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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Reading Log: Oedipus at Colonus (Sophocles)
Thanks to the one serious flaw in the 3-volume set of Grene and Lattimore’s Greek Tragedies—they have Oedipus the King and Antigone in the first volume, but not Oedipus at Colonus– I read the “Oedipus Cycle” out of chronological order. … Continue reading
Reading Log: No Happy Ending (Paco Ignacio Taibo II)
No Happy Ending was one of those fortuitous discoveries made while browsing the used book shelves when I should’ve been working. Previously unknown to me, Paco Ignacio Taibo II appears to be one of Latin America’s most renowned authors. Reading … Continue reading
Posted in reading log
Tagged 101010 challenge, mystery, paco ignacio taibo ii, reading, reading log
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Reading Log: Antigone (Sophocles)
Antigone is a compelling play. Reading it again as an adult I’m struck by themes (and questions) that I never noted before… or that were given to me by a teacher and promptly forgotten. For instance, why does Antigone go … Continue reading
"Charming Notes" and Saying Thanks
[CC licensed image by ajawin] Last year I was browsing the blogs and came across an entry, since lost, in which the author described her regular practice of writing "charming notes" to writers she admired, thanking them in some way … Continue reading
from "Toward a Theory of Surprise” (Chris Bachelder)
[CC licensed image by Stephen Poff] "… Donald Barthelme wrote that "the combinatorial agility of words, the exponential generation of meaning once they’re allowed to go to bed together, allows the writer to surprise himself, makes art possible, reveals how … Continue reading
Posted in Commonplace Book
Tagged aesthetics, chris bachelder, cpb, reading, surprise, Writing
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Reading Log: Oedipus the King (Sophocles)
Sophocles’ Oedipus the King (aka Oedipus Rex) is second only to Hamlet in my personal canon of touchstone plays, works that are so "big"– of such archetypal and architectonic importance to my aesthetic apparatus– that it’s hard to write about … Continue reading
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Tagged 101010 challenge, drama, oedipus, reading log, sophocles
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Wisdom from Oedipus the King
Bits of wisdom– or at least food for thought– from Sophocles’ Oedipus the King. Priest for I have seen that for the skilled of practice the outcome of their counsels live the most. Priest Neither tower nor ship is anything … Continue reading
the véhicule press blog
I just discovered that Carmine Starnino, who wrote the “Lazy Bastardism” notebook entry I referred to yesterday, blogs via the véhicule press blog. Go check it out! Apparently Starnino has even linked here before (w/r/t Jason Guriel). I missed that … Continue reading
Posted in Art & Life & Politics
Tagged blogs, carmine starnino, poetics, poetry, Publishing, vehicule press
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Lazy Bastards & Shared Meaning
[CC licensed image by topshampatti] The January 2010 issue of Poetry has an interesting “notebook” by Carmine Starnino on “Lazy Bastardism”. Starnino makes a case for difficult poetry… or at least not giving in to notions of making poetry more … Continue reading
Posted in Art & Life & Politics
Tagged aesthetics, carmine starnino, joshua mehigan, poetics, poetry, Writing
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from "The Test of Time" (William Gass)
"Groups squabble about literature because they have other than literary uses for the literary. The schools, which are busy finding ways to get the answers to the Test of Time smuggled to their chosen favoritism as coaches slip answers to … Continue reading
Posted in Commonplace Book
Tagged aesthetics, Art, cpb, literature, reading, william gass
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“Prelude VIII” (Gustaf Sobin)
“Prelude VIII” there’s somebody else here, and it’s you if you’d listen: tune, if only could, to those tenuous frequencies. you who aren’t, who would, who, in languishing in the vibratory fields of the in- cipient, had cherished, so doing, … Continue reading
from “At Funchal” (Tomas Tranströmer)
“After dusk we go out. The dark powerful paw of the cape lies thrown out into the sea. We walk in swirls of human beings, we are cuffed around kindly, among soft tyrannies, everyone chatters excitedly in the foreign tongue. … Continue reading
Reading Log: Bloom (Wil McCarthy)
Bloom is a tale of nanotech gone wild. Seemingly insatiable nanotech spores of unknown and accidental origin– the Mycora– have taken over Earth and the inner solar system, consuming most of humanity and creating what the humans eking out an … Continue reading
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Tagged 101010 challenge, nanotechnology, reading log, scifi, wil mccarthy
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from “Six Poems for Poetry Chicago” (Jack Spicer)
“The rind (also called the skin) of the lemon is difficult to understand It goes around itself in an oval quite unlike the orange which, as anyone can tell, is a fruit easily to be eaten. It can … Continue reading
from “Second Letter” (Jack Spicer)
“Things fit together. We knew that–it is the principle of magic. Two inconsequential things can combine together to become a consequence. This is true of poems too. A poem is never by itself alone.” –Jack Spicer from “Second Letter”
from “First Letter” (Jack Spicer)
“Muses do exist, but now I know that they are not afraid to dirty their hands with explication – that they are patient with truth and commentary as long as it doesn’t get into the poem, that they whisper (if … Continue reading
“Words are what sticks to the real…” (Jack Spicer)
“Words are what sticks to the real. We use them to push the real, to drag the real into the poem. They are what we hold on with, nothing else. They are as valuable in themselves as rope with nothing … Continue reading
Reading Log: Hippolytus (Euripides)
[CC Licensed image by Sebastià Giralt] Hippolytus (another work I’d, to my shame, not read before now) is a strange play, at once obviously overt in its "lessons" and quite beautiful. And there are many lessons: worship as many gods … Continue reading
Posted in Art & Life & Politics, reading log
Tagged 101010 challenge, drama, euripides, hippolytus, reading log
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Wisdom from Hippolytus
Euripides’ Hippolytus is a play littered with bits of pithy wisdom (or at least food for though). A few examples: Nurse It’s better to be sick than nurse the sick. Sickness is a single trouble for the sufferer: but nursing … Continue reading
Reading Log: Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus)
[CC licensed image by Camus Live Art] Tough time of the year to find time to write, so my notes are even less cohesive than usual… Prometheus Bound is one of many Ancient Greek plays I should have read long … Continue reading
Posted in Art & Life & Politics, reading log
Tagged 101010 challenge, aeschylus, drama, prometheus, prometheus bound, reading
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