tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59789752855185619412024-03-13T23:04:53.191-07:00Blog of Myselfkilling-clothes loiter and break-down blacksmiths' hairy environs, cinder-lithe waists massive overhand place.a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.comBlogger427125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-910608780251414322014-08-16T06:57:00.006-07:002014-08-16T06:57:47.088-07:00Cupid and Psyche for Beginners
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 2059927551 18 0 131085 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Hoefler Text";
panose-1:2 3 6 2 5 5 6 2 2 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-2147482881 1342185547 4 0 407 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">1. Sex saves Soul</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">2. Sex awakens Soul</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">3. Beauty punishes Soul</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">4. Nature saves Soul (twice)</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">5. It’s about someone falling for someone they’re supposed to
punish.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">6. Sex disobeys Beauty</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">7. Sex is a winged serpent</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">8. Soul is forbidden to look upon Sex - but does so anyway,
of course</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">9. Sex and Soul are <i>married, </i>for chrissakes!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">10. They make love in darkness, not seeing each other.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">11. Soul wounds Sex, not vice versa (and recriminations
follow).</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">12. Soul is tormented by jealous sisters</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">13. Sex is locked up when Beauty whomps Soul</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">14. Nature assists again, in the form of animal helpers. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">15. Beauty is mollified by the Soul’s apotheosis. Sex is
still divine.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Cambria;">16. (In the Roman version, of course, Daddy has to throw the whole mess
out.) </span></span></div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-4533921860083135932014-08-13T07:37:00.003-07:002014-08-13T07:40:04.430-07:00Variations on a Theme by Sandra Simonds <style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Garamond;
panose-1:2 2 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> and Joe said, “Everyone at this table</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> has to write a poem with that line in
it.” </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;"> - Tony
Trigilio </span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">“I only have eyeliner – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">do you have a pen?”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">only you pen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">do you have a do-liner?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">have pen? eyeliner?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">only do I know you?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">a have have only eye;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">I-liner I-liner!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">a have I do I do I have</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">have pen? pen? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">do only one pen? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">have you pen-eye?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">holy delighter</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">dew heave a pan </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">I travel with Einstein</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">do happen Oppen</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">You ought to die trying </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">sloppy as sin </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">The Bonn-I<sup>TM</sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">eyeliner pen!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">ever yodel aye – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">pave no nylon hula hive</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">I only have geek-eye – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">do you have a pen liner</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">“. . . all she wrote her</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">highbrow pencil broke” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;">“I am
eyeliner.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><span style="font-family: Garamond;">There is
a registry?”</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">I only have guideliners </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">have eyes for you (pen)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">Have only you I do;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">have eyeliner too –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">and you have a pen – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">I only have lines</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;">
<br /></div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-8203441684896254462014-07-26T06:57:00.001-07:002014-07-26T10:06:53.750-07:00Just<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 2059927551 18 0 131085 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Garamond;
panose-1:2 2 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">children on the tops of
trains</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">look like zombies to us</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">do they want to eat our
brains</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">they do want to eat </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">our iron dome grows rusty</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">the world will get in</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">our steely guns are
trusty</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">we’ll just kill it </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">doe-eyed fox on one-way
street</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">alive for a wink of time</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">carrion creatures get the
meat</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">the carcasses we create</span></span>a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-82823911953424661552014-07-21T07:22:00.001-07:002014-07-26T07:00:23.477-07:00Sitting<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 2059927551 18 0 131085 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-parent:"";
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">America, you have issues around death. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Take <a href="http://www.duckskulls.com/">www.duckskulls.com</a>
-- home of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">the Original Intimidator Duckskull --</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">it’s a way of saying You think you can </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">get away just by <i>flying</i>,
motherfucker? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Banks & bosses will break my bones, but </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">if it flies, it dies, so don’t even <i>think</i>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">[Affect incredulous, cocky, vaguely </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">threatening smirk.]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> It’s not even real,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">this duckskull, all one word. It’s made </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">in USA of polymer resin, handpainted</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">to look like an angry dead bird skull </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">w/eyes. Angry b/c it’s dead? Or angry on </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">yr account, like a guardian ghostcock?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">If I had an animal skull on my rear view,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">to remind me of the fractional life </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I control, I’d
think I’d died & gone </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">to heaven. I do have an animal skull, but</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">covered with flesh, not even dead, so</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">out of la mode, out of the loop, out of</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">necro-everything: the empty swamp, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">the truck, the me . . .</span></div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-55791849420582667612014-05-25T09:24:00.003-07:002014-05-25T09:26:10.635-07:00An Encouraging WordSome months ago, there was a "chain e-mail" making the rounds that asked you to send an encouraging statement, poem, dictum, proverb, etc. to the sender, and then send the message to 20 friends (who would then send you such a message). You may have gotten one from me, who knows. Anyway, here are the responses I received:<br />
<br />
*<br />
<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Arial;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073711037 9 0 511 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
"...thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a
star."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When you
really look into yourself you cannot say the body belongs to you. You are the
result of two people and each parent had two parents and so on. All humanity is
in you. You are what you absorb. You eat vegetables, fish, meat, and these are
dependent on light, the sun, warmth… There is nothing personal in us. The body
is in organic relationship with the universe… There is nothing personal in the
heart, liver, kidneys, the eyes, ears or skin, nor in the elements which build
patterns of behavior, thinking, reactions, anger, jealousy, competition,
comparison, and so on."<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>- Jean Klein, Who Am I?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">COLORED RAINBOWS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Dare to dream of
colored rainbows<br />
and fine "castles in the air" -<br />
and a Sun that shines so brightly<br />
making cloudy days seem rare!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When you aim to
find a purpose<br />
then your life becomes worthwhile.<br />
You will dazzle those about you -<br />
when you show your own true style!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Our dreams are not
for keeping -<br />
simply borrowed for a while;<br />
to console us in adversity<br />
and teach us how to smile!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Dream again of colored
rainbows<br />
and of bluebirds flying high.<br />
You will overcome the obstacles<br />
once you decide to try!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">-unknown poet</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ancient proverb,
"be humble, for you are made of earth. be noble, for you are made if
stars."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Painting is easy
when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a
burden to bear."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 5;"> </span>—Martin
Luther King, Jr.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It
isn't what happens to you that is important, it is, to put it simply, your
response.</span></div>
<br />a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-32484312154815624092014-04-17T17:39:00.000-07:002014-04-17T17:40:18.553-07:00Extirpate Irony (??)My response to <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/04/13/david_foster_wallace_was_right_irony_is_ruining_our_culture/">this Salon article</a>: <br />
<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:roman;
mso-font-format:other;
mso-font-pitch:fixed;
mso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Garamond;
panose-1:2 2 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 2059927551 18 0 131085 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style> <span style="font-family: Garamond;">DFW Is Dead</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">We’re supposed to be unironic now; so I guess I
better write about the neon-red tulip beds on a pastoral campus. From a
distance, they look like a swath of red, and I’m glad the red isn’t blood. As
far as I know: this isn’t on TV. Violets are supposed to be the drops of
Attis’ blood, I heard. I’m staying unironic, talking about universal human
values, like beauty, love, death, cash flow, not necessarily in that order. (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Uh oh – watch it – I detect a hint of irony</i>).
Well, yes, but what created all this irony we’re swimming in in the first place?
Bored teenagers? The seventh day? The seventh seal? Throw her a fish! (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Come on, writer – this isn’t a joke. Help us
change our lives without changing our income. Speak of the rigged markets, the
artificial persons, the Heartbleed, but do so earnestly. Make</i> your<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> heart bleed. After all, there is no blood
on your street</i>) As though there were somewhere to go back to? As though
sincerity hasn’t been commodified as well? “Being ignorant, comfortably,”
dreaming of being apart from the Bourse. The Archaic Torso of Apollo lamp is
set to medium-hi and says there is nowhere you are not observed. You must
change your password. (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OK – that’s it.
I’m shutting this ^$*&*^%& poem down! Irony is so . . . 2008. We want
something new, the next big thing, something that makes us keep wanting
something new. We want to know what’s left in the bottom of the box</i>). </span></div>
<br />
<br />a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-22102723337811742152014-03-24T17:29:00.000-07:002014-03-24T17:31:11.275-07:00Apologia Pro Suo Curriculum: What Do English Majors Need to Know?Earlier this semester, my Chair recruited me to teach English 308, "Introduction to Literary Criticism & Theory." Here is the description: "Study of significant problems in literary interpretation and
methodology, in which basic critical principles and approaches are
systematically examined and applied. These approaches might include,
but are not limited to, feminism, Marxism, deconstruction,
psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. Prerequisite: Prior completion
of the freshman-sophomore requirement or its equivalent."
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
expressed my reluctance to teach an intro to theory course. I taught such
courses at UC Berkeley and in the Netherlands, both times with mixed results,
from my perspective. And having an office opposite that of a teaching assistant who was teaching it, I couldn't
help but overhear his 308 conferences, and they produced a rather dismal
deja-vu for me. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The faculty voted in 2009 to make this a required course for all English majors and reaffirmed that decision informally in a "retreat" last August. (Unfortunately, few of them want <i>to teach</i> the required course - hence the recruitment effort). After consulting my colleagues who had taught the course before, and after long thought about the state of our actually-existing English majors' knowledge, it was clear to me that a survey of literary theory had not worked well, would be pointless to repeat, and would divert attention from addressing our students' needs. So here is the course description I came up with: <br />
<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"This course will help you develop essential
skills that will serve you in good stead in English studies, in your college
career, and in your career beyond college. We will spend as much time as it
takes for the class to master each subject or skill before moving to the next.
In <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part One</b>, you will study the
following elements of the language, as well as their changes over time: (1.)
Words: spelling, vocabulary, usage, parts of speech, etymology; (2.) Sentences:
diagramming sentences, grammar, syntax & punctuation, types of clauses,
common errors; (3.) Paragraph construction in the expository essay: parts to
whole, sequential (logical) progression, transitions. You then will be required
to produce a piece of writing that seeks a response from someone beyond the
classroom (an actual job letter, fellowship or award application, letter to the
editor, etc.). <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Two</b> will require
you to develop the skill of “close reading,” or explication. We will apply what
we’ve learned about words, sentences and paragraphs to (1.) explicating
sentences in contracts; (2.) explicating paragraphs in literary essays; and (3.)
explicating poems. In this part, you will be required to write a close reading
of a poem (5-7 pp.) using the knowledge acquired thus far. Finally, in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Part Three</b> (if we get that far!), we
will explicate poems in their historical context. This specialized form of
close reading will form the topic of the third and final writing assignment, in
which you will explicate a poem in light of your own historical research. In
addition to the three major writing assignments (which I will expect to be
error-free), there will be weekly quizzes on each of the topics above, along
with a mid-term exam and final exam." </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Concern was expressed that this description, emphasizing as it does sentence and paragraph structure and mastering one level of knowledge before progressing to the next, might turn students off of the course, and, by extension of the major. This is not an imaginary fear: the number of our majors is down almost half (!) since 2008. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is my reply to the Chair (and several other Dept. leaders):</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
"I can try to re-word the description, but I don’t want to
give the students the false impression that we’re not going to work with
spelling, vocabulary, etymology, grammar, syntax, and paragraph construction.
Hopefully, this will just be three or four classes of review of things they
already know how to do. But I can’t guarantee that. It depends on the skill
level of the students in the class. I’ve become convinced, by talking with
people who’ve taught the class before, that we have to start at a more basic
level – not literary theory, but close reading skills. And close reading skills
presuppose reading skills. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
"I realize that we’re all in the business of marketing, under the present
regime. And in the short term, our market is the current students, and the
product is the course schedule for next semester – esp. in our current sped-up,
crisis-driven culture. Our assumption has been that we can attract students for
the next semester – and maybe even majors – by offering courses with more
popular subject matter under sexier titles, and perhaps that’s true. (If it is,
we even might want to re-think requiring all majors to take a course titled
“Intro to Literary Criticism” . . .)<br />
<br />
"But long-term, there is a secondary market, which is the employer. I have to
think that one of the reasons that fewer people are majoring in English is that
they feel it puts them at a disadvantage on the job market. And maybe it does.
But why would that be, at a time when many employers are asking for trainable
people who possess basic skills? Surely people who can read and write better
than their compeers would make competitive job candidates.<br />
<br />
"From my experience – and from speaking with students and colleagues – I’ve come
to the reluctant conclusion that it is precisely because our graduates <i>can’t</i>
read and write better than others. In many cases, the reverse may be true.
Sure, there are the award-winning students, but then there are the other papers
in the stack. Indeed, my freshman engineers this semester are better writers
than my senior English majors. One of the smartest among the latter recently
complained that she was about to graduate from college with an English major, but
no one had ever taught her grammar. Judging from her most recent close-reading
paper, I believe it. (She said she’s taking 308 next semester; I said we’ll be
studying grammar; she said “GOOD!”)<br />
<br />
"I don’t know how we’ve gotten to this pass. I guess grammar isn’t taught in
grade school or high school. And then perhaps most majors “test out” of 100 and
200 level English courses (which means they’ve skipped a crucial stage in learning
writing and reading – composition - one that the engineers are getting). But it’s my
impression that it’s long been part of academic culture to accept as a fact of
life that most graduating seniors, even English majors, will not be able to spell,
use words correctly, or construct grammatical sentences. I’m no longer willing
to accept that. In fact, I think they should be able to do those things much
better than the average of the student population. And this is the one English
course they’re all going to take (ideally before they take others), maybe the
last one they take that focuses on skills. <br />
<br />
"Moreover, from the point of view of teaching literary criticism & theory –
or literary anything – I think it is essential that people have a very good
feel for the elements of language, in particular the one they are studying.
There’s no point trying to teach people about Viktor Shklovsky if they don’t
know the difference between syntax and semantics (let alone how they work or
don’t). Gertrude Stein loved diagramming sentences because it revealed to her
the inner workings of language (and probably led her to her conclusion that
sentences are not emotional, but paragraphs are). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"My take-away from my experiences trying
to teach theory, as well as my correspondence and talks with colleagues who have
taught 308, is that literary theory presumes and requires a level of knowledge
of the basics of language that most undergraduates don't possess. Moreover, it
seems to me that learning more about (the) language - grammar and syntax, for
instance - is an excellent preface to beginning to think about theory. I doubt
that Saussure, Jakobson, Derrida, et al. would have meant much to me, had I not
had a good grounding in grammar and usage (I also was fortunate enough to
have studied Nietzsche, Marx, Freud, Hegel and others before I studied lit
theory, which not all undergrads are). Grammar, etymology, usage, spelling -
that's what (post-)structuralism & continental philosophy are all about,
and I can't imagine approaching literary theory without talking about all that.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"But even to do an old-fashioned new-critical
close reading, you have to be alive to all those elements of language. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I would contend that, unless you understand
those workings, you’re not going to be able to make a convincing case about a
Robert Frost poem or a Hemingway novel, let alone Stein or Henry James. Let
alone be able to articulate that case persuasively. Indeed, I think it is
helpful to know the history of these basics. I’m planning on having them read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Adventure of English</i>, a recent
history of the language aimed at a general audience, as well as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eats, Shoots, and Leaves</i>, which is
largely about the history of punctuation (and, hence, of grammar and style). <br />
<br />
"So instead of following my (our) usual procedure, i.e., starting at the level
of argument, then organization, using evidence, and (time permitting) style, I
decided it could be productive to reverse this procedure, to begin with
letters, words, then clauses and sentences, then paragraphs. At the same time,
this approach will help students better understand the literary texts they read
and then enable them to develop meaningful arguments about those texts.<br />
<br />
"I wouldn’t be too quick
to assume that no students are going to be interested in this subject matter or
approach, or that they won’t understand the case I’m making here. They must be
interested in language to be majoring in one. And I think a lot of them feel that
their knowledge of the English language is not as advanced as they might wish (or
they’re just interested in learning more). And this will definitely be a fresh
approach for most of them."</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It's entirely possible that I'm totally full of shit. What do you think? </div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
</span>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-32478800922606406392014-02-24T06:17:00.000-08:002014-02-24T12:23:20.334-08:00Keywords for _Animal Form_, by Kiki AndersonMilwaukee's <a href="http://mitzvahchaps.org/">Mitzvah Chaps</a> does it again, under the aegis of (KU MFA) Robert J. Baumann. Coming soon: <i>Animal Forms</i>, words by Kiki Anderson, art by Madeleine Leplae. Anderson's poems: emotionally charged moments; economically rendered; precise details (to do so); hypotactic sentences, paratactic pages. Gorgeous colloquial language sculptures. Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia. Leplae's etching plates (say that out loud) are equally amazing: familiar animal forms; antique-modern; 19th c. neolithic. Gorgeous (also). Production values: make you want to own. Bravo Mitzvah. a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-24188130908278184752014-02-10T08:05:00.001-08:002014-02-10T16:28:19.948-08:00The Blog Tour: My Writing Process (such as it is)<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Many thanks to the fabulous <a href="http://lazar.org/"><b>David Lazar</b></a> for inviting me to join this discussion re: writing as present-progressive verb. You really must read David's new book, <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Occasional-Desire,675731.aspx"><i>Occasional Desire</i></a>, which, unlike most "creative nonfiction," is composed of <i>essays</i> - indeed, essays that are <i>entertaining</i>! He is also editor of the indispensable journal <a href="http://www.hotelamerika.net/"><i>Hotel Amerika</i></a> and is a Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago. </span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1.) What are you
working on?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s a rather pointed question to pose to a writer. What
the hell <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">am</i> I working on?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My “Big Project” is a trilogy of books about my mother’s
life and times (and a lot of other things besides, like history in general, US
in particular; time; gender; epistemology, etc etc). This is a follow up to my
last book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Things-Come-On-amneoir-Wesleyan/dp/0819571350"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Things Come On (an amneoir)</i></a>
[Wesleyan UP – now available in paperback! Woo-hoo!]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m also revising a poetry collection, working title: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Extinction Canceling Button</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I’m writing a book chapter about documentary poetry for
a critical collection on 21<sup>st</sup> c. US political poetry. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does your work differ from others of its
genre?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Uh . . . it doesn’t have one? It doesn’t even establish one. I’m
talking about this Big Project: it mixes and invents genres, uses whatever is
ready to hand. One volume is inspired (loosely) by scrapbooks; another, by the
archive; a third, by the newspaper. There’s verse, prose, dialogue,
reproductions, headlines, photographs in each. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In terms of content, you could say it’s
biograpahy/memoir/history. Indeed, the point is to think about those three
genres as mutually constitutive: a small life as a tour through a big history,
documentation merging with memory, all one text. The point is that you could
write a trilogy of books about anybody’s life. My mom wasn’t famous – though
she did work as Sen. Albert Gore’s secretary during the 1950s, which just makes
her a famous-person enabler. But that’s an interesting perspective: from the
wings. And doubly offstage, as a woman artist. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The poetry book is built around several voice-based serial
poems, broadly on the theme of schizotheology, in a neo-necro-pastoral mode. I
don’t think that’s ever been done before, do you?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book chapter is, well, academic criticism. But it’s on a
topic that hasn’t gotten much ink. And I think criticism/theory can and ought
to be more interesting to read – more “creative” – and that’s what I’m moving
towards.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do you write what you do?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because I can’t help myself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How does your writing process work? </b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And does it? Another pointed question!<br />
<br />
As to the Big Project: bricolage. “FORM IS NEVER MORE THAN AN EXTENSION OF
CONTENT,” to which Olson adds “this possible corollary, that right form, in any
given poem, is the only and exclusively possible extension of content under
hand.” To me, that corollary sounds like “There is only and exclusively one
possible person for me, in all the whole wide world!” – a belief which has
diverted billions of dollars of capital into the pockets of divorce lawyers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I got yr corollary right here: throw it against the wall and
see what sticks. But the writer has to do the throwing, even if she doesn’t use
any of her own words in the text. One chooses one’s content, and the more moving
parts, the more possible combinations. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you’re working with existing texts, as I am, part of it has
to do with which of those texts seem most compelling. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Things Come On</i>, it turned out to be hearing transcripts and a
medical chart – and those things largely suggested the structure of the book.
Likewise, using scrapbooks, archives, and newspapers as research sources
suggested broad structures for the others. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then again, I’m revising the hell out of all of them. It’s
not like Michelangelo “finding” the form in the marble. It’s more like a potter
shaping something that’s in motion, in response to the shapes that are emerging
in her hands. And then collapsing it all and doing it again. That sounds more
organic than it is. But then all metaphors are. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As to the serial poems, I try to hew to Jack Spicer’s
injunction to listen to “The Outside” – that is, to try not to find the perfect
words to ex-press my inner truth, but rather to trust that I’m receiving something
more important as words come into my head. And I collect phrases, sentences,
etc. I have a “word collection” that I draw upon as the bricks for poemlets –
then I put in new words to form the mortar. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anyway, here is a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEMQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dzancbooks.org%2Fstorage%2Fcollagist_files%2FJoseph%2520Harrington.pdf&ei=ofj4Ut-sGcOoyAHYroGABw&usg=AFQjCNHwi33m3MpOSRxc9x7Q6Wrdtyx9Pw&sig2=aG19uM_ZHLkvyTpdBFHPgA&bvm=bv.60983673,d.aWc">section of <i>No Soap</i></a> (v. 1 of the B.P., as free PDF) - a portion also appeared in <i>Hotel Amerika</i>; and here is a <a href="http://www.tupeloquarterly.com/an-excerpt-from-griefing-on-summit-by-joseph-harrington/">section of <i>Griefing on Summit</i></a> (v. 2). For poems, see <a href="http://www.beardofbees.com/harrington.html"><i>earth day suite</i></a>, published by the great Beard of Bees Press, also in Chicago, also as a free PDF.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
[pause]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is that it? Are we done? . . . </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
OK! Well, now that you’ve suffered through the warm-up
act, here are the headliners for Feb. 17:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">TONY TRIGILIO</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’s newest books are <i>The
Complete </i>Dark Shadows <i>(of My Childhood), Book 1 </i>(BlazeVOX Books,
2014); <i>White Noise</i> (Apostrophe Books, 2013); and, as editor, <i>Elise
Cowen: Poems and Fragments</i> (Ahsahta Press, 2014). His other books
include the poetry collections <i>Historic Diary</i> (BlazeVOX, 2011) and <i>The
Lama’s English Lessons</i> (Three Candles Press, 2006); the chapbooks <i>With
the Memory, Which is Enormous</i> (Main Street Rag Press, 2009) and <i>Make a
Joke and I Will Sigh and You Will Laugh and I Will Cry </i>(Scantily Clad
Press, 2008); and two books of criticism, <i>Allen Ginsberg’s Buddhist Poetics</i>
(Southern Illinois University Press, 2012) and <i>“Strange Prophecies Anew”</i>
(Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2000). He is co-editor of the
anthology <i>Visions and Divisions: American Immigration Literature, 1870-1930</i>
(Rutgers University Press, 2008). He directs the program in Creative
Writing/Poetry at Columbia College Chicago and is a co-founder and co-editor of
<i>Court Green</i>. Tune in next Monday to <a href="http://www.starve.org/">Tony's website</a>.<br /><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="Default">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">BEN
CARTWRIGHT</span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’s poetry and prose poetry have
appeared in <i>Sentence</i>, <i>The Stinging Fly</i>, <i>Parcel</i>, and <i>Midwestern
Gothic</i>. He was awarded the Ana Damjanov Poetry Prize from the Academy
of American Poets, and won third place in the 2012 Atty Award poetry contest,
judged by Margaret Atwood. Ben records poets reading their work for his
<a href="http://kansasblotter.blogspot.com/">Kansas Blotter</a> poetry archive, and his recordings of the poets Kenneth Irby,
Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Fred Moten have been added to the PennSound
archive. Ben lives in Topeka, Kansas, and teaches creative writing and
literature courses at the University of Kansas. Tune in next Monday to <a href="http://benjamindcartwright.wordpress.com/">Ben’s Blog</a>. </span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b>LEA GRAHAM</b> </span>is the author of the poetry book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You</i> (No
Tell Books, 2011). Her poems, translations and reviews have been published in<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Notre Dame Review, Southern Humanities
Review</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fifth Wednesday</i>.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>She is a contributing editor for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Atticus Review</i>’s feature, “Boo’s Hollow,”
which showcases poets writing on place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She is an Associate Professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie,
New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Her entry will appear on the Atticus Review web site (somewhere - stay tuned!).</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></div>
</div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-4115200228418428972014-01-19T19:11:00.002-08:002014-02-10T08:24:48.730-08:00Questions & Observations for the Post-English-Major/Marketized-University Era in the Suburban Midwest<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“The Customer’s always Right.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- popular apothegm</i></div>
<i>
</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
College enrollments are declining, and those in the
humanities, including English, are plummeting. This seems to me to be a result
of the post-2008 economic collapse: fewer people can afford college, and those
who can go into engineering and accounting, rather than literature. We have to
do some serious sales to get people to be English majors. How to respond to
this new reality?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- Do I need to be more entertaining in the classroom? How?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Should I
start using PowerPoint all the time, showing more films, etc.?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Switch to
large lectures and play up the performance aspect? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Do more
in class w/computers (and let them check What’s App, porn, etc.?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- How do I
“sell” my subject more effectively? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- How improve my effectiveness at teaching writing? What
does the New Student positively respond to, in composition instruction? And
does it really teach them to write? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- How much can I realistically expect them to read (in a
particular level)?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Teaching
more lower-division courses means smaller assignments (?)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- If I rely
more on media produced by others, I can decrease the amount of <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>reading: since we<br />
won’t spend as much time
talking, we won’t need as much <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>to
talk about.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- If we
want to attract English majors, we can’t go too hard on them. We want them to have a<br />
pleasant, relaxing
experience. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- We’ve got to give the customer what they want. But we also
have to sell it. (we’re beyond edutainment; this is edvertising)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
- Assign what I think that they should know about a given
topic or what I think they will want to read/watch that’s related to that topic?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>- Any
polling data of students on this issue?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The real problem is time. For instance, we don’t have enough
time between when our course assignments come out and when our book orders are
due to really think about and research how we might overhaul a particular
course. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Moreover, we’re too busy teaching to radically alter our
teaching. If we take time to learn new (or not-so-new) technologies,
techniques, and pedagogical theories, it’s usually on break (or sabbatical, if
we have them), which is also the only time to get any appreciable amount of
research and writing done. So it’s back to research vs. teaching, esp. if
teaching is not your area of research, or if your area of research is not one
that students want to study (e.g., any type of poetry from any era).<br />
<br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".6k.1:3:1:$comment10203226588689370_7762274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body"><span data-reactid=".6k.1:3:1:$comment10203226588689370_7762274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".6k.1:3:1:$comment10203226588689370_7762274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">There
are, of course, good reasons why all this should be so: the students that
are left in the university are working more hours to stay there. But
then, on-line courses, which should theoretically be less
time-consuming, have abysmal retention rates. The ultimate problem is
that the ultimate "consumer" (i.e., employers) have a different set of
desires than the immediate customer (i.e., the student). But if the
ultimate consumer isn't satisfied, then the value to the immediate
customer diminishes. If the student is the customer, and the customer's
always right, then the student is always right. All I can say is that
I'm glad my teachers didn't believe that.</span></span></span> </div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-19911510051331630572014-01-04T09:53:00.001-08:002014-01-04T09:53:51.726-08:00From "New Year's Eve," by Charles Lamb"Of all the sound of all bells--(bells, the music nighest bordering upon heaven)--most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the Old Year. I never hear it withoiut a gathering-up of my mind to a concentratio0n of all the images that have been diffused over the past twelvemonth; all I have done or suffered, performed or neglected--in that regretted time. I begin to know its worth, as wehn a person dies. It takes a personal colour; nor was it a poetical flight in a contemporary, when he exclaimed<br />
<br />
I saw the skirts of the departing Year."<br />
<br />a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-82313682753410699492013-12-14T09:13:00.001-08:002013-12-16T06:49:19.722-08:00After the future, a lot of things don’t signify: <style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 2059927551 18 0 131085 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
color:black;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style>
-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">grades, literature,
publishing, networking, money, an individual’s inaccurate opinion of himself,
another’s accurate opinion of me, politics, careers (remember those?),
price-points, extinction of non-food species, credit ratings, deadlines,
immaterial definitions of success and failure, deadlines, software
compatibility issues, 401k’s (boy do those <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
not signify), trying to impress people, weather events
that don’t knock the power out, “people with influence,” blogs, predictions,
deferred gratification, losing sleep, prevention, resistance, engagement,
participation, energy, the “news.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "ヒラギノ角ゴ Pro W3"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Replacing the car’s
wiper blades still signifies.</span>
</div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-41977060958711400192013-12-06T09:54:00.003-08:002013-12-06T09:55:46.378-08:00The Dying Elephant in the Middle of the RoomThe one that no one really talks about: namely, that it's over. Democracy is over - has been for some time, in fact. The middle class is over, as is economic stability of any sort. Nature isn't over by a long shot, but it's changing a whole lot, very quickly, in ways that will disrupt everyone's life. People acknowledge that things are bad; but we keep behaving as though the future were going to be just a slightly worse version of the past. So people take on another job, looking forward to the day when things will start looking up; or they put money in their retirement accounts; they try to advance their careers; they try to raise their kids with essentially the same values and expectations they have. It's going to be more competitive to get a good job, but you will still be able to get a good job. A college degree will help you get there. If the Democrats can regain the House, then things will change in a big way!<br /><br />But what if all that is self-delusion.<br />
<br />
I recently read a couple of texts that take that premise seriously. The first, by Roy Scranton, <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/learning-how-to-die-in-the-anthropocene/">"Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene,"</a> takes a rather philosophical approach - Stoic, even. He takes as a given that self-delusion is a bad thing; for him, there seems to be a certain nobility (or beauty?) in facing up to the facts.<br />
<br />
The other, <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDsQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sok.bz%2Fweb%2Fmedia%2Fvideo%2FAfterFuture.pdf&ei=MQ6iUoGRKNKekQehsICYCQ&usg=AFQjCNFH5GBmwY6VvvZGjOx166t89XQcRQ&sig2=OaFdB5vPYWmiUUodgxBs_A&bvm=bv.57752919,d.eW0"><i>After the Future</i></a>, by Autonomist theorist and activist Franco Berardi, posits that the future, understood as the possibility of progress, is at an end. There has been a "mutation," produced by finance capital, neoliberal politics, necroculture, and permanent natural changes, that prevents people from forming links of solidarity ("subjectivation") with one another. This is particularly true, according to Berardi, of the "cognitariat," those knowledge-workers in Palo Alto or Bangalore, who are ostensibly instantly and integrally interconnected. Instead, digital connections reinforce the culture of the cubicle.<br />
<br />
Berardi does not end on a totally hopeless note. Rather, he believes that economic collapse will necessitate subjectivation, in the interests of survival. Moreover, the powerlessness of the individual may encourage the withdrawal of individuals from active participation in the economic and political systems that have led to this mess. The task now is to (a.) forget about the future as deferred gratification; pay attention to the present, and see what possibilities arise. Be willing to be surprised by new and unanticipated possibilities; and (b.) imagine what he (after Marx) calls the "general intellect" - that is, a self-consciousness of the collective intelligence of humanity. <br />
<br />
There used to be these bumper stickers that said "I feel much better ever since I gave up hope," or something to that effect. Maybe hope is the problem, in fact. a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-37430343762255957582013-11-23T09:16:00.002-08:002013-11-23T09:16:38.262-08:00Don't Nobody With a Good Car NEED Redemption<span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION">From an e-mail exchange:</span><br />
<br />
<span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION">Q: I recently came across your interview
with Kathleen Ossip online, and I really appreciated your comment that
it is not necessary "to attach redemptive endings to stories that resist
it" in talking about your writing and amneoir but
I was curious as to why you referred to redemptive endings as an
American desire?</span><br />
<br />
<span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION">A: </span><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION">Obviously, there are stories in all cultures that have redemptive
endings (the Christian New Testament, for example). But not every
culture insists on them all the time. There's something about US culture that values
the
story about victory despite the odds, recovery from serious _____, rags
to riches, etc. Look at the memoirs on the New York Times Bestseller list,
and you'll see what I mean. "I once was lost, but now am found" - the
conversion narrative was the first American
success story.
</span><br />
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
This is, of course, why a lot of modern writers write about the
other side of things – the tragedies, the injustices, the more
complicated and ambiguous stories. Some of them see the "American
success story" as being ideology. That's why Theodore Dreiser
titled his novel <i>An American Tragedy</i>. That's why Richard Wright wrote
<i>Native Son</i>.</div>
<span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"> </span>a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-34517320765241992952013-10-12T16:57:00.001-07:002013-10-12T16:57:58.055-07:00If it has to be a pitcher's duel, best to have it end in 8 1/2 innings, rather than 13. As long as the Cards win.a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-62745747644735338552013-09-26T08:13:00.000-07:002013-09-26T08:13:09.197-07:00Criquettesname-sayers<br />
vainly hold<br />
out for<br />
summer's<br />
coming again<br />
<br />
when plants<br />
exactly<br />
keep timea.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-45806563179471590312013-09-19T17:22:00.001-07:002013-09-19T17:22:50.007-07:00Poem for today (seemed appropriate)
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Garamond;
panose-1:2 2 4 4 3 3 1 1 8 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
-->
</style>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">The flags drop to
half-mast</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">anytime anyone dies:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">for the shooting in DC,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">the one in Florida, the
one</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">in Colorado, or any other
state?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">Or the ones 10 yrs ago
today. Or </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">the ones that haven’t
happened yet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">Not for the ones in Iraq,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">I’m guessing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">The flags stay at
half-mast</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">Half the whirlygigs shut </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">down at the wind farm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">how now brown corn</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">cows browsing water</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">all along an irrigation
arm:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">mamma’s little animals </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">wanna live too.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">there, there</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">where, where</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">Pappa’s little critters</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">Pappa’s little critters</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">Pappa’s little critters</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Garamond;">say <i>sauve qui peut</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-60258804671872392172013-09-02T08:47:00.002-07:002013-09-02T08:53:07.287-07:00On _Occasional Desire: Essays_, by David Lazar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YvZgGXHh4AI/UiSz3tYajPI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/kv4uEukfFag/s1600/desire-220x320.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YvZgGXHh4AI/UiSz3tYajPI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/kv4uEukfFag/s1600/desire-220x320.png" /></a></div>
Reading David Lazar’s new book, <a href="http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/978-0-8032-4638-6-Occasional-Desire,675731.aspx?skuid=23751"><i>Occasional Desire</i> (U of Nebraska Press)</a>, is like eating the richest, most decadent and delicious flourless chocolate torte with raspberry coulis that you have ever had in your life, except it’s essays. This sensation is caused, in all likelihood, by the epigrammatic density and detectability of the writing. To wit:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Men in run-down, anachronistic businesses in New York in the 1960s always seemed to have the air of a Borscht Belt comedian who had gotten tired of telling jokes. They always seemed on the verge of saying something, before saying nothing.</blockquote>
For Lazar, the terms of my analogy (torte and retorte?) are not so far removed. For him (and his readers) the essay is a pleasure; it may or may not have nutritional value, but it will remind you that you are alive. Of course, by the same token, this particular torte may contain more than the allowable p.p.m. of gall. There’s a lot of rather unpleasant topics (like, uh, death, divorce, decay, dating). The thing is, his discussion of them transforms them into something - not necessarily palatable by themselves, but undeniable, when this writer serves them up. <br />
<br />
Lazar’s guiding lights are Montaigne and Lamb, and one could do worse for guiding lights. He is an unrelenting proponent of the Essay - not “creative nonfiction,” i.e., the realist short story that happens to be derived from “real-life” material (though you wouldn’t know it if you were not told, so similar is the form to mainstream fiction). The essay is different from “autobiographical excursions that insist on epiphany” (too common in poetry, as well - in 2013 even - one might add). This is a crucial distinction, and you should buy the book simply to encourage someone who is willing to make it publicly and vociferously: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The best essay’s sheets are rumpled, askew; it sits on the corner of the bed with one eyebrow raised. Memoir, too often, stands at the window in white linen; it gazes out wistfully, not admitting it wants a large greasy breakfast. </blockquote>
Ouch. And right on. And funny, even to the point of near-Wildean zingers: “She had the laugh of someone who has had too much therapy, and needs much more.” “Meeting the dog” has already become a cross between a punch-line and a come-on in my home. Or more sober, but no less memorable: “A good run of bad luck strains our sense of the probable, turning it into the absurd. At such moments we see ourselves as fictional.” Narrative in the essay is OK - “Anecdotes are like essay candy” - but a whole <i>book</i> of candy? No thanks. Lazar deploys anecdotes, memoiristic or not, judiciously, as a saucy saucier should do. <br />
<br />
The essay “Queering the Essay” makes a strong case that it is that genre (not, say, “Poetry”) that is the true and proper medium of trans-genre or genre queer (not unrelated to gender queer for Lazar) literature. Sure, he uses the materia poetica of his life - a lot of it, in fact. But it’s always in service to something that you can care about even if you don’t happen to be David Lazar: the frisson of a ringing pay phone (remember them?); taking a taxi in one’s (former) home town; death; mentorship; sex; the presentation of the self; death. <br />
<br />
But the biggest pleasure (for this reader) of Lazar’s essays are his sentences:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But the fluid, indefinable masculinity of Astaire, the otherworldly trances of the great dances with Rogers (I clung tenaciously to the tow of them as the necessary pair) had been important to me ever since I started watching them on four o’clock movies - my gateway to so much ideological twaddle and necessity, so many images of charming impossibility, tuxes and gowns, beauty and wit, bandstands and banter, art deco and décolletage. </blockquote>
(this in an essay about death, mind you) For instance again: the sentence on page 12, beginning with “after” and ending with “tongue” would not be as funny as it is were not the penultimate and antepenultimate clauses as long as they are, in comparison to the last. (Really, you don’t have to think this way to enjoy the book - you can enjoy a boat ride w/o thinking about displacement and buoyancy. But civil engineers are different; you’ll still get to the other side, even if you aren’t one). Those of us who love the sentence as a unit of composition, its deepening level of clause subordination, even to the point of intricacy (not to mention those of us who cannot, even in the simplest sentence, resist the parenthetical aside), its workings, both mechanistic and organic, will be delighted by Lazar’s. <br />
<br />
For him, the essay is not about linearity. Sure, you want the papers in freshman comp to be coherent; you want your instruction manual to stay on topic. Those are not essays in the Lazarian sense. “[I]n its classic form, the essay doesn’t quite know where the hell it’s going to go from the outset.” Lazar’s essays, like Emerson’s or Montaigne’s, are like listening to a particularly intelligent, sensitive, and creative friend captivate a dinner party after the plates are taken away; only in Lazar’s case, he has foregone the cognac for a triple espresso. To switch metaphors: his sentences are meandering paths into the woods: at first lovely, green, and sylvan, then darker and rather unsettling, and there may be a witch or mama grizzly (or MFK Fisher) at the end. But that’s what you get if you walk in the woods, and Lazar is the pied piper or sylph or whoever it is that draws you deeper in, until you realize your soul and body are where they really are anyway: lost. In addition to being formally inventive and delightful, the essays in <i>Occasional Desire</i> use humor and brio to get at the rather dark and tacky recesses of life. Here is his reading of the iconic airplane/cornfield scene in “North By Northwest”:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It’s a dream so large it could fill a childhood. The dreamer in this scene is a man on the ground, a man with a camera, a man watching the screen from the safety of his chair. But anyone awake in the dark or asleep in the day senses that the dreamer has an X on his back; he can only run hard in that timeless space and flat time, when the dark wings pick up speed and descend at midday, zeroing in on us, like a toy holocaust whose remote control is shattered.</blockquote>
Or overhearing a couple on a train and ruthlessly dissecting the moment:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
SHE: What are you thinking about? </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
HE: I was wondering what you were thinking about.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
SHE: Me too. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
Understood by the eavesdropper: The couple is on a cusp, being prodded to jump onto the tracks of metalove by the little amourvore on their shoulders, the grim reaper who tells them their emerging self-consciousness is charming and knows, to boot, that no one will risk saying what’s really on his or her mind. The safest response can lead to romantic carnage.</blockquote>
I should say that my upscale culinary metaphor is chosen advisedly. As you might imagine, there is more of Freud than of Marx in this book: this essayist sees the world in terms of individuals and their relationships. If you’re looking for political critique that is just as incisive in its sphere, we should talk. But it has been my experience that political movements are composed of individuals and their (dysfunctional) relationships, and this book provides quite a bit of insight in that department. Indeed, much of Lazar’s charm comes from “a kind of adaptable interest in the world and seeing [him]self in it” - "himself" being a character as fallible and self-protective as any of us. Knowing your Freud doesn’t mean you can cure thyself, any more than knowing your Marx makes you a political organizer. But in both cases, auto-critique can go a long way.<br />
<br />
But it’s the pleasure principle that keeps one engaged in <i>Occasional Desire</i> - even when reading about a preternaturally awkward date or about Francis Bacon’s sometimes ghoulish portraiture. No wonder I devoured it as fast as I’ve devoured any collection of essays. And it didn’t spoil my appetite for more! a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-47752851574671259922013-08-19T16:50:00.001-07:002013-08-19T16:50:20.478-07:00Please Write One of Each of the Following . . . A “motion” poem<br />A spoiler poem<br />A giddyup poem<br />A natal poem<br />A stereo poem<br />A theriomorphic poem<br />An orthoscopic poem<br />A steroidal poem<br />An e-motion poem<br />A contested poem<br />A pledged poem<br />A poem in thyrsids<br />A poem in crenelated stanzas<br />A poem in frosted couplets<br />A poem in a namby-pamby register<br />A wombly poem<br />A poem containing empids<br />A poem in “stacked” stanzas<br />A septiva<br />An ocharina<br />A “peasant” mandalay<br />A choirette <br />A bivouaced poem<br />A lost poem<br />A “boomerang” poem<br />A cavernous poem<br />A poem generated via a Madurzial operation<br />A baronial snivella<br />A shackled sonnet<br />A list poem<br />A stop poema.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-20983410019760845092013-08-10T09:41:00.002-07:002013-08-10T09:41:31.035-07:00Note on Notes on Notes on ConceptualismsThe central tenet of conceptual art is that the concept - the idea behind the art work - is more important than the work itself. If you have the idea that gave rise to the work, you don't need to see or read the result to "get" it. <br />
<br />
Ergo, now that I know the concept behind conceptual art and writing pet se, it means that I don't have to read or see any conceptual art, or think about any conceptual writers or artists, or their critics, ever.<br />
<br />
QED. . . . And what a relief!a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-80983754921995010992013-05-21T06:23:00.002-07:002013-05-21T06:23:33.802-07:00Artist's Statement (?)Last semester, I asked my workshop students to write an artist's statement or poetics statement, per their respective conceptions of either or both, in an idiom most everybody could understand. I did the exercise along with them, as I always do.<br />
<br />
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br />
<br />
I write (currently) in 2 modes. One is like collage: I take a lot of documents, photos, & found material, select certain parts or quotations, then weave them together w/my own words to form a narrative. About history. These are long poems - book-length. They're very much in the modernist tradition of Ezra Pound, early Louis Zukofsky, Charles Olson, Muriel Rukeyser. Hopefully they're entertaining as well.<br />
<br />
The other mode is the serial poem: longish poems, made up of smaller segments - "poemlets," you might say. These are written over a period of time - maybe a month, maybe a year. They are the opposite of the collage poems, in that these are very voice-based - a persona - who speaks in complete sentences, but they don't always make good sense. Sometimes perverse sense. These tend toard satire. They are influenced by the essays and novels of Joy Williams, a lot of contemporary US poets, and Hannah-Barbera cartoons form the 60s.*<br />
<br />
In general, what I like best about poetry in the US today is that it can mean anything. Once upon a time, novels were novel . . .<br />
<br />
* <span style="font-size: x-small;">I've been calling these "f*d-up nature poems," but I think maybe the polite term nowadays is "necropastoral"?</span><br />
<br />a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-43049616756665811882013-05-14T16:09:00.000-07:002013-05-14T16:10:10.086-07:00Joe's Marginalia: from C.S. Giscombe's _Prairie Style_<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DJmo0eXii0o/UZLDgybApPI/AAAAAAAAAH4/Wu-Edp2gTWQ/s1600/15647100302880L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DJmo0eXii0o/UZLDgybApPI/AAAAAAAAAH4/Wu-Edp2gTWQ/s320/15647100302880L.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<b>re: “Lazy Man's Load”</b><br />
<br />
lazy -- pleasure -- erotic -- lazy<br />
<br />
make a coherent? soul / statement<br />
<br />
End w/a story at the beginning --> one that predicts the future (as usual)<br />
- story as argument aimed at closure<br />
- can openness be coherent?<br />
<br />
lazy --> insouciant --> servantless (--> pleasure)<br />
<br />
Shape - same-ness > “low point” > lowest common denominator<br />
<br />
story vs. impulse --> or are they really different?<br />
<br />
Then a real story (within a story)<br />
- “I” connects himself w/Ishmaelites wandering<br />
<br />
Let the “Let be be finale of seem” be<br />
The outsider/outcast defines location. Who says “be”?<br />
<br />
Pleasure as authority --> normative, prescriptive <br />
<br />
Facts: (geography &) trains --> of thought --> region<br />
<br />
“In-d” = “In-land”<br />
Movement as pleasure (range as opportunity, not thrust)<br />
<br />
Crossing town, solve a (future) equation, voice to complete<br />
- articulation vs. actual closure, results (pleasure that’s over) <br />
<br />
Wants juxtaposition to be self-evident.<br />
BUT > it’s the connections that make the story<br />
<br />
Close in w/story --> an inquiry, not a conclusion<br />
- a lot of vacancy in a vacant lot<br />
- would be remiss to leave it at that? <br />
<br />
Pleasure > desire > implies absence of object<br />
<br />
Mixed feelings > geography shapes thoughts, language, as well as vice versa<br />
- what’s a town w/o its monster?<br />
- range requires people who range upon it<br />
<br />
Meanings achieved avoid others, cancel othersa.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-77322080808742372442013-05-10T16:41:00.000-07:002013-05-10T16:41:04.947-07:00Joe's "Marginalia": _Humanimal_, by Bhanu Kapil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzrJKcQeQVg/UY2EYkYcGiI/AAAAAAAAAHc/yYUWvnhPhSI/s1600/tn9780932716705.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PzrJKcQeQVg/UY2EYkYcGiI/AAAAAAAAAHc/yYUWvnhPhSI/s200/tn9780932716705.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
section 43<br /><br />What is a companion text? A <i>feral</i> text? A companion animal, a companion dad. A memory of the past = a reanimation of the corpses. His legs smashed up in a beating, hers by the Reverend Doctor (or vice versa). His coarse, black hair didn’t fit the picture, so he put his seal skin back on and dove into the sea. Skin is always exposed - “where is that protection that I needed?” Why can’t everyone’s be the color of the sky? Wasn’t somebody’s, on Star Trek? Then there’s Blue Man Group, with their faux-feral minstrel show. But a monster hybrid cyborg leg has silver chunks. Diving in makes one invisible > the jungle as womb, the sea as mother (again), the photo as frame. O to be a geometrical figure, a punctual self. A white dot wouldn’t even show up against the sand. I don’t need you to count my legs, Sethe said.<br /><br />
section 56<br /><br />Planting a child in roots and pray for rain - abandon her in a room or a root. Sounds of people, sounds of seagulls. All these abandoned kids: Moses, Rom ‘n’ Rem, fairy tale princesses’ mistaken identities. Or a standing question, a standing wave. “She” is immortal, silver cyborg, invincibly rising up from the earth of which she is also part. Going into the woods, away from the people, is the safe way, <i>pace</i> Hansel and Gretel. The writer is her own fairy godmother. Her father’s mother at the end. The invisibility of it all - in the jungles, the waves. Don’t blink or you’ll miss her.<br /><br />
section 58<br /><br />Rewrite her. Make it all tropically and then it will come out, make a nest of rough black hair. Lumbering like a selkie on dry land, slow. She is watching herself, her psyche, in a muse-ment. Something there is about an orphan girl. When you write her name, she will appear.a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-19036042602843120952013-05-02T14:46:00.003-07:002013-05-02T14:46:56.848-07:00Joe's Marginalia: _The Lust of Unsentimental Waters_, by Rosa Alcalá<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a--FvoLj6n0/UYLbbBOTaJI/AAAAAAAAAHM/kxfl001cMno/s1600/41w1VGVb+PL._SY380_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-a--FvoLj6n0/UYLbbBOTaJI/AAAAAAAAAHM/kxfl001cMno/s320/41w1VGVb+PL._SY380_.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
Re: "Safe Distance":<br />
<br />
Safe from what or whom?<br />
What we <i>think</i> we know . . .<br />
<i>We</i> are split - distant from<br />
ourselves?<br />
<br />
History shapes our bodies (ask someone who was whipped or branded). And our bodies <i>are</i> a history (ask someone who is old).<br />
<br />
Is the body a museum - of bad habits, shrapnel, treasures?<br />
Who's the looter then?<br />
"You will destroy an empire," the oracle said - He thought it meant someone else's --<br />
<br />
I dunno - an empire as pawn-<i>shop</i> does pretty well . . .<br />
<br />
No love is safe, period.<br />
Lack of imagination = pawned <i>ideas</i>?<br />
a heap of secondhand broken images<br />
<br />
We're "working out patterns" wreading this poem<br />
<br />
war and translation often go together --> & the former can be metaphor for the latter<br />
<br />
the sensitivities are lost in translations, as "I don't know but what . . .": the stranger will never use the same words<br />
<br />
As if war is war; the body, physical and not a trope.<br />
Who wants to hear <i>that</i> in a poem??<br />
But we suspect it might be true - that 1400 people <i>can</i> die in a factory collapse. Due to negligence and intimidation.<br />
<br />
Just not here.<br />
<br />
If you really <i>felt</i> that, how stay sane?<br />
At <i>best</i>, a mere conversation.<br />
<br />
"Cancer is my default horror" --> the body's history splitting it apart<br />
<br />
(sex is always news)<br />
<br />
the body politic as real thing<br />
<br />
people are relationships, singly or in groups<br />
<br />
can't we hide in metaphor, please?<br />
<br />
Go away, Myself!<br />
call me up or out --<br />
carry me over into<br />
a place I've never seen.<br />
<br />
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br />
<br />
Re: "Sea Body":<br />
<br />
Those are pearls that were his eyes and wouldn't <i>he</i> have wanted to move the harbor at will, rather than be rich and strange five leagues under?<br />
<br />
"This" can only refer to what's already here - so is it <i>my</i> internal compass? My faulty "moral compass" wiggling its point?<br />
<br />
"North is whatever direction is in front of me"<br />
<br />
This poem is going south - slip-slidin away, maybe<br />
<br />
Experiment often takes you where you didn't think you'd go --> dangerous for the single-minded, the Ahab who will get sucked under into the drink from his own rigid steps<br />
<br />
My what bright fish you are - finding the goodies of the deeps (unconscious?)<br />
<br />
The water is waiting and wants you > "wreck" suggests "ship" (and vice versa?)<br />
<br />
Davy Jones' Locker is another dog's kitchen cabinet<br />
The gods made their victims into stars<br />
<br />
Is "this" wreading "coming home"?<br />
Or is home coming to me?<br />
<br />
This is a poem about love<br />
This is a poem about getting old<br />
This is a poem about love getting old<br />
growing<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978975285518561941.post-53464889225097649652013-04-05T14:10:00.001-07:002013-04-05T14:10:47.917-07:00In Which I Travesty a Canonical Roman Poem <style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Times New Roman";
panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Book Antiqua";
panose-1:0 2 4 6 2 5 3 5 3 3;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-parent:"";
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">1</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Sweet cheap wine,
taste </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">with woodruff and
berries and fingers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">blood-red
tulpen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>snow-white, too </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">not snow-white snow
– </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">woo-hoo<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>woo-hoo</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Tantalizing green
sets off </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">redbud seams in
draws – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">(It’s only natural
to love the new</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">(those who get old
r creepy</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">So black or fair me
laddie-o </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">the ladies all come
courtin’</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Corinna fair and
Paddy-o</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">with Lycidas are
sportin’ –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">(woo-hoo, &c.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Birdy-snake /
birdy-snake / birdy-snake</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">over-under-over-under-over-und</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">fluttering
parti-colored spokes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">All that happens
tomorrow &</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">tomorrow,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">woo-hoo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">When we play the
poem down again,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">half-empty or half-full,
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">then half nothing,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">the maypole
ribbons, guy-wires</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: center 3.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">of th’universal antenna, the dick, <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">wind down, alas, as
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">All’s well<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>ah well,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Woo-hoo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">2 </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Finally, a toasty
breeze!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>instead of </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">freezing my ass off
in a fricking gale –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Flowery foresters
are out, I’m out,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">everyone’s out to
each other,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">fast in a bass boat
or walkin the dog</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Cytherean Venus and
the Nymphs,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">decked out as
hippie chicks, play</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">an outdoor gig – or
some Ultimate – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">while her sucker
husband</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">has the day shift
in the boiler room</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">nobody wears lilac,
myrtle –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">none of that sissy stuff 'round here –</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">but if they did,
they’d do it now. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Jesus, stop
sacrificing for once </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">in your life!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s nice – play ball! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Soon enough the ump of all</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">will call you out
at home<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>hence</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">delayed
gratification means an ox-eye,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">moron.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So: retire
immediately, Joe – </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">before you retire
for good,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">a weirdo ghost, to
a flickering home</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">from whose bourn
you don’t get back</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">your winnings,
winings, whinings,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">or self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothin but sixes and tens </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">then – and no randy
dallying, sure.</span></div>
a.k.a. "Joe"http://www.blogger.com/profile/09297686120651846304noreply@blogger.com0