5/27/87
An Indian and a man in a suit
of armor are eventually joined by
their mates in a lively practical
and philosophical discussion of the effect of
circumstances on our lives- how time seems
to change things- and perhaps ways that it
doesn't. (I'm now thinking of Norman's piece
at the Ear Inn which reminded me of
Charles' t.v. plots in Islets/Irritations.)
*
Poem: In Quest of The Obvious
What we want in a poem is a sense
of progression, especially an opening out.
This is what was so foregrounded
in Rilke's poems.
How much is poetry and art dependent
on an inflation of youthful passion?
(It occurs to me also that *war* is dependent on the same thing.) The passion
of the older years often has more
to do with acquisition than passion.
This creates a generation gap,
an irony between the two.
Foreground the experience of having, than the having of experience.
It's not a question of not having
distinctions between literary
forms, it's a question of using them
variously- a tendency which often
combines types of things in novel
ways. This tendency, now and then
equated with surrealism
tends to bring about a yearning
for some opposite "pure type." (Collage
vs. landscape painting or portraiture).
Join a type and get a calling card,
a structure, perhaps even an
automatic billing system!
The urge to get rid of a thought,
is great- not because it wasn't
good enough. Quite the contrary.
Also, not because of the principle of
"too much of a good thing kills it."
No, we must get rid of it, because
in order to really know its attraction
for us, we must test it by quickly
turning our minds to other things
(happily, this very activity helps to keep
the whole theatre in viable material
condition). Read a book, then sweep
the floor. Thanks, Norman.
Don't be afraid to give away the
reddest rose.
And then the
teacher returns to the library...
5/27/87
Two simultaneous narratives: one on television-
that the two actually are "following"-
(they actually talk about it) and "we"
watch both- Eventually the two switch
places- (This is a variation of Woody
Allen's story).
You don't "understand" art- you
smell it- like a fragrance- and then
it "takes its effect."
5/28/87
The language distorts actuality
in its description. We cannot "have"
knowledge, the way we can "have" a
book; we do not "have" an idea, we
glimpse an idea. Knowledge- no ledge.
We can- 1) Hear one note, one
phrase, one passage.
2) Follow out an entire melody
3) Develop variations
4) It's over
But I "know" how to walk, speak,
read. Don't I "have" this knowledge?
Maybe- knowledge converted into----memory.
So we can "memorize" knowledge- learn
it.
Above passages are questionable. I may
have been getting at something else.
5/31/87
recombinative (brief retreat to ejection)
electrical (reading out of three cities)
transformation (tries not to form a nation)
shifts (she if it is)
signal (
6/2/87
I see that the above writing is very much
like ANON, for some reason the one piece
I didn't send to Leland Hickman. ANON-
I wanted to title the book this!
L Wittgentstein, Blue and Brown Books, p 19
"If on the other hand you wish to give a
definition of wishing, i.e., to draw a sharp
boundary, then you are free to draw it
as you like, and this boundary will never
entirely. coincide with the actual usage,
as this usage has no sharp boundary."
I just understood something about
subjectivity. In the above passage
W talks about the "actual" usage.
Here is a clear example of the
philosopher equating "the actual"
with the "social actual." But
the "actual" when looked at in
word usage, what could that be?
Somebody's idea of actuality, no doubt,
because in human terms, *numbers
have no meaning*, in human terms
actuality is literally an all
or nothing proposition. I
don't mean this in the democratic
sense. If *one person* can give "wishing"
a different meaning- and articulate
this to the others- then "wishing" will
change in meaning. Philosophers of
this type have almost no faith in
the possibility of communicating. As a
result, words appear to have only
one means- in the social sense. So
Wittgenstein was right when he said
the philosopher's job was to "fight this."
I think my idea of surveillance
is as good a starting point in understanding
"social systems" as any other I can
think of. The bigger the piece of the social
pie you get, the wider need be your
area of surveillance. I take it that this
is a learned skill, passed on from
patron to patron. This is not to be
reversed by "revolution." It's a question
of attention (!) how people literally
"watch" each other.
6/7/87 Writing and Being
As soon as there are words there is hope.
This is the single cause of all the years of waiting,
And the love of silence. In silence, peace,
In words the confusion implicit in the blur,
Which is speeded, not abetted by time, and the others,
This swelling multitude, a great roar endlessly echoing
And yet, this easy lapse of stopping and starting
6/7/87
Poem: Don't You See?
Poem: Rules of Economy
Narrative advantage is social
advantage. The freedom of
the individual is to apppeal to the
freedom of the individual. Once this
chain began it has never ended-
in fact, the links grow *wider* than
our minds can imagine.To lend
momentum to revolution we must
keep before us always the model
of individual insurrection- non-
violent resistance, as advanced by
Ghandi and Martin Luther King.
In order to be a leader one must
combine laughter and kindness with clearness
of purpose (keep noticing this point in
Rasula).
[Insight: truly, visualizable, imaginable schedule]
The book: imagine it as a 700 page
book and write it as a 300 page book.
Alchemy (Breton's last series of
lectures). The alchemy of emotions.
page 1
1. t... Example---correct
-
-
-
t1
2.t1
-
-
-
3. y
-
-
-
y1
Where t is tears and y is laughter and
t1 is reflection and y1 is anger
6/10/87
Death is not from Satan- it is God's
malicious laughter. (Einstein: God is
not malicious- but subtle).
The poet's dream is of Paris.
Paris' dream is of the poet.
"Carefully saved the few little things."
Breton
It's simply the way things point that
gives them the edge.
Jackson Mac Low (1987) Pessimism weights
the outcome.
6/13/87
I keep thinking of the phrase ("Signs of
the particularities")
Response to Barrett's lecture:
As to Barretti's social 1 and social 2
"Social1 is like, 'all dressed up and
nowhere to go"
Social2 "Tongue tied at the nudist party."
.....
Time produces detritus. In human
terms it is called "aging" then
death. But during life, time also
constantly produces detritus- of
things, of thoughts, of feelings, of symbols.
The garbage men- these proud and loud surveyors
of the daily waste- never let me forget it.
And then one day- as if to demand that
I never forget them- and this-
knocked down the tree in front of my
house. "Can't you see the exchange
you've made- poor fool of a poet!"
And the the poet-songster of the forgotten
and abandoned- armed with her found
prizes- places them, with a smile-
even a small tear, perhaps- at the
altar of the gods ( a humble garbage can)
( )
( )
Later:
The cutting edge of narrative must turn
to blood. Finally, at the boundary
of outer and inner, the rage finds its
way to the surface of the skin, the
edge of a world (a universe!) A step
further is a step backward, is a
falling of time into book-time, word-time
story-time. But a good detective will always
be out watching the details. [Well,
if he was going to be a reader, reverent,
in revery, a boy scouting out the
relevant details, a paranoiac critic
lunging at every word. Ink, ink, blood,
blood- The read and the
book??]
The writer writes readings.
Hitler - murderer of 7 million effigies of
his own unborn children.
The rare pure oedipal type.
Racism is the monster in our midst.
Every writing a reading-machine
A system of writing a system of
making reading-machines.
