus position may be taken as the end point for the corresponding action :

Face of Mae West Which May Be Used as an Apartment.

 

State means a condition of rest resulting from an affection. The term is, however, frequently taken to mean the determination arising from the physical accoutrements of an object: one’s shoes, one’s arms, etc. Traditionally, this category is also called a habitus (from Latin habere, to have) :

The Chromosome of a Highly-Colored Fish’s Eye Starting the Harmonious Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory.

 

Action is a production of change in some other object (or in the agent itself qua other) :

The Pharmacist of Ampurdan in Search of Absolutely Nothing.

 

Affection is the reception of change from some other object. Aristotle’s examples make clear that action is to affection as the active voice is to the passive voice — as acting is to being acted on :

Polyhedron. Basketball Players Being Transformed into Angels (Assembling a Hologram – the Central Element).

 

 

Notes:  The italicized lines are the ten categories from Aristotle’s Categories. Wording is borrowed from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categories_(Aristotle), taken on March 31, 2014.

The first part of the title of the poem and lines not italicized are the titles of paintings by Salvador Dali.

Aristotle’s Categories, because they were covered in the philosophy book my uncle had asked his parents for, as a college graduation gift.

Dali, because my grandfather improbably loved his work.

Jessica Goodfellow lives and writes in Japan, but she is not from there, as everything conspires to remind her all the time.