Today: No Exit: Meanings
and Masks in Contemporary
Poetry and in Wittgenstein's
*Philosophical Investigations*
scroll down to Monday, July 11,
for Process and Object [in
Wittgenstein's *Zettel*:
Literary Currents
in W and Freud];
Saturday, July 9
for:* Poetry and Thinking:
Thinking for Oneself*
in *Zettel*; also
Limetree, Bemsha Swing
and :fait accompli: in the
Bemsha Swing comments
section; Friday, July 8,
*Love is Not A Feeling*:
love put to the test in
*Zettel*; Thursday,
July 7: *The Most
Astounding Things are
Possible*: Thought and
The Infinite in *Zettel*]
No Exit
We live in a world in which we are
deluged daily by words, ideas,
facts, accounts, images. Still,
we frequently feel utterly isolated,
why? Kafka's *Metamorphosis*
provided us with one of the best
explanations as to why. The contemporary
world is intrusive, and the final result
of this constant intrusiveness is the
squashing of any possible feeling of
significance.
Although we are drowned in meanings
every moment of our lives, our sense
of there being much significance to our
meanings or our experiences is
constantly eroding. Like Gregor
Samsa reduced to insect dimensions,
we are utterly dwarfed by forces infinitely
larger than ourselves.There are, of course,
innumerable causes for this, among
them the fact that technology has made
it possible for groups, large and small,
to eliminate our very existence quite
easily. But there are other reasons.
The expropriation of the very process
of extracting a sense of
significance from our experiences as individuals
by the marketplace of meaning-making
results in a internal feeling of powerlessness
and insignificance. We hang on every report
as to the facts and numbers supporting this;
information-gathering offers our only sense of
control- a form of control
obviously extremely ephemeral,
elusive and mostly upsetting and confusing.
One development in contemporary poetry
offers a direction out of this dilemma by
suggesting that one can play, not only
with meanings, but with the very process of
meaning-making. Poets seize on the
pleasures and powers of this process
and find a way to breathe in the open
air of poetic expression. Yet
there is no excaping the *weltenshaung*
of one's era. The poetry, once introduced
into the public arena, invites poets
back into the very social dynamics
they sought to excape in writing it.
The poet never wrote the work to
increase the sense of isolation, on
the contrary. Yet the social dynamics
that squeeze the sense of significance
out of even the most committed efforts on part of individuals
to influence such dynamics are inexorable.
Hence, the contemporary direction in poetry towards
private languages. Such languages offer
poets an entry into a circle of readers who
seek an exit from the larger social
dynamic through work which disgusts people
who enthusiastically avow the powerful, public,
"civic" forces which resemble the actions of
a game, even a "language game," but a
language game that has more resemblance a football
game, than a game of questioning and interpreting
aesthetic paradoxes.. The craving for what is no longer
possible in conventional life- a feeling of
personal significance, however, paradoxically returns
the circle of makers of private language
right back to the game-as-usual
social dynamics of team
sports. As Phillip K. Dick believed, we've
never actually exited the era of the Roman Circus.
Wittgenstein's ideas offer much to think
about in this realm. While ostensibly
he supports the parameters of conventional
reality -creation through supporting traditional
behavioristic modes of language iinterpretation,
he weaves into his work an underlying series of
paradoxes, underlining the ambiguities,
ambivalences, debates
and paradoxes that
pervade the very fabric of the social reality
of language.
......
"243. A human being can encourage himself,
give himself orders and obey, blame and punish
himself; he can ask himself a question and answer
it. We could even imagine human beings who
spoke only in monologue; who accompanied
their activities by talking to themselves.- An
explorer who watched them and listened to
their talk might succeed in translating their
language into ours. (This would enable him to
predict these people's actions correctly, for
he also hears them making resolutions and
decisions.)
But could we also imagine a language in which
a person could write down or give social
expression to his inner experiences- his feelings,
moods, and the rest- for his private use?- Well,
can't we do so in our ordinary language?-
But that is not what I mean. The individual
words of this language are to refer to what can only
be known to the person speaking; to his
immediate private sensations. So another
person cannot understand the language."
(*Philosophical Investigations*-
Ludwig Wittgenstein)
Wittgenstein plays with the concept of private
language only to finally try to overrule it.
But the perpetual flirting with the notion, finally,
makes it even more attractive. This is often when
he turns to his fascination with music.
Like Kafka, Wittgenstein's
obsessions become our
own because of his scrupulous
loyalty to discovering
the truth through self and
social confrontations. This is
the other side of the
contemporary poet's dedication
to authenticity by uncovering and revealing
experience through a paradoxial
dedication to seeking
modes of camoflage.
A Queer Process
"196. In our failure to understand the use
of a word we take it as the expression
of a queer "process." (As we think of time
as a queer medium, of the mnd as a queer
kind of being.)
"197. 'It's as if we could grasp the whole use
of a word in a flash.'- And that is just
what we say we do. That is to say: we
sometimes describe what we do in these
words. But there is nothing astonishing,
nothing queer, about what happens. It becomes
queer when we are led to think that the
future development must in some way already
be present in the act of grasping the use and
yet isn't present....."
*****************************
As discussed below, Wittgenstein here
elucidates his discomfort with some of the concepts
employed in developmental psychology.
*************
Understanding a Poem
"531. We speak of understanding a sentence
in the sense in which it can be replaced by
another which says the same; but also in the
sense in which it cannot be replaced by any
other. (Any more than one musical theme
can be replaced by another).
In the one case the thought in the sentence is
something common to different sentences;
in the other, something that is expressed only
by these words in these positions. (Understanding
a poem)."
"532. Then has 'understanding' two different meanings here?-
I would rather say that these kinds of use of 'understanding'
make up its meaning, make up my *concept* of understanding.
For I want to apply the word 'understanding' to all this."
"533. But in the second case, how can one explain the
expression, transmit one's comprehension? Ask yourself:
How does one *lead* anyone to comprehension of a poem
or of a theme? The answer to this tells us how
meaning is explained here."
*******************
Wittgenstein makes it clear in the above aphorisms that he
has a firm grasp about what how poetry wants to be and should be understood.
But in many of the following sections he comes back to a behavioristic,
descriptive approach.
Wittgenstein is scrupulous- that is a good part of the fascination.
He has his approach- but he recognizes and confronts all the
the other approaches he can learn and find out about, having to do
with his themes, continually
applying his rigorous rules of logical thinking. He is a logician,
but one with a keen sense of and interest in how people think and feel
and explain how they think and feel to themselves and each other.
And now and then, in the midst of a logical exposition,
there are sudden moments of intense lyric
compression: These are all the more moving because of the
rigorous, dry, logical approach he generally employs.
******************
"543. Can I not say: a cry, a laugh are full of meaning?
And that means, roughly: much can be gathered from them."
****************
Wittgenstein's intense earnestness, concern and
trust in his pursuit of truth contribute to a powerful, inexorable
poetic undercurrent throughout much of his writing.
quotations are from:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, *Philosophical
Investigations*
translated by G.E,M. Anscombe
Blackwell Publishing
2001, first edition 1953
************************************
More strumming by Kasey to *Zettel* under the
Limetree {click here}
************************************
3 "Drop Dead Beautiful" Aphorisms About Love
from David Hess (Orpheus in Boxers) {click here}
Distribution Automatique
Monday, July 11
Process and Object
"It somehow worries us that the thought
in a sentence is not wholly present
at any one moment. We regard it as an
object which we are making and have
never got all there, for no sooner does
one part appear than another vanishes."
from *Zettel* by Ludwig Wittgenstein
University of California Press, 1967
Wittgenstein was fascinated by Freud
and much has been written about the
differences between the two theorists.
Again and again, W seems to be on the
verge of embracing the developmental
aspect of psychoanalytic thinking; then
he ever more staunchly
returns to the behavioristic model.
As W acknowledges above, anyone
fascinated with the process
aspect of thinking
and experience comes to
question the behavioristic
approach with chooses to focus on
object over subject. But the two are
inevitably intertwined.
There is a longing in Wittgenstein for
a clear-cut distinction between what
is correct and what is incorrect, a
mathematician's understandable
yearning for answers.
Pyschoanalysis shows that
the rational element in experience is
never permanently distinguishable
from the irrational element, though
mental health depends on a
continual effort to distinguish them,
especially in times of conflict.
Both Wittgenstein and Freud
were drawn to literary insights
and examples. Both recognized
the irrational element in poetry
and art, but each in their own
way were driven to discover methods
enabling their work to counter
their, you might say, literary
tendencies, with logic and science.
But an argument could be made
that their most durable contributions
remain essentially literary.
It appears now that one of Freud's
enduring contributions was to
transpose literary methods, processes
and insights into a form of psychological
therapy he called psychoanalysis.
Although he acknowledged that the poets
preceded him, he grounded his psychoanalystic
system and organization on scientific models.
Wittgenstein also likened his philosophical work
to a kind of therapy, applicable, he said, to
"philosophical cramps."
Again and again attempts on the
part of philosophers, such as Wittgenstein
and Freud to incorporate
and submerge the successes
of literary processes and
contributions to culture
into an overarching system
of cultural intervention
have faded in time.
What does appear to happen is that
the literary domain grows ever
larger and more complex. Freud
helped to bring literary thinking into the
psychiatric domain; Wittgenstein,
like Derrida, helped to return its
energies and powers into the
philosophical/scientific
sphere.
Repeatedly, and cyclically,
the literary strain in culture
turns around and absorbs
and encompasses such lasting,
powerful contributions
helping to insure their permanency.
Nietzche is certainly another
striking example of such an effort;
Derrida another. In other words,
philosophy and psychology's
cultural territory expands; only
to be absorbed, historically,
into the annals of literature.
Might this be partly because the
literary river continually gains
in momentum over time due
to its essentially individualistic
international, and time-
defying character?
Of course, during fascist eras
like ours, this ultimate cultural
supremacy appears eclipsed
by the warlike character of
the ruling classes.Yet everyone
suspects the pen is mightier
than the sword- and systems-
but sadly, it appears,
only in the long run.
*******************************
The Emperor of Ice Cream: What Does It All Mean?
the Limetree (KSM) {click here}
riffs a long, cool, soulful solo on themes
developed on Bemsha Swing
and here of late, including some of our
own wistful whistling of melodies out
of Ludwig W's *Zettel*; Kasey's the
second blogger to jam on
Jonathan Mayhew's theme on
poetic thinking {click here}
until exhaustion. Whose next?
"It somehow worries us that the thought
in a sentence is not wholly present
at any one moment. We regard it as an
object which we are making and have
never got all there, for no sooner does
one part appear than another vanishes."
from *Zettel* by Ludwig Wittgenstein
University of California Press, 1967
Wittgenstein was fascinated by Freud
and much has been written about the
differences between the two theorists.
Again and again, W seems to be on the
verge of embracing the developmental
aspect of psychoanalytic thinking; then
he ever more staunchly
returns to the behavioristic model.
As W acknowledges above, anyone
fascinated with the process
aspect of thinking
and experience comes to
question the behavioristic
approach with chooses to focus on
object over subject. But the two are
inevitably intertwined.
There is a longing in Wittgenstein for
a clear-cut distinction between what
is correct and what is incorrect, a
mathematician's understandable
yearning for answers.
Pyschoanalysis shows that
the rational element in experience is
never permanently distinguishable
from the irrational element, though
mental health depends on a
continual effort to distinguish them,
especially in times of conflict.
Both Wittgenstein and Freud
were drawn to literary insights
and examples. Both recognized
the irrational element in poetry
and art, but each in their own
way were driven to discover methods
enabling their work to counter
their, you might say, literary
tendencies, with logic and science.
But an argument could be made
that their most durable contributions
remain essentially literary.
It appears now that one of Freud's
enduring contributions was to
transpose literary methods, processes
and insights into a form of psychological
therapy he called psychoanalysis.
Although he acknowledged that the poets
preceded him, he grounded his psychoanalystic
system and organization on scientific models.
Wittgenstein also likened his philosophical work
to a kind of therapy, applicable, he said, to
"philosophical cramps."
Again and again attempts on the
part of philosophers, such as Wittgenstein
and Freud to incorporate
and submerge the successes
of literary processes and
contributions to culture
into an overarching system
of cultural intervention
have faded in time.
What does appear to happen is that
the literary domain grows ever
larger and more complex. Freud
helped to bring literary thinking into the
psychiatric domain; Wittgenstein,
like Derrida, helped to return its
energies and powers into the
philosophical/scientific
sphere.
Repeatedly, and cyclically,
the literary strain in culture
turns around and absorbs
and encompasses such lasting,
powerful contributions
helping to insure their permanency.
Nietzche is certainly another
striking example of such an effort;
Derrida another. In other words,
philosophy and psychology's
cultural territory expands; only
to be absorbed, historically,
into the annals of literature.
Might this be partly because the
literary river continually gains
in momentum over time due
to its essentially individualistic
international, and time-
defying character?
Of course, during fascist eras
like ours, this ultimate cultural
supremacy appears eclipsed
by the warlike character of
the ruling classes.Yet everyone
suspects the pen is mightier
than the sword- and systems-
but sadly, it appears,
only in the long run.
*******************************
The Emperor of Ice Cream: What Does It All Mean?
the Limetree (KSM) {click here}
riffs a long, cool, soulful solo on themes
developed on Bemsha Swing
and here of late, including some of our
own wistful whistling of melodies out
of Ludwig W's *Zettel*; Kasey's the
second blogger to jam on
Jonathan Mayhew's theme on
poetic thinking {click here}
until exhaustion. Whose next?
Sunday, July 10
Virtual Flaneurs in the Cyber-Arcades
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing} and ::fait accompli:: chat about:
poetry publishing, poetry careers, and more.
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing} and ::fait accompli:: chat about:
poetry publishing, poetry careers, and more.
Saturday, July 9
Poetry as Thinking
Interesting discussion right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}.
What Kasey seems to be suggesting is that
Jonathan is preaching to the
choir-and that, in some ways, all contemporary
poetry readers are basically in that choir already.
Whether or not poetry is a kind of thinking
(what happened to feeling-or imagining- or pretending- or
listening?) for the readers Jonathan is talking about-
poetry must- like any kind of verbal construct- be
understandable- or better yet, be completely decipherable;
the poet is creating- or miming- or evoking- a system,
hopefully a unique one, but one that in the best cases is
reducible to that which is always already present in the
world's knowledge base. In other words, these readers would
completely agree that poetry is a form of thinking- but thinking
that is eminently decipherable or decodable as must be any
form of *rational* thinking. Otherwise it is nonsense-
or worse yet, irrational nonsense.
For Wittgenstein, I see that poetry and
music create a kind of language.
He says [in *Zettel*]: "A poet's words can pierce us. And
that is of course *causally* connected with the
use that they have in our life. And it is also connected
with the way in which, comfortably to this use, we let
our thoughts roam up and down in
the familiar surroundings of the words."
For me, the key word here is *familiar.*
Without doubt, I would side with the group that
considers poetry a form of thinking-
But I want more.
I enjoy it most when poetry strives to
create a context in which readers-
in attending to the process of connecting with the poems-
also feel emboldened to construct their own modes of thinking, that
is - to further develop the ability- and the desire: *to think for oneself.*
For me, poetry is one crucial jumping off point in that pursuit- but
not the only one- or even necessarily the most effective one
sometimes. Although I've participated in a couple of schools
of poetry myself- including for awhile- the latter day New York School-
i am apparently not quite as interested as Jonathan might be- at the present
time anyway-
in school construction and maintenance
or poetry career construction and maintenance, for
that matter. This hierarchy-building and
team-building stuff sometimes gets on my nerves,
quite frankly. Poets
need schools because "no one listens to poetry."
But poetry school membership can exact
a painful price-especially in the
thinking for oneself department.
Thinking for oneself is not as easy as it sounds.
Some might picture this idea
as a kind of pragmatism, or rationality.
What I am getting at is efficacy in an attempt to encompass
all of one's experience-the world's experience-as it unfurls-
by extending the parameters of the limits of one's
understanding- which invariably comes around to
including self-transformation- the willingness to
accept change-particularly difficult change-
the essence of learning. I wish I could state
this a little less pretentiously- but sheez, it's
2:45 am!
***********************************************
Gustaf Sobin dead at 70
Some work was published in
Facture 1 {click here}
Boston Review {click here}
Shearsman 53 {click here}
I remember
very much enjoying the gentle,
self-reflexive work published by this fine poet in
*Temblor* in the 80's.
**********************************
War is the Health of the State {click here}. Critique
of patriotic hysteria by Randolph Bourne (1918).
via wood s lot
wood s lot {click here}
**********************************
Eileen Tabios has an author page at
Ahadada Books {click here}.
With characteristic modesty,
she discloses the author
photo is 7 years old!
Interesting discussion right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}.
What Kasey seems to be suggesting is that
Jonathan is preaching to the
choir-and that, in some ways, all contemporary
poetry readers are basically in that choir already.
Whether or not poetry is a kind of thinking
(what happened to feeling-or imagining- or pretending- or
listening?) for the readers Jonathan is talking about-
poetry must- like any kind of verbal construct- be
understandable- or better yet, be completely decipherable;
the poet is creating- or miming- or evoking- a system,
hopefully a unique one, but one that in the best cases is
reducible to that which is always already present in the
world's knowledge base. In other words, these readers would
completely agree that poetry is a form of thinking- but thinking
that is eminently decipherable or decodable as must be any
form of *rational* thinking. Otherwise it is nonsense-
or worse yet, irrational nonsense.
For Wittgenstein, I see that poetry and
music create a kind of language.
He says [in *Zettel*]: "A poet's words can pierce us. And
that is of course *causally* connected with the
use that they have in our life. And it is also connected
with the way in which, comfortably to this use, we let
our thoughts roam up and down in
the familiar surroundings of the words."
For me, the key word here is *familiar.*
Without doubt, I would side with the group that
considers poetry a form of thinking-
But I want more.
I enjoy it most when poetry strives to
create a context in which readers-
in attending to the process of connecting with the poems-
also feel emboldened to construct their own modes of thinking, that
is - to further develop the ability- and the desire: *to think for oneself.*
For me, poetry is one crucial jumping off point in that pursuit- but
not the only one- or even necessarily the most effective one
sometimes. Although I've participated in a couple of schools
of poetry myself- including for awhile- the latter day New York School-
i am apparently not quite as interested as Jonathan might be- at the present
time anyway-
in school construction and maintenance
or poetry career construction and maintenance, for
that matter. This hierarchy-building and
team-building stuff sometimes gets on my nerves,
quite frankly. Poets
need schools because "no one listens to poetry."
But poetry school membership can exact
a painful price-especially in the
thinking for oneself department.
Thinking for oneself is not as easy as it sounds.
Some might picture this idea
as a kind of pragmatism, or rationality.
What I am getting at is efficacy in an attempt to encompass
all of one's experience-the world's experience-as it unfurls-
by extending the parameters of the limits of one's
understanding- which invariably comes around to
including self-transformation- the willingness to
accept change-particularly difficult change-
the essence of learning. I wish I could state
this a little less pretentiously- but sheez, it's
2:45 am!
***********************************************
Gustaf Sobin dead at 70
Some work was published in
Facture 1 {click here}
Boston Review {click here}
Shearsman 53 {click here}
I remember
very much enjoying the gentle,
self-reflexive work published by this fine poet in
*Temblor* in the 80's.
**********************************
War is the Health of the State {click here}. Critique
of patriotic hysteria by Randolph Bourne (1918).
via wood s lot
wood s lot {click here}
**********************************
Eileen Tabios has an author page at
Ahadada Books {click here}.
With characteristic modesty,
she discloses the author
photo is 7 years old!
Friday, July 8
Love Is Not A Feeling
"504. Love is not a feeling. Love is put to the test,
pain not. One does not say: "That was not true
pain, or it would not have gone off so quickly!"
........................
"656. To be ashamed of a thought. Is one ashamed
at the fact that one has spoken such-and-such a
sentence in one's imagination?
Language is variously rooted: it has roots, not a single
root. [Marginal note: ((Remembering a thought,
an intension)) A Seed.]"
*Zettel*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
(cited below)
Could not Wittgenstein have spoken of love in the same
way: in terms of seeds, intensions and roots?
So much of Wittgenstein's thought is at the boundary
between philosophy and psychology. He is moving
towards a developmental theory of language and
and experience. Love is a word for an experience,
and an experience may be much more gradual
and complex in its development than a feeling. Wittgenstein
is noting the rootedness of words, using an analogy to the
rootedness of an experience. One might go further then, and
say: love (like words) has a
development: seed, intension, conviction, committment.
He keeps pointing out how often people overlook
the intervening details, at the same time he notes
how thought can fly.
For example:
"81. Really one hardly ever says that one has
believed, understood or intended something
"uninterruptedly" since yesterday. An
interruption of belief would be a period of
unbelief, not e.g. the withdrawal of attention
from what one believes- e.g. sleep.
(Difference between 'knowing' and 'being aware
of.}"
"504. Love is not a feeling. Love is put to the test,
pain not. One does not say: "That was not true
pain, or it would not have gone off so quickly!"
........................
"656. To be ashamed of a thought. Is one ashamed
at the fact that one has spoken such-and-such a
sentence in one's imagination?
Language is variously rooted: it has roots, not a single
root. [Marginal note: ((Remembering a thought,
an intension)) A Seed.]"
*Zettel*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
(cited below)
Could not Wittgenstein have spoken of love in the same
way: in terms of seeds, intensions and roots?
So much of Wittgenstein's thought is at the boundary
between philosophy and psychology. He is moving
towards a developmental theory of language and
and experience. Love is a word for an experience,
and an experience may be much more gradual
and complex in its development than a feeling. Wittgenstein
is noting the rootedness of words, using an analogy to the
rootedness of an experience. One might go further then, and
say: love (like words) has a
development: seed, intension, conviction, committment.
He keeps pointing out how often people overlook
the intervening details, at the same time he notes
how thought can fly.
For example:
"81. Really one hardly ever says that one has
believed, understood or intended something
"uninterruptedly" since yesterday. An
interruption of belief would be a period of
unbelief, not e.g. the withdrawal of attention
from what one believes- e.g. sleep.
(Difference between 'knowing' and 'being aware
of.}"
Thursday, July 7
The Most Astounding Things Are Possible
"273. Hardy:'That the "finite cannot understand the
infinite" should merely be a theological
and not a mathematical war-cry.'
True, the expression is
inept. But what people are using it to
try and say is: 'We musn't have any juggling!
How comes this leap from the finite
to the infinite?' Nor is the expression all that
nonsensical - only the 'finite' that can't
conceive is not 'man' or 'our understanding'
but the calculus. And *how* this conceives
the infinite is well worth the investigation.
This may be compared to the way a chartered
accountant precisely investigates and clarifies
the conduct of a business undertaking. The aim
is a synoptic comparative account of all
the applications, illustrations, conceptions
of the calculus. The complete survey of
everything that may produce unclarity. And this
survey must extend over a wide domain, for
the roots of our ideas reach a long way.- 'The
finite cannot understand the infinite' means
here: It cannot work *in the way* you,
with characteristic superficiality, are presenting
it.
Thought can as it were, *fly*, it doesn't have
to walk. You do not understand your own
transactions, that is to say you do not have
a synoptic view of them, and you as it were
project your lack of understanding into the
idea of a medium in which the most astounding
things are possible."
from *Zettel*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
edited by G.E.M. Anscombe
and G. H. Von Wright
translated by G.E.M. Anscombe
University of California Press,
1967
{"Wittgenstein left a box of slips
["Zettel"] cut from copies of very
extensive typescripts of his work
from 1929 to 1948, but mostly
belonging to the period
1945-1948..."}
synoptic: [Mod. Lat. *synopticus*;
Gr. *synoptikos*: seeing the whole
together, from *synopsis* a general
view...]
Note to self: read David Berlinksy's
*A Tour of the Calculus*
and *The Advent of the
Algorithm*
"Two ideas lie gleaming on the jeweler's
velvet. The first is the calculus, the second,
the algorithm. The calculus and the rich
body of mathematical analysis to which
it gave rise made modern science
possible; but it has been the
algorithm that made possible the
modern world.
They are utterly different, these ideas.
The calculus serves the imperial
vision of mathematical physics. It is
a vision in which the real elements
of the world are revealed to be its
elementary constituants: particles,
forces, fields, or even a strange fused
combination of space and time.
Written in the language of mathematics,
a single set of fearfully compressed
laws describes their secret nature.
The universe that emerges from this
description is alien, indifferent to human
desires.
The great era of mathematical physics
is now over. The three hundred-year
effort to represent the material world
in mathematical terms has exhausted
itself. The undertaking that it was to
provide is infinitely closer than it was
when Isaac Newton wrote in the late
seventeenth century, but it is still
infinitely far away.
One man ages as another is born, and
if time drives one idea from the field,
it does so by welcoming another.
The algorithm has come to occupy
a central place in the imagination.
It is the second great scientific idea
of the West. There is no third."
*The Advent of the Algorithm*
David Berlinsky
Hacourt, 2000
"273. Hardy:'That the "finite cannot understand the
infinite" should merely be a theological
and not a mathematical war-cry.'
True, the expression is
inept. But what people are using it to
try and say is: 'We musn't have any juggling!
How comes this leap from the finite
to the infinite?' Nor is the expression all that
nonsensical - only the 'finite' that can't
conceive is not 'man' or 'our understanding'
but the calculus. And *how* this conceives
the infinite is well worth the investigation.
This may be compared to the way a chartered
accountant precisely investigates and clarifies
the conduct of a business undertaking. The aim
is a synoptic comparative account of all
the applications, illustrations, conceptions
of the calculus. The complete survey of
everything that may produce unclarity. And this
survey must extend over a wide domain, for
the roots of our ideas reach a long way.- 'The
finite cannot understand the infinite' means
here: It cannot work *in the way* you,
with characteristic superficiality, are presenting
it.
Thought can as it were, *fly*, it doesn't have
to walk. You do not understand your own
transactions, that is to say you do not have
a synoptic view of them, and you as it were
project your lack of understanding into the
idea of a medium in which the most astounding
things are possible."
from *Zettel*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
edited by G.E.M. Anscombe
and G. H. Von Wright
translated by G.E.M. Anscombe
University of California Press,
1967
{"Wittgenstein left a box of slips
["Zettel"] cut from copies of very
extensive typescripts of his work
from 1929 to 1948, but mostly
belonging to the period
1945-1948..."}
synoptic: [Mod. Lat. *synopticus*;
Gr. *synoptikos*: seeing the whole
together, from *synopsis* a general
view...]
Note to self: read David Berlinksy's
*A Tour of the Calculus*
and *The Advent of the
Algorithm*
"Two ideas lie gleaming on the jeweler's
velvet. The first is the calculus, the second,
the algorithm. The calculus and the rich
body of mathematical analysis to which
it gave rise made modern science
possible; but it has been the
algorithm that made possible the
modern world.
They are utterly different, these ideas.
The calculus serves the imperial
vision of mathematical physics. It is
a vision in which the real elements
of the world are revealed to be its
elementary constituants: particles,
forces, fields, or even a strange fused
combination of space and time.
Written in the language of mathematics,
a single set of fearfully compressed
laws describes their secret nature.
The universe that emerges from this
description is alien, indifferent to human
desires.
The great era of mathematical physics
is now over. The three hundred-year
effort to represent the material world
in mathematical terms has exhausted
itself. The undertaking that it was to
provide is infinitely closer than it was
when Isaac Newton wrote in the late
seventeenth century, but it is still
infinitely far away.
One man ages as another is born, and
if time drives one idea from the field,
it does so by welcoming another.
The algorithm has come to occupy
a central place in the imagination.
It is the second great scientific idea
of the West. There is no third."
*The Advent of the Algorithm*
David Berlinsky
Hacourt, 2000
Wednesday, July 6
Note to Self
Steve Evans {click here}
writes a poem out of bloglinks.
Note to self: two weeks to go
for the Third Factory deadline
(July 20th) for
Attention Span {click here} lists of
poetry books
published in 2005 {click here}
Steve Evans {click here}
writes a poem out of bloglinks.
Note to self: two weeks to go
for the Third Factory deadline
(July 20th) for
Attention Span {click here} lists of
poetry books
published in 2005 {click here}
What Was That Again About a Blue Light?
There are certain blogs that, after a certain spell
of interest, I don't read
very often; nevertheless I keep returning
to them for counsel from time to time.
For me,
The Cassandra Pages {click here} falls
into this category. Coming across the link
recently, I noticed something about books
and blogging for writers, and then went
on to something else. But I came back
to read it again.
********************************************
A Blogland Synchronicity
O.K., I'm exhausted and I've got to
go to sleep. But, maybe one
more peek at the site meter.
I see *Heathens in Heat*
in there: maybe there's something
new (now known as *Orpheus
In Boxers*).
I had spent an hour or so
thinking about teasing,
criticism, sarcasm, insults,
googling these terms, etc.
Then I came across this, posted
by
David Hess {click here}.
As I've said before, in earnest:
if you don't listen to everything,
you don't hear anything.
There are certain blogs that, after a certain spell
of interest, I don't read
very often; nevertheless I keep returning
to them for counsel from time to time.
For me,
The Cassandra Pages {click here} falls
into this category. Coming across the link
recently, I noticed something about books
and blogging for writers, and then went
on to something else. But I came back
to read it again.
********************************************
A Blogland Synchronicity
O.K., I'm exhausted and I've got to
go to sleep. But, maybe one
more peek at the site meter.
I see *Heathens in Heat*
in there: maybe there's something
new (now known as *Orpheus
In Boxers*).
I had spent an hour or so
thinking about teasing,
criticism, sarcasm, insults,
googling these terms, etc.
Then I came across this, posted
by
David Hess {click here}.
As I've said before, in earnest:
if you don't listen to everything,
you don't hear anything.
Tuesday, July 5
[Scroll down to Monday, July 4th for
A Dream about Alan Davies; and further
quotes from *Zettel*]
***************************
Lorenzo
Thomas obit {click here}
via SUNY/Buff poetics listserv
***********************************
Calculations as Ornament;
Machines as Conceptual Ornament
"709. To regard a calculation as an ornament
is also formalism, but of a good sort.
710. A calculation can be regarded as
an ornament. A figure in a plane may fit
another one or not, may be taken with
other ones in various ways. If further the
figure is coloured, there is a further fit
according to colour. (Colour is only
another dimension).
711. There is a way of looking at electrical
machines and installations (dynamos,
radio stations, etc., etc.) which sees these
objects as arrangements of copper, iron,
rubber etc. in space, without any
preliminary understanding. And this way
of looking at them might lead to some
interesting results. It is quite analogous
to looking at a mathematical proposition
as an ornament.- It is of course an absolutely
strict and correct conception; and the
characteristic and difficult thing about it
is that it looks at the object without any
preconceived idea (as it were from a
Martian point of view), or perhaps more
correctly: it upsets the normal preconceived
idea (runs athwart it)."
*Zettel*, Ludwig Wittgenstein
(see below)
**************************************************
"The human mind is only capable of
absorbing a few things at a time. We see
what is taking place in front of us in the
here and new, and cannot envisiage
simultaneously a succession of
processes, no matter how integrated and
complementary. Our facilities of perception
are consequently limited even as regards
fairly simple phenomena. The fate of a
single man can be rich in significance
that of a few hundred less so, but the
history of thousands and millions of
men does not mean anything at all,
in any adequate sense of the word. The
symmetriad is a million- a billion, rather,-
raised to the power of N; it is incomprehensible.
We pass through vast halls, each with a
capacity of ten Kronicker units, and
creep like so many ants clinging to the
folds of breathing vaults and craning
to watch the flight of soaring girders...
We observe a fraction of the process, like
hearing the vibration of a single string
in an orchestra of supergiants. We know,
but cannot grasp, that above and below,
beyond the limits of perception or
imagination, thousands and millions
of simultaneous transformations are
at work, interlinked like a musical
score, by mathematical counterpoint..."
[from *Solaris* by Stanislaw Lem]
"'Your blood is like my own.'
'Truly?'
'I give you my word.''
'What does that indicate? I had been telling
myself that...the unknown force might
be concealed somewhere inside me, and
that it might not occupy very much space.
But I did not know whereabouts it was. I
think now that I was evading the real issue
because I didn't have the nerve to make
a decision. I was afraid and I looked for a
way out. But Kris, if my blood is like yours...
if I really...no it's impossible. I would already
be dead, wouldn't I? That means there
really is something different- but where?
In the mind? Yet it seems to me I think
as any human being does...and I know
nothing! If that alien thing was thinking in
my head, I would know everything. And
I would not love you. I would be pretending,
and aware that I was pretending. .."
[from *Solaris* by Stanislaw Lem,
1961]
Reading *Solaris*, absorbing the
theme of the simultaneity of experience,
where so much is gazed upon
and contemplated, as in Wittgenstein's
recognition of the impact of electronic
parts or equations contemplated without technical
comprehension, a fleeting image and
sense of human imagining
and thought throughout
time experienced as one vast living organism
struggling to learn and to create solutions.
The Darwinian evolutionary
struggle seen as a game, an
Olympics of invention:
this outcome decides
the fate of life. All of art and
literature a crucial facet of this
struggle, the facet of
expression and communication.
**************************************
Big Questions
a link from
Boynton {click here}
Science asks the big questions
**********************************
Coming of Age in Manhattan:
Still Floating on the Zep
Jordan (Equanimity) says he still
has some growing up to do if he's
still dazed by the Zep.
Well, I'm still in no hurry, if that's the case,
and I've got quite a few years on Jordan.
Anecdotage tale #9: the day in the
early 70's I ran into Patti Smith on 8th Street
and offered to take her to Led Zep at Mad
Square with my
extra ticket. She said she thought her
boyfriend wouldn't approve! The Zep!
The Zep!
A Dream about Alan Davies; and further
quotes from *Zettel*]
***************************
Lorenzo
Thomas obit {click here}
via SUNY/Buff poetics listserv
***********************************
Calculations as Ornament;
Machines as Conceptual Ornament
"709. To regard a calculation as an ornament
is also formalism, but of a good sort.
710. A calculation can be regarded as
an ornament. A figure in a plane may fit
another one or not, may be taken with
other ones in various ways. If further the
figure is coloured, there is a further fit
according to colour. (Colour is only
another dimension).
711. There is a way of looking at electrical
machines and installations (dynamos,
radio stations, etc., etc.) which sees these
objects as arrangements of copper, iron,
rubber etc. in space, without any
preliminary understanding. And this way
of looking at them might lead to some
interesting results. It is quite analogous
to looking at a mathematical proposition
as an ornament.- It is of course an absolutely
strict and correct conception; and the
characteristic and difficult thing about it
is that it looks at the object without any
preconceived idea (as it were from a
Martian point of view), or perhaps more
correctly: it upsets the normal preconceived
idea (runs athwart it)."
*Zettel*, Ludwig Wittgenstein
(see below)
**************************************************
"The human mind is only capable of
absorbing a few things at a time. We see
what is taking place in front of us in the
here and new, and cannot envisiage
simultaneously a succession of
processes, no matter how integrated and
complementary. Our facilities of perception
are consequently limited even as regards
fairly simple phenomena. The fate of a
single man can be rich in significance
that of a few hundred less so, but the
history of thousands and millions of
men does not mean anything at all,
in any adequate sense of the word. The
symmetriad is a million- a billion, rather,-
raised to the power of N; it is incomprehensible.
We pass through vast halls, each with a
capacity of ten Kronicker units, and
creep like so many ants clinging to the
folds of breathing vaults and craning
to watch the flight of soaring girders...
We observe a fraction of the process, like
hearing the vibration of a single string
in an orchestra of supergiants. We know,
but cannot grasp, that above and below,
beyond the limits of perception or
imagination, thousands and millions
of simultaneous transformations are
at work, interlinked like a musical
score, by mathematical counterpoint..."
[from *Solaris* by Stanislaw Lem]
"'Your blood is like my own.'
'Truly?'
'I give you my word.''
'What does that indicate? I had been telling
myself that...the unknown force might
be concealed somewhere inside me, and
that it might not occupy very much space.
But I did not know whereabouts it was. I
think now that I was evading the real issue
because I didn't have the nerve to make
a decision. I was afraid and I looked for a
way out. But Kris, if my blood is like yours...
if I really...no it's impossible. I would already
be dead, wouldn't I? That means there
really is something different- but where?
In the mind? Yet it seems to me I think
as any human being does...and I know
nothing! If that alien thing was thinking in
my head, I would know everything. And
I would not love you. I would be pretending,
and aware that I was pretending. .."
[from *Solaris* by Stanislaw Lem,
1961]
Reading *Solaris*, absorbing the
theme of the simultaneity of experience,
where so much is gazed upon
and contemplated, as in Wittgenstein's
recognition of the impact of electronic
parts or equations contemplated without technical
comprehension, a fleeting image and
sense of human imagining
and thought throughout
time experienced as one vast living organism
struggling to learn and to create solutions.
The Darwinian evolutionary
struggle seen as a game, an
Olympics of invention:
this outcome decides
the fate of life. All of art and
literature a crucial facet of this
struggle, the facet of
expression and communication.
**************************************
Big Questions
a link from
Boynton {click here}
Science asks the big questions
**********************************
Coming of Age in Manhattan:
Still Floating on the Zep
Jordan (Equanimity) says he still
has some growing up to do if he's
still dazed by the Zep.
Well, I'm still in no hurry, if that's the case,
and I've got quite a few years on Jordan.
Anecdotage tale #9: the day in the
early 70's I ran into Patti Smith on 8th Street
and offered to take her to Led Zep at Mad
Square with my
extra ticket. She said she thought her
boyfriend wouldn't approve! The Zep!
The Zep!
Monday, July 4
[Scroll down to Sunday, July 3rd
for Mimi Gross In Her studio and
Saturday July 2nd for link to
*Boynton*, who is taking a hiatus
and considering closing the blog;
Chris Stroffolino opens a blog,
*Continuous Peasant*]
A Dream About Alan Davies {click here}
Alan Davies calls me to ask me to meet him
at a bus stop near my house. I have a black
briefcase with me that I set down on the
floor. As the bus travels down a long
hill, I speak with Alan about how you can
write an article about practically anything.
"You talk about a poet's book, say one
by Charles (Bernstein), and go on
to discuss whatever it is that interests you."
I look up and see that we've arrived nearby
my office. I am astonished by this because
by subway, including the
walk to the station, it takes nearly
an hour. "This was so quick!" I say, astonished.
"We've gotten here in about twenty minutes!"
It is intensely bright outside.
Alan is beaming. I pass by my stop by one
block looking for the stop bell. I hurriedly
find my briefcase, say goodbye to Alan,
and jump off. Alan is smiling.
***************************************************
"255. How can one learn the truth by thinking?
As one learns to see a face better if one
draws it.
256. Philosophers who think that one can as it
were use thought to make an extension of experience,
should think about the fact that one can transmit
talk, but not measles, by telephone.
...
259. 'But how can human understanding outstrip
reality and itself *think* the unverifiable?' -Why do we not
*say* the unverifiable? For we ourselves made it
unverifiable.
A false *appearance* is produced? And how can
it so much as *look* like that? For don't you want
to say that this *like that* is not a description at all?
Well, then it isn't a *false* appearance either,
but rather one that robs us of our orientation. So that
we clutch our brows and ask: How can that be?'
...
456. Some philosophers (or whatever you like to
call them) suffer from what may be called "loss of
problems". Then everything seems quite simple
to them, no deep problems seem to exist any more,
the world becomes broad and flat and loses all
depth, and what they write becomes immeasurably
shallow and trivial. Russell and H.G. Wells suffer
from this."
from *Zettel* by Ludwig Wittgenstein
edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H.
Von Wright
translated by G. E. M. Anscombe
University of California Press, 1967
for Mimi Gross In Her studio and
Saturday July 2nd for link to
*Boynton*, who is taking a hiatus
and considering closing the blog;
Chris Stroffolino opens a blog,
*Continuous Peasant*]
A Dream About Alan Davies {click here}
Alan Davies calls me to ask me to meet him
at a bus stop near my house. I have a black
briefcase with me that I set down on the
floor. As the bus travels down a long
hill, I speak with Alan about how you can
write an article about practically anything.
"You talk about a poet's book, say one
by Charles (Bernstein), and go on
to discuss whatever it is that interests you."
I look up and see that we've arrived nearby
my office. I am astonished by this because
by subway, including the
walk to the station, it takes nearly
an hour. "This was so quick!" I say, astonished.
"We've gotten here in about twenty minutes!"
It is intensely bright outside.
Alan is beaming. I pass by my stop by one
block looking for the stop bell. I hurriedly
find my briefcase, say goodbye to Alan,
and jump off. Alan is smiling.
***************************************************
"255. How can one learn the truth by thinking?
As one learns to see a face better if one
draws it.
256. Philosophers who think that one can as it
were use thought to make an extension of experience,
should think about the fact that one can transmit
talk, but not measles, by telephone.
...
259. 'But how can human understanding outstrip
reality and itself *think* the unverifiable?' -Why do we not
*say* the unverifiable? For we ourselves made it
unverifiable.
A false *appearance* is produced? And how can
it so much as *look* like that? For don't you want
to say that this *like that* is not a description at all?
Well, then it isn't a *false* appearance either,
but rather one that robs us of our orientation. So that
we clutch our brows and ask: How can that be?'
...
456. Some philosophers (or whatever you like to
call them) suffer from what may be called "loss of
problems". Then everything seems quite simple
to them, no deep problems seem to exist any more,
the world becomes broad and flat and loses all
depth, and what they write becomes immeasurably
shallow and trivial. Russell and H.G. Wells suffer
from this."
from *Zettel* by Ludwig Wittgenstein
edited by G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H.
Von Wright
translated by G. E. M. Anscombe
University of California Press, 1967
Sunday, July 3
The Artist in Her Studio: A Visit to Mimi Gross
The brilliant artist Mimi Gross {click here} is the daughter of the famed
sculptor, the late Chaim Gross, some
of whose work and art collection is housed at
the Renee and Chaim Gross studio museum
on LaGuardia Place. The museum includes numerous
pieces by Chaim Gross, of course. In particular, I coveted
a piece illustrating a tall, thin juggler, but there are also
many models of large outdoor sculptures in collections.
The museum also houses a
large collection of African art and many incredible
art works by famed figures. Since Mimi's mother, who sadly
died very recently, lived at the Museum, it may not
be kept going much longer, and is already not open to
the public as it was for years, although there was still
a staff working there who greeted us, as Mimi chatted
with Jacob Burkhardt, the photographer and son of the
filmaker and artist Rudy Burkhardt. Mimi then brought us to
her studio a few blocks away. Her art work includes
innumerable incredibly beautiful and thought-
provoking works including some gorgeous assemblages
(one of my favorite media) and notably a piece from the late
80's, early 90's that depicts the brain
by means of a huge colorful
construction of gauzy yellow and red pieces of cloth
hung on a wire scaffolding in lovely undulations.
Mimi is very interested
in anatomy and has made many paintings and a considerable
amount of book art around this topic. We also got to
see her powerful book about 9/11 made with Charles
Bernstein and published by Granary Books. Mimi's
studio is a wonderland of objects including a vast
collection of paintings and antique toys; there is a lovely portrait of her as a young child and
one of her as a teenager made by Raphael Soyer!
We can't wait to return; we left showered with gifts
including a small book of aphorisms by the physicist
inventor Billy Kluver, illustrated by Mimi as well as a
CD-Rom of *The Baby Book*, illlustrated by Mimi.
We then walked over to the Odeon for drinks and
dinner and hours of memorable conversation.
Most recent sighting: working
on a poster at Coney Island on Mermaid
Parade day- as part of a
project of artists restoring the rich history
of that endlessly fascinating and pleasurable
Brooklyn destination.
Also spotted watching the
parade: Emma Bernstein, Nada
Gordon and Toni Simon.
The brilliant artist Mimi Gross {click here} is the daughter of the famed
sculptor, the late Chaim Gross, some
of whose work and art collection is housed at
the Renee and Chaim Gross studio museum
on LaGuardia Place. The museum includes numerous
pieces by Chaim Gross, of course. In particular, I coveted
a piece illustrating a tall, thin juggler, but there are also
many models of large outdoor sculptures in collections.
The museum also houses a
large collection of African art and many incredible
art works by famed figures. Since Mimi's mother, who sadly
died very recently, lived at the Museum, it may not
be kept going much longer, and is already not open to
the public as it was for years, although there was still
a staff working there who greeted us, as Mimi chatted
with Jacob Burkhardt, the photographer and son of the
filmaker and artist Rudy Burkhardt. Mimi then brought us to
her studio a few blocks away. Her art work includes
innumerable incredibly beautiful and thought-
provoking works including some gorgeous assemblages
(one of my favorite media) and notably a piece from the late
80's, early 90's that depicts the brain
by means of a huge colorful
construction of gauzy yellow and red pieces of cloth
hung on a wire scaffolding in lovely undulations.
Mimi is very interested
in anatomy and has made many paintings and a considerable
amount of book art around this topic. We also got to
see her powerful book about 9/11 made with Charles
Bernstein and published by Granary Books. Mimi's
studio is a wonderland of objects including a vast
collection of paintings and antique toys; there is a lovely portrait of her as a young child and
one of her as a teenager made by Raphael Soyer!
We can't wait to return; we left showered with gifts
including a small book of aphorisms by the physicist
inventor Billy Kluver, illustrated by Mimi as well as a
CD-Rom of *The Baby Book*, illlustrated by Mimi.
We then walked over to the Odeon for drinks and
dinner and hours of memorable conversation.
Most recent sighting: working
on a poster at Coney Island on Mermaid
Parade day- as part of a
project of artists restoring the rich history
of that endlessly fascinating and pleasurable
Brooklyn destination.
Also spotted watching the
parade: Emma Bernstein, Nada
Gordon and Toni Simon.
Saturday, July 2
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Blogger:
Summer in Blogland: Sizzle or Fizzle?
Boynton {click here}
links to recent writings by bloggers
on blogging.
*Boynton* please don't go!
[scroll down to
Friday, July 1st for notes
and links on
Filippo Lippi]
*******************************
This just in: Chris Stroffolino enters the Blogosphere
with a long post about Robert Creeley
Continuous Peasant {click here}
Summer in Blogland: Sizzle or Fizzle?
Boynton {click here}
links to recent writings by bloggers
on blogging.
*Boynton* please don't go!
[scroll down to
Friday, July 1st for notes
and links on
Filippo Lippi]
*******************************
This just in: Chris Stroffolino enters the Blogosphere
with a long post about Robert Creeley
Continuous Peasant {click here}
Friday, July 1
[scroll down to Thursday,
June 30 for notes re:
*The Soft Voice
of Philosophy* and
*Community of Ideas*
by Ludwig Wittgenstein
and a link to a reading by
Frank Kuenstler, Wednesday, June 29 for
Bookmarks, New and Notable
including: Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell's lovely
*A Walk in Shenzhen* with
recent photos from The People's
Republic of China; also a link
to Bernstein's exciting *Close Listening*
series and Monday, June 27
for a preview of Vanitas #1, edited
by Vincent Katz]
Bits and Pieces; Filippo Lippi
notebook: 1/7/05
I'm not sure exactly when it was that I
discovered that everything, no matter
what, comes together bit by bit. In itself,
this might not have been such a meaningful
discovery, if it weren't for the connected
insight that if you save these bits, eventually
sorting them and putting them together into
a whole, you might have something.
I was never much interested in jig-saw
puzzles, only if you don't put the pieces
together, if you give up, you don't just give
up on a child's box of fun and suffer a
mild defeat and a few moments of
boredom. If you don't see the big picture,
you know you're missing out on something
but you can't quite figure out what that
might be.
In real life that jig-saw puzzle is more like
a map- and without a good map and
good instruments you're going to spend
a lot of time wandering around, feeling
pretty much lost. To a certain extent, of
course, this is inevitable.
*
Sudden change of syncopation in the
Beatles tune - Live and Let Die. I
think also of Strauss' *Don Juan*.
The same for fiction- otherwise
flat and uninteresting.
Then weave the pieces together with
transitional parts- or leave the sudden
changes alone.
........................................
Fillipo Lippi (1406-1469)
The Annunciation {click here}
and {click here}
The gospel according to St. Luke
"And the Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee and the power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee."
Depiction of the miraculous by means
of the luminous. Time transcending
powers of the tempera medium.
*
Idealization of the miraculous.
*
The Christ child as the birth
of grandiosity.
Immortality implies superhuman
miraculous powers.
In the face of the utterly tyrannical
forces of nature, Fillipo Lippi
restores faith by means of references
to the miraculous in his art. Some of
these miraculous powers are
experienced subliminally, employing
uncannily dreamlike details
that may only by achieved by
"second" sight. The angel child is
also idealized as are all the
feminine forces, magical,
maternal, restorative powers
of nature (again, the tempera).
An infinity of details achieves the
miraculous by means of second
sight. Lucidity in the presence
of so many details. These details
are partly occluded (submerged)
by means of their overwhelming
number. Endless depths are also
elicited by means of numerous
receding colonnades. With
the miraculous, the background
"shimmer" - the way the wings
of the angel shimmer. The color
of the robes is very stressed
(the mystery underlying the
material reality is "clothed.")
Curtains open to other curtains.
Twilight is coming on (the
emergence of dreams again).
There are an infinite number
of other worlds hidden
behind the screens and
curtains of this world (also
Christo's gates- reference
to the miraculous by means
of color)
Filippo Lippi {click here}
{click here}
{click here}
{click here}
{click here}
Fra Carnevale -The
Annunciation. Also, a
curtained stairway that
leads to an upstairs not
depicted, In the far
foreground a gate is
depicted behind the
angel. Behind this are
leaved and unleaved
Cypress trees.
[this image is available
but cannot be linked:
search Google images
for Fra Carnevale and
find it in the second
row, second to the right]
.................................
Schwitters' collages
as arial photographs
.................................
German, born 1955
Andreas Gursky
99 c. 1999
the immense power
of reproducibility
*
I'm sent a paranoid,
depressed robot
for treatment.
June 30 for notes re:
*The Soft Voice
of Philosophy* and
*Community of Ideas*
by Ludwig Wittgenstein
and a link to a reading by
Frank Kuenstler, Wednesday, June 29 for
Bookmarks, New and Notable
including: Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell's lovely
*A Walk in Shenzhen* with
recent photos from The People's
Republic of China; also a link
to Bernstein's exciting *Close Listening*
series and Monday, June 27
for a preview of Vanitas #1, edited
by Vincent Katz]
Bits and Pieces; Filippo Lippi
notebook: 1/7/05
I'm not sure exactly when it was that I
discovered that everything, no matter
what, comes together bit by bit. In itself,
this might not have been such a meaningful
discovery, if it weren't for the connected
insight that if you save these bits, eventually
sorting them and putting them together into
a whole, you might have something.
I was never much interested in jig-saw
puzzles, only if you don't put the pieces
together, if you give up, you don't just give
up on a child's box of fun and suffer a
mild defeat and a few moments of
boredom. If you don't see the big picture,
you know you're missing out on something
but you can't quite figure out what that
might be.
In real life that jig-saw puzzle is more like
a map- and without a good map and
good instruments you're going to spend
a lot of time wandering around, feeling
pretty much lost. To a certain extent, of
course, this is inevitable.
*
Sudden change of syncopation in the
Beatles tune - Live and Let Die. I
think also of Strauss' *Don Juan*.
The same for fiction- otherwise
flat and uninteresting.
Then weave the pieces together with
transitional parts- or leave the sudden
changes alone.
........................................
Fillipo Lippi (1406-1469)
The Annunciation {click here}
and {click here}
The gospel according to St. Luke
"And the Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee and the power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee."
Depiction of the miraculous by means
of the luminous. Time transcending
powers of the tempera medium.
*
Idealization of the miraculous.
*
The Christ child as the birth
of grandiosity.
Immortality implies superhuman
miraculous powers.
In the face of the utterly tyrannical
forces of nature, Fillipo Lippi
restores faith by means of references
to the miraculous in his art. Some of
these miraculous powers are
experienced subliminally, employing
uncannily dreamlike details
that may only by achieved by
"second" sight. The angel child is
also idealized as are all the
feminine forces, magical,
maternal, restorative powers
of nature (again, the tempera).
An infinity of details achieves the
miraculous by means of second
sight. Lucidity in the presence
of so many details. These details
are partly occluded (submerged)
by means of their overwhelming
number. Endless depths are also
elicited by means of numerous
receding colonnades. With
the miraculous, the background
"shimmer" - the way the wings
of the angel shimmer. The color
of the robes is very stressed
(the mystery underlying the
material reality is "clothed.")
Curtains open to other curtains.
Twilight is coming on (the
emergence of dreams again).
There are an infinite number
of other worlds hidden
behind the screens and
curtains of this world (also
Christo's gates- reference
to the miraculous by means
of color)
Filippo Lippi {click here}
{click here}
{click here}
{click here}
{click here}
Fra Carnevale -The
Annunciation. Also, a
curtained stairway that
leads to an upstairs not
depicted, In the far
foreground a gate is
depicted behind the
angel. Behind this are
leaved and unleaved
Cypress trees.
[this image is available
but cannot be linked:
search Google images
for Fra Carnevale and
find it in the second
row, second to the right]
.................................
Schwitters' collages
as arial photographs
.................................
German, born 1955
Andreas Gursky
99 c. 1999
the immense power
of reproducibility
*
I'm sent a paranoid,
depressed robot
for treatment.
Thursday, June 30
[scroll down to Monday, June 27
for a preview of Vanitas #1,
and Wednesday, June 29 for
Bookmarks, New and Notable
including: Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell's lovely
*A Walk in Shenzhen* with
recent photos from The People's
Republic of China; also a link
to Bernstein's exciting *Close Listening*
series]
Soft Voice of Philosophy
"453. (As one can sometimes reproduce
music only in one's ear, and cannot
whistle it, because the whistling drowns
out the inner-voice, so sometimes the
voice of a philosophical thought is
so soft that the noise of spoken words
is enough to drown it and prevent it from
being heard, if one is questioned and
and has to speak.)"
*****************************************
Community of Ideas
"455. (The philosopher is not a citizen of
any community of ideas. This is what makes
him a philosopher.)"
from *Zettel*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
edited by G.E,M. Anscombe
& GH Von Wright
translated by G.EM. Anscombe
University of California Press, 1970
*******************************************
Frank Kuenstler, author of *Lens*, *Fugitives Rounds*
*In Which* and other works
is now represented with a superb,
touching, hilarious reading on Penn Sound
Close Listening: *The Carols & The Similes* {click here}
"Have pity on the midgets
for they are the last to know it is raining"
Books available from Abebooks by Frank Kuenstler
Frank Kuenstler {click here}
*******************************************
Shadowtime, an opera about
Walter Benjamin by Brian Ferneyhough at Lincoln Center- libretto
by Charles Bernstein {click here}
only two days , Thursday July 21 and July 22
plus free symposium and concert on July 18 & 20,
featuring Charles Bernstein, Marjorie Perloff and others
for a preview of Vanitas #1,
and Wednesday, June 29 for
Bookmarks, New and Notable
including: Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell's lovely
*A Walk in Shenzhen* with
recent photos from The People's
Republic of China; also a link
to Bernstein's exciting *Close Listening*
series]
Soft Voice of Philosophy
"453. (As one can sometimes reproduce
music only in one's ear, and cannot
whistle it, because the whistling drowns
out the inner-voice, so sometimes the
voice of a philosophical thought is
so soft that the noise of spoken words
is enough to drown it and prevent it from
being heard, if one is questioned and
and has to speak.)"
*****************************************
Community of Ideas
"455. (The philosopher is not a citizen of
any community of ideas. This is what makes
him a philosopher.)"
from *Zettel*
Ludwig Wittgenstein
edited by G.E,M. Anscombe
& GH Von Wright
translated by G.EM. Anscombe
University of California Press, 1970
*******************************************
Frank Kuenstler, author of *Lens*, *Fugitives Rounds*
*In Which* and other works
is now represented with a superb,
touching, hilarious reading on Penn Sound
Close Listening: *The Carols & The Similes* {click here}
"Have pity on the midgets
for they are the last to know it is raining"
Books available from Abebooks by Frank Kuenstler
Frank Kuenstler {click here}
*******************************************
Shadowtime, an opera about
Walter Benjamin by Brian Ferneyhough at Lincoln Center- libretto
by Charles Bernstein {click here}
only two days , Thursday July 21 and July 22
plus free symposium and concert on July 18 & 20,
featuring Charles Bernstein, Marjorie Perloff and others
Wednesday, June 29
Bookmarks: New and Notable
[Don't miss our extensive preview of the first issue of Vincent Katz' *Vanitas*-scroll down to ::fait accompli:: Monday, June 27]
Hot enough for ya?
Stay in and enjoy the air conditioning
while close listening to
Charles Bernstein's new
poetry and talk series on
WPS1 and Penn Sound
Close Listening {click here}
Interviews with and readings by
David Antin, Erica Hunt, Rachel DuPlessis,
Peter Inman, Pierre Joris, Christian Bok,
Peter Straub, Susan Stewart,
Tan Lin, Bob Perelman,
Ted Greenwald, yours truly and others.
Bernstein's latest contemporary
poet series, announced
yesterday on the Buffalo listserv,
will go far to liven up the
summer poetry doldrums!
***********************************************
A Walk in Shenzhen
by
Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell {click here}
Blogger Steven Shroeder {click here}
spends considerable time in the
People's Republic of China.
This lyrical, touching poetry/photo
collaboration with
Maryann O'Donnell is an
online "must bookmark!"
**************************************
Flarfmaster Kasey Mohammad tells all to Tom Beckett
right now on
E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S {click here}
**************************************
Buck Downs
is a D.C. poet whose postcards have been
one of the poetry pleasures of my life
(which reminds me, I have to send
him my new address in Brooklyn)
now has a new interview up at
Narrow House Recordings {click here}- also, they have one
with David-Baptiste Chirot,
another well known mail art afficianado.
[Don't miss our extensive preview of the first issue of Vincent Katz' *Vanitas*-scroll down to ::fait accompli:: Monday, June 27]
Hot enough for ya?
Stay in and enjoy the air conditioning
while close listening to
Charles Bernstein's new
poetry and talk series on
WPS1 and Penn Sound
Close Listening {click here}
Interviews with and readings by
David Antin, Erica Hunt, Rachel DuPlessis,
Peter Inman, Pierre Joris, Christian Bok,
Peter Straub, Susan Stewart,
Tan Lin, Bob Perelman,
Ted Greenwald, yours truly and others.
Bernstein's latest contemporary
poet series, announced
yesterday on the Buffalo listserv,
will go far to liven up the
summer poetry doldrums!
***********************************************
A Walk in Shenzhen
by
Steven Schroeder and
Maryann O'Donnell {click here}
Blogger Steven Shroeder {click here}
spends considerable time in the
People's Republic of China.
This lyrical, touching poetry/photo
collaboration with
Maryann O'Donnell is an
online "must bookmark!"
**************************************
Flarfmaster Kasey Mohammad tells all to Tom Beckett
right now on
E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S {click here}
**************************************
Buck Downs
is a D.C. poet whose postcards have been
one of the poetry pleasures of my life
(which reminds me, I have to send
him my new address in Brooklyn)
now has a new interview up at
Narrow House Recordings {click here}- also, they have one
with David-Baptiste Chirot,
another well known mail art afficianado.
Tuesday, June 28
Monday, June 27
New and Notable
*Vanitas*, first issue, edited by Vincent Katz
For some reason, everything, from the
magazine itself, to the reading, to
the party afterwards, to thinking about
it now, seems to be triggering endless
deja vus. Anyone, which is nearly
everyone, who has had this feeling
knows how it encompasses many aspects
of memory and timelessness.
I keep coming back to seeing Greg Masters {click here}
at the reading. Greg is an old-timer like me,
a vintage Poetry Project person. Connecting
with Greg again helps heal the rifts that
necessarily occur in the course of a lifetime
with poets and poetry. Vanitas opens up
with an article by Jordan Davis {click here} about the
available histories of the New York school.
He writes about David Lehman's
*The Last Avant-Garde*,
Daniel Kane's *All Poets Welcome*, and
Joe LeSueur's memoir, *Digressions on
Some Poems by Frank O'Hara*, the last two
published in 2003. Jordan appreciates these
but wants more and feels the history taking
of this era and its progeny is incomplete.
"What would be nice to have is a not-too-
long book that tells the story of the New York
School of poets, identifying the common
interests of the writers and sources of their
work, while placing the groups as they develop
in their shifting milieus."i
Next comes a piece by Carter Ratcliff titled
*The Anaxagoras Variations: A Note on Theory*
A fine poet in his own right, Carter Ratcliff is
best known as an art critic. Once upon a time
I would have been annoyed by this piece, which
attempts to deconstruct &
critique theory by means of theory.
But, living in the heart of my own anecdotage, I can
only enjoy reading the words of someone who
attended Ted Berrigan's poetry workshop with me
in 1967 and wrote a poem about it published in
Ann Waldman's first *World Anthology* (1969) in which he writes:
"Disagree with anything anybody else says, especially
what Charles, Ted, Nick, and Scott say
Agree with everything anybody says, especially
what Marcel Flamm says
Figure out who likes what
Be jealous of everybody
Approve of this sentiment and its intensity
Arrive late when all the places around the table
are taken"
I remember admiring & enjoying Carter Ratcliff's
first book of poetry *Fever Coast*, which featured
an unforgettable poem titled "The Comma".
Next comes a poem by Ann Lauterbach, *Triangles
and Squares (Guston, Malevich)*:
"yea the geometric sun, yes the line of abstraction. o yes
monster ambition flourishing, the violent inhuman field"
Then 4 poems by Fanny Howe including *Empty Handed*:
"This blindness was all our fault, it was our work
until the lock of sleep"
Then 4 by Ange Mlinko, including the
*The Most Awkward Hugger*:
"It's the sort of weather Tybalt murdered Mercutio in.
I sold a dinner jacket for cash to buy a birthday present."
3 by Carol Mirakove including *substance*:
"populace spending 17 billion dollars a year on
books and a 105 billion dollars on booze"
Judith Malina, who lead off the BPC reading
superbly, has one untitled poem:
"I am Kandinsky standing
in front of Monet's haystack
about to discover a simple
truth that changes everything"
Then, my #1 favorite young poet right now,
Nada Gordon's *_Nothing is Untitled_*
"It fans across black as a hand (like a sassy cloud
in the ghetto of the sky) it spires an undersea
Maryanne Shaneen (who couldn't make the reading
because she was ill; get better soon, Maryann!)
contribues 5 poems including *Magnetic Memory Loss*:
"each tenderness extends into whipcrack.
war hidden in the language. by
influencing their appetites or desires."
and a collaboration with Rod Smith *tertium
striangular-alacrity*:
"(sky) to be (sky) to be (by) to be (ours) to be (come) (&)
to rise"
Sarah Manguso contributed *Epthalamion*
"Do not be too serious! You are part of it now!"
Elaine Equi, who helped to edit the issue, contributed
4 poems:
"...If only we had/some good, loud insults to hurl
at these floats,/ these mirages that pass for current events."
3 from Anne Waldman, including
*Neural-Linguistically: this is the writing dance..."
"This is the trespass dance this is the way I get down for it
It's my power structure to STRANGLE Rumsfeld"
Then a Jim Dine portfolio of painted poems:
"This Morning, when I was youong
I went into a little room where there was
A CLEAR MIRACLE LIKE
OBJECT A big sculpture
In The Room"
4 from Jerome Sala, including *A Pageant of
Agents*, a poem about beautiful spies being
hired by the CIA, including Britney Spears:
"'She may be our
biggest coup (and cop)
since the days when we
backed abstract art
in Europe; hey, from Jackson Pollack
to the Back Street Boys
you've got to go
with the flow
of the times'"
4 from Carter Ratcliff
including *Since When*:
"Since when didi you make manners your manifest
and rudeness your apologia? Since when
did you admit that there was any difference between the
two?
Pizazz, you say, is a Darwinian adaptation,
and altruism, down for the count"
Two from David Lehman,
including, *The Crown of An Evening*
"in one drawer I kept the collages of David Shapiro.
Frank O'hara was dead but kept writing in that drawer."
one from Francis Ponge, translated by Laird Hunt:
*Banks of the Loire, Rome, May 24th, 1941*
"Never try to arrange things. Things and poems are
irreconcilable"
one from Drew Gardner, *from The Fire Escape*
"I can't afford this
to slowly turn around
it's not dying, it's just
bizarre, and true
we are in a chemical world
and we fight in a high, panicked screen-memory"
3 Haiku from me, including *Unearth*
"a few delicate
thoughts
now buried
beneath an avalanche"
then two untitled poems from Richard Hell
"the wack, the tang, the brassiere
the poop eye candle-flame"
one from Charles Borkhuis, *Valley of the Dogs*
"don't talk to me about your nightmares
everybody's got 'em"
5 from Daniel Bouchard, including
*Christmas is Bombing*
"Melville tells us there is nothing
more insignificant
than having a book of poems published"
one from Michel Bulteau *The Wounded Dream*
translated from the French by Vincent Katz
"Let's cut off our hands!
They've spent too much time under the earth....
Will you believe for very much longer
That your affirmations seal your identity?"
one from Morgan Russell, *Walk Fragment*
"he (the tape I suspect)
shot me awake 4AM"
one from Clayton Eshleman *Autumn 2004*
"How to say myself as an American 21st Century
exasperated person?"
another from Nada Gordon, *Decency in the Arts*
"Take thy bev'rage from the ancient rose,
and ram it up your dirty bomb
In order to felch its eyeball with a straw
And on John Ashcroft's breast repose"
two essays from Alvin Curran written as liner notes
to his CD *Animal Behavior*, including
*Why Is This Night Different Than All Other Nights*
"...the ever-present choral hum of the
Brooklyn Bridge acts as a reminder of what
that momument once sounded like; it also acts
like a safety net to catch the tuba spittle,
the violin's rosin, the accordion's breath"
an essay from Ricardo Abromovay, *The Brazilian Left:
Far From the Night of the Ultimate Overthrow*
'The principal mission of a government of the left in
contemporary societies consists in promoting conditions
that open greater opportunities for social integration
to the poorest citizens, stimulating productive investments,
applying substantial resources in education, and
above all allowing greater productivity and greater
access to markets for the millions of workers who
might not participate in the economic growth."
an essay from Martin Brody, *Music Like That*
"Adrian Piper suggests how an operation of
'self-confounding' might function as a poetics of
intransigence with a strong formalist bent:
'[T]o confound oneself by incorporating into
works of art an aesthetic language one recognizes
as largely opaque to one; as having a significance
one recognizes as beyond one's ability to grasp...
[T]he cross-cultural appropriation of alien formal
devices reminds one of one's subjectivity'"
Following this, a section of a memoir by
Morgan Russell *A Girl Named Lunch*:
"...she told me of a lover with a glass eye...
your eye, take it out...why?..because I want to
lick the membrane behind it...(its actually
almost licking the brain: a brain job)"
the excellent issue ends with a statement of
purpose by the editor Vincent Katz:
"Someone asked me if the point was September
11, and I said no, it was a general dysfunction
that had set in, marked by the thrusting into
power of a group of figures that will be remembered
as among the most destructive in U.S. and world history."
**********************************
Terrific Photo on
equanimity {click here} today. I thought
it was a photo of a painting, but straight
for the horse's mouth it's a photo!
**********************************
New Interviews
Bernstein on *Shadowtime*; Perloff on
Abstract Poetry
The Argotist Online {click here}
*Vanitas*, first issue, edited by Vincent Katz
For some reason, everything, from the
magazine itself, to the reading, to
the party afterwards, to thinking about
it now, seems to be triggering endless
deja vus. Anyone, which is nearly
everyone, who has had this feeling
knows how it encompasses many aspects
of memory and timelessness.
I keep coming back to seeing Greg Masters {click here}
at the reading. Greg is an old-timer like me,
a vintage Poetry Project person. Connecting
with Greg again helps heal the rifts that
necessarily occur in the course of a lifetime
with poets and poetry. Vanitas opens up
with an article by Jordan Davis {click here} about the
available histories of the New York school.
He writes about David Lehman's
*The Last Avant-Garde*,
Daniel Kane's *All Poets Welcome*, and
Joe LeSueur's memoir, *Digressions on
Some Poems by Frank O'Hara*, the last two
published in 2003. Jordan appreciates these
but wants more and feels the history taking
of this era and its progeny is incomplete.
"What would be nice to have is a not-too-
long book that tells the story of the New York
School of poets, identifying the common
interests of the writers and sources of their
work, while placing the groups as they develop
in their shifting milieus."i
Next comes a piece by Carter Ratcliff titled
*The Anaxagoras Variations: A Note on Theory*
A fine poet in his own right, Carter Ratcliff is
best known as an art critic. Once upon a time
I would have been annoyed by this piece, which
attempts to deconstruct &
critique theory by means of theory.
But, living in the heart of my own anecdotage, I can
only enjoy reading the words of someone who
attended Ted Berrigan's poetry workshop with me
in 1967 and wrote a poem about it published in
Ann Waldman's first *World Anthology* (1969) in which he writes:
"Disagree with anything anybody else says, especially
what Charles, Ted, Nick, and Scott say
Agree with everything anybody says, especially
what Marcel Flamm says
Figure out who likes what
Be jealous of everybody
Approve of this sentiment and its intensity
Arrive late when all the places around the table
are taken"
I remember admiring & enjoying Carter Ratcliff's
first book of poetry *Fever Coast*, which featured
an unforgettable poem titled "The Comma".
Next comes a poem by Ann Lauterbach, *Triangles
and Squares (Guston, Malevich)*:
"yea the geometric sun, yes the line of abstraction. o yes
monster ambition flourishing, the violent inhuman field"
Then 4 poems by Fanny Howe including *Empty Handed*:
"This blindness was all our fault, it was our work
until the lock of sleep"
Then 4 by Ange Mlinko, including the
*The Most Awkward Hugger*:
"It's the sort of weather Tybalt murdered Mercutio in.
I sold a dinner jacket for cash to buy a birthday present."
3 by Carol Mirakove including *substance*:
"populace spending 17 billion dollars a year on
books and a 105 billion dollars on booze"
Judith Malina, who lead off the BPC reading
superbly, has one untitled poem:
"I am Kandinsky standing
in front of Monet's haystack
about to discover a simple
truth that changes everything"
Then, my #1 favorite young poet right now,
Nada Gordon's *_Nothing is Untitled_*
"It fans across black as a hand (like a sassy cloud
in the ghetto of the sky) it spires an undersea
Maryanne Shaneen (who couldn't make the reading
because she was ill; get better soon, Maryann!)
contribues 5 poems including *Magnetic Memory Loss*:
"each tenderness extends into whipcrack.
war hidden in the language. by
influencing their appetites or desires."
and a collaboration with Rod Smith *tertium
striangular-alacrity*:
"(sky) to be (sky) to be (by) to be (ours) to be (come) (&)
to rise"
Sarah Manguso contributed *Epthalamion*
"Do not be too serious! You are part of it now!"
Elaine Equi, who helped to edit the issue, contributed
4 poems:
"...If only we had/some good, loud insults to hurl
at these floats,/ these mirages that pass for current events."
3 from Anne Waldman, including
*Neural-Linguistically: this is the writing dance..."
"This is the trespass dance this is the way I get down for it
It's my power structure to STRANGLE Rumsfeld"
Then a Jim Dine portfolio of painted poems:
"This Morning, when I was youong
I went into a little room where there was
A CLEAR MIRACLE LIKE
OBJECT A big sculpture
In The Room"
4 from Jerome Sala, including *A Pageant of
Agents*, a poem about beautiful spies being
hired by the CIA, including Britney Spears:
"'She may be our
biggest coup (and cop)
since the days when we
backed abstract art
in Europe; hey, from Jackson Pollack
to the Back Street Boys
you've got to go
with the flow
of the times'"
4 from Carter Ratcliff
including *Since When*:
"Since when didi you make manners your manifest
and rudeness your apologia? Since when
did you admit that there was any difference between the
two?
Pizazz, you say, is a Darwinian adaptation,
and altruism, down for the count"
Two from David Lehman,
including, *The Crown of An Evening*
"in one drawer I kept the collages of David Shapiro.
Frank O'hara was dead but kept writing in that drawer."
one from Francis Ponge, translated by Laird Hunt:
*Banks of the Loire, Rome, May 24th, 1941*
"Never try to arrange things. Things and poems are
irreconcilable"
one from Drew Gardner, *from The Fire Escape*
"I can't afford this
to slowly turn around
it's not dying, it's just
bizarre, and true
we are in a chemical world
and we fight in a high, panicked screen-memory"
3 Haiku from me, including *Unearth*
"a few delicate
thoughts
now buried
beneath an avalanche"
then two untitled poems from Richard Hell
"the wack, the tang, the brassiere
the poop eye candle-flame"
one from Charles Borkhuis, *Valley of the Dogs*
"don't talk to me about your nightmares
everybody's got 'em"
5 from Daniel Bouchard, including
*Christmas is Bombing*
"Melville tells us there is nothing
more insignificant
than having a book of poems published"
one from Michel Bulteau *The Wounded Dream*
translated from the French by Vincent Katz
"Let's cut off our hands!
They've spent too much time under the earth....
Will you believe for very much longer
That your affirmations seal your identity?"
one from Morgan Russell, *Walk Fragment*
"he (the tape I suspect)
shot me awake 4AM"
one from Clayton Eshleman *Autumn 2004*
"How to say myself as an American 21st Century
exasperated person?"
another from Nada Gordon, *Decency in the Arts*
"Take thy bev'rage from the ancient rose,
and ram it up your dirty bomb
In order to felch its eyeball with a straw
And on John Ashcroft's breast repose"
two essays from Alvin Curran written as liner notes
to his CD *Animal Behavior*, including
*Why Is This Night Different Than All Other Nights*
"...the ever-present choral hum of the
Brooklyn Bridge acts as a reminder of what
that momument once sounded like; it also acts
like a safety net to catch the tuba spittle,
the violin's rosin, the accordion's breath"
an essay from Ricardo Abromovay, *The Brazilian Left:
Far From the Night of the Ultimate Overthrow*
'The principal mission of a government of the left in
contemporary societies consists in promoting conditions
that open greater opportunities for social integration
to the poorest citizens, stimulating productive investments,
applying substantial resources in education, and
above all allowing greater productivity and greater
access to markets for the millions of workers who
might not participate in the economic growth."
an essay from Martin Brody, *Music Like That*
"Adrian Piper suggests how an operation of
'self-confounding' might function as a poetics of
intransigence with a strong formalist bent:
'[T]o confound oneself by incorporating into
works of art an aesthetic language one recognizes
as largely opaque to one; as having a significance
one recognizes as beyond one's ability to grasp...
[T]he cross-cultural appropriation of alien formal
devices reminds one of one's subjectivity'"
Following this, a section of a memoir by
Morgan Russell *A Girl Named Lunch*:
"...she told me of a lover with a glass eye...
your eye, take it out...why?..because I want to
lick the membrane behind it...(its actually
almost licking the brain: a brain job)"
the excellent issue ends with a statement of
purpose by the editor Vincent Katz:
"Someone asked me if the point was September
11, and I said no, it was a general dysfunction
that had set in, marked by the thrusting into
power of a group of figures that will be remembered
as among the most destructive in U.S. and world history."
**********************************
Terrific Photo on
equanimity {click here} today. I thought
it was a photo of a painting, but straight
for the horse's mouth it's a photo!
**********************************
New Interviews
Bernstein on *Shadowtime*; Perloff on
Abstract Poetry
The Argotist Online {click here}
Sunday, June 26
Thanks, Nada!
Some ::fait accompli:: readers
may have noticed the incredible
shrinking type on this blog of late.
Not sure how that happened, but
I do know why it's better. Nada,
who turns out to know much more
than I do about html came to the
rescue and showed me how
to enlarge the type. What a pal!
************************************
Vanitas at the Bowery Poetry Club
The readings in celebration of the
first issue of Vincent Katz' new
poetry and arts magazine, *Vanitas*
were clearly well received- and when
the attendees had a chance to
check out the terrific work therein
and the issue's excellent production values-
with cover and a section of art work by Jim Dine
the palpable excitement spilled over
into the impromptu party afterwards
at the Cafe Orlin. Vanitas #1 is
available from Vincent Katz at
vanitas@el.net
The editorial address is
211 West 19th Street, #5
New York, NY 10011
Vincent, in an editorial
afterword writes: "Most
people in the U.S. use
the word "political incorrectly."
Political must be an actual
functioning apporoach to changing
or avoiding governmental policies.
this issue is reflection on THE STATE.
Next, we will approach what can
possibly thought of as politics. One
move will be towards an investigation
of current possibilities of Anarchy.
Each issue will have a theme
or thrust....One part of VANITAS
is open it to current voices from
around the world. We start in
this issue with a poem from France and an
essay from Brazil..."
Well, after a day in Prospect Park
enjoying the breezes and ducking
various missiles used for child's
play, it's time to go for pizza.
More on this excellent issue soon!
Some ::fait accompli:: readers
may have noticed the incredible
shrinking type on this blog of late.
Not sure how that happened, but
I do know why it's better. Nada,
who turns out to know much more
than I do about html came to the
rescue and showed me how
to enlarge the type. What a pal!
************************************
Vanitas at the Bowery Poetry Club
The readings in celebration of the
first issue of Vincent Katz' new
poetry and arts magazine, *Vanitas*
were clearly well received- and when
the attendees had a chance to
check out the terrific work therein
and the issue's excellent production values-
with cover and a section of art work by Jim Dine
the palpable excitement spilled over
into the impromptu party afterwards
at the Cafe Orlin. Vanitas #1 is
available from Vincent Katz at
vanitas@el.net
The editorial address is
211 West 19th Street, #5
New York, NY 10011
Vincent, in an editorial
afterword writes: "Most
people in the U.S. use
the word "political incorrectly."
Political must be an actual
functioning apporoach to changing
or avoiding governmental policies.
this issue is reflection on THE STATE.
Next, we will approach what can
possibly thought of as politics. One
move will be towards an investigation
of current possibilities of Anarchy.
Each issue will have a theme
or thrust....One part of VANITAS
is open it to current voices from
around the world. We start in
this issue with a poem from France and an
essay from Brazil..."
Well, after a day in Prospect Park
enjoying the breezes and ducking
various missiles used for child's
play, it's time to go for pizza.
More on this excellent issue soon!
Friday, June 24
A Mid-Summer Night's Blurb
Mermaid's Purse by Laynie Browne (Spuyten Duyvil) {click here}
**************************************
Fox of Gold by Julia T. Mayhew
JTM Press,
University City, Missouri
Read about an interview
with a gorilla, tarantulas in
a tutu, a pencil that feels
sorry for itself, and a star
that makes people calm down.
Read Julia Mayhew's poems, they're cool.
So cool, I almost missed my subway stop!
Mermaid's Purse by Laynie Browne (Spuyten Duyvil) {click here}
**************************************
Fox of Gold by Julia T. Mayhew
JTM Press,
University City, Missouri
Read about an interview
with a gorilla, tarantulas in
a tutu, a pencil that feels
sorry for itself, and a star
that makes people calm down.
Read Julia Mayhew's poems, they're cool.
So cool, I almost missed my subway stop!
Come To The Launch
Of Vanitas,
Saturday, June 25,
8 Pm, Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery @ Bleecker,
Right Across From Cbgb's
F Train To Second Ave |
6 Train To Bleecker | 212-614-0505
Free!
Help Celebrate The Arrival Of Vanitas,
A Magazine Devoted To Poetry And
Discourse Among The Arts.
Come To The Launch And Hear
Readings By Contributors Elaine Equi,
Richard Hell, Nada Gordon,
Judith Malina, Carol Mirakove,
Nick Piombino, And Jerome Sala.
Other Contributors Include
Charles Borkhuis, Jordan Davis,
Clayton Eshleman, Drew Gardner,
Fanny Howe, Ann Lauterbach,
David Lehman, Ange Mlinko,
Carter Ratcliff, Marianne Shaneen,
And Anne Waldman. Plus: Poems,
Photographs And Cover Art By Jim Dine.
Edited By Vincent Katz.
Vanitas: 211 West 19 Street,
#5, New York, Ny 10011.
vanitas@el.net.
***********************************
review trek: episode 4-
get a horse
equanimity {click here}
****************************
close call
tim yu (tympan) {click here}
****************************
ahadada
books poetry news
aggregator {click here}
**********************************
1 in a million {click here}
*********************************
Of Vanitas,
Saturday, June 25,
8 Pm, Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery @ Bleecker,
Right Across From Cbgb's
F Train To Second Ave |
6 Train To Bleecker | 212-614-0505
Free!
Help Celebrate The Arrival Of Vanitas,
A Magazine Devoted To Poetry And
Discourse Among The Arts.
Come To The Launch And Hear
Readings By Contributors Elaine Equi,
Richard Hell, Nada Gordon,
Judith Malina, Carol Mirakove,
Nick Piombino, And Jerome Sala.
Other Contributors Include
Charles Borkhuis, Jordan Davis,
Clayton Eshleman, Drew Gardner,
Fanny Howe, Ann Lauterbach,
David Lehman, Ange Mlinko,
Carter Ratcliff, Marianne Shaneen,
And Anne Waldman. Plus: Poems,
Photographs And Cover Art By Jim Dine.
Edited By Vincent Katz.
Vanitas: 211 West 19 Street,
#5, New York, Ny 10011.
vanitas@el.net.
***********************************
review trek: episode 4-
get a horse
equanimity {click here}
****************************
close call
tim yu (tympan) {click here}
****************************
ahadada
books poetry news
aggregator {click here}
**********************************
1 in a million {click here}
*********************************
Monday, June 20
My poem -The Best of 2005-
right now on As-Is {click here}
********************************************
Luca Antera-in beautiful dreams {click here} about time travel!
********************************************
World-Wide Tour of Richard Tuttle's
Retrospective Begins Soon
at the San Francisco MOMA
as announced by
The Chatelaine's Poetics {click here}
(plus Eileen Tabios'
poem of appreciation
for Richard Tuttle)
**********************************************
The Review- Episode III
-No Excuses-
Jordan sets aside his usual
equanimity {click here} to demolish our whiny complaints about
his idea for a
blogged "review of record"
right now on As-Is {click here}
********************************************
Luca Antera-in beautiful dreams {click here} about time travel!
********************************************
World-Wide Tour of Richard Tuttle's
Retrospective Begins Soon
at the San Francisco MOMA
as announced by
The Chatelaine's Poetics {click here}
(plus Eileen Tabios'
poem of appreciation
for Richard Tuttle)
**********************************************
The Review- Episode III
-No Excuses-
Jordan sets aside his usual
equanimity {click here} to demolish our whiny complaints about
his idea for a
blogged "review of record"
Sunday, June 19
Mr David reports:
A Whole Lotta Shakin' and Bakin' {click here} Goin' On
in the comments boxes!
Today: at Tim Yu's (Tympan's)
Death to Reviews II {click here}-
the adventure continues.
*****************************
Who's Counting?
Nada Gordon's (Ululations') {click here}
and
Alli Warren's (the Ingredient's) {click here}
book memes.
****************************
A Whole Lotta Shakin' and Bakin' {click here} Goin' On
in the comments boxes!
Today: at Tim Yu's (Tympan's)
Death to Reviews II {click here}-
the adventure continues.
*****************************
Who's Counting?
Nada Gordon's (Ululations') {click here}
and
Alli Warren's (the Ingredient's) {click here}
book memes.
****************************
Saturday, June 18
*Death to Reviews II*
Are poets necessarily home alone?
Get the whole story right now on
Tympan {click here}
***********************
A Critical Departure; and a Critical Full Disclosure
The most recent edition of
rhubarg is susan {click here}
announced the departure from blogland
by an excellent blogger, Simon DeDeo,
which seems to have triggered
quite a bit of soul-searching
among some of the most active
literary bloggers. The general
consensus appears to be that
more reviewing is needed; even,
according to Jordan Davis,
to the point of creating a
"review of record." I've stated here
and elsewhere why I think this
approach is not the most effective:
I agree poets are capable of
writng very useful and interesting
critical essays about poetics and poetry.
I am quite dubious about the
notion of "reviews" by poets.
Reviews present themselves as a
form of crtiical reception by means of
objective judgements.
Poets are unavoidably biased in
regards to their peers, in fact, very
or even extremely biased. They are also
quite capable of brilliant,
even ingenius modes of
presenting their biases as objective
and inevitable. In my view, a better
way to go would be to work together
on a weblog that offers reviews,
presented as such, by invited non-poet
readers of contemporary and other poetry,
such as scholars, academics, fiction writers
or artists, for example; the blog
might also include essays about
poetics, poetry-or anything else-
by poets presented as such:
appreciations or persuasive critiques by
peers about peers, acknowledged
as such, but differentiated from the
"reviews"- written, hopefully, by
commentators who are not
actively involved and engaged with
a poetry career and a circle of poets.
In any case, ::fait accompli::
will continue to
present our thoughts and
opinions concerning art and
poetry for what they are: ideas
and reflections about writing
offered by an actively
engaged poet and artist, who
harbors no illusions about
enjoying a lifetime of innumerable
valued long term and new
friendships and acquaintanceships
among poets and artists;
these, of course, include
connections with particular
schools of poetry, perhaps,
now, even blogging!
We do not blush or apologize
for our many affections and loyalties
here at: :fait accompli:: , and we will
continue to enjoy working hard
at remaining as open
as possible to as much
writing and art,
new and old, as is possible
both by friends and strangers.
Are poets necessarily home alone?
Get the whole story right now on
Tympan {click here}
***********************
A Critical Departure; and a Critical Full Disclosure
The most recent edition of
rhubarg is susan {click here}
announced the departure from blogland
by an excellent blogger, Simon DeDeo,
which seems to have triggered
quite a bit of soul-searching
among some of the most active
literary bloggers. The general
consensus appears to be that
more reviewing is needed; even,
according to Jordan Davis,
to the point of creating a
"review of record." I've stated here
and elsewhere why I think this
approach is not the most effective:
I agree poets are capable of
writng very useful and interesting
critical essays about poetics and poetry.
I am quite dubious about the
notion of "reviews" by poets.
Reviews present themselves as a
form of crtiical reception by means of
objective judgements.
Poets are unavoidably biased in
regards to their peers, in fact, very
or even extremely biased. They are also
quite capable of brilliant,
even ingenius modes of
presenting their biases as objective
and inevitable. In my view, a better
way to go would be to work together
on a weblog that offers reviews,
presented as such, by invited non-poet
readers of contemporary and other poetry,
such as scholars, academics, fiction writers
or artists, for example; the blog
might also include essays about
poetics, poetry-or anything else-
by poets presented as such:
appreciations or persuasive critiques by
peers about peers, acknowledged
as such, but differentiated from the
"reviews"- written, hopefully, by
commentators who are not
actively involved and engaged with
a poetry career and a circle of poets.
In any case, ::fait accompli::
will continue to
present our thoughts and
opinions concerning art and
poetry for what they are: ideas
and reflections about writing
offered by an actively
engaged poet and artist, who
harbors no illusions about
enjoying a lifetime of innumerable
valued long term and new
friendships and acquaintanceships
among poets and artists;
these, of course, include
connections with particular
schools of poetry, perhaps,
now, even blogging!
We do not blush or apologize
for our many affections and loyalties
here at: :fait accompli:: , and we will
continue to enjoy working hard
at remaining as open
as possible to as much
writing and art,
new and old, as is possible
both by friends and strangers.
Friday, June 17
"In this sullen craft or art/ excercised while the moon rages"
is a paraphrase of a line from Dylan Thomas
Jonathan Mayhew, bold blogger of Bemsha Swing {click here} has once again aroused my "anecdotage."
**************
In My Craft or Sullen Art
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art
- Dylan Thomas
************************************
Gary Sullivan (Elsewhere} {click here}
responds to the poetry book meme,
passes the baton to Nada who passes
it to Alli Warren (who has recently
published a new chapbook)
************************************
Yahoo's blog poets {click here}
************************************
Name Your Mood And I'll Build It For You
by Neon on
As-Is {click here}
is a paraphrase of a line from Dylan Thomas
Jonathan Mayhew, bold blogger of Bemsha Swing {click here} has once again aroused my "anecdotage."
**************
In My Craft or Sullen Art
In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages
Of their most secret heart.
Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art
- Dylan Thomas
************************************
Gary Sullivan (Elsewhere} {click here}
responds to the poetry book meme,
passes the baton to Nada who passes
it to Alli Warren (who has recently
published a new chapbook)
************************************
Yahoo's blog poets {click here}
************************************
Name Your Mood And I'll Build It For You
by Neon on
As-Is {click here}
Tuesday, June 14
Tony Oursler {click here}
who is interviewed in Henry Hills' *Emma's Dilemma*, discussed below,
has a darkly humorous installation
at the Metropolitan Museum
titled *Climaxed* A cartoon
cloud-character, housed in a roomful
of reddish-yellow clouds,
explodes, again and again, in
comic-book rage at the world.
In *Emma's Dilemma*, Oursler
puts an emphasis on dialogue
and interaction as key elements
in his work and what most
interests him in art. His other
installation at the Met now, an
homage to a painting by
Courbet, commissioned by
the Musee D'Orsay in Paris,
is a replica of his studio.
Saturday, June 11
*Emma's Dilemma*, a film by Henry Hills
was shown last night at Anthology Film Archives.
Although there was an earlier showing of parts
of the film at the Museum of Modern Art, this was the
first complete showing of the 87 minute-long film.
Many of the interviewees were present in the audience,
including Carolee Schneeman, Ken Jacobs and
Kenneth Goldsmith; as well as the Bernstein
family, including Susan Bee's father Sigmund
Laufer as well as Charles Bernstein's mother-
aka the Countess Bernstein (more on that later).
The film focuses on a 12 year
old Emma Bernstein (she is now in her first year
at the University of Chicago) interviewing such
art world luminaries as the artists
mentioned above, as well as
Richard Foreman, Tony Oursler,
poets Lee Anne Brown and
performance artist Julie Patton
and poet Susan Howe. Audience
sightings: Rodrigo Toscano, Bob
Perelman, Francie Shaw, Mimi Gross,
Mira Schor, Bradley Eros, Nada Gordon,
Bruce Andrews, Laura Elrick,
Sally Silvers, Jay
Sanders, Rob Fitterman, Jean Foos,
Abigail Child, Dirk Rountree.
Henry Hills is the consummate
experimental filmaker and this
film will be a delight
for those in search of films
that defy to an extreme
the current Hollywood
model of seducing audiences
determined to protect their limited
or waning attention spans.
Hills is a filmaker who deserves
to be recognized as a
prime contemporary leader of the
avant-garde. If you question
whether such a thing exists,
you are now required to
consider the career of Henry
Hills closely. One could understand
why in the course of this witty, but
uncompromising film, Charles
Bernstein makes a point of
comparing his own aesthetics
closely with that of this filmaker.
Hills defies every precept of
conventional film making:
not only in relation to plot,
but in his insistent and
very thoroughly,
even obsessively,
explored visual and psychological
interests: notably physical gestures
and their expression of situation and
personality. In one of the most outstanding
scenes in the film, Emma is interviewing
Ken Jacobs and the camera focuses on the filmaker's
hands. I did not quite understand all of Henry's
technical details when he explained to
me how he advanced and reversed the
images in doing a study of Jacob's hand
gestures that move rapidly again and again
to create an image
of a whirling globe. Also, the focus on
aspects of "home movie or video" is
suggestive of his wit and avant-gardism
(I'm thinking now of Stan Brakhage and
Vito Acconci), in this case the family
of the poet Charles Bernstein,
his wife the artist Susan Bee
(whose paintings take on a
spectral and stunning stature in this film),
their son Felix (who ends the film
with a show stopping dance in a tutu)
and, of course, the interviewer, their daughter
Emma Bernstein. After the showing
Henry spoke about his fascination
with Emma's rapid personal
transformations going from age
12 to 16 or 17; indeed it is
fascinating to witness the huge
number of psychological and
social changes observable in
Emma's appearance, styles
and attitudes in the course of the
film; her pre-teen and teenage
boredom and sarcasm
occasionally emerges, but
Henry certainly seems to
enjoyably focus on her appealing,
sphynx-like demeanor but- even
more significantly- engages her
prescient and impressive
youthful insights into his own
work and the work and ideas of
such artists as Tony Oursler,
Richard Foreman and Carolee
Schneeman. Sighted also in the
film: poets Sianne Ngai and Fiona
Templeton. The segment on
Richard Foreman is phenomenal;
Foreman is amazingly relaxed with
Emma and startlingly
forthcoming for this usually
extremely reticent playwright;
he does a dance, he kids around
with Emma in delightful and
memorable ways. The filmed
sequences of the play Foreman
was working on at that moment
will doubtlessly be treasured by
future viewers; they richly and
uncannily capture the essence of
Foreman's art, which is itself
so replete in visual concerns and effects
(his work could easily be included in
a compendium of contemporary
installation artists). Another interview
worth seeing more than once:
the one with Susan Howe, where
many of her words appear in writing, words
animated in white on the screen as she speaks.
In another segment, Emma uses the word
"like" innumerable times, that also appear
animated in white on the screen. As a group walked
to a bar with Henry afterwards, Henry
reminded me about a talk Carolee gave not
long ago at the Bowery Poetry Club which
included an intricate take on the use of that
ever-present word. Also, in the after-screening
discussion, Emma and Henry were present to
answer audience questions. Kenny Goldsmith
asked Emma if her friends at the University of
Chicago ask her questions about her artistic family
milieu. She said she doesn't like to mention this
so often (audience laughter) but
she occasionally
surprises people when they
learn she is the daughter of one of their
favorite poets.
Hills seems here to be paying
tribute to artists who
have made it one of their prime
concerns to enlarge the
boundaries of their
chosen medium,
another clear example of his
avant-gardist values.
Both Henry and Emma
mentioned afterwards that
several interviews were
cut from the lengthy film; some with artists,
also footage of the late,
great, Jackson Mac Low.
Emma's engaging and perceptive
commentary is certainly one of
the more entertaining and
vibrant aspects of this
many faceted, complex film. At one point she
says (of the Bernsteins), "My
parents are arty, but not hip."
(Charles later agreed, admitting to
a lack of interest in being fashionable;
another calling card of the avant-garde).
At another point, Susan Bee's collagist
paintings spin into innumberable rectangular,
interpenetrating, transforming fragments.
Later, over drinks, Hills mentioned to
me his memory of going to a nightclub
with CB in the early 80's (thanks to the
Warhol set connections of Charles Bernstein's
mother-known as "the Countess
Bernstein") and feeling they "kind of
stood out there." One wonders
if Emma as yet sustains her 12 year old stated
dream that "an agent might see me
in the film and call me up." Emma also
mentions a serendipitous,
but ultimately frustrating moment when
the filmaker and interviewer happened to
capture Parker Posey in a sponaneous
interview, now lost to us due to a worn-out
camera battery.
Henry Hills' *Emma's Dilemma* is a
cinematic, psychological and
philosophical
tour de force. We should
be grateful to him for so boldly
and entertainingly keeping
alive fast fading, 19th and
20th century utopian visions of
complete artistic freedom.
*********************************
A Henry Hills retrospective
tomorrow night, Sunday June 12
at 7:00 pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue at 2cd Street
*********************************
At Philosophy Box
1511 Lexington Avenue
(Between 97th & 98th Streets)
Yu-Whuan, Director)
Abigail Child, New York
Premier of *Cake and Steak* (2004)
also showing: *Kitas Window Image*
by Jackie Matisse
and Miguel Trelles, New Work
from June 8-June 26,2005
Weds-Sun, 2-8 pm
opening reception:
Saturday, June 11th, 6-8 pm
and book party for Abigail Child's
*A Critical Poetics of Film* (2205)
University of Alabama Press
***************************************
Nada Gordon on Emma's Dilemma
Ululations {click here}
***************************************
Over the Bridge: Toni and Nada's Musings
Coming Home from Emma's Dilemma
ululations {click here}
***************************************
was shown last night at Anthology Film Archives.
Although there was an earlier showing of parts
of the film at the Museum of Modern Art, this was the
first complete showing of the 87 minute-long film.
Many of the interviewees were present in the audience,
including Carolee Schneeman, Ken Jacobs and
Kenneth Goldsmith; as well as the Bernstein
family, including Susan Bee's father Sigmund
Laufer as well as Charles Bernstein's mother-
aka the Countess Bernstein (more on that later).
The film focuses on a 12 year
old Emma Bernstein (she is now in her first year
at the University of Chicago) interviewing such
art world luminaries as the artists
mentioned above, as well as
Richard Foreman, Tony Oursler,
poets Lee Anne Brown and
performance artist Julie Patton
and poet Susan Howe. Audience
sightings: Rodrigo Toscano, Bob
Perelman, Francie Shaw, Mimi Gross,
Mira Schor, Bradley Eros, Nada Gordon,
Bruce Andrews, Laura Elrick,
Sally Silvers, Jay
Sanders, Rob Fitterman, Jean Foos,
Abigail Child, Dirk Rountree.
Henry Hills is the consummate
experimental filmaker and this
film will be a delight
for those in search of films
that defy to an extreme
the current Hollywood
model of seducing audiences
determined to protect their limited
or waning attention spans.
Hills is a filmaker who deserves
to be recognized as a
prime contemporary leader of the
avant-garde. If you question
whether such a thing exists,
you are now required to
consider the career of Henry
Hills closely. One could understand
why in the course of this witty, but
uncompromising film, Charles
Bernstein makes a point of
comparing his own aesthetics
closely with that of this filmaker.
Hills defies every precept of
conventional film making:
not only in relation to plot,
but in his insistent and
very thoroughly,
even obsessively,
explored visual and psychological
interests: notably physical gestures
and their expression of situation and
personality. In one of the most outstanding
scenes in the film, Emma is interviewing
Ken Jacobs and the camera focuses on the filmaker's
hands. I did not quite understand all of Henry's
technical details when he explained to
me how he advanced and reversed the
images in doing a study of Jacob's hand
gestures that move rapidly again and again
to create an image
of a whirling globe. Also, the focus on
aspects of "home movie or video" is
suggestive of his wit and avant-gardism
(I'm thinking now of Stan Brakhage and
Vito Acconci), in this case the family
of the poet Charles Bernstein,
his wife the artist Susan Bee
(whose paintings take on a
spectral and stunning stature in this film),
their son Felix (who ends the film
with a show stopping dance in a tutu)
and, of course, the interviewer, their daughter
Emma Bernstein. After the showing
Henry spoke about his fascination
with Emma's rapid personal
transformations going from age
12 to 16 or 17; indeed it is
fascinating to witness the huge
number of psychological and
social changes observable in
Emma's appearance, styles
and attitudes in the course of the
film; her pre-teen and teenage
boredom and sarcasm
occasionally emerges, but
Henry certainly seems to
enjoyably focus on her appealing,
sphynx-like demeanor but- even
more significantly- engages her
prescient and impressive
youthful insights into his own
work and the work and ideas of
such artists as Tony Oursler,
Richard Foreman and Carolee
Schneeman. Sighted also in the
film: poets Sianne Ngai and Fiona
Templeton. The segment on
Richard Foreman is phenomenal;
Foreman is amazingly relaxed with
Emma and startlingly
forthcoming for this usually
extremely reticent playwright;
he does a dance, he kids around
with Emma in delightful and
memorable ways. The filmed
sequences of the play Foreman
was working on at that moment
will doubtlessly be treasured by
future viewers; they richly and
uncannily capture the essence of
Foreman's art, which is itself
so replete in visual concerns and effects
(his work could easily be included in
a compendium of contemporary
installation artists). Another interview
worth seeing more than once:
the one with Susan Howe, where
many of her words appear in writing, words
animated in white on the screen as she speaks.
In another segment, Emma uses the word
"like" innumerable times, that also appear
animated in white on the screen. As a group walked
to a bar with Henry afterwards, Henry
reminded me about a talk Carolee gave not
long ago at the Bowery Poetry Club which
included an intricate take on the use of that
ever-present word. Also, in the after-screening
discussion, Emma and Henry were present to
answer audience questions. Kenny Goldsmith
asked Emma if her friends at the University of
Chicago ask her questions about her artistic family
milieu. She said she doesn't like to mention this
so often (audience laughter) but
she occasionally
surprises people when they
learn she is the daughter of one of their
favorite poets.
Hills seems here to be paying
tribute to artists who
have made it one of their prime
concerns to enlarge the
boundaries of their
chosen medium,
another clear example of his
avant-gardist values.
Both Henry and Emma
mentioned afterwards that
several interviews were
cut from the lengthy film; some with artists,
also footage of the late,
great, Jackson Mac Low.
Emma's engaging and perceptive
commentary is certainly one of
the more entertaining and
vibrant aspects of this
many faceted, complex film. At one point she
says (of the Bernsteins), "My
parents are arty, but not hip."
(Charles later agreed, admitting to
a lack of interest in being fashionable;
another calling card of the avant-garde).
At another point, Susan Bee's collagist
paintings spin into innumberable rectangular,
interpenetrating, transforming fragments.
Later, over drinks, Hills mentioned to
me his memory of going to a nightclub
with CB in the early 80's (thanks to the
Warhol set connections of Charles Bernstein's
mother-known as "the Countess
Bernstein") and feeling they "kind of
stood out there." One wonders
if Emma as yet sustains her 12 year old stated
dream that "an agent might see me
in the film and call me up." Emma also
mentions a serendipitous,
but ultimately frustrating moment when
the filmaker and interviewer happened to
capture Parker Posey in a sponaneous
interview, now lost to us due to a worn-out
camera battery.
Henry Hills' *Emma's Dilemma* is a
cinematic, psychological and
philosophical
tour de force. We should
be grateful to him for so boldly
and entertainingly keeping
alive fast fading, 19th and
20th century utopian visions of
complete artistic freedom.
*********************************
A Henry Hills retrospective
tomorrow night, Sunday June 12
at 7:00 pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue at 2cd Street
*********************************
At Philosophy Box
1511 Lexington Avenue
(Between 97th & 98th Streets)
Yu-Whuan, Director)
Abigail Child, New York
Premier of *Cake and Steak* (2004)
also showing: *Kitas Window Image*
by Jackie Matisse
and Miguel Trelles, New Work
from June 8-June 26,2005
Weds-Sun, 2-8 pm
opening reception:
Saturday, June 11th, 6-8 pm
and book party for Abigail Child's
*A Critical Poetics of Film* (2205)
University of Alabama Press
***************************************
Nada Gordon on Emma's Dilemma
Ululations {click here}
***************************************
Over the Bridge: Toni and Nada's Musings
Coming Home from Emma's Dilemma
ululations {click here}
***************************************
Friday, June 10
You Went to College, I went to Cool-idge
A Compendium of Coolidge Cliches
right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}
*******************************************
Thanks to Geof Huth (dbqp Visualizing Poetics) {click here}
(that indispensable blog) for reminding us that the
Tom Phillips show at the
Flowers Gallery {click here}
is open for one more day!
(closes Saturday, June 11th)
A Compendium of Coolidge Cliches
right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}
*******************************************
Thanks to Geof Huth (dbqp Visualizing Poetics) {click here}
(that indispensable blog) for reminding us that the
Tom Phillips show at the
Flowers Gallery {click here}
is open for one more day!
(closes Saturday, June 11th)
Thursday, June 9
Penn Sound
just added the reading we did recently on the My Vocabulary show
to their listings:
Featured Authors {click here}
*************************************************
Whmsey Speaks {click here}
in answer to Radical Druid's nine questions
**************************************************
thanks to Green Integer (Douglas Messerli)
for sending us three very exciting new books
they just published:
Charles Bernstein, *Shadowtime* libretto for the
"thought opera" about Walter Benjamin*
**
Douglas Messerli, editor: *The PIP Anthology of World Poetry of the 20th Century
Volume 5, Intersections: Innovative Poetry in
Southern California"; includes: Will Alexander, David Antin, Rae Armantrout,
Therese Bechand, Todd Baron, Guy Bennett, Franklin Bruno, Wanda Coleman,
Robert Crosson. Catherine Daly, MIchael Davidson, Leland Hickman,
Barbara Maloutas, Deborah Meadows, Douglas Messerli,
Harryette Mullen, Martin Nakell, Dennis Phillips, Christopher Reiner, Martha Ronk,
Joe Ross, Jerome Rothenberg, Mark Salerno, Standard Schaefer,
John Thomas, Paul Vangelisti, Pasqualle Verdicchio, Diane Ward
**
and
Paul Celan, *Lightduress* translated by Pierre Joris
just added the reading we did recently on the My Vocabulary show
to their listings:
Featured Authors {click here}
*************************************************
Whmsey Speaks {click here}
in answer to Radical Druid's nine questions
**************************************************
thanks to Green Integer (Douglas Messerli)
for sending us three very exciting new books
they just published:
Charles Bernstein, *Shadowtime* libretto for the
"thought opera" about Walter Benjamin*
**
Douglas Messerli, editor: *The PIP Anthology of World Poetry of the 20th Century
Volume 5, Intersections: Innovative Poetry in
Southern California"; includes: Will Alexander, David Antin, Rae Armantrout,
Therese Bechand, Todd Baron, Guy Bennett, Franklin Bruno, Wanda Coleman,
Robert Crosson. Catherine Daly, MIchael Davidson, Leland Hickman,
Barbara Maloutas, Deborah Meadows, Douglas Messerli,
Harryette Mullen, Martin Nakell, Dennis Phillips, Christopher Reiner, Martha Ronk,
Joe Ross, Jerome Rothenberg, Mark Salerno, Standard Schaefer,
John Thomas, Paul Vangelisti, Pasqualle Verdicchio, Diane Ward
**
and
Paul Celan, *Lightduress* translated by Pierre Joris
Wednesday, June 8
Poet, Publisher, Playwright
Douglas Messerli {click here}, aka Kier Peters and Per Bregne now has a Homepage at the electric Electronic Poetry Center.
Douglas Messerli {click here}, aka Kier Peters and Per Bregne now has a Homepage at the electric Electronic Poetry Center.
Tuesday, June 7
The Vogue for Questions Continues
Evelio's Meme (Blindheit) {click here}
Thanks to Evelio for sending me the following questions.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
About 8000 (figuring
about 100 per box,
I moved recently and
gave away or sold 40 boxes
and moved 40)
2. Last book I bought:
I bought 6 books at McIntyre
and Moore in Somerville, on
Memorial day. They were:
*Theodore Dreiser's "Every Month"*
edited by Nancy Warner Barrineau.
Hardbound, Unversity of Georgia Press,
1996. Paid $9. Theodore Dreiser's
earliest writings, October 1895-
September 1897, published
in a piano music magazine
of the era. Dreiser's brother
was a songwriter. Many of
these articles are intensely
political and anticipate Dreiser's
first novel *Sister Carrie*.
Mircea Eliade, *Journal III:
1970-1978*, Hardbound,
University of Chicago Press,
1989. Paid $9. Eliade's journals
are classics in the form. "17 October.
Joint seminar with Paul Ricoeur on
hermaneutics in philosophy and
the history of religions. Ricoeur
gives an excellent historic
overview, from Aristotle up to Kant."
Anne Sexton, *A Self-Portrait in Letters*,
edited by Linda Gray Sexton and
Lois Ames. Hardbound,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
1977. Paid $7.50. The
famous volume, 433 pages.
Possibly a first edition.
"Perhaps now I have learned
only one thing, a very American
thing- that to fail (the endurance
shattered, broken into small
unimporant pieces) is the ultimate
humiliation. How does one muddy
oneself with failure in this
'literary marketplace' and survive?"
George Orwell, *Essays,
Journalism and Letters*,
three volumes: 1: An Age Like This,
1920-1940; 2: My Country Right or Left,
1940-1943; 3: As I Please, 1943-1945.,
edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus,
David R. Godine, 2000. Softcovers,
paid $9 a volume. "As I write,
highly civilized human beings are
flying overhead trying to kill me."
3.
Last book I read.
Cathy Yardley, *L. A Woman*,
Worldwide Library, 2002.
Another in a welter of novels
coming out of contemporary L.A.,
probably engendered by
the novels of Kate Braverman,
including *Wonders of the West*,
1993, and *Palm Latitudes*. In
Yardley's LA Woman, sedate
Sarah leaves suburban Northern
CA for LA and becomes wilder,
and wiser. Subway reading,
a little on the trashy side, but I
enjoyed it. Purchased for $1
on an outside shelf at Ivy's
Books on the Upper West Side.
4.
Four books that mean a lot to me.
Lynne Dreyer,
*Lamplights Used
To Feed The Deer*,
Some of Us Press, c. 1975.
"And then I looked down I/
saw not only thousands of people
/but thousands of people making/
noises, wailing"
Nada Gordon, *V. Imp*,
Faux Press, 2003.
"Poetry...I too.../my head...I won't go into it"
Douglas Messerli, ed.
*The Gertrude Stein Awards
In Innovative Poetry*, Sun and Moon,
1995. "Suspend craft,
hesitation, influence,
and dramatize/inherent
wilderness (light side of sin..."
- Sheila Murphy, "Floor Piece #4"
Daniel Davidson, *Product*, e.g., 1991.
"Humans are planning made
easy, all the thorny, perplexing,
tedious situations that sell."
***************************************
Passing the baton to:
Phaneronoemikon (Lanny Quarles) {click here}
and
Elsewhere (Gary Sullivan) {click here}
Evelio's Meme (Blindheit) {click here}
Thanks to Evelio for sending me the following questions.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
About 8000 (figuring
about 100 per box,
I moved recently and
gave away or sold 40 boxes
and moved 40)
2. Last book I bought:
I bought 6 books at McIntyre
and Moore in Somerville, on
Memorial day. They were:
*Theodore Dreiser's "Every Month"*
edited by Nancy Warner Barrineau.
Hardbound, Unversity of Georgia Press,
1996. Paid $9. Theodore Dreiser's
earliest writings, October 1895-
September 1897, published
in a piano music magazine
of the era. Dreiser's brother
was a songwriter. Many of
these articles are intensely
political and anticipate Dreiser's
first novel *Sister Carrie*.
Mircea Eliade, *Journal III:
1970-1978*, Hardbound,
University of Chicago Press,
1989. Paid $9. Eliade's journals
are classics in the form. "17 October.
Joint seminar with Paul Ricoeur on
hermaneutics in philosophy and
the history of religions. Ricoeur
gives an excellent historic
overview, from Aristotle up to Kant."
Anne Sexton, *A Self-Portrait in Letters*,
edited by Linda Gray Sexton and
Lois Ames. Hardbound,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
1977. Paid $7.50. The
famous volume, 433 pages.
Possibly a first edition.
"Perhaps now I have learned
only one thing, a very American
thing- that to fail (the endurance
shattered, broken into small
unimporant pieces) is the ultimate
humiliation. How does one muddy
oneself with failure in this
'literary marketplace' and survive?"
George Orwell, *Essays,
Journalism and Letters*,
three volumes: 1: An Age Like This,
1920-1940; 2: My Country Right or Left,
1940-1943; 3: As I Please, 1943-1945.,
edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus,
David R. Godine, 2000. Softcovers,
paid $9 a volume. "As I write,
highly civilized human beings are
flying overhead trying to kill me."
3.
Last book I read.
Cathy Yardley, *L. A Woman*,
Worldwide Library, 2002.
Another in a welter of novels
coming out of contemporary L.A.,
probably engendered by
the novels of Kate Braverman,
including *Wonders of the West*,
1993, and *Palm Latitudes*. In
Yardley's LA Woman, sedate
Sarah leaves suburban Northern
CA for LA and becomes wilder,
and wiser. Subway reading,
a little on the trashy side, but I
enjoyed it. Purchased for $1
on an outside shelf at Ivy's
Books on the Upper West Side.
4.
Four books that mean a lot to me.
Lynne Dreyer,
*Lamplights Used
To Feed The Deer*,
Some of Us Press, c. 1975.
"And then I looked down I/
saw not only thousands of people
/but thousands of people making/
noises, wailing"
Nada Gordon, *V. Imp*,
Faux Press, 2003.
"Poetry...I too.../my head...I won't go into it"
Douglas Messerli, ed.
*The Gertrude Stein Awards
In Innovative Poetry*, Sun and Moon,
1995. "Suspend craft,
hesitation, influence,
and dramatize/inherent
wilderness (light side of sin..."
- Sheila Murphy, "Floor Piece #4"
Daniel Davidson, *Product*, e.g., 1991.
"Humans are planning made
easy, all the thorny, perplexing,
tedious situations that sell."
***************************************
Passing the baton to:
Phaneronoemikon (Lanny Quarles) {click here}
and
Elsewhere (Gary Sullivan) {click here}
Monday, June 6
Sunday, June 5
Nada Gordon and Corinne Robins
gave excellent readings at the Ceres Gallery
on Thursday evening. If you weren't there you
didn't get to hear Corinne's poems about
artists, including a beautiful one about Joseph
Cornell. Nada read a terrific autobiographical
poem, in a mode of channeling Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, I think it was.
Also at the reading I got to meet
Burt Kimmelman, who is the editor of the recently (1/05) pubished Companion to 20th Century American Poetry {click here}, and who
has promised to send me a copy
of one of his own books of poetry.
The four volume compendium includes discussions
of the following poets:
Companion Poets, poems, topics, etc {click here}
*****************************
Downfall {click here}
Thanks to Heathens in Heat {click here} for
posting this review of the
recent movie about Hitler,
a balanced review that rightly
takes issue with the inevitable
"humanizing" of the Nazis this
film indulges in.
***********************
Who cares? {click here}
***************************
gave excellent readings at the Ceres Gallery
on Thursday evening. If you weren't there you
didn't get to hear Corinne's poems about
artists, including a beautiful one about Joseph
Cornell. Nada read a terrific autobiographical
poem, in a mode of channeling Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, I think it was.
Also at the reading I got to meet
Burt Kimmelman, who is the editor of the recently (1/05) pubished Companion to 20th Century American Poetry {click here}, and who
has promised to send me a copy
of one of his own books of poetry.
The four volume compendium includes discussions
of the following poets:
Companion Poets, poems, topics, etc {click here}
*****************************
Downfall {click here}
Thanks to Heathens in Heat {click here} for
posting this review of the
recent movie about Hitler,
a balanced review that rightly
takes issue with the inevitable
"humanizing" of the Nazis this
film indulges in.
***********************
Who cares? {click here}
***************************
Friday, June 3
The Silence of the Lambs
"The arrogance of critics prospers, even fattens,
on the silence of the poets over whom the critic
means to tyrannize."
Jerome Rothenberg {click here}
thanks to Mappemunde (Tim Peterson) {click here} for the link.
Parrhesia
from Gary Sullivan's *Elsewhere*
"Just before leaving, I had a brief
but kind of strange conversation
with Bruce Andrews.
I hadn't seen him in a while,
not since the Coolidge/Gizzi reading,
where I had given him--Bruce--a copy of my comic.
Bruce congratulated me on the comic,
said that while he hadn't read it,
he didn't think it was worth my having
dropped out of the scene for a year
to create. I reminded him
that I had been "missing" really
only for half a year, and he said,
"even so." He said it nicely enough,
so perhaps he simply meant
that he missed me.
But the subtext seemed to be
"What you're doing isn't worth
the time you're spending on it."
Wasn't sure how to respond to that.
I could have, I suppose,
reminded him that my procedure
is different from his own,
that drawing comics physically
takes a lot of time, and
that it is a learned skill--very
different from scribbling on
3x5s while on auto-pilot,
which he's been doing for the
last twenty years or so.
Too, I felt like reminding him
that I had already sold more
copies of my little
self-published comic in
its first month than that
powerhouse Sun & Moon
probably sold of what's
considered his best book,
I Don't Have Any Paper, Or Shut Up,
in its first year in print.
This is hubris, of course,
but if sales continue as they've
been, I'll sell out of the first printing
before a year has gone by, whereas
Shut Up was published
more than a decade ago, and
I don't think it has yet gone
into a second printing.
I can't imagine that more than
1000 copies were made.
I suppose I could have patiently
explained all of that to him, but
I was tired after a long day of working.
Plus, it seemed more intended
as a kind of conversation stopper, not starter.
His comment--and he's famous
for these kinds of comments--
shouldn't have bothered me,
but it did. As a personal slight, sure,
but more as a kind of reminder
of the worst aspects of the poetry
scene, of why it can sometimes
seem a monumental waste of
one's energy and resources to
engage with it. If one's interaction
with the poetry scene leads to
these kinds of banal but hurtful
conversations, why would anyone
in their right mind steal time away
from their creative endeavors to be
available for them?
Of course, I'm overreacting. (
I'm a Leo; we do that.)
The truth is, I had a great time with
everyone else, picked up some
wonderful-looking books,
and look forward to the next event,
which is tonight, I realize:
The Hanging Loose book party
at Teachers & Writers.
New books by Sharon Mesmer
and Jeni Olin! I guess I have to go to the ATM."
rom Gary Sulllivan's
Elsewhere {click here}
for the complete text excerpted from
above scroll down to *Getting Out More*
"The arrogance of critics prospers, even fattens,
on the silence of the poets over whom the critic
means to tyrannize."
Jerome Rothenberg {click here}
thanks to Mappemunde (Tim Peterson) {click here} for the link.
Parrhesia
from Gary Sullivan's *Elsewhere*
"Just before leaving, I had a brief
but kind of strange conversation
with Bruce Andrews.
I hadn't seen him in a while,
not since the Coolidge/Gizzi reading,
where I had given him--Bruce--a copy of my comic.
Bruce congratulated me on the comic,
said that while he hadn't read it,
he didn't think it was worth my having
dropped out of the scene for a year
to create. I reminded him
that I had been "missing" really
only for half a year, and he said,
"even so." He said it nicely enough,
so perhaps he simply meant
that he missed me.
But the subtext seemed to be
"What you're doing isn't worth
the time you're spending on it."
Wasn't sure how to respond to that.
I could have, I suppose,
reminded him that my procedure
is different from his own,
that drawing comics physically
takes a lot of time, and
that it is a learned skill--very
different from scribbling on
3x5s while on auto-pilot,
which he's been doing for the
last twenty years or so.
Too, I felt like reminding him
that I had already sold more
copies of my little
self-published comic in
its first month than that
powerhouse Sun & Moon
probably sold of what's
considered his best book,
I Don't Have Any Paper, Or Shut Up,
in its first year in print.
This is hubris, of course,
but if sales continue as they've
been, I'll sell out of the first printing
before a year has gone by, whereas
Shut Up was published
more than a decade ago, and
I don't think it has yet gone
into a second printing.
I can't imagine that more than
1000 copies were made.
I suppose I could have patiently
explained all of that to him, but
I was tired after a long day of working.
Plus, it seemed more intended
as a kind of conversation stopper, not starter.
His comment--and he's famous
for these kinds of comments--
shouldn't have bothered me,
but it did. As a personal slight, sure,
but more as a kind of reminder
of the worst aspects of the poetry
scene, of why it can sometimes
seem a monumental waste of
one's energy and resources to
engage with it. If one's interaction
with the poetry scene leads to
these kinds of banal but hurtful
conversations, why would anyone
in their right mind steal time away
from their creative endeavors to be
available for them?
Of course, I'm overreacting. (
I'm a Leo; we do that.)
The truth is, I had a great time with
everyone else, picked up some
wonderful-looking books,
and look forward to the next event,
which is tonight, I realize:
The Hanging Loose book party
at Teachers & Writers.
New books by Sharon Mesmer
and Jeni Olin! I guess I have to go to the ATM."
rom Gary Sulllivan's
Elsewhere {click here}
for the complete text excerpted from
above scroll down to *Getting Out More*
Thursday, June 2
Radical Druid Asks:
1. Do you write with the intent of submitting (and getting published)? Is that your primary objective in writing poetry (publishing to print media, or online journals, or other outlets [i.e., contests, prizes, etc.])?
I fell in love wtih the printed page at an early age. So I
always wanted to see my writing in print and be a part
of the vast libraries of books I loved so much as a child.
My earliest poems were imitations
of my favorite poets:
A.E. Housmnan and Thomas Gray,
poets I read in the high school anthology.
Though I heard e.e.cummings and Lewis Warsh read in college in NY in the early 60's, I didn't
discover many of my favorite contemporaries
until the middle to late 60's and on to the 70's. Meanwhile, I had strongly pulled away from trying to publish, when certain late 60's
anti-ego values became attractive to me. At this point, my social concerns and anti-war activities, and a concommitant quest for answers
to personal concerns submerged
aesthetic concerns in favor of wanting and needing to understand things-to answer life's
questions. Jackson Mac Low's poetry became an inspiration and challenge, as did the work of John Ashbery, the work and teaching
of Bernadette Mayer and the
work of Robert Smithson and Vito Acconci.
It wasn't until I began to give readings
after participating in Bernadette Mayer's
workshop in the early 70's that I again
started to get a handle on where poetry and publishing might fit into my life after my lttle bit
of publishing poems in the middle 60's. I see now that my love of abstraction in poetry and art,
but my simultaneous interest in
psychology and philosphy just
wouldn't mesh to a point that I
could see a way for my many
extremely varied experiments
to arrive in print; though I was very
interested in (but still shy about
at first) reading them aloud when invited.
The issue for me was that my poems
were meant to be stationary
points in the frequently conflctual
currents of experience and thought;
they felt like part of a personal
project that I couldn't easily frame
within a public persona.
While all of this was intensely
problematic career wise, my
relative obscurity seemed to
allow an internal fanning
of the flame of my poetic
concerns and interests,
in the same way that my
avoidance of academic
employment helped me to
remain enthusiastic about
literature in general, or so it
seemed. I guess I really didn't
want to professionalize my
writing interests. Eventually,
after discovering some ideas
in the work of Paul Valery,
working with poetics offered a
method for dealing with such
concerns that paralleled my
use of psychoanalysis in
working with my personal
issues and those of others-
an approach that seemed more
constructive to me; these were
modes of connecting my
experiences and activities
with others that still allowed
my poetic process to remain
somewhat private,. Presenting my writing
to others has consistently created
personal challenges for me,
even at times seemingly
insurmountable challenges
and conflcts in terms of my inner
concerns with the issues in the work
itself. I never liked the emotionally
cumbersome process of arranging
and submitting my work for
publcation, though I certainly
enjoyed and benefitted from
seeing my works in print when
they were published and
having them available in an
attractive and convenient way
to readers. As I've said countless
times now, and never seem to tire of
saying, weblogging and the web in
general have, for the first time, made
available some of the rapidity and availability of interaction and response, combined
with the "automatic" archiving and
record-keeping, that I've always
longed for. One of my collages in the 80's was titled *Distribution Automatique.*
The other part of the publishing/critical
reviewing system I didn't appreciate was the academicism, a quality in
intellectual life I have had a problem with since my honors courses in college. I'm uncomfortable with
pretentiousness and afraid and worried about seeing
it increase in myself; though
I cerainly enjoy the satisfactions
and pleasures of eperiencing
my own and others'
successes in doing artistic work
1. Do you write with the intent of submitting (and getting published)? Is that your primary objective in writing poetry (publishing to print media, or online journals, or other outlets [i.e., contests, prizes, etc.])?
I fell in love wtih the printed page at an early age. So I
always wanted to see my writing in print and be a part
of the vast libraries of books I loved so much as a child.
My earliest poems were imitations
of my favorite poets:
A.E. Housmnan and Thomas Gray,
poets I read in the high school anthology.
Though I heard e.e.cummings and Lewis Warsh read in college in NY in the early 60's, I didn't
discover many of my favorite contemporaries
until the middle to late 60's and on to the 70's. Meanwhile, I had strongly pulled away from trying to publish, when certain late 60's
anti-ego values became attractive to me. At this point, my social concerns and anti-war activities, and a concommitant quest for answers
to personal concerns submerged
aesthetic concerns in favor of wanting and needing to understand things-to answer life's
questions. Jackson Mac Low's poetry became an inspiration and challenge, as did the work of John Ashbery, the work and teaching
of Bernadette Mayer and the
work of Robert Smithson and Vito Acconci.
It wasn't until I began to give readings
after participating in Bernadette Mayer's
workshop in the early 70's that I again
started to get a handle on where poetry and publishing might fit into my life after my lttle bit
of publishing poems in the middle 60's. I see now that my love of abstraction in poetry and art,
but my simultaneous interest in
psychology and philosphy just
wouldn't mesh to a point that I
could see a way for my many
extremely varied experiments
to arrive in print; though I was very
interested in (but still shy about
at first) reading them aloud when invited.
The issue for me was that my poems
were meant to be stationary
points in the frequently conflctual
currents of experience and thought;
they felt like part of a personal
project that I couldn't easily frame
within a public persona.
While all of this was intensely
problematic career wise, my
relative obscurity seemed to
allow an internal fanning
of the flame of my poetic
concerns and interests,
in the same way that my
avoidance of academic
employment helped me to
remain enthusiastic about
literature in general, or so it
seemed. I guess I really didn't
want to professionalize my
writing interests. Eventually,
after discovering some ideas
in the work of Paul Valery,
working with poetics offered a
method for dealing with such
concerns that paralleled my
use of psychoanalysis in
working with my personal
issues and those of others-
an approach that seemed more
constructive to me; these were
modes of connecting my
experiences and activities
with others that still allowed
my poetic process to remain
somewhat private,. Presenting my writing
to others has consistently created
personal challenges for me,
even at times seemingly
insurmountable challenges
and conflcts in terms of my inner
concerns with the issues in the work
itself. I never liked the emotionally
cumbersome process of arranging
and submitting my work for
publcation, though I certainly
enjoyed and benefitted from
seeing my works in print when
they were published and
having them available in an
attractive and convenient way
to readers. As I've said countless
times now, and never seem to tire of
saying, weblogging and the web in
general have, for the first time, made
available some of the rapidity and availability of interaction and response, combined
with the "automatic" archiving and
record-keeping, that I've always
longed for. One of my collages in the 80's was titled *Distribution Automatique.*
The other part of the publishing/critical
reviewing system I didn't appreciate was the academicism, a quality in
intellectual life I have had a problem with since my honors courses in college. I'm uncomfortable with
pretentiousness and afraid and worried about seeing
it increase in myself; though
I cerainly enjoy the satisfactions
and pleasures of eperiencing
my own and others'
successes in doing artistic work
A Blogland Vogue for Questions:
Radical Druid Asks Jonathan Mayhew
Radical Druid {click here}
asks
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing) {click here}
and
Laura Carter {Ecritures Bleues) {click here}
answer
***********************************
Speaking of Whispers, Don't Miss These
Jack Kimball (Pantaloons) {click here}
boards time's winged chariot
Radical Druid Asks Jonathan Mayhew
Radical Druid {click here}
asks
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing) {click here}
and
Laura Carter {Ecritures Bleues) {click here}
answer
***********************************
Speaking of Whispers, Don't Miss These
Jack Kimball (Pantaloons) {click here}
boards time's winged chariot
Tuesday, May 31
The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging
Listening to Sibelius, as played by Maxim Vengerov,
a little enervated after
dinner, and a long train ride home
after a holiday
weekend out of town, reading
Boynton (Melbourne)
opening the
mail, mostly damn bills,
reading the email, welcome words from friends,
reading
Never Neutral (Mexico City)
I'm home again.
Listening to Sibelius, as played by Maxim Vengerov,
a little enervated after
dinner, and a long train ride home
after a holiday
weekend out of town, reading
Boynton (Melbourne)
opening the
mail, mostly damn bills,
reading the email, welcome words from friends,
reading
Never Neutral (Mexico City)
I'm home again.
House of Fame
One thing about visiting my in-laws in Arlington is the shopping,
and, in particular-used book shopping- more on this
later (now the books are in the suitcases, we're leaving shortly)
but one amazing book we found was Chaucer's *House of Fame*,
a late 19th century copy in the old English. Fascinating stuff
(hadn't even heard of this work before, though McIntyre and Moore,
the great scholarly used bookstore in Somerville, had tons
of books about it; the poem has a lot of material about dreams)
and I can't wait to read it and learn more about it. Another book
found in McIntyre and Moore, not purchased but examined led
to a fact that was interesting, though perhsps not that surprising-
the Routledge Press (published in 2000)
*Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry*
edited by Marc Willhardt with Alan Michael Parker, has a
lengthy entry on Charles Bernstein; the book, covering every
country in the world for the whole century, has only 900 entries sent
in by 75 contributors!
One thing about visiting my in-laws in Arlington is the shopping,
and, in particular-used book shopping- more on this
later (now the books are in the suitcases, we're leaving shortly)
but one amazing book we found was Chaucer's *House of Fame*,
a late 19th century copy in the old English. Fascinating stuff
(hadn't even heard of this work before, though McIntyre and Moore,
the great scholarly used bookstore in Somerville, had tons
of books about it; the poem has a lot of material about dreams)
and I can't wait to read it and learn more about it. Another book
found in McIntyre and Moore, not purchased but examined led
to a fact that was interesting, though perhsps not that surprising-
the Routledge Press (published in 2000)
*Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry*
edited by Marc Willhardt with Alan Michael Parker, has a
lengthy entry on Charles Bernstein; the book, covering every
country in the world for the whole century, has only 900 entries sent
in by 75 contributors!
Monday, May 30
Poetics Trek Episode 6: Memorial Day
The Vogue Continues
Limetree {click here}
Kemel Zaldivar {click here}
{P.S. Note the contrasting answers
to question 5; inevitable absorption
in poetry as a way of life or
"my vocabulary did this to me"
windbagging: you choose}
The Vogue Continues
Limetree {click here}
Kemel Zaldivar {click here}
{P.S. Note the contrasting answers
to question 5; inevitable absorption
in poetry as a way of life or
"my vocabulary did this to me"
windbagging: you choose}
Sunday, May 29
Swept Away
Jonathan's Vogue-for-Questions Solo,
plus sets from JEWISHYIRISHY
and A New Broom
Bemsha Swing {click here}
JEWISHYIRISHY {click here}
A New Broom {click here}
Jonathan's Vogue-for-Questions Solo,
plus sets from JEWISHYIRISHY
and A New Broom
Bemsha Swing {click here}
JEWISHYIRISHY {click here}
A New Broom {click here}
A Vogue for Answers, Episode 4
It's such a pleasure browsing other people's bookshelves,
don't you agree? Visiting in-laws in Arlington, Mass, we long
ago noticed their petit collection of charming antique books,
including a complete 19th Century edition of Addison & Steele's
18th Century version of blogging, *The Spectator*. Having
nearly finished a cup of double-strength coffee, we wandered
over to our sister-in-law's I-book. And to our endless joy we
were charmed to start the morning reading Nada Gordon's
entertaining answers to Professor Mayhew's most stimulating
questions to bloggers. Full disclosure: these days, Nada Gordon {click here}
our #1 favorite poet. Nada's response includes a quote from a series
of hilarious questions put to her by the then ardently courting Gary Sullivan
in Swoon {click here}
This is cool:
Ululations {click here}
It's such a pleasure browsing other people's bookshelves,
don't you agree? Visiting in-laws in Arlington, Mass, we long
ago noticed their petit collection of charming antique books,
including a complete 19th Century edition of Addison & Steele's
18th Century version of blogging, *The Spectator*. Having
nearly finished a cup of double-strength coffee, we wandered
over to our sister-in-law's I-book. And to our endless joy we
were charmed to start the morning reading Nada Gordon's
entertaining answers to Professor Mayhew's most stimulating
questions to bloggers. Full disclosure: these days, Nada Gordon {click here}
our #1 favorite poet. Nada's response includes a quote from a series
of hilarious questions put to her by the then ardently courting Gary Sullivan
in Swoon {click here}
This is cool:
Ululations {click here}
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