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Meta
Tag Archives: aesthetics
Pure Sound Poetry
The attitude about meaning espoused by Ken Babstock in this interview puzzles me. To wit: SQ: Ken, when you read in Montreal in the fall I found myself wanting to close my eyes and be carried away by the sound … Continue reading
on Loving their own generalizations (Mark Halliday)
The latest issue of Pleiades (30.1) has a great piece of criticism by Mark Halliday (“Pushcart Hopes and Dreams”), in which he discusses the Pushcart Prize nomination process and his own part nominating poems, including a close look at his … Continue reading
on Noise, Interference, and Handwriting (Marjorie Perloff)
“…noise is not only incidental, but essential to communication. … If, for example, a letter is written in careless or illegible script, there is interference in the reading process, which is to say that noise slows down communication.” –Marjorie Perloff … Continue reading
Posted in Commonplace Book
Tagged aesthetics, cpb, handwriting, marjorie perloff, reading, Writing
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on Praising Difficult Poems (Stephen Dunn)
“When people praise a poem that I can’t understand I always think they’re lying.” [Boy do I understand this suspicion] –Stephen Dunn
Sherman Alexie on Poetry Slams
[CC licensed image by moontan] “What the slams are all about is an attempt to create an oral tradition. The real issue is that I don’t think there’s a lot of critical distinction in the slams. They are more interested … 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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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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2010 Theme: I Like What I Like
aka I am what I am aka taking the guilt out of guilty pleasures My second theme for 2010 is to double or treble my efforts to reinforce my defense against the pressure to conform aesthetically to please others. Some … Continue reading
on Art and the Sun-Like Eyes of Man (Heinrich Blücher)
[photo by Aube Insanite] “The eyes of man are sun-like, because art comes and makes them more sun-like. Art is so mighty because it changes our perception of the world. It is almost as mighty as philosophy and not nearly … Continue reading
Why I Go Into Hiding
Discussions that contain words like these are a good example of why I find it hard (if not impossible) to remain engaged in most discussion communities: “Such discussions (about what’s a visual poem, what’s not) are like pinhead-angel discussions to … Continue reading
In and Out of Love (with Poetry)
Though most of the resulting discussion has been about the virtues of collecteds vs. selecteds, which would be interesting had I not just engaged in my share of angel-counting on the NewPoetry mailing list, Joel Brouwer asks an interesting question … Continue reading
tRoMAI: Aesthetic Emotion Ultimately Trumps Explanation
[tRoMAI?] I’ll use a poem by James Wright that seems to be the subject of more polarized opinions than usual: “The Jewel” There is this cave In the air behind my body That nobody is going to touch: A cloister, … Continue reading
The Roots of My Anti-Intellectualism (tRoMAI)
On July 4 at 3:10a–when I should have been resting up for a day of starting forest fires with illegal fireworks and burning hearty meats on the grill in celebration of my country, the One Country to Rule Them All–I … Continue reading
Flarf, Bleh
I clearly live in a different world than the flarfists and their new admirers. My reaction to the Poetry magazine feature on flarf was a long, sighing, bleeeeeeeehhhhhhh. With a few exceptions—Jordan Davis’s second poem and Sharon Mesmer’s entry—the poems … Continue reading
Getting From Here to There
[photo by Stuck in Customs] I’m consciously convinced that aesthetic appreciation is ultimately a subjective experience—a happening, even a communion, but in the end comprising a wholly individual appraisal. People come together to beauty in part due to the skill … Continue reading
Trust, Nihilism and Criticism
There’s a brilliant essay by Ihab Hassan on "Literary Theory in an Age of Globalization" in Philosophy and Literature. A few bits and bobs: I seem to have cornered myself into the position that aesthetics generally, and literary theory in … Continue reading
on Beauty (Marilynne Robinson)
You have to have a certain detachment in order to see beauty for yourself rather than something that has been put in quotation marks to be understood as “beauty.” Think about Dutch painting, where sunlight is falling on a basin … Continue reading
Posted in Commonplace Book
Tagged aesthetics, beauty, cpb, marilynne robinson, writers on writing
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A Poetic Bright Line
Here’s one indicator by which I can differentiate my aesthetics from a rather large group of (mostly) contemporaries: I find this poem by W.S. Merwin a wonderful, tiny work with some lasting resonance: “Elegy” Who would I show it to? … Continue reading