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Date: Sun, 1 Jan 1995 17:15:34 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marisa A Januzzi <jma5@COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: discursive disruptions//whether poetry makes anything happen
In-Reply-To: <199412312322.AA22525@mailhub.cc.columbia.edu>
Greetings from a formerly silent lurker!
With the indulgence of the list, I would like to revive the question of
the political content of poetic form, implicitly continuing a discussion
which arose at an MLA session called "Poetry: The Visual Dimension." Alan
Golding gave a helpful paper about Susan Howe's visual poetics, and during the
Q&A, Marjorie Perloff asked "the big skeptical question" (I wish I could
remember her exact words!), wondering about the connection between the
disruption for instance of the linear form of the poem on the page and
the disruption of patriarchy. And Bob Perelman accelerated the question by
raising the specter of the "history of the avant-garde."
Since then I have been wondering why poetry can't be construed as having
political potential in a metaphoric mode. It seems to me that metaphors
(whether formal or more simply rhetorical) not only express but also
potentially restage political issues (as in for instance the work of
Medbh McGuckian) in educational ways. When Mina Loy chose an open form for
her notorious 1915-17 "Love Songs" (THE best since Sappho, she called them)
the rhetoric of form and content immediately sent critics into a delirium of
invective against free women, free verse, free love... in other words critics
got the point before they "got" the poems, a situation which recurs every day
in the poetry classroom where students and teachers can usefully confront
prejudices in the guise of aesthetic questions.
Ten years ago I wrote an ill-thought-out essay about T.S. Eliot which
earned me a 'D' from Kathryne Lindberg and caused this student (from a deeply
traditional and right-wing family) to attend consciously to the question for
the very first time. Although it now may sound nostalgic to say so,
Williams and Olson (also on the syllabus) helped me out...and so did
Kathryne, with a magnum of patience...
Language: the parent, not the child of thought? (Wilde)
With gratitude for all of you poetic teachers,
Marisa Januzzi <jma5@columbia.edu>
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Date: Sun, 1 Jan 1995 19:28:07 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Domesday Dictionary
I just wanted to take the opportunity to as unironically as possible
wish each and every one of you a "Happy New(t) Year." Stroffolino...
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Date: Sun, 1 Jan 1995 19:53:17 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: discursive disruptions//whether poetry makes anything happen
Dear Marisa--
Thank you for the insight you bring to the issues of "metaphor" and
its "antagonism" towards allegedly more "forward-looking" poetic
disjunction. I believe the extent to which these issues have been
"gendered" by the current dominant poetic factions is highly problematic
for it's quite possible that what's called 'reactionary' and therefore
patriarchal by a certain avant-garde strain (what's derided as "metaphor"
or "symbolist" or even "Romantic") has been dismissed out of hand.
If we look at it historically, one can see the rhetoric that has enabled
the legitimation of so-called "nonmetaphoric" or "nonlinear" modes of
poetry has, for all its claims of radical politicalization, too often
played into the demands and dynamics of the "academic establishment."
(This reminds me of the statement--"Derrida would not have ever been
allowed into the academy were it not for the fact that it's extremely
easy to read Shakespeare as such.").
In the academic fashion-show, the notion that women (or other 'marginalized'
groups) must reject anything that reeks of tradition, seems to be either
(1) self-defeating or (2) a desperate attempt to justify the so-called
'new' poetry, a poetry which has now come to have its own share of investment
not so much a matter of "which side are you on" or even "taste," but a matter
not so much a matter of "which side are you on" or even "taste," but a matter
and "form" is problematized. The fact is, the debate between "metaphor"
and "nonmetaphor" based poetry, between minimalism and maximalism, between
meaning and play, cuts across political lines. To the extent that debates
over poetry center on the POLITICS OF FORM obscures a perhaps more serious
issue. For if the great "Western Canon" is a repressive force that needs
to be subverted, perhaps this can best be done so by entering into dialogue
with it. Though we should be aware of the repressive partriachal capitalistic
cases supported the so-called "alternative" as well. This is not to say that
there aren't writers on both "sides" that ARE more politically subverive than
certain formal code. Any more thoughts you have on this would be appreciated.
Thanx, Chris Stroffolino
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Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 15:28:11 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont. (fwd)
Forwarded message:
From daemon Wed Dec 28 09:20:26 1994
Message-Id: <199412281420.JAA35051@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 09:13:23 -0500
Reply-To: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
Sender: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
From: "tamlit@guvax.georgetown.edu \"Randy Bass\"" <TAMLIT%GUVAX.bitnet@BITNIC.C
Subject: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont.
To: Multiple recipients of list T-AMLIT <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
***JRNL: T-AMLIT JOURNAL***
Here are three more JOURNAL contributions to the discussion about the
marginalization of poetry within the academy.
The original query to this thread also posed the open call for
more discussion of poetry on this list (as does Tony Petrosky at the
end of his first posting).
RBass
*****************************************************************
(1)
From: IN%"tpetrosk+@pitt.edu" "Anthony R Petrosky" 14-DEC-1994 10:46:20.24
Subj: RE: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins
I just read the responses to the original posting. It's curious, I
think, to see them as a cross section of responses, taking, as they do,
various positions that it seems to me I have heard in my department at
one time or the other. They all seem legitimate, serious, but in an odd
way they would all, including mine, put off people for various reasons.
Maybe it is that there is this atmosphere of critique dominating our
reading and writing. I think of something Robert Creeley once said to a
seminar I was in in graduate school: "you're all here because poetry is
plastic, it's something you can do anything in." I think he meant that
it is an open form, a place where traditions can dominate and invention
can dominate and the mix of what happens will always, then, contain the
tensions that arise from differences. Formalists disparage language
poets, language poets disparage narrative poets, abstract expressionists
like Louise Gluck disparage so called confessional poets like Sharon
Olds. The differences create defense, posture. Now that seems similar
to just about anything I can think of that allows difference, and the
tensions get hightened, I think, we layer on to the scene the interests
and motives of those who don't write poetry or teach it but critique it
from various perspectives. So, yeah it seems, as one of the respondents
put it, there are a lot of reasons why it is on the margins.
But why wouldn't it be possible to take as a project the reading and
writing of radically different kinds of poetry: Sharon Olds next to
Ashbery next to Rumi next to Gluck next to Bernstein? Why not let poetry
of all sorts exist in the same space and ask students, then, to work on
understanding it. We could give them traditions to use to frame the
discussions. We could give them at least a sense of difference and a
place to both respect it (as those who participate by writing the
different kinds of poems do) and work on it. These are the kinds of
solutions I am interested in. What we can do to bring our students to
poetry.
It seems to me that we could make a huge catalogue of reasons why poetry
is in the supposed state we think it is. But that is then a big
complaint. Is that a good place for the energy? Maybe to point we can
understand the situation of poetry this way, but I suspect the situation
varies by location. Bucknell University, for instance, takes poetry
seriously for undergraduates with its visiting poets every year, its
Poetry Festival, its literary magazines, and its undergraduate
workshops. Other places don't do anything near that, but at Pitt, for
example, we put a tremendous emphasis on graduate work in poetry. Still
other place do so also but with an emphasis on a different kind of
poetry. So we learn from this kind of generalized talk, I'd say, that
the situation of poetry is not uniform. Ok. So now what?
I'd love to continue the discussion of teaching poetry in various places
in the curriculum. Rumi and LaLa and Kabir in religious studies along
with Blake and Hopkins along with A. Rich and Phil Levine. Poetry in
composition studies. Multi-genre writings that include poetry.
Traditions of poetry juxtaposed against other traditions. Any takers?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(2)
From: IN%"kprovost@MIT.EDU" 16-DEC-1994 15:41:37.16
Subj: RE: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins
I would like to chip in regarding reactions to poetry. I, too, find
that even in academe, poetry is viewed with some trepidation or perhaps
the notion that it's somehow old-fashioned, that the hot stuff is going
on in fiction these days? And certainly many students are petrified of
poetry, or think it will bore them to tears.
But the good news is, I have to agree with several other posters who
noted having good success teaching poetry, even (or especially?) in
composition classes, especially contemporary, more life-based works. I,
too, have had this experience. I taught a section on poetry and writing
about poetry in a composition class at a community college--mostly to
students who had had very little previous exposure to poetry and whose
discomfort level with the subject was high. I chose a range, from
Robert Frost and Shakespearean sonnets to Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn
Brooks, Sharon Olds, Gary Soto, and other contemporary writers. I
brought in a record of poets reading their works--they heard Hughes and
Brooks, as I recall. I tried not to overwhelm them; I wanted them to
read each poem several times and pay attention to the language. I
modeled this kind of reading in class and assigend them only a few poems
at a time to read, though I encouraged them to browse further! Finally,
I had students working in pairs or small groups give their reading of
the poem to the class, ie make a presentation about what they had gotten
out of the poem, what particular problems they encountered, how they
came to some understanding with it.
I found this portion of the class quite successful; several students
came up to me and told me how they'd never known poetry could be so
interesting, or that they could make sense of it, etc. The students
also wrote a paper comparing several poems that dealt with the same
theme, comparing and contrasting the poems' differing approaches to the
theme in terms of language, imagery, tone, etc.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(3)
From: IN%"Paul.Lauter@Mail.Trincoll.Edu" 16-DEC-1994 23:52:52.46
Subj: RE: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins
Re poetry: You know, it depends somewhat on where you look. I don't have
the sense (and I could easily be wrong) that poetry is marginalized in
courses that focus on contemporary women writers or on Chicano/a
writers, for example.
I also think that while Carter Revard's funny account is true in
essence, there have always been countertraditions to the deliberately
complex and obscure modernism represented by Eliot, et al. Think of
Sterling Brown and Langston Hughes, Amy Lowell, Frost, and many of the
poets Cary Nelson discusses in REPRESSION AND RECOVERY.
Part of the problem has, I think, to do with the struggle of the
academic community to free itself from the still hegemonic New Critical
pedagogical tradition, which was, after all, constructed by folks like
Ransom, Tate, and Brooks, with predecessors like Eliot very much in
mind.
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Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 15:58:15 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Michael Boughn <mboughn@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: Re: Happy New Year
In-Reply-To: <9501020359.AA14094@jazz.epas.utoronto.ca> from "Chris
Stroffolino" at Jan 1, 95 07:28:07 pm
OK, so you've probably all already heard this one, but here goes anyway:
How many Intel engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Three: one to screw in the bulb and one to hold the chair.
Cheers,
Mike
mboughn@epas.utoronto.ca
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Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 16:21:11 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ron Silliman <rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Poetry on the Margins of What?
Both Tony Petrovsky and Paul Lauter's comments reflect quite clearly
some very different ideas of what might be meant by the proposition
"poetry is at the margins."I don't know Tony but given Paul's long
involvement with bringing radical politics to the academy, it's
interesting how inherently non-market oriented each approach seems to
be.
The idea that poetry "is at the margins" of course proposes some spatial
model of something, with an identifiable center from which poetry could
then be distant. What is that thing? Books sold? Cultural influence?
Fame? Petrovsky speculates that the diversity of poetic subcultures in
our society might be causal (rather than, say, a reflection or
manifestation of some larger social process). Paul gets in a gratuitous
(and completely reductive) slap at the avant-garde tradition (w/o
recognizing it as the only *international* literary tradition the world
has ever had). Its role in identitarian political movements is then
posed as a truer center.
That reminded me of the condition that poets found themselves in the
former Soviet Union (FSU). For a long time, almost 30 years, poets held
a critical social function for political opposition. Since political
meetings were verboten, poetry readings often took on the role of a
public rally. Audiences were large. But it is not evident that this
benefited more than a handful of individual poets and its impact on
writing per se seems to have been quite a mixed bag.
Once a broader terrain of discourse was possible, the necessity of the
poet as a symbol of resistance quickly disappeared. Audiences shrunk
rapidly and the new market economy of Russia and the other republics has
meant that the next generation of poets over there will probably be no
more well distributed and read than their contemporaries here.
Jan Clausen, a poet and novelist who has long been involved with lesbian
poetics and politics (until she married a man a couple of years ago, but
that's another story), wrote an excellent pamphlet on this subject
called *A Movement of Poets: Thoughts on Poetry and Feminism* (Brooklyn:
Long Haul Press, 1982). She is generally very suspicious of the impact
of each on the other. For example, writing of poetry's decline as a
leading force for feminism once second-wave feminism created its own
institutions, she notes:
"Ironically, I suspect that poetry as a genre has lost prestige within
the women's movement for the same reason that fiction lacked it in
nineteenth century patriarchal England--because it is perceived as
something almost anyone can do. That is the hidden meaning of a code
phrase like 'there's so much feminist poetry,' and it points to the
hypocrisy of the general feminist rejection of critical standards;
rather than apply them, we have sometimes simply stopped paying
attention to poetry at all." (pp. 46-7)
If Clausen suggests the logical end result of the kind of reductivism
that Lauter's comments exhibit, Petrovsky's variation of Teach the
Conflicts seems equally problematic. I personally would prefer to have a
new formalist who was both passionate and knowledgeable about that
tendency to teach a lit course than a liberal who sees Sharon Olds and
Bruce Andrews as points of equal interest on an undifferentiated plane.
To have any value at all, the "teach the conflicts" approach requres the
instructor to have (and argue) a theory of organization and history that
positions every text and author.
Both Lauter and Petrovsky presume (reasonably enough for a Teaching of
American Lit discussion group) a defining privilege for the classroom in
determining the answer to the question. Needless to say, I have my
doubts there.
So I keep coming up against the problem of the Margins of What. Walt
Whitman self-published the first edition of Leaves of Grass. Much of
Stein's work came out the same way. George Oppen's To Press, which
Williams and Zukofsky hoped would be the vehicle to bring the
objectivists to a larger audience, was just one more tiny press. As
Charles Bernstein and others have pointed out (repeatedly, I must say),
the problem of poetry's distribution to The Masses has changed very
little in the past 200 years. What has changed, it seems to me, is the
set of assumptions we making about what is central in public discourse,
i.e., what is a center? Where is it and who defines it? Is Bill Moyers
fawning over Donald Hall or Robert Bly an example of the potential
success of poetry? Or quite the opposite?
What has changed, beyond the ongoing revolution in media (I'm old enough
to remember the paperback as the exception, not the rule), has been an
articulation of communities of writing. There may well be 300+ poets
working in, or more or less directly from, what has been called Language
Poetry. And publishing. Plus another 300 to 500 coming out of other
variants of the New American tradition of 50s and 60s. And as
Petrovsky notes in his comment of Gluck's attitude towards Olds, the
establishmentarian tradition in American Lit is as well articulated. All
of these discussions of the decenteredness or marginality of poetry
seems to me to give very short shrift to very real communities,
communities that are ultimately very different from the ones that Lauter
imagines (precisely because they derive from lived experience of daily
contact rather than application to some ideal of race, gender or
nationality). Then the question of the marginality of any community
would be one directly of its role within the larger society, poetry
being the symptom more than the cause.
No?
As Lee Ann Brown,
the quintessential "NY School" poet of her generation
might say,
"Happy New Year, y'all."
Ron Silliman
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 16:25:40 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marjorie Perloff <perloff@LELAND.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: discursive disruptions//whether poetry makes anything happen
In-Reply-To: <199501012216.OAA17727@leland.Stanford.EDU>
I just wanted to clarify one thing for Marina Januzzi. At that MLA
session, I did not mean to imply that the choice of form does not have
ideological implications, just that "disruption" of form is a complex matter
that has to refer to more than breaking up a page--that is, there are
breaks and breaks. I suppose I think each example has to be judged on
its own merits--and, yes, the "metaphoric mode" may be just as
"disruptive" depending. I actually thought Alan Golding's paper was
terrific; it's just that all day I had been hearing someone or other say
about whatever poems by women that they oppose patriarchy etc, by such things
as typography and my sense is that there are often things said (not by Alan
but by others) that could apply equally well to a very conventional male
poet--say Ted Hughes--just as well so we have to be careful, that's all.
Hope this clarifies...
Marjorie Perloff
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Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 10:38:21 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Joseph Conte <ENGCONTE@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: Domesday Dictionary
There was an eleventh-century _Domesday Book_ that represents the
record of a census of England taken by William I. It's a fairly
important text for medieval studies, since it includes much of
the surviving information on land division, land use, and economic
resources of the time.
I'm not clear whether there's an etymological connection between
Domesday and doomsday, but if I were being taxed by the King I
might be inclined to confuse April 15 and the apocalypse.
I suppose Schwerner had both social registry and the nuclear
apocalypse in mind.
Joseph Conte
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Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 11:03:15 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Joseph Conte <ENGCONTE@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner
Brian:
I've just read your earlier query about the work of Armand Schwerner
on the Poetics list. Although I very much enjoyed one of Schwerner's
performances at the National Poetry Foundation conference in Orono
two years ago, I haven't read enough of his work to comment personally.
But I've been editing a two-volume set on contemporary poets for the
_Dictionary of Literary Biography_, and I "commissioned" an entry on
Schwerner by a critic namer Arthur J. Sabatini. He sent me an excellent
5000 word essay, with a full critical bibliography, that includes discussion
of the _Tablets_ and the oral-performance mode of Schwerner's work. I'm
sure Sabatini would be happy to send you a copy of the essay at your
request. His address:
Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance
Arizona State University West
4701 W. Thunderbird Road
P.O. Box 37100
Phoenix, AZ 85087-7100
E-mail: ieajs@asuacad
I'll let him know you're interested. Hope things are going well
on your project. Did you go to the MLA this year? I passed on it.
Best regards,
Joseph Conte
______________________________________*_________________________________________
|
Joseph M Conte | "Where is the figure in the
Department of English | carpet? Or is it just . . .
SUNY at Buffalo | carpet?" he asked. "Where is--"
ENGCONTE@ubvms.bitnet | "You're talking a lot of
ENGCONTE@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu | buffalo hump, you know that."
| Donald Barthelme
______________________________________*________________________________________
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 13:54:04 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: Armand Schwerner Live
Speaking of the "oral performance mode" does anyone know of
any tapes of Schwerner reading from "The Tablets?"
And another thing: Do "The Tablets" stop at 15? That's the
edition I have and I'm just wondering if there's more.
John Krick
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Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 13:45:11 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marisa A Januzzi <jma5@COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: motives for metaphor
In-Reply-To: <199501030028.AA19204@mailhub.cc.columbia.edu>
Hello everyone--
To Marjorie Perloff: thank you for the clarification; it's pretty much
what I imagined you might say, and I'd guess we attended many of the same
panels. In any case I understood the spirit of the question. And by the
way, *Compliments*, Alan Golding, if you're out there, on your Susan Howe
piece. Will you be publishing it?
Chris Stroffolino raises the interesting issue of the weird devaluation
of metaphor in contemporary theory if not poetry. I remember having a
pretty harsh discussion with someone who was trying to get me to admit
that metonymy was preferable, ethically, to metaphor, which seemed
authoritarian as a mode of discourse... but what ever happened to the
surrealist potential for metaphor (the chance encounter described by
Lautreamont)?
Also, can anyone recommend readings on this huge subject of the
political content of poetic form? (i.e. best-case formulations of the
question)? I throw it open like this because I'm curious if there are
particular texts which you-- any of you-- mentally stand by when these
questions come up.
Yours in the midst of sleepy weather,
--Marisa Januzzi
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 14:47:26 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: America: A Prayer
AMERICA: A PRAYER
The Honorable Newt Gingrich has informed us that prayer in the public
schools is one of the most important issues facing this great nation, and
in our firm belief that America doesn't have a prayer, we call upon The
Poets of America to accept their intellectual responsibility to give
America a prayer. Opportunity is crucial in a capitalist society. We feel
therefore that this, the 104th Congress, should have the opportunity to
authorize the production of the appropriate American prayer from amongst
the deeply felt works of America's finest, most challenging, and
dedicated writers.
America's prayer is meant to be read by everybody, but don't let that
stop you. Your prayers should be 500 words or less. Please send two
copies of your prayer, one marked "Proposal for Prayer for the Schools"
to The Honorable Newt Gingrich, House of Representatives, 2428 Rayburn
House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. Send your other copy with
self-addressed stamped envelope to Aerial/Edge at the address below. No
strictures on style or content. Writers may or may not wish to imagine
delivery of their prayer in a classroom context. You do not have to be a
U.S. citizen to participate. Also interested in visual materials. A
selection of the prayers will be published in The New Censorship
(Denver). Other editors interested in this project should contact us.
Please pass this opportunity on to as many people as possible.
Deadline: Feb 28, 1995.
Rod Smith Lee Ann Brown Mark Wallace
AERIAL/EDGE P.O. Box 25642 Washington, D.C. 20007
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 14:49:38 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Situation #8
Situation #8 features work by Stephen-Paul Martin, Connie Deanovich,
Joshua McKinney, Dan Raphael, and others.
Cost is $2 for a single issue and $8 for four issues.
Please send subscriptions or submissions to:
Mark Wallace
Situation
10402 Ewell Ave.
Kensington, MD 20895
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 16:00:26 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Poetry on the Margins of What?
In-Reply-To: <199501030024.TAA27254@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU> from "Ron
Silliman" at Jan 2, 95 04:21:11 pm
Ron,
Since i don't have your address, i have to post this query here. How wld
you feel about me cross-posting your response back to the t-amlit list? It
strikes me that transgressing these cyberboundaries could be productive.
On the other hand, i wldn't want to start any flame wars. What do you think?
steve shoemaker
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 22:46:22 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BMCH@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: Message of 01/03/95 at 13:54:04 from krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Some Schwerner dope: Station Hill Press brought out Tablets I-XXIV in 1983, in
a volume together with a collection of shorter poems called "sounds of the
river Naranjana."Then Altas Press, London, brought out in '89 I-XXIV plus new
XXV and XXVI -- the latter, much longer than any of the earlier ones, is par-
ticularly astonishing. XXVI is the last I've been able to locate; until I've
checked with Schwerner himself, I'm assuming it's the last -- unless someone
out there knows otherwise?
I've come across catalogue entries for recordings of Schwerner reading from the
Tablets, but haven't had a chance to listen to any yet. I'm curious to know
how he handles the visual dimension of the Tablets in performing them ... I
think of them as really eye-oriented, page-bound texts, but perhaps that's a
mistake...
Brian
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 23:51:19 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Pierre Joris <joris@CSC.ALBANY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <199501040355.WAA12855@sarah.albany.edu> from
"BMCH@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU" at Jan 3, 95 10:46:22 pm
Brian, you write:
>
> I've come across catalogue entries for recordings of Schwerner reading from th
> Tablets, but haven't had a chance to listen to any yet. I'm curious to know
> how he handles the visual dimension of the Tablets in performing them ... I
> think of them as really eye-oriented, page-bound texts, but perhaps that's a
> mistake...
indeed, that is a mistake, Schwerner is an absolutely first rate
performer of the TABLETS -- they are among the wild-humourist poems it has
ever been my pleasure to hear. Schwerner realizes the visual elements
orally as interferences by the scholar-translator into the lyrical
process of the poems & it is exactly in the oral realization of that
tension, in the juxtaposition of those different levels of discourse,
that one can get to the polysemic core of the work. Go & listen,
you've got a major treat coming!
Pierre
=======================================================================
Pierre Joris | He who wants to escape the world, translates it.
Dept. of English | --Henri Michaux
SUNY Albany |
Albany NY 12222 | "Herman has taken to writing poetry. You
tel&fax:(518) 426 0433 | need not tell anyone, for you know how
email: | such things get around."
joris@cnsunix.albany.edu| --Mrs. Melville in a letter to her mother.
=======================================================================
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 02:00:49 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: America: A Prayer
In-Reply-To: <199501032243.OAA06428@whistler.sfu.ca> from "Mark Wallace" at
Jan 3, 95 02:47:26 pm
Here's what a lot of people pray:
May the USA disappear
and allow America an opportunity to survive.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 06:06:05 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mn Center For Book Arts <mcba@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <01HLFBC2UGO6B2ATKP@VX.CIS.UMN.EDU>
I'm currently looking at eight pages which are collectively presented as
"from Tablet XXXVI," by Armand Schwerener, which were the latest addition
to the journal NORTH AMERICAN IDEOPHONICS ANNUAL, a by-invitation
assembling journal or series edited by Mark Nowak. The address is 908
Franklin Terrace, 3rd floor, Minneapolis, MN 55406, USA, or by e-mail,
manowak@alex.stkate.edu
Since this journal was assembled only on Dec. 17, 1994, I assume that
this is work is new and may be an addition to the Tablet XXVI published
in London, and that it probably brings the work pretty much up to date,
although I would, as others have, suggest going to Armand Schwerner to
verify that.
charles alexander
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 06:09:35 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mn Center For Book Arts <mcba@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <01HLFBC2UGO6B2ATKP@VX.CIS.UMN.EDU>
Just to update my last post here, as I hadn't read my Schwerner pages for
NORTH AMERICAN IDEOPHONICS ANNUAL yet, and they were given to me after
the rest of the annual was assembled, an act with which I assisted. No,
these are not eight pages, rather four copies of two pages. Some
astonishing writing, nonetheless.
charles alexander
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 15:29:46 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
How would one find the Altas Press (London) volume of Armand's Tablets?
Any ideas???
Tom Mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 16:29:13 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: Converted from PROFS to RFC822 format by PUMP V2.2X
From: Alan Golding <ACGOLD01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: note of 01/04/95 16:07
Associate Professor of English, U. of Louisville
Phone: (502)-852-5918; e-mail: acgold01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu
Tom--
One would have a hard time, since it's actually the Atlas Press--there was a
typo in the original posting of that information. Anyway, The Tablets is
distributed by SPD, along with a couple other of Armand's books. If for
some reason that doesn't work, the press' London address is 10 Park Street,
London SE1 9AB, England--but that's five years old.
General inquiry: Does anyone have an e-address for Cole Swensen? I need to get
in touch with her.
Alan Golding
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 20:18:00 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Scroggins <scroggin@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <199501042219.RAA22705@gwis.circ.gwu.edu>
On Wed, 4 Jan 1995, Tom Mandel wrote:
> How would one find the Altas Press (London) volume of Armand's Tablets?
> Any ideas???
>
> Tom Mandel
>
Got mine in a second-hand bookstore; others might try Atlas Press, 10
Park st, The Borough, London SE1 9AB, UK.
Hi Tom.
Mark Scrogging
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 20:20:47 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Scroggins <scroggin@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <199501042307.SAA23622@gwis.circ.gwu.edu>
Tom--
Alan's post reminds me to check a more recent Atlas Book, which has BCM
Atlas Press, London WC1N 3XX, UK. Maybe that'll work.
Mark
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 21:51:50 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Pierre Joris <joris@CSC.ALBANY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <199501042113.QAA03793@sarah.albany.edu> from "Tom Mandel" at Jan
4, 95 03:29:46 pm
Tom asked:
>
> How would one find the Altas Press (London) volume of Armand's Tablets?
> Any ideas???
I don't know who -- if anyone -- distributes it in this country, but
you could write directly to:
Aleister Botchie
Atlas Press
5 Ormond Mansions, flat 100A
Southampton Row
London WCI
GB
An excellent press, btw, with a range of interesting surrealist &
post-surrealist titles.
Happy semi-new year,
Pierre
=======================================================================
Pierre Joris | He who wants to escape the world, translates it.
Dept. of English | --Henri Michaux
SUNY Albany |
Albany NY 12222 | "Herman has taken to writing poetry. You
tel&fax:(518) 426 0433 | need not tell anyone, for you know how
email: | such things get around."
joris@cnsunix.albany.edu| --Mrs. Melville in a letter to her mother.
=======================================================================
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 22:37:16 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BMCH@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: Message of 01/04/95 at 15:29:46 from tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU
Just had a look & sure enough SPD carries Atlas Press books, & there's Tablets
I-XXVI listed among them. Doesn't appear that the Station Hill Press edition
is still in print, but the Tablets part of that would be superseded by the
Atlas edition anyway.
Alan Golding's note now makes me wish I'd gone to MLA & heard Schwerner rather
than stay home to try & write about him! Choices....
Brian
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 23:07:38 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: The Evil Xmas Devil Monster <ABOHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: Message of Tue, 3 Jan 1995 22:46:22 EST from
<BMCH@WVNVM.WVNET.EDU>
BTW, don't forget that the Living Theater in New York put on a production of
The Tablets five or six or seven years ago. I was priveleged to have attended
one of the performances, & was brilliantly acted & scored. It took place at
their place on E. 3rd St, one of the first productions at that space.
Unfortunately, they lost the space after a couple of years.
Regards,
Marc Nasdor
abohc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 23:14:05 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ron Silliman <rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Reading?
Hello folks,
I'm wondering if it's too late to come up with a couple of
readings/talks in the mid-Atlantic states at the end of May or even the
very first few days of June? I've been asked by Alec Marsh to give a
paper at the ALA in Baltimore (May 26-28) and would love to be able to
say yes. But I need to come up w/ travel money to make it possible,
since these scholarly meetings are run with the presumption that
everyone who will attend comes with departmental funding (a 19th century
concept of scholarship that should have died out in the 1930s with the
rise of the public intellectual).
I need to let Alec know by January 13, so let me know if you're sitting
on unspent departmental reading $$.
Ron Silliman
rsillima@ix.netcom.com
or
(510) 734-4581
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 00:17:12 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tenney Nathanson <nathanso@ARUBA.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Armand Schwerner Live
In-Reply-To: <01HLGO494NT291YVNU@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>
On Wed, 4 Jan 1995, The Evil Xmas Devil Monster wrote:
> BTW, don't forget that the Living Theater in New York put on a production of
> The Tablets five or six or seven years ago. I was priveleged to have attended
> one of the performances, & was brilliantly acted & scored. It took place at
> their place on E. 3rd St, one of the first productions at that space.
> Unfortunately, they lost the space after a couple of years.
>
> Regards,
>
> Marc Nasdor
> abohc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
>
how strange to contemplate. I remember being in junior high school in
the early sixties and going to see Jack Gelber's dope play The Connection
at The Living Theatre (and feeling very hip); then all the terrifically
weird stuff in the early seventies which I only heard about didn't see;
and then The Tablets??? I guess I'd like to see a split stage,
simultaneous staging of The Connection and The Tablets (a la Ashbery's
"As We Know"?). Not really now; just a Theatrical Mind Boggler Koan....
happy new year all
Tenney
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 11:36:46 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: America: A Prayer
In-Reply-To: <199501032243.AA24877@panix2.panix.com>
As I said before, my prayer sent to NEWT and to YOUT is "Up yours, teach."
As always, James
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 09:45:56 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: RSILLIMA <rsillima@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Congressional vote on NEH--forw
X-To: perloff@leland.stanford.edu, 70550.654@compuserve.com,
lisa@vanstar.com, bernstei@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu,
abernhei@hooked.net
I'm sending this to the Poetics Discussion List but am not sure it will
get posted since I'm at work and am not currently subscribed from there.
Charles, can you double check?
The message below comes from Bob Perelman. It sounds as if Newt et al
plan to defund some or all of NEH, NEA, etc., asap and do so w/out any
public discussion thereof. Time to act!
Ron Silliman
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ron,
See if this gets to you.
I'll also be e-ing on other matters.
Bob
According to Daniel Traister:
> From owner-english-faculty Thu Jan 5 17:24:20 1995
> From: traister@pobox.upenn.edu (Daniel Traister)
> Posted-Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 12:24:42 -0500
> Message-Id: <199501051724.MAA05283@pobox.upenn.edu>
> Subject: Congressional vote on NEH--forwarded from Frank Whigham
(Texas), FYI and wide distribution
> To: english-faculty@dept.english.upenn.edu (English Department
Faculty),
> english-grads@dept.english.upenn.edu (English Graduate
Students)
> Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 12:24:42 -0500 (EST)
> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23-upenn2.9]
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> Content-Length: 2738
> Sender: owner-english-faculty@dept.english.upenn.edu
> Precedence: bulk
>
> From: Frank Whigham <ffw@UTS.CC.UTEXAS.EDU>
> Subject: Congressional vote on the NEH
>
> Dear colleagues:
>
> I have just received (9:30 am, 1/5) the following news from
my
> colleague Terry Kelley.
> ================
> Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 09:19:58 -0600 (CST)
> From: "theresa m. kelley" <tmkelley@uts.cc.utexas.edu>
> Subject: NEH /NEA/PBS funding
> To: Frank Whigham <ffw@uts.cc.utexas.edu>
>
> Here is the news re Republican efforts to kill all funding for these
> agencies by a simple majority vote on the Senate floor -- without going
> through a hearing process.
>
> My source for this information is Carl Woodring, who received a call
with
> this news from Tom O'Brien, in the Grants office of NEH. He called
> Gingrich's office to find out what the hearing schedule would be and
> learned this news. O'Brien is less concerned wth House deliberations,
> where he believes it will be possible to work out an agreement for
> funding, though probably reduced, than he is with the Senate, where
> funding could disappear without anything more than a floor vote.
>
> If only for the record and possible future funding, I urge all to write
> appropriate senators to protest this plan to kill this funding without
a
> hearing.
>
>
> Please distribute this news as widely as possible.
>
>
> Theresa M. Kelley
> Associate Professor
> University of Texas, Austin
> ==================
>
> Obviously we must all be extremely concerned at this news. It
is
> crucial that we make our collective voice heard in support of the
institu-
> tions which contribute so much to our disciplines. (This matter will
bring
> us as close to unanimity as we'll ever get.) We in the academy have
done
> badly at making our case to those in authority, especially in recent
> years. There has been much failure of the will. We need to write, not
only
> to protest the funding cuts (though cuts will surely be made), but to
> protest the absence of open discussion on this crucial matter. This is
a
> procedural scandal, and might well be pre-emptive for much that we care
> about, for years to come.
>
> If anyone who receives this mailing has a list of
congressional
> e-mail addresses, it would be very useful to distribute it for the rest
of
> us. We need to begin to be much more vocal with the new administration.
> (I'm sure that many would welcome all federal and state addresses as
well;
> I would.)
>
> In addition to Kay Bailey Hutchinson's address above
[relevant
> to residents of Texas ONLY], I can contribute GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV
> (specify Newt Gingrich at the beginning of the message).
>
> Please distribute this message.
> ===========================
> Frank Whigham
> Department of English, Parlin 108
> University of Texas at Austin
> Austin TX 78712-1164
> 512-471-8794
> ffw@uts.cc.utexas.edu
>
>
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 21:25:19 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: New Electronic Poetry Center Features
____ ____ ____
/ / / / / /
EEEE PPPPP CCCCC
EE / PP PP CC C/
EEE PPPPP CC / URL=gopher://writing.upenn.edu/hh/
__EE /_ PP |__ CC C ____
/ EEEE/ PP/ CCCCC/ / internet/library/e-journals/ub/rift
/__________________________/
|--------------------------|
| Electronic Poetry Center |
|__________________________|
___________________________________________________________________
We are pleased to announce two new EPC features:
(Gopher and Web versions)
A "search" feature has been designed to probe through the Poetics
backfiles for you. You may now search the entire corpus by keyword.
(The results screen will list documents containing your keyword. You
then may open documents individually and search for the occurrence of
the keyword. In most systems this would be /keyword, where "keyword"
is your search term.) Now you can pinpoint that elusive phrase...
(Web version only) A "hotlist" has been added to most "major" levels
of the web version. This means that from any point in the Web you can
select "hotlist" and move with great facility to numerous key spots in
the EPC web. This feature will pretty much place you within two
keystrokes of most menus, making the EPC web much more quickly
navigated.
___________________________________________________________________
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 10:31:53 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Patrick Phillips <Patrick_Phillips@BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Congressional vote on NEH--forw
For what it's worth:
Article in NT Times, Jan 6 gives e-mail addresses for -
"Thomas" - as in Jefferson - a new place to read the full text of any bill
introduced in Congress, new issues of the Congressional Record - seachable
by keyword. For this service you must have an HTML Browser capable of
viewing the Web's hypertext format:
http://thomas.loc.gov
Isn't it good to know we are on a first-name basis with Jeffersonian
democracy!
For those who would brave the malestrom and contact Newt directly (more of
a Hamiltonian "democrat"):
georgia6@hr.house.gov
For any other congressional e-mail address one may gopher to:
gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/0/sosci/poliscilaw/uslegi/conemail
I offer this list with a clear conscience, but with the understanding that
I in a small way am participating in a communication scheme that is surely
a marginal, elite display of virtual-class revisionism.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 14:51:57 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tim Waples <twaples@CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU>
Subject: subscribing to Poetics list
Dear Moderator,
I learned of the Poetics list from a reference to it on the T-Amlit list,
and would like very much to subscribe. Could you please either send me
the appropriate address to subscribe, or add me to the list? Thank you
very much for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Tim Waples
English Dept., U. of Pennsylvania
twaples@english.upenn.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 17:15:16 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: Senate vote
Dear Poetry List,
In response to Ron's posting abt the upcoming Senate floor
vote, I sent a query to Jim Warren. Warren runs a mailing
list called GovAccess. If he has a list of all Congressional
e-mail addresses, or an address where such a list can be
obtained, I'll post it.
Warren's mailing list is pretty interesting. It's not
published often so if your e-mailbox is already full every
morning, this won't add much. Here is the subscription info:
To join the GovAccess list, email a request to
jwarren@well.sf.ca.us .
John Krick
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 1995 18:32:25 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Notlep@AOL.COM
Subject: subscribing
I would like to subscribe to the poetics list. I saw a posting from this
list cross-posted to another list I'm on, Teaching American Literature
(T-AMLIT). I'm not sure of the proper procedure for subscribing, so I hope
I'm not getting in the way by using the wrong method.
Thanks and, if needed, apologies.
Ted Pelton
Lakeland College
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 1995 10:04:21 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "Marshall H. Reese" <risarano@ECHONYC.COM>
Subject: Arts Alliance Campaign to Save Arts Funding
Item 625 06-JAN-95 17:25 American Arts Alliance
1-900 Emergency Number in Place
January 6, 1995
Dear Arts Advocates:
As you know, since the November elections the future of our
national cultural agencies, including the National Endowment for
the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the
Institute for Museum Services, is seriously threatened. These
agencies are facing severe cuts to their current funding or
possible elimination. Arts advocates across the country must act
NOW if these agencies are to be saved.
The Emergency Committee to Save Culture and the Arts, a
project of the American Arts Alliance, has set up a 1-900 number
(it is already working!) so that arts groups, artists,
volunteers, arts patrons, audience members, contributors, local
businesses, vendors and suppliers can quickly and easily register
their support for continued funding for the arts and culture with
their members of Congress, for a nominal fee. Time is short. You
are invited to use this number immediately.
When you can call this number, 1-900-370-9000, the following
will happen:
1.) The caller will be handled by a live operator. Following a
brief statement that the call costs $1.99 per minute and
that you must be 18 or over, the operator then asks the
caller if he/she would allow the Emergency Committee to send
a mailgram in the caller's name to their two Senators and
one Representative.
2.) If the caller says yes, the above process takes place and is
billed to the caller's home phone. The caller leaves
his/her name, address, and zip code which is then matched
with the corresponding congressional district to assure that
the correct elected officials receive the mailgram.
The Alliance has put together a steering committee currently
made up of more than a dozen organizations to participate in
message development and the disbursement of any funds that are
collected over and beyond the costs for set up and maintenance of
the number. You are invited to join this steering committee.
There is no cost for this participation.
In order for this emergency campaign to be effective, we
need your help to widely distribute the 1-900 number.
Distribution of the number can be accomplished through the use of
flyers, word of mouth, printing it in all local newspapers and
membership organization's newsletters, radio announcements,
posters, and on local computer Bulletin Board Services. (The
first flyers are now available. Please call for a copy).
Curtain speeches educating audiences about the crisis and drawing
attention to ways to respond, are extremely effective and we urge
you to undertake these and other activities. The success of the
emergency campaign depends on this effort.
The future of arts and cultural funding in this country is
being determined by members of Congress NOW. More than ever, the
voices of arts supporters must be heard.
Thank you for participating in this critical grassroots
effort. Please call the American Arts Alliance at 202-737-1727
if you would like to join the steering committee or have any
questions.
THIS POSTING IS FROM ARTSWIRE.
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 7 Jan 1995 12:10:46 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Charles Bernstein <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: subscribing to Poetics list
In-Reply-To: Your message dated "Fri, 06 Jan 1995 14:51:57 -0500"
<01HLJ4YPNC5U8X1C8Z@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
Welcome to the Poetics List.
Please note that this is a private list and information about
the list should not be posted to other lists or directories.
The idea is to keep the list to those with specific rather
than general interests, and also to keep the scale of the
list small and the volume managable. Word-of-mouth (and its
electronic equivalents) seems to be working fine: please feel
free to invite people you know to sign-up.
To see who is subscribed to Poetics, send an e-mail message to
listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
Leave the "Subject" line of the e-mail message blank. In the
body of your e-mail message type:
review poetics
(The shorter bitnet address is listserv@ubvm. All further
references to "Listserve" are to this listserve.)
The list has open subscriptions. You can sub or unsub by sending a one-line
message, with no subject line, to the listserv address:
unsub poetics Jill Jillway
{or}
sub poetics Jill Jillway
I will be sent a notice of all subscription activity.
ARCHIVES
There are two ways to get archives, the second (see end
of message) may be easier.
Anyone interested in an archive of all postings after March may
send this message to "Listserve":
index poetics
or
index poetics f=mail
You will receive a list of archived files in a format that
includes something like this:
* rec last - change
* filename filetype GET PUT -fm lrecl nrecs date time
POETICS LOG9403 ALL OWN V 80 1012 94/05/31 07:17:17
Started on Mon,
7 Mar 1994 12:51:12 -0600
POETICS LOG9404 ALL OWN V 83 1864 94/05/31 07:18:54
Started on Sat,
2 Apr 1994 16:01:07 -050
POETICS NOTEBOOK ALL OWN V 640 1693 94/06/09 15:27:09
Started on Sun,
1 May 1994 09:47:10 -0500
You can then send the "get" command to "Listserve" in the format:
get filename filetype (eg: get poetics log9403
get poetics log9403
get poetics notebook)
or
get filename filetype f=mail
depending on which log file you want (you can also get multiple
files with one message). Note that each of the files has a
different beginning and end date, eg LOG9404 starts 7 March and
goes to 31 May and that dates overlap. Go figure! "Poetics
Notebook" is an anomalous name for what is, in effect, another
log file.
*******
To subscribe to RIF/T, the e-poetry magazine:
Send an e-mail message to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu. Leave
the "Subject" line of the e-mail message blank. In the body of
your e-mail message type:
subscribe e-poetry Firstname Lastname
where Firstname and Lastname correspond to your name.
You will receive a confirmation of your subscription soon
thereafter. (Nonsubscribers can automatically sub to Poetics
using this same format, but substituting "poetics" for "e-
poetry".)
**
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 1994 19:14:05 -0400
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Announcement: Electronic Poetry Center (Buffalo)
To: Multiple recipients of list POETICS
<POETICS@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu>
The Electronic Poetry Center (Buffalo) 7-10-94
________________________Announcement________________________
THE ELECTRONIC POETRY CENTER (BUFFALO). The mission of this
World-Wide Web based electronic poetry center is to serve as
a hypertextual gateway to the extraordinary range of
activity in formally innovative writing in the United States
and the world. The Center will provide access to numerous
electronic resources in the new poetries including RIF/T and
other electronic poetry journals, the Poetics List archives,
a library of poetic texts, news of related print sources,
and direct connections to numerous related poetic projects.
The Center's first phase of implementation is scheduled for
August 1, 1994. A subscription to the E-Poetry list
provides a subscription to the electronic journal RIF/T and
E-Poetry Center announcements. Subscriptions to E-Poetry to
listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu Inquiries, suggestions for
Center resources, submissions to RIF/T, and other mail may
be directed to e-poetry@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu The Center is
located at gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/library/e-
journals/ub/rift (Presently, the prototype is under
construction but operational.)
Gopher Access:
For those who have access to gopher, type
gopher writing.upenn.edu
(or, if you are on a UB mainframe, simply type wings)
at your system prompt. First choose Libraries &
Library Resources, then Electronic Journals, then E-
Journals/Resources Produced Here At UB, then The
Electronic Poetry Center. (Note: Connections to some
Poetry Center resources require Web access, though most
are presently available through gopher).
World-Wide Web Access:
For those with World-Wide Web or lynx access, type www
or lynx at your system prompt. Choose the go to URL
option then go to (type as one continuous string)
gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
___Participation in the Electronic Poetry Center (Buffalo)___
For those interested in helping us build the Center, our
goal is to provide a single Internet site that offers a
doorway into the different poetic projects out there in the
electronic (and paper) poetics world. We would like to
offer access to information about poetics and poetry
activities, electronic poetry journals, texts in progress,
etc. We are currently developing a library of electronic
poetry/poetics texts (submissions to e-poetry@ubvm.cc.
buffalo.edu). The Center has other exciting possibilities:
1. Circulation of electronic journals with an
emphasis on direct links to those of relevance to Center
concerns;
2. Reviews of recent print and electronic
publications. (Brief reviews may also be submitted
electronically to e-poetry@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu);
3. Direct links to other related electronic sites;
4. Multimedia resources. Sound and graphics relating
to poetry.
5. Building our Small Press Alcove, a place for
little magazine and book announcements. The point of
including announcements of paper resources is to provide a
listing of interesting work for people to look at; they can
then write or e-mail the publisher to obtain publications.
(Send announcements to lolpoet@acsu.buffalo.edu or
magazines/books to Loss Glazier, E-Poetry, P.O. Box 143,
Getzville, NY 14068-0143);
6. Ultimately, the Center could also offer
collaborative projects (perhaps for specific groups of
writers), lists and/or archives of other lists, and texts-in-
progress, as things develop.
The "Buffalo" in the title of the Center is not meant to
suggest that this activity is limited to Buffalo, only to
give the "visitor" a sense of place, i.e., where the
mainframe that's providing this service is "located."
Vigorous writing wants to "circulate." On this new
electronic terrain, the Electronic Poetry Center will serve
as a gathering place or point of entry for a range of poetic
efforts.
______________________How to Contact Us_____________________
Please contact us with your suggestions, texts, sound files,
and graphics files to submit, or if you have expertise in
these areas. LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK (this is meant to
be a Center that grows with your ideas) by posting to this
list, sending mail to E-Poetry, or to Loss Glazier (lolpoet@
acsu.buffalo.edu) or Kenneth Sherwood (v001pxfu.ubvms.cc.
buffalo.edu) privately.
_____________________________________________________________
The Archive is administered in Buffalo by E-Poetry and RIF/T
in coordination with the Poetics List.
Loss Pequen~o Glazier
for Kenneth Sherwood and Loss Glazier
in collaboration with Charles Bernstein
*****
Please contact me if you have any questions.
Charles Bernstein
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 00:01:27 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Press Listings <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Leslie Scalapino's DEFOE
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
--Boundary (ID QzhTPcoSFEchzwbr98ykcw)--
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 00:32:23 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Press Listings <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Leslie Scalapino's DEFOE (2d try!)
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
New from Sun & Moon Press (6026 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036)
distributed by Small Press Distribution, Consortium, and at select bookstores
DEFOE, by Leslie Scalapino,
Classics 46, 365 pages, $12.95; ISBN # 1-55713-163-5
DEFOE, Leslie Scalapino's new fiction, is an epic where images of
battle become meditations, an epic wherein events flap in silence as the
narrative moves toward a place where the reader and text become one. The
images of this fiction don't resemble events, but are new occurences in
time and space. In Part I, Waking Life, the heroine, in love with James
Dean, discovers herself in a desert pocked with fires in which the "henna
man"- a drug dealer- is being carried in a white cocoon. And throughout
Scalapino's work the reader is taken into a world where the written word
creates " an event retrieved from so far back that it is separated from its
memory." While not resembling reality/history, the fictionalizing induces
the simplest movement possible in its whole expanded, unique structure, to
change real past and present.
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 00:36:46 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: O Books c/o <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: New O Books
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
New O Books
O Books, 5729 Clover Drive, Oakland, CA 94618; & Small Press
Distribution, 1814 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA 94702. E-mail inquiries
c/o twhite@mendel.berkeley.edu
Memory Play, Carla Harryman, 72 pages, $8.50. ISBN # 1-882022-22-x.
In Memory Play, one is neither fixed in a memory nor is one in the
(non-reactive) politicized moment of the present without memory. The
child-non-innocent Pelican, Child, Reptile, and Fish, of Carla Harryman's
play are lucid Alices (in Wonderland) observing history which as if
backwards is creating phenomena. Harryman's play creates a state that is
non/innocent in that it is our real present in our really being innocent,
rather than an idea of such in a myth state of 'Garden of Eden.'
Steve Benson says: "Suppose you had a dream life and woke up not a
person interested in telling as a story what you could recall of it as it
coudl be translated and tricked into the words and images of a narrative
that made sense by referring to the things of this world as your
interlocutor knows them as well as you do but woke rather or also as a
polyvocal projection of theater articulating time and personality and
politics in idiosyncratic motion and congruence much as clouds and birds in
flight make sense to that visionary in you.....
Collision Center, Randall Potts, 72 pages. $9.00. ISBN #
1-882022-19-X. This is a first book by a young poet creating multiple
narratives in a collision of lyrical and hard tones, isolating words and
tones in order to allow their actuality, effectively to allow them to
occur.
Ann Lauterbach comments: "In Randall Potts' poems, nature and
language collide, and then proceed, each having been transformed by the
other. ... We witness the newly manifest being carried away on the stark
clarities of his lines, "watchlessly dis-figuring / what remains to be
seen." There is gratitude and there is terror: here they embrace.
MOB, Abigail Child, 96 pages. $9.50. ISBN # 1-882022-21-1. Child's
writing scrutinizes the factor of need, our "making need / the figure they
want," as the mind's need as contemplation of lust touching a civilization.
Bruce Andrews comments about MOB: "Only the impossible is intimate
enough."
She creates a form that isn't landscape yet is a visible
reverberation, "the sky is drunk with ... The center in front of the
future," realistic and filmic in that the non-landscape is "frames (which)
hit the screen/dependent on the intent", thus subject and object of their
own scrutiny and direction which is motivation.
Kevin Killian comments: "her new book is a fiery J'Accuse against a
war-fueled heterosexist Uberhaus that flaunts "the privilege of a window
ignoring its cost." She has always been a provocative poet and thinker, but
now she writes her twin obsessions into transparence. Between the words
vast flamethrowers aimed by angels singe and give off steam."
GROUND AIR, Scott Bentley, xerox 59 pages, $6.00. ISBN #
1-882022-23-8. A first book by a young poet about whose work Jennifer
Moxley comments: "As for AIR, so what if we continue to build our loves on
the banks of sorrowful Ilion, stolen kisses and all that. At least Scott,
like Dido, knows there's more to life than duty. After all, those
paleolithic bison were so real you could've hunted them and this language
is so true that it runs a body amuck. In both we find the inherent
vulgarity of the natural, where every key or brush stroke makes desire's
ineffable history more seductive."
Kit Robinson says: "Then, having established this deceptively
enveloping GROUND, Bentley takes off into AIR, constructing intimate spaces
where 'Everything's / tender and sudden.'"
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 8 Jan 1995 20:35:12 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: motives for metaphor
Marisa (Januzzi)-
I wasn't going to reply because I too feel "at a loss" when it comes
to "recommended readings" on the huge subject of political content
of poetic form. It's not because of a dearth of material but because
of a plenitude. It's so prevalent an issue in most of what I read to
have run the risk of becoming a BLASE issue. At least IN THEORY. Yet
theory is only as "good" as its praxis, its enactment. So I work by
a case-by-case basis here in quoting this just because I happen to be
reading it at the time (not that I mean to irresponsibly claim it's
a mere arbitrary issue of 'taste'): In Carla Harryman's VICE, page 28,
and 29, she writes:
"and he went over to talk to his linguist friend, George Lakoff,
about the sense of finality evoked by the word LAND when what he
was really looking for was more like some forward moving limbo.
George, however, counseled him against zombielike, trancelike
conditions. If LAND ended the matter, then move out of the house.
The boy looked at George, "You're thinking in metaphors and I
thought you tore them apart." George told him that he was human just
like everybody else."
I read Lakeoff's METAPHORS WE LIVE BY over ten years ago, and my memory is
extremely vague of it. IS HE TAKEN SERIOUSLY by any of you, or is his mode
of thinking facile and discredited? Just curious. Chris Stroffolino
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 10:38:19 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Patrick Phillips <Patrick_Phillips@BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Congressional E-mail addresses
The following list of House/Senate E-Mail addresses can be found at:
gopher://una.hh.lib.umich.edu/11/socsci/poliscilaw/uslegi
and was retrieved on 1-9-95. There were very few Senate addresses
available, but there is more senate information available at the same
gopher site.
CONGRESSIONAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES
104th Congress
1995/96
United States Senate
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ST Name E-Mail Address
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ID Craig, Larry larry_craig@craig.senate.gov.
IL Simon, Paul senator@simon.senate.gov
MA Kennedy, Ted senator@kennedy.senate.gov
(www home page: http//www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/
Kennedy/homepage.html)
NM Bingaman, Jeff Senator_Bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov
VA Robb, Charles senator_robb@robb.senate.gov
VT Leahy, Patrick senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
VT Jeffords, Jim vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------
United States House of Representatives
http://www.house.gov
http://thomas.loc.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ST DS Name E-Mail Address
-------------------------------------------------------------------
AR 4 Dickey, Jay JDICKEY@HR.HOUSE.GOV
AZ 2 Pastor, Ed EDPASTOR@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CA 7 Miller, George FGEORGEM@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CA 12 Lantos, Tom TALK2TOM@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CA 13 Stark, Pete PETEMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CA 14 Eshoo, Anna ANNAGRAM@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CO 2 Skaggs, David SKAGGS@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CT 2 Gejdenson, Sam BOZRAH@HR.HOUSE.GOV
CT 4 Shays, Christopher CSHAYS@HRA.HOUSE.GOV
FL 6 Stearns, Cliff CSTEARNS@HR.HOUSE.GOV
FL 12 Canady, Charles CANADY@HR.HOUSE.GOV
FL 20 Deutsch, Peter PDEUTSCH@HR.HOUSE.GOV
GA 6 Gingrich, Newton GEORGIA6@HR.HOUSE.GOV
IL 14 Hastert, Dennis DHASTERT@HR.HOUSE.GOV
KA 1 Roberts, Pat EMAILPAT@HR.HOUSE.GOV
MI 3 Ehlers, Vernon CONGEHLR@HR.HOUSE.GOV
MI 4 Camp, Dave DAVECAMP@HR.HOUSE.GOV
MI 14 Conyers, John JCONYERS@HR.HOUSE.GOV
MN 3 Ramstad, Jim MN03@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NC 7 Rose, Charlie CROSE@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NC 11 Taylor, Charles CHTAYLOR@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NC 12 Watt, Mel MELMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV
ND Pomeroy, Earl EPOMEROY@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NJ 12 Zimmer, Dick DZIMMER@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NY 7 Manton, Thomas TMANTON@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NY 23 Boehlert, Sherwood BOEHLERT@HR.HOUSE.GOV
NY 27 Paxon, Bill BPAXON@HR.HOUSE.GOV
OH 2 Hoke, Martin HOKEMAIL@HR.HOUSE.GOV
OK 5 Istook, Jr. Ernest ISTOOK@HR.HOUSE.GOV
OR 1 Furse, Elizabeth FURSEOR1@HR.HOUSE.GOV
OR 4 DeFazio, Pete PDEFAZIO@HR.HOUSE.GOV
PA 16 Walker, Robert PA16@HR.HOUSE.GOV
TX 3 Johnson, Sam SAMTX03@HR.HOUSE.GOV
TX 6 Barton, Joe BARTON06@HR.HOUSE.GOV
VA 6 Goodlatte, Bob TALK2BOB@HR.HOUSE.GOV
VA 9 Boucher, Rick JSHOUMAK@HR.HOUSE.GOV
VT Sanders, Bernie BSANDERS@IGC.APC.ORG
U.S. House of Representatives Committees
Education and Labor
Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations
SLABMGNT@HR.HOUSE.GOV
Natural Resources
NATRES@HR.HOUSE.GOV
Science, Space, and Technology
HOUSESST@HR.HOUSE.GOV
The above information was compiled from the Senate and House Gophers.
Corrections/additions to grace.york@um.cc.umich.edu
1-3-95
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 12:05:39 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: Congress
Here is the reply from Jim Warren, proprietor of the
GovAccess list:
>Last year's list is archived at cpsr.org . I have asked
>postmaster@hr.house.gov for a current copy, but have not
>yet received a
>reply. Ask 'em, too! :-)
>Also, you might check the new web server reputedly at:
>http://thomas.loc.gov , the "Thomas Jefferson" site at the
>Library of Congress.
I GUESS cpsr.org is an FTP site. I'm going to look into both
of these and I'll tell ya what I find!
John Krick
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 13:38:57 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: New Electronic Poetry Center Features
You mention Web features, but there's no http url listed.
tom mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 13:57:10 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: motives for metaphor
George Lakoff's work is certainly taken seriously and is well worth
attending to. Although METAPHORS WE LIVE BY is still a worthwhile
place to start, GL has two other books which should not be missed:
Women, Fire, & Dangerous Things (University of Chicago Press)
and
More Than Cool Reason (can't put my hand on my copy in mess at hand,
so no pub. listed, but I think it is also u of c press)
More... is co-authored by Mark Turner, whose READING MINDS (Princeton
U Press) is also well worth reading. Think of the dep't of english
as a part of cognitive studies.
Good luck. I might mention that the study of theory in regard of its
core subject matters of mathematics, physics, etc. (and of philosophy
of science) is a more rewarding activity, in my experience at least,
than time spent with the "theory" movement in american academic
writing. In '92 I spent a while reading thru this latter corpus
of mat'ls, reading something by everybody in the big Literary
Theory compilation (pub. - *again!* u of c?) and a dozen or so
other books (not scrupulously read, but tried). This reading
project resulted in a trimester of extreme depression, and I do
not recommend it to anyone.
tom Mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 18:32:58 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Re: New Electronic Poetry Center Features
In-Reply-To: <199501091907.OAA20480@terminus-est.acsu.buffalo.edu> from "Tom
Mandel" at Jan 9, 95 01:38:57 pm
> You mention Web features, but there's no http url listed.
Tom,
> World-Wide Web and Mosaic Access:
> For those with World-Wide Web (lynx) or Mosaic access,
> from your interface, choose the go to URL
> option then go to (type as one continuous string)
> gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
> library/e-journals/ub/rift
Perhaps I should be clearer in this "flyer" I regularly send out but
the url you would enter would start with "gopher" in the expression
above. Try it; it works! In fact the web version has begun to evolve
as much more useful. (Why the dichotomy in terms, I don't know but
apparently you don't have to have an http to have web access.) If any
snags, please feel free to let me know, on or off the list. For those
with a graphical interface, there are increasingly more graphics,
etc., as in decorating the home.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 10:29:55 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: O Books c/o <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: O Books List
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
O Books List:
O Books: fax: (501) 601-9588. 5729 Clover Drive, Oakland, CA 94618.
Small Press Distribution: 1814 San Pablo Ave. Berkeley, CA 94702.
RETURN OF THE WORLD, Todd Baron, $6.50
GROUND AIR, Scott Bentley, $6.00
A CERTAIN SLANT OF SUNLIGHT, Ted Berrigan, $9.00
TALKING IN TRANQUILITY: INTERVIEWS WITH TED BERRIGAN, Avenue B and O Books,
$10.50
MOB, Abigail Child, $9.50
IT THEN, Danielle Collobert, $9.00
CANDOR, Alan Davies, $9.00
TURN LEFT IN ORDER TO GO RIGHT, Norman Fischer, $9.00
PRECISELY THE POINT BEING MADE, Norman Fischer, $10.00
TIME RATIONS, Benjamin Friedlander, $7.50
BYT, William Fuller, $7.50
THE SUGAR BORDERS, William Fuller, $9.00
PHANTOM ANTHEMS, Robert Grenier, $6.50
WHAT I BELIEVE TRANSPIRATION/TRANSPIRING MINNESOTA, Robert Grenier, $24.00
THE INVETERATE LIFE, Jessica Grim, $7.50
MEMORY PLAY, Carla Harryman, $8.50
THE QUIETIST, Fanny Howe, $8.00
VALUES CHAUFFEUR YOU, Andrew Levy, $9.00
CURVE, Andrew Levy, $10.00
DREAMING CLOSE BY, Rick London, $6.00
ABJECTIONS, Rick London, $4.00
DISSUASION CROWDS THE SLOW WORKER, Lori Lubeski, $7.50
CATENARY ODES, Ted Pearson, $6.00
COLLISION CENTER, Randall Potts, $9.00
(WHERE LATE THE SWEET) BIRDS SANG, Stephen Ratcliffe, $8.00
VISIBLE SHIVERS, Tom Raworth, $8.00
KISMET, Patricia Reed, $8.00
COLD HEAVEN, Camille Roy, $9.00
O ONE/AN ANTHOLOGY, ed. Leslie Scalapino, $10.50
O TWO/AN ANTHOLOGY: WHAT IS THE INSIDE, WHAT IS OUTSIDE?, $10.50
O/3: WAR, $4.00 (OUT OF PRINT)
O/4: SUBLIMINAL TIME, $10.50
CROWD AND NOT EVENING OR LIGHT, Leslie Scalapino, $9.00
THE INDIA BOOK: ESSAYS AND TRANSLATIONS, Andrew Schelling, $9.00
A'S DREAM, Aaron Shurin, $8.00
PICTURE OF THE PICTURE OF THE IMAGE IN THE GLASS, Craig Watson, $8.00
Forthcoming in 1995:
CLOSE TO ME & CLOSER ... (THE LANGUAGE OF HEAVEN) and DESAMERE, TWO BOOKS,
Alice Notley
VEL, Peter Inman
LAPSES, John Crouse
THE DISPARITIES, Rodrigo Toscano
THE HISTORY OF THE LOMA PEOPLE, Paul Degein Korvah, (History: Liberia)
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 12:40:30 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: Re[2]: New Electronic Poetry Center Features
Gopher vs. http:
>(Why the dichotomy in terms, I don't know but
>apparently you don't have to have an http to have web
>access.)
RE: the dichotomy in terms, Gopher refers to an earlier menu-driven, mostly
text-only interface to the net. Http addresses reference World Wide Web sites
that can deliver graphics sound and video. You can access either type of site
using a browser such as Mosaic, but Gopher can be accessed with very minimal
machine resources as well. You cannot access Web sites and get the full
functionality without a graphical browser however.
John Krick
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:18:24 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont. (fwd)
Forwarded message:
From daemon Tue Jan 10 10:53:13 1995
Message-Id: <199501101553.KAA72898@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 09:49:47 -0500
Reply-To: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
Sender: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
From: "tamlit@guvax.georgetown.edu \"Randy Bass\"" <TAMLIT%GUVAX.bitnet@BITNIC.C
Subject: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont.
To: Multiple recipients of list T-AMLIT <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
***JRNL: T-AMLIT JOURNAL***
From: IN%"ccrevard@artsci.wustl.edu" "Carter C. Revard" 9-JAN-1995 14:54:57.
25
Subj: RE: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont.
With regard to Shoemaker's further remarks and Silliman's contributions,
maybe a few more comments might buzz along the web from here and draw some
interest from whoever "lives along the line," as Pope and his classical
ancestors have put it. First, is it not interesting that "poets" have
their separate web? Is it not also interesting that networkers can assume
those of us etherized on this part of the table are professors NOT poets,
while
those in the poet-hammock hangup of this network ARE poets, whether
professors or
not? Does anyone think this kind of compartmenting is part of the reasons
poets and poetry are perceived as marginalized?
Second, since a poet has
asked the question of what the metaphor of margins is supposed to mean,
let me respond--as medievalist, teacher of American Indian Literature, and
practicing poet--that I believe the basic metaphor is that of TEXT vs.
MARGIN, and I take it that in the medieval period the text was that
"woven" part of the page's words, while the margin was the place outside
the weaving, where space was "free." One way "progress" took place, that
is, people invented an idea called the Renaissance and relegated the
medieval period to a meaningless dark MIDDLE AGES unlike the clean
well-lighted humanistic Sixteenth Century of enlightened popes, holy Roman
Emperors, reformed bishops and kings able to marry all they wanted, and so
on--one way was to turn the marginalized things of the previous age into
the textualized central part of the page. Instead of the Virgin Mary,
they looked at models for the Virgin Mary, instead of a human image
representing a cosmos, they looked at the image as representing an
individual unlike all others. You no longer talked of a soul, you talked
of a self--in English, that is, a language in which it was possible to
take the former pronominal intensifier and turn it into a noun and let
it carry the responsibilities which a soul had earlier had to bear. You
invented psychology. You invented a blank table on which the senses wrote
you you you. (Well maybe you didn't do this, and neither did I, but it
seems kind of nasty to keep blaming THEM for it, so I am giving you the
honor of riding out of the Middle Ages on the rail of Self.) So anyhow, I
take it that behind all the political discourse of margins there is the
original textual discourse, the manuscript making, the writerly image.
Does that make sense? It should please any language poet, should it not?
But there is another assumption I'd like to look at. Someone pointed out
very usefully that poetry requires readers to learn the culture inscribed
within it, before the poems make sense. Is this not also true of prose?
Is it not true of the Dick and Jane readers, as well as of the James and
Nora or Tom and Viv or Emily and God anthologies? Is it not true of any
human utterance, or lifting of an eyebrow? I suspect therefore that it
does not differentiate poetry from the rest of the noises off or on the
page or stage or CD-ROM.
I was thinking about this particular Silver Screen Dialogue as I was
looking up, yesterday, the pseudo-Albertus Magnus Book of Secrets, in
which I finally found (having looked off an on since 1980 or so) the
probable source of a Latin excerpt copied about 1340 in or near Ludlow by
a scribe who was a minor lawyer and probably a chaplain there. The
excerpt occurs on fol. 137r of BL MS Harley 2253, and its two parts
describe the herbs heliotrope (marigold) and celandine. Of heliotrope it
is said that whoever gathers it in summer, when the Sun is in the Virgin,
i.e. in August, and rolls it in a laurel leaf and adds the tooth of a
wolf, will be able to pacify all opponents with his discourse; also, if
anything has been stolen from him, and he lays this under his head at
night, he will see the thief and perceive all the thief's circumstances.
Further, if one places this leaf etc. inside a church within which are
women who have committed adultery, none of the women shall have power to
go out of that church without confessing to it. Of celandine, we are told
that if one wraps it around the heart of a mole, one will successfully
overcome all opponents in discourse, even litigation; and if one places
the celandine and mole-heart under the head of any sick person, then if
that person is fated to die he or she will begin to sing loudly, but if
fated to recover will begin at once to weep. What, you may ask, has this
to do with the difficulty of reading poetry, or with the alienation of
poetry's audience, or with marginalizing of poetic discourse? Well, there
is a poem in this manuscript (Harley 2253--in case you are interested,
there is a facsimile that is Early English Text Society No. 255, 1964,
edited by the great paleographer N. R. Ker; and there is an edition of the
famous "Harley Lyrics" from this manuscript by G. L. Brook, as well as by
various other scholars), which consists of five stanzas in each of which
the poet compares the lady he is praising to something beautiful and
wholesome: in stanza one, to various gems; in two, to flowers and herbs
(including celandine and marigold--solsecle is the poet's term for the
latter, which is derived from the Latin Solsequium that occurs in the
latin excerpt I have mentioned above); in three, to birds; in four, to
medicinal herbs or potions; and in five, to heroes and heroines of
"romances" including Welsh, Germanic, and French prose and poetry.
By now you have guessed that my point is how obscure and difficult this
poem must be. It is also heavily alliterative, obviously a highly ornate
piece of poetry. But one of the nicest things about it is that its poet
has found a very clever way to both conceal and give away the name of the
lady he is praising--I should add that in such poems, the medieval writers
usually make it a taboo to name the lady, since a courtly lover's affair
is actually not supposed to be made public except so far as the pair of
them show the symptoms of love, and the man is allowed to "complain" in a
GENERAL way, naming no names. This poet, however, has managed to name his
beloved in a riddling way, in the third stanza when he is comparing her to
birds: HIRE NOME IS IN A NOTE OF THE NYHTEGALE, IN ANNOTE IS HIRE NOME:
NEMPNETH HIT NONE! WHOSO RIGHT READETH, RUNE TO JOHON! The clever reader
or listener will easily see that the lady's name is Annote, and any
medieval or medievalist with half a brain would know that that is a pet
name or nickname for Agnes, so the poet is saying: Listen up now and
you'll hear her name--and when you get it, whisper it to John!
I think the poet could certainly expect his readers (it may have been HER
readers, though we have little evidence for women lyricists in the 1300's;
little is not NONE!) to get the riddle. But at that point we have another
question: what's the poet doing breaking this taboo? I think the answer
is that the poem is addressed to, and intended for reading aloud to, a
courtly audience of men and women, and that the names Agnes and John were
very common names--so that a given audience might have several women and
men with those names. The "answer" would therefore become a "debate
topic", and not only WHICH Agnes, but which JOHN for which Agnes, would be
debated. Can we now go back to that Marigold and Celandine? The poet
expects his audience to understand that the lady is not merely like
flowers of various colors and fragrances, but flowers and herbs and gems
and birds and medicines of various powers--reputed or real, credible or
just "interesting" is not certain, according to Lynn Thorndike's History
of Science account of the pseudo-Albertus Magnus BOOK OF SECRETS in which
the powers of celandine and marigold are explicated, and from which the
Harley 2253 scribe carefully copied those passages. The audience would
not only know this plant-lore and gem-lore and bird-lore (and star-lore,
since the gems and plants linked to Zodiac), but would presumably have the
romances all by heart so that comparing the lady to their heroes and
heroines would make as much sense as our references to Hamlet or Portia or
Oedipus or Prufrock.
SO, AS I SAY, I was thinking about this question of marginalizing poetry
yesterday as I was dinking about the Science and History of Science
shelves trying to get a little footnote finished. But you know, one
reason I was doing that was that I had just read Gayle Margherita's new
book on medieval literature, all the Lacan and Freud and Marx and such,
and been greatly interested by her marvelous hammerlock on the poet of
ANNOTE AND JOHON, who clearly was a patriarchal bastard if ever there was
one. And I was the more interested because she cited Daniel Ransom's
earlier book on the Harley Lyrics in which he claimed there are all sorts
of obscene puns in ANNOTE AND JOHON, and it was a little hard to tell
whether she thought Ransom was right or thought he was worse than the
Harley Lyricist. Anyhow it occurred to me that one reason we may have a
lot of non-readers of poetry is that we have convinced so many potential
readers that they have to ask a professor before daring to dip into any
collection of real literature. And once we ask, we are treated to an
incredible pile of unbelievable interpretations, all of burning
importance, all proving that every medieval poet was John D Rockefeller
plus John Gacy plus the Marquis de Sade plus Faulkner's Popeye, at least
when not proving that the poets were really (according to D. W. Robertson
of blessed Princetonian memory) John Knox or a Polish Pope. So it is just
possible that professors have marginalized their texts pretty
athletically. Having perfected an Explanation Factory, having apprenticed
all readers to this factory and seen to it that they are chained to the
sewing machines fabricating not glosses or footnotes but literary
bi-ogre-phy, we have committed them to reading poetry, fiction, essays,
newspapers, laws as projections of the psyches of damaged tyrants and
misers and sociopaths of various talents and inclinations.
Well, maybe that is just auld, lang, and syne.
But having got into the Science section of our library, and actually found
a book on the shelf that was said by the computer system to be there, and
got the footnotes, and read the intelligent and interesting discussion by
Margherita (U of Penn Press, 1994; well worth reading, lots besides the
problematic misreading of the Harley Lyrics), and so on, I managed to get
a copy of the magazine SCIENCE and look at its piece casting doubt on the
existence of Black Holes (Jeez, how to write a headline for THAT?!) and
another on the anniversary of Oncogene Research in which Harold Varmus,
head of NEH and recent Nobelman for that work, had a few things to say and
I was reflecting on what a good student of English Literature Varmus had
been at Amherst College when I was a junior instructor there. And I kept
thinking, you know, if I pick up SCIENCE, I expect to get news, some
surprises, some revisions. If I pick up a journal of poetry I don't
expect that. Is that maybe one reason people don't pick up poetry
journals? But of course scientists complain of being marginalized too. I
read that 14.7% of Math Ph.D.'s are going unemployed. Wonder what kind of
poet Harold Varmus would have made?
You must have asked me the question I am about to answer: How to get back
into the text people read? The answer is: be a good host. You let some
of the guests tell stories too. You answer questions, you bring other
characters onto the show. You treat readers as guests, and not as
unworthy approachers of your throne. I bet this will make quite a few
readers--especially some who class themselves as poets--mad as hell. I
bet the romantic view of poets as dictating rather than as entertaining is
still the going thing. I bet the view of readers as not deserving of the
wonderful stuff poets are writing is the common one. I bet poets still
think of themselves as abused victims of the Philistine masses. And of
course the damnable truth is that I write what I please and invent,
afterwards, excuses, rationales, explanations which may have little to do
with motives and techniques and processes of the actual writing. Still,
it seems to me poetry is intended to be a shared thing, a way of getting
together with people and things and creatures, not a way of walling out or
walling in only. A really great poet should do what Shakespeare did, or
Dickens, take a popular medium and make it bear great poetry. The rest of
us can try to do that and no doubt fall way short. But I still think if
we do it right people will laugh with us, go up the mountain with us,
because they will find our words help them, speak to them, make sense of
experience they know personally and closely. Sometimes it even seems that
really good poetry is whatever people read for themselves because they
need it. But that would allow the directions for microwaving a tuna
casserole to be poetry, I suppose.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 13:18:51 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont. (fwd)
Forwarded message:
From daemon Tue Jan 10 10:35:40 1995
Message-Id: <199501101535.KAA22368@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 09:48:37 -0500
Reply-To: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
Sender: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
From: "tamlit@guvax.georgetown.edu \"Randy Bass\"" <TAMLIT%GUVAX.bitnet@BITNIC.C
Subject: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont.
To: Multiple recipients of list T-AMLIT <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
***JRNL: T-AMLIT JOURNAL***
Two more contributions to the lively thread relfecting on the
marginalization (alleged?) of poetry within the academy.
RB
****************************************************************
(1)
From: IN%"tpetrosk+@pitt.edu" "Anthony R Petrosky"
Subj: RE: JRNL: Poetry on the Margins, cont.
I would like to respond to a few things Ron Silliman mentions in his
reponse to our responses to the Poetry on the Margins questions. I
thought his comments on the communities of poets helps a lot. They are
everywhere, in towns and boroughs, on electronic boards, in letters that
they exchange with each other. More so I suspect than 10 or 20 years ago
and I take that as hopeful. I'm not as interested as he is, though, in
setting up good guys and bad guys in the language of the establishment
poets and the others, more particularly the Language Poets. I remember
being very excited about what was happening in Language Poetry when
Ironwood did an issue devoted to the work, but itdidn't seem to me then
nor does it seem to me now that Language Poetry needs to have the
establishment to stand against in order to be language poetry in the
Objectivist tradition and to extend that tradition. I feel thesame way,
for example, about Gluck and Olds. They represent different traditions,
different extensions of those traditions, but they don't need to position
the other as the blackhat in order to be credible. The philosophy and
language of each is not the others but so what. I think of a recent poem
by Elaine Equi that goes like this:
PRESCRIPTION
Take Herrick
for melancholy
Niedecker
for clarity
O'Hara
for nerve
The poem, for me, says there are different things totake fromm differnt
poets. So the, for teaching, it becomes a question ofhowto putbefore my
students, most of whom are not readers of poetry or fiction, contemporary
poetry so that they would be willing to contiue to read and perhaps to
write it. Ithink then of letting them see the difference rather than,
say, presenting them with just my preferences, and letting them write and
talk about the difference to see for themselves what might be available
to them from modern poetry. Sure I have a theory of organization and
history, as Ron points out, and I can certainly see his suspicion of it
as I would be suspicious of other teachers and their agendas if I had one
I was proposing over others, but it isnot ppossible to not have, even in
the slightest way, a theory of organization and history. At best, I
think, I can see mine, such as it is, and be up front with my students
about where I come from and how I organize.
This is a related problem to thinking about teaching any texts, it
seems. I don't want it to prevent me from presenting modern poetry to my
composition students or my intro. to lit. students or my school of Ed.
students who want to be secondary teachers. Most of them know almost
nothing about poetry. They have smatterings of Frost, Whitman, and Emily
Dickinson in them, but what they have read usually stops there. The
don't kow about the communities of writers in magazines like AMERICAN
VOICE or the ST.MARKS POETRY PROJECT NEWSLETTER. So it's not that I
would propose that there is a "defining privilege for the classroom in
determining the answer to the question" of why poetry is marganilized but
thatI would propose the classroom, all kinds of classrooms (e.g.,
religious studies, composition, educational methods, and so on)as places
where poetry can be a part of the curriculum to address questions in
those subjects and areas, to be, that is, a part of the conversations of
thinking about, say, soul, or language and culture, or American
traditions.
It is within thiscontext, the one that has to do with speaking to my
collelagues about why I might include poetry in these courses, that I
locate the problem of poetry on the margins. THe other issues, the
unchanged state of distribution of poetry, Bill Moyers and Robert Bly,
the creation of good guys and bad guys in poetry weren't my subjects in
the last postings, although those seem to me to be certainly related
issues. My expeerience is that my colleagues, college and secondary
English teachers, by and large are not familiar with the vaariious
traditions and commnities of poets or fiction writers, and I'm interested
in how this might be changed and I see a place to begin in my immediate
teaching by positioning poetry as a serious voice avaailble to my
students. I still don't see theusefulness of fractionalism. As poets it
is possible to discuss poetry that is not the poetry we write or prefer
without positioning it to be establishment, representative of larger
social forces, bad, and so on. The difference is a place for discussion
rather than dissmisal. In the movesof dismissal and disparagement the
new boss--the culturall critique--is the old boss--New Critical
critique--with another name and another set of terms. It'sthe same end
game: who shall be judged or critiqued the true (and we all know about
the will to truth now, don't we, from Foucault for instance), with the
same divisiveness, and I don't think that helps poetry communities,
poetry, or my thinking about howto present poetry to my students and
colleagues. I like theEqui poem and what it proposes. Locate me there.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(2)
From: IN%"lauter@Mail.Trincoll.Edu" "Paul Lauter" 8-JAN-1995 17:47:48.97
Subj: Poetry at the Margins
I want to pick up on one of Ron Silliman's side comments, which
criticized me for making what he called "a gratuitous (and completely
reductive) slap at the avant-garde tradition (w/o recognizing it as the
only 'international' literary tradition the world has ever had)."
Ron is certainly right in criticizing the offhand way I
criticized the tradition of Eliot and Pound, and many of their
successors. One shouldn't do that in a sentence, any more than one
should attack the equally pernicious impact of abstract expressionism and
its apologists, like Hilton Kramer, in a sentence. I didn't want to
repeat what I had written at length elsewhere--there's one piece coming
out in an NCTE volume edited by Jim Slevin and Art Young and another in
the next issue of the Yale J of Crit. In both I reflect on the powerful
hold that the critical tradition derived from Eliot, Pound, Ransom,
Brooks, etc. has had even on those of us committed to a revisionist
canon. I think that hold is most of all demonstrated in the New Critical
ways in which poetry continues largely to be taught, especially in
secondary schools. And in the ways we conceive--even in a revisionist
anthology like the HEATH--literary/ historical conceptions like
"modernism."
Here it's worth considering the other post, from an unnamed high
school teacher, that appeared with Ron's post. The teacher mourned the
fact that his or her students don't share a great deal of the culture
assumed even by relatively approachable poets like Frost. Thus the
teacher is put in the position of being the class expert--nothing wrong
with that, as such, and probably inevitable in many situations. Yet for
students, in my observation, that turns poetry into a puzzle to which an
observably more "mature" person has the key, rather than into a form in
which they may participate. I think the result of this dynamic is to
create among many and perhaps most students a kind of fear and loathing,
a sense that poetry, writing in general, is something done by people
other than themselves, different from them, distant from them. And that,
it seems to me, is precisely the intent of Eliot's form of
modernism--see, for example, his comments on the special qualities of the
poet's "sensibility" in "The Metaphysical Poets." Eliot's point, I would
argue (after Adreas Huyssen in "Mass Culture as Woman: Modernism's
Other," AFTER THE GREAT DIVIDE), is precisely to create the critical and
teaching apparatus that underwrites the elite forms of poetic practice
he helped develop.
This is still a shorthand form of the argument, to be sure. And
one can speculate about Eliot's psychology--as in "Tom and Viv"--or about
the conservative politics he shared with the founders of the New
Criticism. Those are interesting issues, to be sure. But here I only
want to suggest that the continuing impact of this tradition is to help
create distance between many people who pass through the educational
system and those forms of language designated within it as "poetry."
Underlying the argument is, of course, the question of what we
agree to call "poetry." It's the issue Cary Nelson powerfully joins by,
for example, quoting H.H. Lewis' little argument about material
conditions and consciousness:
Here I am
Hunkered over the cow-donick,
Earning my one dollar per
And realizing,
With goo upon overalls,
How environment works up a feller's
pant-legs to govern his thought.
(Thinking of Russia)
Let's leave it at that for the time being.
Paul Lauter
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 21:55:10 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Rachel DuPlessis c/o <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Call for MLA Papers / 20th c. American Division
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
Call for Papers
Twentieth-Century American Division
1995 Modern Language Association
Three topics:
1. The Literary and Cultural Constructions of Twentieth-Century "Whiteness."
2. Creolization, Hybridity, Syncretisms and Mixings--theory and practice.
3. The Zone of Walden. Hybrid genres--essay, poetic essay, essay-poem.
Deadline: Submit up to a two-page abstract, with affiliation and one paragraph
brief biographical note by March 15 to
Program Chair: Rachel DuPlessis
English Department, 022-29
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122
or 211 Rutgers Avenue
Swathmore, PA 19081-1715
Phone inquiries to (h) 610-328-4116. Sorry no e-mail. Persons must be
MLA members to offer papers. Persons may undertake one paper per MLA.
The 1995 MLA will be in Chicago.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 11:54:15 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: possibilities for readings
We've got a number of reading series going on in Washington, D.C. these
days and are always interested in readers. No money to offer at this
time, but anyone who's thinking about coming through should contact me
via e-mail, and I'd be happy to see what I can do.
Mark Wallace
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 14:14:23 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: New Electronic Poetry Center Features
In-Reply-To: <199501100102.AA01715@panix.com>
LOSS,
I notice a lot of back and forth about instructions. Having done this
kind of thing for a living, I suggest you might get a good result from
have a standard bulleted format for instructions, so you don't have to
rely on anyones' intelligence.... to put it mildly.
If this of any use...
James
On Mon, 9 Jan 1995, Loss Glazier wrote:
> > You mention Web features, but there's no http url listed.
>
> Tom,
>
> > World-Wide Web and Mosaic Access:
> > For those with World-Wide Web (lynx) or Mosaic access,
> > from your interface, choose the go to URL
> > option then go to (type as one continuous string)
> > gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
> > library/e-journals/ub/rift
>
> Perhaps I should be clearer in this "flyer" I regularly send out but
> the url you would enter would start with "gopher" in the expression
> above. Try it; it works! In fact the web version has begun to evolve
> as much more useful. (Why the dichotomy in terms, I don't know but
> apparently you don't have to have an http to have web access.) If any
> snags, please feel free to let me know, on or off the list. For those
> with a graphical interface, there are increasingly more graphics,
> etc., as in decorating the home.
>
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 17:31:19 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Re: New Electronic Poetry Center Features
In-Reply-To: <199501112021.PAA03027@terminus-est.acsu.buffalo.edu> from "James
Sherry" at Jan 11, 95 02:14:23 pm
> LOSS,
> I notice a lot of back and forth about instructions. Having done this
> kind of thing for a living, I suggest you might get a good result from
> have a standard bulleted format for instructions, so you don't have to
> rely on anyones' intelligence.... to put it mildly.
James,
This is a wonderful thought! The problem is the old thinking-on-your-
feet angle. In other words, things are changing so fast that it's not
only the challenge but the luxury and joy of maintaining such a
"center."
Dichotomies seem to be the crux of the issue. We originally designed
everything for gopher but as the Web grew, that became preferable. And
the small details, now able to load numerous graphics and sound files
into the system, it's incredible to watch it grow. It's not just the
challlenge but the thrill of it.
Now, even as we discuss this, I learn that an http address will have
been shortly instituted. So an announcement there will be shortcoming!
Only to say I try to stay on it, here we go, and the present
possibilities are immense...
Best wishes,
Loss
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 20:51:04 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Kali Tal <kalital@MERCURY.CIS.YALE.EDU>
Subject: Re: Listings
Hi, folks. I've been meaning to respond to Charles Bernstein's invitation
to post information about our press at least since October, but haven't had
the time or energy to sit down and write up a proper description until now.
Viet Nam Generation, Inc. is a small literary and educational nonprofit
501(c)(3) corporation. I founded it in 1988 when I was a grad student in
American Studies. Viet Nam Generation, Inc. was founded to support the
publication of an interdisciplinary journal, _Viet Nam Generation_,
dedicated to providing a forum for scholars, artists and activists
interested in the 1960s in the U.S. and internationally. Now the journal is
entering its seventh volume-year. In 1990 we started publishing a line of
monographs, fiction and poetry related, in some fashion, to our subject area
of the 1960s. We've currently got 27 titles in print (including those
forthcoming in 1995). I was joined in my endeavors by my partner Dan Duffy
(in 1991) and Steve Gomes (in 1993). We continue to work full-time on a
volunteer basis, but hope to be stable enough to pay small salaries by the
end of 1995.
Viet Nam Generation, Inc. also sponsors the Sixties Project, a collective of
scholars interested in the 1960s, housed at the Institute of Advanced
Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
As part of the Sixties Project we maintain the electronic discussion list
SIXTIES-L.
POETICS readers might be interested in the publications listed below. As
you'll notice, many of the books are in our "White Noise" series. I think
we may be the only press admittedly publishing middle-aged white guys as an
ethnic group. Our other series is titled "Widespread Panic," and features a
variety of poets whose work is distinguished by its confrontational nature....
Best,
Kali Tal
Viet Nam Generation, Inc./Burning Cities Press
18 Center Rd., Woodbridge, CT 06525
FAX: 203/389-6104
Email: kalital@minerva.cis.yale.edu
________________________________
VIET NAM GENERATION/BURNING CITIES PRESS POETRY PUBLICATIONS
_Viet Nam Generation: A Journal of Recent History and Contemporary Culture_.
Accepts poetry submissions. We're looking for work which can be at least
loosely related to the 1960s in subject matter, influence, politics, or
form. Length is no object--we've published everything from short-shorts to
30-page cycles. We usually produce double-issues, so the journal
effectively comes out twice a year, averages 220pp, perfect bound, with no
advertising. There are only three of us reading all poetry submissions and
responding to authors, so it sometimes takes us a while (up to 4 months) to
respond. We publish 15-20 poets in an issue. Sample copies are available
for $15 each.
AMATO, JOE. _Symptoms of a Finer Age_. 92 pages, perfect bound, paper,
4-color cover, forthcoming March 1995. White Noise #5. ISBN: 1-885215-12-6.
Joe will no doubt blush when he reads this (hi Joe!), but we think the world
of him. Joe teaches English and composition at the Illinois Institute of
Technology. His technical expertise is combined with passion, a fine ear for
language, and a strong sense of social justice. Reading his work is like
watching a skilled professional put on a stunning display of Fourth of July
fireworks--even the most cynical can't help being taken in by the magic. We
figure that 25 or 30 years from now, when the lit critters look back and
marvel at the wealth of talent that Viet Nam Generation, Inc. has managed to
assemble, we'll be most appreciated for showcasing Joe....
BARKER, DAN, _Warrior of the Heart_. 276 pages, perfect bound, paper,
2-color cover, 1992. ISBN: 0-9628524-7-3. $15. When Dan Barker's manuscript
came "over the transom," we knew it was the answer to our publishing
prayers. What arrived that day was one of the finest Viet Nam war
narratives that we'd ever read. And we'd read hundreds. We never did figure
out if _Warrior of the Heart_ was poetry or prose, and we don't really care.
It's fucking beautiful, and it doesn't flinch. Dan Barker served as a naval
corpsman attached to the Marine Corps in Viet Nam. He is the founder and
director of The Home Gardening Project, which has built over 1,100
raised-bed vegetable gardens for the aged, disabled and single-parent
families of Portland, Oregon.
CHRISTOPHER, RENNY, _Viet Nam and California_. 82 pages, perfect bound,
paper, 2-color cover, forthcoming September 1995. Widespread Panic #2. ISBN:
1-885215-13-4. Renny's poems are strong and straightforward. They tell the
story of a woman's coming-of-age in the period during and after the Viet Nam
war, and of her relationships with several Viet Nam veterans. These spare
portraits are grounded in Renny's solid sense of herself as a woman with
working-class roots.
COLEMAN, HORACE, _In the Grass_. 84 pages, perfect bound, paper, 2-color
cover, forthcoming October 1995. Widespread Panic #3. ISBN: 1-885215-17-7.
Horace is an African-American rebel poet. His early Viet Nam war poetry was
featured in the first collections assembled by W.D. Ehrhart and First
Casualty Press, and his poem gave the title to Ehrhart's _Carrying the
Darkness_ anthology. Over the years Horace's tongue has sharpened and his
anger has been refined into the razor bite of _In the Grass_. This is a long
overdue collection of his work.
CONNOLLY, DAVID, _Lost in America." 72 pages, perfect bound, paper, 2-color
cover, 1994. White Noise #1. ISBN: 1-885215-00-2. $12. David Connolly was
born, raised, and still lives in South Boston. He was a nineteen-year-old
infantryman in Viet Nam--the product of a close Irish Catholic, pro-IRA,
working class family. During his year at war he became sick at heart over
what his country was doing to a people whose lifestyle and struggle he came
to see as being closely related to that of his own heritage. A quarter of a
century later, Connolly still makes those connections with passion and
power. We just put this book out, so the reviews haven't started to filter
back to us yet, but David gave a reading at a conference we held in November
and in December we got 15 orders for his book from professors who wanted to
use it in literature courses.
EHRHART, W.D., _Just for Laughs_. 84 pages, perfect bount, paper, 4-color
cover, 1990. ISBN: 0-9628524-0-6. $10. By his writing and editing, W.D.
Ehrhart made it possible to be a Viet Nam veteran writer. By his continued
work, Ehrhart has become the conscience and inspiration for those who have
been sparked into literature by seeing the American war machine on parade.
_Just for Laughs_ brings poems addressing Ehrhart's return to Viet Nam, his
marriage and family life, and the American wars in Central America. The
final poems of this book summon Ehrhart's nightmare past as a Marine in Viet
Nam, and evoke his pessimism about the future, from a sense that embraces
the present with care and fear. "W.D. Ehrhart continues to deserve
recognition, perhaps more than any other, as the Vietnam author in his
generation who in fact made the idea of such a thing possible in the first
place." --Philip D. Beidler, _Re-Writing America: Vietnam Authors in their
Generation_.
JAFFE, MAGGIE, _Continuous Performance_. 64 pages, perfect bound, paper,
2-color cover, 1990. ISBN: 0-9628524-6-5. $10. Maggie Jaffe, peace activist
and poet, interrogates the images of empire that form American ideals of
war. She places "Viet Nam" in a continuum of aggression that begins with the
Pilgrim Fathers and extends through the secret wars of the 1980s and 1990s.
Her short poems are connected to the historical record by direct reference
and opinionated statement. "Maggie Jaffe's new poems expose the rot behind
the baby pink veneer of our image makers. Her verse is boldly political, her
human commitment passionate and profound." --Marianne Hauser. "_Continuous
Performance_ stands out as a testimony that Maggie Jaffe was not silent,
when the times demanded that poets write about important issues." --Jon
Forrest Glade, _American Book Review_.
LIEBLER, M.L., _Stripping the Adult Century Bare_. 88 pages, perfect bound,
paper, 2-color cover, forthcoming March 1995. White Noise #6. ISBN:
1-885215-09-6. $12. M.L. has been called a cross between T.S. Eliot and
Ward Cleaver. He is a professor of English at Wayne State University, a
small press publisher, and a social activist. His Magic Poetry Band
regularly performs in his home town of Detroit, and occasionally tours.
_Stripping the Adult Century Bare_ is an anthology of Liebler's new and
older verse, focusing on the impact of the 1960s on his life. His heroes are
Jesus and John Lennon. "M.L. Liebler is a tremendous source of poetry
energy in the The Motor City and beyond." --John Sinclair. "M.L. Liebler is
a complex mix of poet, university professor, performance poet, Lollapalooza
performer and Christian writer... he has played a vital role in keeping the
poetry scene alive during its dark days of the 70s and 80s." --_The Detrois
News_. "M.L. Liebler is a piece of the reality poetry needs to stay alive.
Alive, and kicking, not forgetting the hurt Americans inflict on themselves,
each other, and the world--but ready to fight, and sing, the song of hope.
He is a beacon! More power to Mike, and to the republic (of poetry and love)
for which he stands." --Alice Ostriker
MCCARTHY, GERALD, _Throwing the Headlines_. 72 pages, perfect bound, paper,
2-color cover, forthcoming April 1995. White Noise #4. ISBN: 1-885215-12-6.
$12. Gerald McCarthy is well known to those who study the soldier-poets of
the Viet Nam war. This collection spans two decades of McCarthy's work and
is an important new contribution to the field of Viet Nam war poetry. The
poems in _Throwing the Headlines_ reflect McCarthy's continuing passion for
peace and justice.
QUINTANA, LEROY, _Interrogations_. 102 pages, perfect bound, paper, 4-color
cover, 1990. ISBN: 0-9628524-5-7. Introduction by Yusef Komunyakaa. $10.
The cover of this book features a watercolor made from a snapshot of
Quintana's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. The short poems inside make art
of the brief glimpses of his tour in Viet Nam. The collection of sharp,
sudden poems from Viet Nam mounts to a longer moral address to
then-President Bush, written just after the Gulf War. Introduce yourself to
the details of jungle fighting, the perspective of a Chicano soldier, and
the mature view of a poet who was a soldier once. "The characters in
_Interrogations_ have been given genuine depth, and in a few succinct lines
they emerge as sharply defined human beings...." --Jon Forrest Glade,
_American Book Review_.
RICHMAN, ELLIOT, _Walk On, Trooper_. 92 pages, perfect bound, paper,
2-color cover, 1994. White Noise #2. ISBN: 0-9628524-9-X. $12. Elliot
Richman published his first poem in 1984, when he was forty-two years old.
Since then, his work has appeared widely in the small press. In 1993 he was
awarded fellowships for his poetry by both the NEA and the New York
Foundation for the Arts. Asylum Arts has published is two previous
collections, _The World Dancer_ and _Honorable Manhood_. Not a veteran,
Elliot has probably published more individual poems about the Viet Nam war
in more literary magazines than almost any veteran writer. His passion and
preoccupation (some might even say obsession) fascinated us, and we felt
that we needed to collect his Viet Nam war poems and publish them under one
cover. Bill Shields, cowboy poet and hardcore combat vet (_Southeast Asian
Book of the Dead_ and _Human Shrapnel_) has this to say about Elliot's work:
"_Walk On, Trooper_ is one fucking real book. A straight walk into the beast
with eyes wide open; it is the best--and I mean the best--book I've seen on
the Viet Nam war. He went into hell to write it." We don't know if we
completely agree with Bill, but we're sure that _Walk On, Trooper_ is
mesmerizing.
RITTERBUSCH, DALE, _Lessons Learned_. 82 pages, perfect bound, paper,
2-color cover, forthcoming July 1995. White Noise #7. ISBN: 1-885215-08-8.
$12. Dale Ritterbusch began writing the poems in this volume over twenty
years ago, while sitting in a class on M-60 emplacement in OCS at the
Infantry School at Fort Benning. He's been writing ever since. Ritterbusch
teaches English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His poetry came
to our attention through the recommendation of W.D. Ehrhart, who discovered
Dale years ago, while Ehrhart was compiling the poetry for the anthology
_Carrying the Darkness_. A version of _Lessons Learned_ received a
publication grant in 1984 from the Ohio Arts Council, but the pressn which
had committed to producing the book folded before it could be published. We
are proud to produce a long-delayed volume which we are sure will become an
instant classic of Viet Nam war literature.
VANCIL, DAVID, _The Homesick Patrol_. 72 pages, perfect bound, paper,
2-color cover, forthcoming June 1995. White Noise #3. ISBN: 1-885215-15-0.
$12. David Vancil served in Vietnam in 1969 in Khanh Hoa Province as a
military advisor. He is a rare books librarian and small press publisher.
David is the author of an earlier volume of poetry titled _The Art School
Baby_, and is working on a memoir titled _The Sanest Man in Vietnam_. His
verse is disciplined and elegant, the work of careful literary artist.
______________
Make check or money order payable to Viet Nam Generation, Inc. All
individual orders must be prepaid. We accept purchase orders from
bookstores and libraries. Shipping is included in the price. We do not
accept returns unless books are received in damaged condition.
Orders Dept.
Viet Nam Generation, Inc.
18 Center Rd., Woodbridge, CT 06525
FAX: 203/389-6104
email: kalital@minerva.cis.yale.edu
Kali Tal
Sixties Project & Viet Nam Generation, Inc.
18 Center Rd., Woodbridge, CT 06525
203/387-6882; fax 203/389-6104
email: kalital@minerva.cis.yale.edu
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Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 01:34:45 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Susan Clark <clarkd@SFU.CA>
Subject: RADDLE MOON listing
In-Reply-To: <199501120235.SAA00631@catacomb-e1.sfu.ca> from "Kali Tal" at Jan
11, 95 08:51:04 pm
RADDLE MOON listing
Here's some information on current and future issues of *Raddle moon*.
Thanks to Charles Bernstein for suggesting these listings.
The expanded editorial collective is currently reading manuscripts;
we are especially interested in looking at image/text,
collaborative work, "engaged criticism" (these terms!
try: poetics of criticism [ref. Spahr et al]; see e.g. most reviews
and essays recently published in RM), long works,
translation-based work, and work by women.
Susan Clark
clarkd@sfu.ca
*************************
RADDLE MOON (Vancouver)
edited by Susan Clark
with new editors (beginning #13):
Catriona Strang, and Lisa Robertson
and new contributing editors:
Nicole Brossard (in Qu bec); and
Norma Cole (in San Francisco)
*********************
CURRENT ISSUES:
*********************
RADDLE MOON 13 (available):
new work by Vancouver writers Dan Farrell, Christine Stewart
& Paul Mutton; and Calgary writer, Yasmin Ladha
the second round of the Women/Writing/Theory project
with contributions by Chris Tysh, Johanna Drucker, Jean Day,
Susan Clark, Abigail Child, & Juliana Spahr;
an excerpt from the Lyn Hejinian/Leslie Scalapino
collaborative project *Sight*;
three Dante translations by Bruce Andrews (from *EARTH*);
work by Sianne Ngai and Juliana Spahr;
reviews of Dahlen and Samuel Beckett
**********************
RADDLE MOON 14 (forthcoming, spring, '95):
work by Vancouver writers Deanna Ferguson, Gerald Creede,
Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, Lissa Wolsack, Judy Radul (cover image),
and (former Vancouverite) Kevin Davies;
two long pieces by Bob Perelman, "A False Account of Talking with
Frank O'Hara and Roland Barthes in Philadelphia" [late night on
the heaven channel] and "The Manchurian Candidate: a remake";
multi-language poems and image/text pieces from Anne Tardos;
and others.
************************
RADDLE MOON 15 (open for submissions):
special section on younger French women writers,
edited by Stacy Doris and Norma Cole;
photo-based images by Rhoda Rosenfeld
*************************************
COVER ART : We are soliciting images for our covers.
Our bias is photographic and photo-based work.
Please note: our new size is: 6 1/4 " x 8 " with 4" french flaps;
cover images wrap around, so can be various
proportions/dimensions with a maximum 8" height.
Please query first.
*************************************
SUBSCRIPTIONS are $12 for one year (two issues)
Single issues are $7; most back issues are $6 (tables of
contents, details on request)
Cheques/checks should be made out to RADDLE MOON.
Submissions and subscriptions should be addressed to:
Raddle Moon Press
2239 Stephens St., upstairs
Vancouver, BC
V6K 3W5 Canada
US POSTAGE : through the kindness of another small press
in the city, RADDLE MOON has access to the US Mail via Pt. Roberts, Wa.
and can reply using your US postage if you cannot supply IRCs
with your SAE.
LIBRARIES can be asked to subscribe to periodicals. (Library
subscribers who are patient and faithful and don't move every
two years are a great boon to small publishers; getting your library
to subscribe, even if you don't need the subscription yourself is one of
the most useful things you can do to extend the life of your favourite
magazine[s].)
Libraries may subscribe through subscription services
such as Faxon, Ebsco, McGregor, SMS, or a number of others.
****************************************
.... next posting will do GIANTESS, our "casual irregular" ......
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Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 14:15:27 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: Congress again
Jim Warren, proprietor of the GovAccess list, published this
in his latest mailing:
<from a kindly US House of Representatives (H.I.S.) email
specialist>
To obtain a current list of Representatives available via
email send an email
message to the following address:
congress@hr.house.gov
Or, you can also peruse our gopher service in the House
Email Addresses
category at:
gopher.house.gov
To learn the e-mail addresses of your Senators you will need
to contact them
directly at 202-224-3121.
House Web and Mosaic access is at:
WWW = www.house.gov
Hope this helps.
John Krick
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Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 23:51:06 -0500
Reply-To: Robert Drake <au462@cleveland.Freenet.Edu>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Robert Drake <au462@CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU>
Subject: HyperText Poetry course (forwarded message)
forwarded message:
------------------
Message #294 (298 is last):
Date: Wed Jan 11 18:33:25 1995
From: eastgate-list-approval@world.std.com
Subject: Course In Hypertext Poetry
Reply-To: eastgate-list@world.std.com
Robert Kendall will be teaching a class in hypertext fiction and poetry in the
Spring 95 term at the New School for Social Research in New York, NY. The class
will also be offered in the summer and fall as part of the New Schools Distance
Instruction for Adult Learners (DIAL) program, in which all instruction takes
place on-line.
Kendall would like to hear from anyone at other schools that offer classes
in hypertext or interactive literature. He's interested both in exchanging ideas
about teaching such a class and in exploring ways his students could exchange
work with students in similar programs.
HYPERTEXT POETRY AND FICTION
Robert Kendall
12 Tuesday evening sessions beginning Jan. 31, 1995.
This course will provide an introductory survey of published interactive poetry
and fiction that uses the computer monitor as its medium instead of the printed
page. It will also be a workshop for students to create their own writing in
this new genre. Students will explore
- how the resources of the computer--hypertext, kinetic text,
decision-making algorithms, randomization functions, graphics, and
audio--can take literature in new directions not possible in print.
- how poems and stories can assume nonlinear, reader-determined structures
that emulate the dynamic nature of actual human experience, memory, and thought
processes.
- how the computer can combine the written tradition of literature with
elements of its oral tradition, such as real-time performance (with or
without musical accompaniment), improvisation, and audience interaction.
Students will learn Storyspace, a program for creating hypertext, and
will create and discuss their own hypertext stories and poems. The course will
also cover opportunities for disseminating interactive literature through the
burgeoning new field of electronic publishing.
Phone or fax registration for the class is accepted until Jan. 23, in-person
registration until Feb. 7.
For more information about the course, contact Robert Kendall at:
rkendall@mcimail.com
For information about registration phone
The New School for Social Research at (212) 229-5690
or send a fax to (212) 229-5648
For information about the on-line program write:
The DIAL Program
The New School for Social Research
68 5th Ave., 3rd Fl.
New York, NY 10011
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Bernstein Eastgate@world.std.com
Eastgate Systems, Inc. voice: +1(617) 924-9044
134 Main St Watertown MA 02172 USA fax: +1(617) 924-9051
------------------
end forwarded message
lbd
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Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 00:08:53 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steve Evans <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Defense of NEA
In light of recent indications that the Republican
controlled 104th Congress intends to summarily eliminate
Federal funding for the arts, Jennifer Moxley and I have
begun organizing an event that we would like to make
known to the participants on this list.
We are organizing in Providence, and we invite members
of this list to organize in their cities, a
"read-in" on Saturday, January 28th. We are calling
the event *Freely Espousing* and welcome the adoption by
others of that name. We are inviting artists, writers,
publishers, scholars, students, and interested citizens
to manifest their support for National Arts Funding by
participating in a 5 hour read-in (1-6 pm EST) of materials
partly or fully funded by the National Endowment for the
Arts. We are scheduling speakers at roughly the midway point
in the reading, probably from 3-4 that afternoon. If interest
warrants, we will stretch both the reading and the speaking
component of the event by several hours. We plan to distribute
a petition and also pre-fab postcards (probably the ones
The Literary Network is producing) at the event.
Two weeks is a mercilessly short time in which to organize an
event, but the debate on the Balanced Budget Amendment
(beneath which rubric we've been told the NEA-NEH's fate
will be decided) is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, January
24th. If we do not act immediately, what slim chance we
have of affecting the outcome will be entirely pre-empted.
Indeed, the opponents of the NEA/NEH have a clear majority
on this issue and the RI Democrats that I spoke with (including
people at the office of Senator Pell, architect of the NEA
legislation in 1965) seem resigned to losing the Endowment.
The message I got was, with Social Security on the block,
no one is going to go to the wall for art.
Jennifer and I chose *Freely Espousing* as the name for
this event not only for its resonance in our poetic tradition,
but also because the Republican attempt to completely bypass
democratic procedure in their 100-day dash to the right is
deeply offensive to us. Indeed, although organizing and
participating in this defense of the NEA may not save the
program, it could be a small but important step toward de-
legitimating Newt Gingrich's show of legislative thuggery. Our
message should be: this assault on the arts is symptomatic of a cynical
and despicable disregard for democracy on the part of Gingrich,
Dole, and their followers in the House and Senate (not to mention
the Governors). We must oppose their secrecy with openness, their
arrogance and greed with generosity and solidarity.
Jennifer and I have had tentative discussions with people
in San Diego and San Francisco about organizing parallel
events on January 28th. While it is not imperative that
all events take place on the same day or follow the same
program, it does lend a certain credibility (as well as
giving local media another "angle" on their coverage) to
be able to cite other places around the country where people
are convened for the same purpose.
If anyone reading this post has some time to spare in the
next two weeks (or knows of someone who does but isn't on
this list or even on the Internet), Jennifer and I would
welcome communication either via e-mail (st001515@brownvm.
brown.edu) or phone (401) 274-1306. If you are willing
to participate, but don't have the time to coordinate the
event, let us know and hopefully we'll be able to put you
in touch with someone where you are. From our standpoint,
self-organization is the best solution, but we want to
keep communication lines open so people in one area can act
with knowledge of what others, in other areas, are doing.
While Jennifer and I share the misgivings others on this
list have voiced about the NEA's unresponsiveness to valid
poetic work, we believe that dismantling what should be
further democratized is not an acceptable alternative. The
fight for the NEA should simultaneously be a fight to make it
responsive to your concerns as writers, artists, and, in the
case of the NEH, scholars.
We hope to hear from some of you in the next days. Happy New Year!
Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley
61 E. Manning St., Providence RI 02906-4008
(401) 274-1306
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 00:02:13 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steve Evans/Jennifer Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Freely Espousing
Regarding our announcement of *Freely Espousing,*
an event in defense of the NEA to take place on
January 28th, we can now provide names and phone
numbers for contact persons in two West Coast cities.
Craig Foltz is the San Diego contact. His phone
number is 1-619-291-4945. Craig graduated from
UCSD and is currently in the MFA program at San
Diego State. He co-edits a zine called )39.
Kevin Magee is the San Francisco contact. His
phone number is 1-510-527-9485. Kevin's book,
*Tedium Drum,* was recently published by Lyric&.
Kevin and his partner, Myung Mi Kim, have just
started a monthly *Salon de Refuse* in SF and have
been kind enough to let us build off the organization
already in place because of their iniative.
Craig and Kevin have undertaken to serve as initial
points of contact and organization in their respective
cities, but both could use a hand--especially from
people in their areas with access to the Internet. If
you are interested, either contact them directly, or
send a post to us and we'll put you in touch with them.
We hope to have established contact people in other
cities in the next few days. If there is a critical
mass of already (or *almost*) organized writers & artists
in your area, please consider mobilizing with us on
the 28th.
Finally, we are trying to build a list of texts that
in some way exist because of NEA monies so that people
can begin compiling materials for the "read-in." If
you can take ten minutes to scan your minds and libraries
for work that can be included on a skeleton-list of such
texts, your suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Just
post to us off-list and we will make sure a master copy
gets compiled and distributed to the contact people in various
cities.
Thanks to everyone and remember, Freely Espouse today or
Forcibly Emigrate tomorrow.
Jennifer Moxley & Steve Evans
401-274-1306
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 16:44:17 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Charles Bernstein <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Eric Mottram: In Memorium
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
X-cc: cris@slang.demon.co.uk
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995
3:45pm NYC time
Eric Mottram died this morning in London. Tom Raworth just phoned me, just
while Allen Fisher was phoning Pierre Joris, both telling us that Eric had
died four to five hours ago from multiple infections. He had been hospitalized
a day or two ago.
Eric turned 70 on this past December 29.
From the introduction to *Alive in Parts of this Century: Eric Mottram at 70*,
just out from North and South Press:
"Eric Mottram is one of the most important figures of post-war literature
and teaching. He was the first to teach Beat writing in Europe in the 1950s,
the first teacher of American Studies at the University of London, and a
co-founder of the Institute of United States Studies in the University of
London in 1963. He edited Poetry Review in 1972-75, ran the King's Poetry
Series in 1967-80 and co-edited The New British Poetry (1988). He has had
two dozen collections of poetry published since the late 1960s including
*Elegies*, *A Book of Herne* and *Selected Poems*. [*Selected Poems (1989)
*Alive in Parts of This Century*, both from North and South, are available
from Small Press Distribution.]
His essay collections include *The Algebra of Need*, the first essay full
study of William Burroughs, and *Blood on the Nash Ambassador*, a selection
of essays.
An indefatigable supporter of the most adventurous, inventive, and socially
engaged poetry of the UK and USA, Mottram introduced at least two generations
of poets to poetry hidden from view by the a literary establishment, on both
sides of the Atlantic that, in Mottram's words, promoted a conformist poetry
decoration and decorum. Mottram's own uncompromising poetry demonstrated how
poetry can be political without sacrificing formal investigation. As Pierre
Joris wrote of Eric's poetry -- this is work of "gut passion, crystal clarity
of intellect."
For *Alive in Parts of This Century*, Pierre Joris chose lines (almost all)
from Eric Mottram's work for his contribution. (The format of the poem was
disrupted in e-conversion; it should be flush right.)
HOMAGE/COLLAGE FOR ERIC MOTTRAM @ 70
1. ...I am searching unceasingly for my own discovery"
2. it takes leisure to be a man is revolution
3. granddad, why are they all whispering?
4. this is not what I want to do, I want to know
5. an image an open hand with things in it
6. the result of composed ascent
7. concepts as modes of ordering
8. performance as what is revealed, moving outwards
9. the embryonic form of organisation
10. laughter of naked bathers
11. of transformed beings returned to the steep sea
12. break the mesh that grips us
13. an errand in wilderness
14. consult a good bookseller as to whether a book is
15. the fields of exchange
16. back there at origins a travelling forward soul springs up
17. the waterfall the illuminating gas
18.I hope this list will be regarded as an open
19. do you enter space from edges by intersecting lines
20. you eat light your eyes carry
21. a parenthesis of what is to be known
22. but a gun to show that he was a faithful private
23. in liberty a space of flame between us
24. Social roles, rituals, taboos, manners and conventions are
boundaries of
25. their bark and moan songs of the story tellers
26. believe that in offering a candid account of himself he creates
27. to chose insecurity
28. gather surprise among limestone turf plants
29. The clearest example of work which actually leapt out of the area of
30. knows that the naturally depraved yearns to be a policeman
31. trample workers
32. Intelligent ones should generate the excellent Bodhi-mind
33. when creatures learn brain nucleic acids change
34. our nostrils move we stride on a hill curve air moves
35. from then on my road meets everymanUs road from the south of solitude
36. shieldless venture in adventure / we dare in the undaring sea
37. tracks laid down underwater
38. from seperate existence/this bites in my mouth your kiss
39. "Collage-design method is, as he puts it, 'transformation.' It is similar
40. neck erect for songs at a high level space/
41. on each cusp spandrel corbel lovers beside angels
42. have you woken up mad with information
43. against fluted pillars the grainy dark of news
44. "the subversions of his own power and confidence"
45. tokens of myself brought here up through clay and soil
46. so a tongue breaks words it assumed memorized
47. the balance acts refuse sacrifice the waste loneliness
48. from a man half through our wall strides towards us parts us / and
49. few leaves touch to live a difference of breath
50. satori
51. determined not to disappear
52. living in a world more or less homicidal and desperately mercantile
53. "gut passion, crystal clarity of intellect: two energies, two modes"
54. the work: encounter between and consolidation
55. he returns me to his head
56. here rewrite the message that is you
57.shaken by the fire and darkness of his time I lived the lives of others
58. friends we need to believe
59. whereby I lived, and moved, and had my being aboard the
60. media prisons through terrors of recognition
61. three kinds of silence and movement in the long wind-strung day
62. "Mottram demonstrates how poetry can be political without"
63. a liberation into power
64. of leisure without guilt
65. shards in winter Night in Tunisia
66. fertile to recognize resemblance
67. a man goes forth stops in the sun
68. beneath light surface fold on fold
69. we to whom the world is our native country
70. "figures always foreboded, awaited, and loved rise into view"
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 20:20:52 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marjorie Perloff <perloff@LELAND.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Apex of the M
In-Reply-To: <199501162207.OAA22314@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Dear Friends:
I was pleased to get the most recent Apex of the M and read the poetry with
interest but I must say I was dismayed by the manifesto "The Contextual
Imperative," put out by the editors.
Certainly, the post-language generation has every right to want to move
in different directions--that's only logical--but the slight on the L poets
vis-a-vis politics seems entirely misguided. The editors write "language
poetry, in reproducing and mimicking the methods and language of contemporary
capitalism, ultimately commits itself to the same anonymity, alienation,
and social atomization of the subject in history that underlie capitalist
geo-politics." And they go on to compare the language poets to Reagan, Bush,
and Quayle!
Come on now! Ron Silliman, Barrett Watten, Bob Perelman, Charles Berstein,
(the most "political" of the L poets) reproducing and mikcing the language
of contemp capitalism!? Just the opposite was/is true--these poets have
worked very hard and put themselves on the line to break down language so
that it couldn't function as the voice of "contemporary capitalism."
At the same time, what about the editors? The sentence above is
distinguishable from capitalist geo-politics??? How can it be when it is
a tissue of cliches. The very phrases "contemporary capitalism," "social
atomization" "capitalist geo-politics" are nothing but buzz words of the
type one hears/sees on TV every minute. Whose capitalism? Japanese? U.S.?
Serb? what's it really like? What "social atomization" precisely are we
talking about? And let's look at that language in, say, Silliman's work
and read it against Quayle's and see if it really IS like that.,
And then what in hell is 'radical transparency"? Literally, it means that
language is absolutely see-through, which means what language you use
doesn't matter because you want to get behind it to the Big Ideas. But
the danger of doing this is that you start spouting the language of those
"ruling classes throughout Western history" poets are supposedly oppsing.
At its best, Language poetry never valorized language "for its own sake"
as the editors claim. Nor is it the case that theirs is the only or
hegemonic way of writing. But if language poetry is to be attacked--and
don't we have enough attacks from the dominant poetic discourses already?--
it had better be attacked in a more responsible way than it is here. That
means informing oneself about what's really going on around the globe and not
just throwing out phrases like "Reagan-Bush" or "triumph of capital"? If
there's a blueprint for a new economic program let's hear what it is. In
specifics. But surely, in the heyday of Newt Gingrich it's rather
ineffectual to drop phrases like "triumph of capital".
A final question: who is to read the new revolutionary poetry (what it
will be like remains to be seen) the editors advocate? Is poetry going to
"deliver victims from the daily miseries inflicted by the politicians and
the bourgeoisie?" How is this to happen? Certainly not via ignorance,as
in the statement (page 7) about "wars of the West against Islam and in Asia."
In Asia: Does China have no responsibility for 'wars in Asia"? Japan? and
Islam:are the Islamic countries really just innocent victims of "the West"?
I would think "revolution," poetic or otherwise, would require a little more
analytic rigor than what we see here.
Marjorie Perloff
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 22:56:25 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing
In-Reply-To: Message of Sun, 15 Jan 1995 00:02:13 EST from
<ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Two more cities now have contact people for
*Freely Espousing* on January 28th.
Jena Osman produced incredible results in
Buffalo, garnering a sponsor (National Association
of Artists Organizitions) and a site (Hallwalls
Gallery) within about thirty minutes on a legal holiday!
If you don't hear from Jena first, get in touch
with her via e-mail (vz10j9vn@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu)
or phone (716-884-2213).
In Milwaukee, Woodland Pattern had already planned
a marathon fund-raising reading for the 28th. Bob
Harrison is discussing with them ways of linking
the events. He has also agreed to be a contact person
for Milwaukee. His net address is Robert.A.Harrison@
JCI.Com. His phone numer is 414-962-5989 (home).
In San Diego, Cole Heinowitz has joined Craig Foltz
in organizing things. Craig's number remains the
one to use and we are currently working on hooking
them up with someone on the net.
Two people wrote in from the vicinity of University
of Virginia this afternoon, but neither felt they
were in a position to organize something. Does anyone
have a suggestion for a contact person in or near
Charlottesville?
Several people have asked about ways to identify
NEA recipients. The best way Jen and I have
found (besides gossip) is the *NEA Annual Report,*
in book form through 1990, fiche through 1993.
We found it in the Government Documents section
of Brown's library (call no. NF 2.1:993).
A quick scan of the 1990 awards yields many familiar
names, including Leslie Scalapino, Susan Howe, Steve
Benson, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Lawson Inada, and Rosmarie
Waldrop. Journals that received grants that year included
o-blek, Sulfur, Five Fingers Review, Conjunctions, Tyuonyi,
Callaloo and others. Among the publishers there were
Four Walls Eight Windows, Avenue B, Dalkey Archive, The
Figures, Burning Deck. Small Press Traffic, Seque,
Woodland Pattern, Beyond Baroque, Small Press Distribution,
Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and the Poetry Project in
NYC were all granted varying degrees of organization funding.
Different years of course tell different stories, and we
have watched operations fold for lack of Endowment monies
since 1990. Still it's worth having a browse over the
history if you're not already familiar with it.
Right now we're working on writing a press release (never
done that before), tracking down more precise information
on how the Endowment will be dealt with in Appropriations,
getting something going in DC and NYC. If anyone can
provide tips on any of these fronts they will be deeply
appreciated. We're also trying to re-write our initial
post to this list for easy travelling on local b-boards
etc.
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far!
Steve Evans & Jennifer Moxley
401-274-1306
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 1995 22:15:51 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: Eric Mottram: In Memorium
In-Reply-To: <199501162208.OAA29148@whistler.sfu.ca> from "Charles Bernstein"
at Jan 16, 95 04:44:17 pm
Dear Charles
Thanks for the word on Eric Mottram. That is bad news. But I had no
idea that he was 70 already. We grow up many and too fast.
I was reading him earlier today!
GB
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 09:40:02 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Apex of the M
X-cc: tmandel@cais.com
I originally began this as a private message to Marjorie Perloff, to
tell her she'd hit the nail on the head in her comments on the Apex
intro, meaning to quote to her what Hobbes said of Spinoza - _I durst
not have spoke so freely_ (that's a paraphrase, source not being handy),
being a Language Poet myself (wch when it happened to me meant being
in a loosely-(un)defined and altogether anonymous group of abt 15-20
folks but now means being in an altogether over-commented and
literally undefinable crowd of ?3-500?), but have decided to make
the comment openly, wanting to add one or two things...
1. To go from the introduction of the Apex issue in question to the
work gathered therein is an interesting study. Mostly what's in the
issue is the work of poets in mid-career, many of whom associated
(i.e. _are associated_) with LP -- how can this so-called manifesto
claim them for a next or new way?
2. I believe the editors must understand themselves to have chosen
these poets in mid-career as illustrative of their (the editors')
sense of where poetry needs to go now, as illustrative of the ideas
in the introduction. Thus, the making of manifestos (manifesti?)
and new movements is reduced from that of actually creating a new
poetry to being a thoughtful editor. The surrealists too had their
chosen forebears to bring forward (i.e. Lautreamont), but they
were rescuing work wch had been neglected and even rejected not
putting together a table of contents wch cd as easily have been
found in Temblor in the late 80's (obviously, _somewhat_ different)
or Oblek in the earlier 90's. Moreover, the relative proportion
of forebears (a few) to active perpetrants of the revolutionary
new poetry (a triple handful) seems more appropriate than in
the case of Apex volume.
3. Thus new tendencies in poetry as the acts of editors? Sorry,
I don't think so. It's hard not to see in this volume a 2d
chapter in a different town of the intentions of the editors
of ACTS in SF who invented a term _analytic lyric_ which they
wished to counterpose to Language Poetry, then went around
telling everybody that this was what they wrote. I remember
asking Benjamin Hollander (along with David Levi Strauss, the
editor of ACTS) what the term meant. Mostly, his answer was
that it was what I was writing! (I and others, of course - I
don't mean they were vaunting me in particular) No thanks,
Benjamin, I'm a language poet -- i.e. my work, wherever it
goes and whoever it attracts the attention of, is historically
located in that tendency. If I write rhymed couplets I'll be
a langpo who does so (well,... that's _a little_ over-
simplified, tho not as much as one might think: I mean it's
an ostensively defined term, supplemented with interpretations
wch are motivated by a desire to see our work somehow together.
there's little else in common between say me and say Bruce
Andrews who is a dear, old friend and comrade, or Ron
or Lyn; in some sense I believe we will desire our works to
be buried in a common historical grave).
4. The test of the Surrealist manifesto was the work of
Breton, Eluard, Peret, Aragon, Desnos, et. al., not the
validity of the ideas in the manifesto, somehow interpreted
in the presence of some other test but absent the test of
new work. I don't for a minute doubt the gifts or motivation
of the poets who edit Apex. It would have been better,
however, to place the intro before a volume of new writers
who simply blew one away (and, gentle reader, you cannot
imagine how intently I - and most other language poets I
know, tho not all surely - await this experience), where
its rodomontade, its stuffy certainties abt historical
directions/needs, its empty rejection of the exact social
and economic matrix which enabled it (doesn't anybody
read the Communist Manifesto anymore? viz. its eloge of
capitalism?) -- in such a context, all these qualities
would be irrelevant in the face of the experience of a
new poetry. A new poetry. We always want a new poetry.
Tom Mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 09:53:36 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing
This is great.
Just got the list of this year's nea poetry fellowship
awardees - got and threw away, alas, so all I can report
is that Wang Ping (whom I only know as a name mentioned
earlier in this same week in aconversation in NY) and
Alice Notley received fellowships. Mine was a quick
scan, so there are probably others whom we might know
and contact on the subject.
Surely, there shd be a DC aspect to this event. I can't
volunteer to organize it, but do you all have addresses
for Rod Smith, Joe Ross, Buck Downs, Mark Wallace or
others who may be able to undertake it? I'm assuming
so (and Mark and Joe at least are on this forum...).
Tom Mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 13:09:09 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Robert Kelly <kelly@LEVY.BARD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Eric Mottram: In Memorium
Please let us honor Eric, in text and memory. How about May Day in
New York, to honor the political power of his work, all his
work? When Pierre called and told me of Eric's death, I thought of
a day in London when Eric chided me for climbing to the top of St
Pauls---bad for the health. The man cared. And knew. I wonder
if any AMerican can see our work as clearly and compassionately and
all round, as he did.
RK
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 19:20:33 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Mottram : In Memory's Hum
_The issue is the orphic difference... between the
perpetuation of myth, and its agents, and the free-
dom of the creative process...._
_Towards Design in Poetry_ / p.24
more and more people will never have known
more and more people.
Tom Mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 22:21:56 -0600
Reply-To: quarterm@unixg.ubc.ca
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: peter quartermain <quarterm@UNIXG.UBC.CA>
Subject: Text of Robert Duncan Selected Poems
I have just finished a fairly detailed draft catalogue of
problems, puzzles, errors, and the like of the first 44
pages of the New Directions edition of Robert Duncan:
_Selected_Poems_. The format of this list (14 pages in hard
copy) is severely distorted by e-mail conversion so I cannot
post it here. If anyone out there wants a copy, please let
me know and I'll send it as soon as I can print one off for
you. A couple of bucks ((on receipt) to cover xerox and
postage is not necessary but would be helpful, especially if
about fifty people want one.
Let me point out, though, that unless we know the status
of the copy-text, most of the "errors" I report might not be
errors at all; I am however absolutely certain that the text
of "For A Muse Meant" is seriously flawed, and that some of
the dates are wrong. The textual history of
_Medieval_Scenes_ is so complicated that it is simply
impossible to say anything certain about the text in the
_Selected_Poems_ of 1993, save that it agrees with that of
_The_ First_Decade_, published in 1968. From the discussion
in _Medieval_Scenes_1950_and_1959 (text cross-checked
against the original Centaur Press edition, for there are
errors in the 1978 reprint), I'm certain that it is not the
text of 1947, and almost certain that it is not that of
1950.
The most serious error in the book, for those who don't want
the full treatment, is the substitution of "however" for
"hoverer" in the 8th line of "For A Muse Meant" (pp. 35-37),
and the printing of a page-wide rule in the middle of the
poem (towards the foot of page 36), interrupting the text in
a nonsensical way. This is a carryover from the Jargon Press
edition of _Letters_: the page-wide rule is at a page break;
it separates the footnote from the body of the text. The
stanza itself continues without a break through that line,
so you need to close up that final line of the stanza: "a
con glomerations without rising".
Most of the other errors are of lineation, punctuation
and capitalisation, and so forth, with some quite seriously
misleading dates in the table of contents. Without knowing
what copy text was used in preparing this edition, it is
impossible to sort out or estimate the accuracy of this
text. New Directions, to whom I have sent this schedule,
is no doubt gnashing its collective teeth.
Peter Quartermain
__________________________________________________________________________
Peter Quartermain
128 East 23rd Avenue voice and fax (604) 876 8061
Vancouver
B.C. e-mail: quarterm@unixg.ubc.ca
Canada V5V 1X2
__________________________________________________________________________
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 08:56:25 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: Congress again
Dear Poetics folk:
More info on Congressional Web access follows, this time
from Teddy Kennedy's office via Jim Warren of the GovAccess
list.
Jack Krick
CapWeb: A Guide to Congress on the WWW
Thu, 12 Jan 95 09:16:45 EST
From Chris_Casey@kennedy.senate.gov
CapWeb is an "unauthorized" hypertext guide to Congress on
the World Wide
Web. Committee assignments, contact information including
phone numbers,
fax, e-mail addresses, state delegation lists, and party
rosters are among
the information that is available for every member of the
Senate and House of
Representatives.
CapWeb will collect and maintain links to information being
provided by
individual members of Congress on the Internet; the Library
of Congress and
other Congressional agencies; state governments; political
parties and other
related resources.
CapWeb is part of Policy.Net, a service of Issue Dynamics,
Inc. and can be
found at: http://policy.net
kennedy.senate.gov /''''\
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/casey/casey.html /______\
|@@@@@@@@|
202/224-3570 ||0||0||0|
Office of Senator Kennedy _____/\________ " " " "
"_______/\_____
Washington, DC 20510 {|| || || || || ____/\_____||
|| || || ||}
______________________________{||_||_||_||_||____/__\____||_
||_||_||_||}__
[I wouldn't normally include such an baroque "sig-file," but
this is so novel
that I tho't I'd inflict it on yer email. --jim]
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 09:00:50 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Joe Ross <jross@TMN.COM>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing
In-Reply-To: <199501171527.PAA00437@purple.tmn.com>
On Tue, 17 Jan 1995, Tom Mandel wrote:
>
> Surely, there shd be a DC aspect to this event. I can't
> volunteer to organize it, but do you all have addresses
> for Rod Smith, Joe Ross, Buck Downs, Mark Wallace or
> others who may be able to undertake it? I'm assuming
> so (and Mark and Joe at least are on this forum...).
>
> Tom Mandel
>
Tom et. al. - -
It is already in the works - details to follow . . . .
Joe Ross
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 10:56:12 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Pierre Joris <joris@CSC.ALBANY.EDU>
Subject: Re: call for work for interface 10 (fwd)
Forwarded message:
> From interfac Sun Jan 15 14:22:01 1995
> From: Interface Ejournal <interfac>
> Message-Id: <199501151921.OAA07196@loki.albany.edu>
> Subject: Re: call for work for interface 10
> To: joris (Pierre Joris)
> Date: Sun, 15 Jan 1995 14:21:57 -0500 (EST)
> In-Reply-To: <199501151608.LAA07044@loki.albany.edu> from "Pierre Joris" at Ja
> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23]
> Content-Type: text
> Content-Length: 1740
>
>
> Call for Work
> Women on the Net(work)
> inter\face Electronic Literary Magazine
>
>
> VOICES
>
> Voices to the left
> to the right
> near
> and far
> rise up and be numbered.
>
> Resurrect the voices past and present,
> those lost from constant screaming,
> those buried in layers of silence.
> Summon them to rise as phoenixes
> and proclaim
> "I am woman." I, am woman.
> --Tanya Manning
>
> "Women on the Net(work)" is the focus for inter\face's tenth
> issue (coming Spring 1995). This issue is especially dedicated to
> providing women writers an electronic forum for the multiplicity of
> their voices. Metaphorically the title "Women on the Net(work) stands
> for the magazine operating as a net to catch the multiplicity of writings
> by women that may typically go unknown.
> The search for subjects and forms of discourse are unrestricted.
> Whether you write in a "technological/mechanical" voice or
> "renaissance/romantic" style, we're interested. Whether your poems or
> stories are of topical relevance to politics or race relations, women's
> rights or women's magic, sexual orientation or erotica, or anything
> unmentioned, we want you to contribute your work.
> The criteria for this issue is simple. To preserve the writer's
> integrity and promote the writer as publisher, editing of content is
> minimal. In the spirit of accepting "contributions" as opposed to
> "submissions," we believe in your right as a writer to say whatever
> you want to say in the way you want to say it. However, we do ask of
> you to limit for publishing fairness your contributions to three
> separate pieces. Please send your entries no later than February 14,
> 1995 to interfac@cnsunix.albanu.edu. For more information, please contact
> Tanya Manning at TM5498@cnsvax.albany.edu.
>
=======================================================================
Pierre Joris | He who wants to escape the world, translates it.
Dept. of English | --Henri Michaux
SUNY Albany |
Albany NY 12222 | "Herman has taken to writing poetry. You
tel&fax:(518) 426 0433 | need not tell anyone, for you know how
email: | such things get around."
joris@cnsunix.albany.edu| --Mrs. Melville in a letter to her mother.
=======================================================================
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 13:26:13 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Apex of the M
Dear Tom--just how do you DEFINE a "poet in "mid-career""? This is
delicious really. CS.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 15:57:59 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: JRNL: Poetry in the Margins, cont. (fwd)
Forwarded message:
From daemon Wed Jan 18 09:25:51 1995
Message-Id: <199501181425.JAA137972@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 23:05:07 -0500
Reply-To: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
Sender: Teaching the American Literatures <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
From: "tamlit@guvax.georgetown.edu \"Randy Bass\"" <TAMLIT%GUVAX.bitnet@BITNIC.C
Subject: JRNL: Poetry in the Margins, cont.
To: Multiple recipients of list T-AMLIT <T-AMLIT@BITNIC.CREN.NET>
***JRNL: T-AMLIT JOURNAL***
Here are four more contributions (the first two fairly brief, the next two
longer) to the thread of Poetry in the Margins.
RBass
*******************************************************************
(1)
From: IN%"cjago@cello.gina.calstate.edu" "Carol A. Jago"
Subj: Poetry on the Margin
I was struck by the comment that poetry teachers should be good hosts.
As I do with dinner guests, I try to offer my high school students
some familiar poems but also some dishes they would never think of
trying but so obviously related to what they know or care about that
they taste. Slipping a little fried squid in with the shrimp.
In one class where I ask students to write tabloid pieces to actual
headlines from the Enquirer and Globe (oh, you know, RMan Glues His
Butt Shut" and such), I slipped in a Lucille Clifton poem:
them and us
something in their psyche insists on elvis
slouching into markets, his great collar
high around his great head, his sideburns
extravagant, elvis, still swiveling those
negro hips. something needs to know
that even death, the most faithful manager
can be persuaded to give way
before real talent, that it is possible
to triumph forever on a timeless stage
surrounded by lovers giving the kid a hand.
we have so many gone. history
has taught us much about fame and its
inevitable tomorrow. we ride the subways
home from the picture show, sure about
death and elvis, but watching for marvin gaye.
Poetry is just part of what we do in class. No big deal. You like this
one, I like that one. It seldom feels difficult. Slips down like
yellow peppers in oil.
Carol Jago, Santa Monica High School in soggy California
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(2)
From: IN%"HOGELALM@UCENGLISH.MCM.UC.EDU" "LISA M. HOGELAND"
Subj: Jrnl: Poetry on the Margins, Cont.
If it's not already beaten to death, I have a small thought. Why do
we assume that "participation" in poetry need be writing it? I have
students who claim to hate poetry precisely because they cannot
imagine ever writing it (and they frequently refuse to write about it
because they cannot imagine writing it). Why not participation as
readers? I'm a movie junkie, but that doesn't make me want to be an
actor (or even a director); I'm deeply interested in poetry, but no
longer write it (one less bad poet is no tragedy). The work of
readers is not to be despised or dismissed; for some students, the
role of reader (and critic) is more enabling than the role of author.
Lisa Maria Hogeland
Univ. of Cincinnati
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(3)
From: IN%"bremen@uts.cc.utexas.edu" 13-JAN-1995 08:52:00.53
Subj: RE: Poetry on the Margins
Putting aside the question of whether poetry is any more on the margins
than novels or drama, here's my two-cents-worth. Students have more
difficulty reading poetry (and are less likely to take poetry courses)
because they are taught early on that they CAN'T read it. The two main
culprits--and words which have come to haunt me as a teacher--are Symbols
and Themes.
Ask a student (try this--I guarantee it will work), "what's the theme of
Frost's 'The Road Not Taken'?" and he or she will tell you that the "theme"
is that we need to dance to the beat of a different drummer (or some such
variant), to boldly go where no man has gone before, and follow our hearts
and be an artist. Ask then, "and what are the symbols in this poem?" and
the student will dutifully tell you that the Road, of course, is the main
symbol and that it symbolizes that road in life that few people dare to
travel, the path off the beaten track that only poets go down.
Now especially since when you actually READ the poem, you discover that
there's almost no difference between the two roads ("Though as for that,
the passing there / Had worn them really about the same"), how do students
come to these conclusions? They come to them because they were told that's
what the poem MEANS (where's Archibald MacLeish when you really need him).
They are told over and over that poetry (in fact, all literature) must be
reduced to some moral lesson, formulable in a sentence and that they keys
to these formulae are symbols--mysterious words whose true meanings are
known only to English teachers, who no doubt are given some secret Book of
Symbols upon graduation from English Ed. programs. Read Frost's own
"Education By Poetry" and see what he has to say about these ideas.
Even if we offer students more sophisticated versions of themes and
symbols, we need to recognize as teachers when we are telling students what
some thing means as opposed to allowing them to generate meanings. In
other words, are we supplying students with the contexts in which they can
build their own readings of poems or are we telling them particular
allegories of meaning without showing them the contexts and ideas that
foster those allegories? I think, particularly with poetry, we tell them
the meaning and in doing so tell them the poem means something other than
what it directly says--something they can't possibly know, because they
can't possibly know as much as we do (about culture, about literature,
about history, about oppression, . . . you fill in the blank). In other
words, I think poetry highlights issues of power and interpretation in the
classroom in ways that other genres perhaps avoid. At the very least,
students feel better able to read other kinds of literature.
Sorry if all this sounds a bit shrill, but I needed to get it off my chest.
Brian A. Bremen
William Carlos Williams Review
Department of English
The University of Texas, Austin Phone: 512-471-7842
Austin, TX 78712-1164 Fax: 512-471-4909
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(4)
From: IN%"pamdane@efn.org" "Pam Dane"
Subj:
> I have been reading the posting about poetry with enjoyoment. All of the
> discussions highlight the fun that I thought academic life might offer,
> but often doesn't. Now I would like to add my thoughts on the subject.
> First of all it is interesting that only males have been participating in
> this discussion. Are women also on the electronic "margins?' Next, it
> seems to me that poetry is not on the margins in academia--in fact,
> school is the one place where poetry is mainstream! Where elso do so
> many people aread Wordsworth and Olds? In English departments, poetry is
> one of the staples--you know the canon. You can't leave school
> without so to speak. Unlike some of the other "posters" (is that the
> correct term?), I find students usually enljoy poetry---it's short and
> fast to read (not meaning that it's easy of course). Seriously, students
> do enljoy poetry and I don't think it is important for them to understand
> all of the symbols and allusions in order to love poems. In fact, If
> anything marginalizes poetry, it is teachers who insist that in order to
> "really understand" poetry you must memorize different rhyme schemes,
> symbols, etc. or you can't possibly read poetry. Why not just let
> studnets readl, discuss, write, and then read some more? I ask my
> students to adopt a poet. they must find a living poet who is publishing
> today and then present his/her poetry to the class. They write papers on
> theirs poet's poetry. Then I mank a book of all of the poems for the
> class. This works really well. I also have them buy books of
> poetry--let's support our poets--Rich, Love, Stafford, etc. Finally I
> assign them to attend a poetry reading. I also have poets attend my classes.
> Another thought, if poetry is marginalized, then what about all of the
> poetry slams. Poetry readings are widely attended in my town. Olds had
> standing room only.
> Finally a question to Petrosky--I used lyour Ways of REading as a
> test in my comp classes. If lyou teach poetry in your comp classes, then
> why isn't there any poetry in lyour book? I know Rich is there, abut she
> is included as an essayist. Also how does poetry work in your comp
> classes with your writing philosophy.
> Pam Dane
>
>
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 20:41:51 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Freely Espousing Update
What follows is a longish post updating people on
*Freely Espousing.* Please refer any questions
to us or to the Contact person nearest you (cf.
earlier posts giving that information).
WASHINGTON DC
As Joe Ross hinted earlier today, and as we
can confirm now, Washington D.C. is the sixth
city to join in our manifestation of support
for the NEA/NEH. You can contact Joe at:
202-745-0454(h), 202-416-8507(w), 202-416-8585(fx).
His net address is jross@tmn.com. His street
address is 1719 S Street NW#2, Washington DC, 20009.
Mark Wallace has also agreed to be a DC contact.
His phone number is 202-637-0441(h). His net
address is mdw@gwis2.circ.cwu.edu.
Our thanks to both Joe and Mark!
The DC events will take place at Willow St. Gallery.
Contact Joe or Mark for specifics.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Most of you will have heard by now that the Senate
Committee on Labor and Human Resources (Chair, Nancy
Kassebaum, R-KS) will begin hearing testimony regarding
the Endowment on Tuesday, January 24th. We are told
the Jane Alexander will testify the first day. If you
were putting off writing a letter to the editor, you
may wish to draft one now so that your local paper has
something to hand when the NEA becomes "news" next week.
You may also have heard that the House Budget Committee,
chaired by John Kasich (R-OH), is currently making
rescisions in FY95--i.e. cutting monies from programs
that have already been allocated funds for this year.
Keep a very close eye on the activities of this Committee,
which is effectively serving as Newt's assassination team.
BLIND SPOTS IN OUR ORGANIZING
Given the rush, it's not surprising that there remain
a number of places around the country where support
such as we're seeing in the six cities already organized
(with NYC, a seventh, still a few phone calls away from
being "in") exists but is unreachable by us.
Joe Ross reminded us this morning that Texas, Ohio, and
Georgia are KEY places in which to rally support. Any
suggestions on how to get something going there would
be vastly appreciated. Even though ten days may prove
too short notice to bring something off on the 28th, there's
nothing wrong with bringing something together for the following
weekend, etc.
PRESS RELEASE
With the help of Kit Robinson, we have finally composed a
press release, which we will post separately to the list.
We recommend that Contact people download the release and
supplement it with local information. Of course, the
release could also be used for re-posting to local bulletin
boards and so forth. Please feel free to use, alter, or
ignore the release, depending on the complexion events are
taking on where you're at.
EXPLOITING A STEREOTYPE OR TWO
I don't know about other areas, but here in Providence several
people have shown interest in two fairly incidental points
about this event. 1) It is being organized by people in
what the media call "gen x" (and not, e.g., by professional
art bureaucrats); and (2) the Internet is involved.
If it makes the difference between getting your event covered
or not, Jen and I think you should consider playing to the
current buzz-words on these two points. Just a thought.
ALBANY
We know many people in the Eastern part of the country are
going to be in Albany for a gathering this coming weekend.
Neither of us will be able to make it, but we hope that
the incredibly e-literate bunch at Albany can keep us
posted any developments, discussions, thoughts people
are having about *Freely Espousing* during the weekend.
HERE IN PROVIDENCE
An Ad-Hoc Committee of Literary Publishers, consisting
of Burning Deck, Lost Roads, Paradigm, Tender Buttons,
Garlic Press, and the Impercipient, should exist by
sometime tomorrow. Rosmarie Waldrop (Burning Deck)
and C.D. Wright (Lost Roads) have been working hard
with Jennifer and I to handle the local details.
AND REMEMBER OUR MOTTO: FREELY ESPOUSE TODAY OR FORCIBLY
EMIGRATE TOMORROW
Regards to all,
Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley
401-274-1306
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Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 21:27:25 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Press Release
For Immediate Release
Contact: Steve Evans
401-274-1306
ARTISTS AND WRITERS ORGANIZE TO DEFEND NEA, NEH
Events Planned in Six Cities to Protest Attack on Arts Groups
19 January 1995, Providence--In response to strong indications
that the Republican-controlled 104th Congress intends to
summarily eliminate federal funding for the arts and humanities
through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), writers, artists, scholars,
and concerned citizens in a half-dozen American cities have organized
*Freely Espousing,* a day of events manifesting support for public
arts funding on Saturday, January 28, 1995.
Begun on the initiative of two Rhode Islanders (the home state
of Senator Clairborne Pell, architect of the 1965 legislation
that created the NEA/NEH), the idea has spread quickly--partly
through use of the Internet--to San Diego, San Francisco,
Milwaukee, Washington D.C., Buffalo, and New York City.
Providence organizers Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley chose
the name *Freely Espousing* to underscore the vital role of the
arts in a democratic society and to call attention to what they
identify as a lack of rational public debate on a host of
issues currently being forced through Congress under the leadership
of House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob
Dole.
The centerpiece of *Freely Espousing* events throughout the
country will be a marathon "read-in" of literary works whose
creation the NEA has facilitated in its thirty-year existence.
A variety of speakers and round-tables are also planned.
APPEND LOCAL INFORMATION HERE / ALSO, CORRECT HEADER INFORMATION
ABOVE (PERHAPS GIVING EVANS/MOXLEY IN PROVIDENCE AS SECOND CONTACT?)
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Date: Wed, 18 Jan 1995 23:11:41 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: Electronic Poetry Center Newsletter #1
____ ____ ____
/ / / / / /
EEEE PPPPP CCCCC
EE / PP PP CC C/
EEE PPPPP CC / URL=gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/
__EE /_ PP |__ CC C ____
/ EEEE/ PP/ CCCCC/ / internet/library/e-journals/ub/rift
/__________________________/
|--------------------------|
| Electronic Poetry Center |
|__________________________|
___________________________________________________________________
E P C . N E W S
No. 1 (January, 1995)
___________________________________________________________________
_Contents:_
1.0 Basic Assumptions
2.0 Poetry and the Electronic Place
3.0 Interfaces: Gopher, Web, Mosaic; Bookmarks
4.0 RIF/T Notes
5.0 EPC New Additions
6.0 How to Connect
___________________________________________________________________
1.0 Basic Assumptions
The Electronic Poetry Center seeks to provide a central _place_
for Internet resources for poetry and poetics.
The lay of the land:
1.__Welcome : Electronic Poetry Center Welcome & FAQ's
(About)/
2.__RIF/T : RIF/T / New Poetry, Prose, & Poetics
(Texts)/
3.__Poetics : Calendar, Poetics List Archive & Files
(Texts)/
4.__Authors : Electronic Poetry & Poetics - Authors
(Texts)/
5.__E-Journals : Gateway to Electronic Poetry Journals
(Texts)/
6.__E-Resources : Gateway to Electronic Poetry
Resources (Connects)/
7.__Small Press : Electronic Poetry Center Small
Press Alcove (Cites)/
8.__Gallery : The Electronic Poetry Gallery
(Visuals)/
9.__Sound : The Electronic Poetry Sound Room (Sound
Files)/
10._Documents : Poetry & Poetics Document Archive
(Texts)/
11._Exhibits : Electronic Poetry Center Exhibit case
(Texts)/
12._Notices : Electronic Poetry Center Announcements
(Info)/
The Center continues to provide access to the electronic poetry
and poetics journal, RIF/T, and the archives of the Poetics List.
Needless to say, the EPC provides quality archival materials for
these resources. For the Poetics archive, a feature has recently
been added to allow keyword searching for the immense number of
files comprising this archive.
The EPC author library offers texts and/or information about
contemporary poets in a variety of formats.
A number of electronic journals are archived and distributed by
the EPC. Journals distributed through the EPC differ from other
e-journal archives in a significant way: the texts presented here
have been checked and verified by their issuing agency, thus at
least getting to you versions of electronic journals that have a
direct link to their source. We are delighted to offer these
journals to you and will continue to make sure texts presented
are done so in collaboration with their producers. For resources
outside the EPC, we have written links to make seamless
connections to these resources. It is our aim to be vigilent
about our links so that persons interested in poetry and poetics
do not have to spend a lot of time digging for addresses,
remembering sites, and locating resources. Through the selections
available at the EPC, users of the system have simple and direct
access to many other related Internet resources.
The Center also provides information about contemporary little
magazines and small presses engaged in poetry and poetics. Since
this information is often difficult to locate, it is presented at
the EPC in hopes of recongizing these contributions, facilitating
communication, and providing an additional outlet for these
extremely valuable print sources. Look here also for Selby's List
of Experimental Magazines.
The Poetry & Poetics Document Archive provides access to a number
of documents of use to poets, teachers, and researchers. Here you
will find essay material and current obituaries. This area should
be consulted in conjunction with the Poetics Files and Small
Press Sources areas, which also offer material of pedagogical
use.
The EPC also presently offers gallery, sound, exhibts, and an
announcements area.
___________________________________________________________________
2.0 Poetry and the Electronic Place
Compared to say, a year ago, many people might agree that the
idea of some sort of an electronic forum for poetry is not only a
possibility but an inevitability. We have seen the continued
growth of the Poetics List (I counted around 250 postings the
month of December 1994 alone) and the development of the
Electronic Poetry Center. The EPC has maintained a significant
circulation. We regularly get letters from various world outposts
attesting to the reality of such connectivity. Interesting also
are the number of visits taking place, both locally and across
distance; despite the dips and peaks that typify any active
place, the EPC has seen a good amount of traffic across its
doorstep. For those with such inclination (and it is illuminating
that the following compare favorably with circulation statistics,
say, for a little magazine) here are some numbers:
_Month_ _Connects_
Nov 1994 573
Oct 1994 429
Sep 1994 367
August 1994 348
July 1994 614
June 1994 110
These statistics give only a sense of scale, it should be noted,
since direct connections to EPC submenus and entries through
Veronica searches, a significant number of connects, are not
included in the above statistics.
___________________________________________________________________
3.0 Interface: Gopher, Web, Mosaic
Even as activities converge, it is also the time of divergent
interfaces. I am often surprised by the number of our
contributors and participants who do not even have gopher access.
(These, again, not represented in the above statistics.) Most
people, we figure, have at least gopher access, though Web access
is quickly becoming a standard. Mosaic, it would be assumed,
though assuming predominance in the University setting, has
hardly become a reality for most dial-up users, particularly
internationally. (For the sake of a common ground, gopher is an
ascii-based interface that offers access through the selection of
menus; the web is an ascii-based interface that offers access
through _screens_ of information with links to other areas
appearing as highlighted text; Mosaic is a graphical interface
basically superimposed on the Web structure that offers images,
sound, video, and allows you to use your mouse as a navigational
tool.) The EPC is accessible through any of these interfaces. It
is presently evolving strongly towards exclusive Web/Mosaic
access.
_Informational Notes_: (1) The standard for Web/Mosaic documents
is the markup protocol called html. These are imbedded codes that
you will see once in a while when you download an html document.
These codes give instructions to the software about highlighting,
fonts, and screen layout, as well as providing for the _hot
links_ that make possible Web/Mosaic navigation. (2) A feature of
these interfaces that should be mentioned is the bookmark. You
may wish to investigate this as most systems allow you to set a
bookmark, say at the EPC, and gain immediate access to it when
you invoke your interface.
___________________________________________________________________
4.0 RIF/T Notes
Forthcoming from RIF/T are two special issues. The first of these
is the Transpoeisis issue (see EPC Announcements for details)
which will offer a muti-faced and multi-format approach to the
presentation of translations. Also forthcoming, a planned special
issue on Charles Olson. RIF/T will also soon issue the first in a
series of special chapbooks. Much on the way!
___________________________________________________________________
5.0 EPC New Additions
Many additions have been made to the EPC in the past six months.
Following are some of the journals archived and directly
distributed by the EPC:
DIU / Albany
Experioddi(cyber)cist / Florence, AL
Inter\face / Albany
Poemata - Canadian Poetry Assoc. / London, Ontario (Info)/
RIF/T: Electronic Space for New Poetry, Prose, & Poetics
Segue Foundation/Roof Book News / New York
TREE: TapRoot Electronic Edition / Lakewood, Ohio
We Magazine / Santa Cruz
Witz / Toluca Lake, CA / via Syntax
Significant connections which the EPC would like to highlight
include the following:
Alternative-X
Basil Bunting Poetry Centre (Durham, England)
[Informational]
Best-Quality Audio Web Poems (Rhode Island)
Carma Bums 'Tour of Words'
CICNET Electronic Journal Archive
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
(Virginia)
Internet Poetry Archive (North Carolina)
Michigan Electronic Text Archive
Nous Refuse Discussion List (Illinois)
Postmodern Culture (North Carolina)
Whole Earth 'Lectronic Magazine
___________________________________________________________________
6.0 How to Connect
The Center is located at gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
Gopher Access: For those who have access to gopher, type
gopher writing.upenn.edu
at your system prompt. First choose Libraries &
Library Resources, then Electronic Journals, then E-
Journals/Resources Produced Here At UB, then The
Electronic Poetry Center. (Note: Connections to some
Poetry Center resources require Web access, though most
are presently available through gopher).
World-Wide Web and Mosaic Access:
For those with World-Wide Web (lynx) or Mosaic access,
from your interface, choose the _go to URL_
option then go to (type as one continuous string)
gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
(Substituting hh for 11 in the URL above may produce better
results on your system.)
Check with your system administrator if you have problems with
access. Also ask about setting a "bookmark" through your system
for quick and easy access to the Center when you log on.
If you have comments or suggestions about sites to be added to
the Center, do not hesitate to contact Loss Pequen~o Glazier,
lolpoet@acsu.buffalo.edu or Kenneth Sherwood,
e-poetry@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
___________________________________________________________________
The Electronic Poetry Center is administered in Buffalo by
E-Poetry
and RIF/T in coordination with the Poetics List.
Loss Pequen~o Glazier
for Kenneth Sherwood and Loss Glazier
in collaboration with Charles Bernstein
__________________________________________________________________
End of EPC.News #1
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:03:59 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Joe Amato <jamato@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: apex of the m...
i felt i just had to weigh in here (& apologies in advance for a
*long* post)
with a sort of 'outsider's' response to marjorie's & tom's posts...
it'll soon
become apparent that my outside is another's inside & another's
outside &
another's inside-outside... the phenomenology is necessarily blurred,
as are the
borders... there's much in what both marjorie & tom say with which i
find myself in essential agreement... but i believe there's a number
of things
that have gone unsaid, specifically in these regions, re this issue
of how
to address the (as i take it, ongoing) phenomenon of poetry, language
poetry in particular (& i don't see the point any longer of hedging
over that
term
---it's here to stay)... & because i'm somewhat on the margins, if
you will, of
this
particular discourse as far as *my* poetics/poetry is concerned, i
need to
wax a bit autobiographical in order to situate my remarks some...
1. i came to poetry, formally, a little over a decade ago, deciding
to leave
the
engineering profession (& "deciding" is far too genteel a term) to
pursue
my desire to---as i understood it then & even to some extent
now---SAY
something... this is a terribly atheoretical way of putting it, i
know, but
fact is, the alphabet just happened to be the technology through
which my
saying was to take place... by way of placing things further: during
approx.
the years charles b. was penning the items in his fascinating
collection
_content's
dream_, i was busy running around a brand new brewery & an aging
pharmaceutical plant with a hardhat, safety glasses & earplugs,
trying to
resolve corrupt labor practices on the construction site & still 'get
the
job done,' so to speak... trial by ordeal for a young guy in his
early 20s, as
male as it may sound to say so...
2. so i decided, like i say, at 29, to return to school, & under the
able
guidance of don byrd & judith johnson at suny/albany, i picked up
my doctor of arts (yep) & hit the job market, eventually ending up a
decade later here in chicago, at illinois institute of technology,
teaching
technical
& professional writing... i bet some of you could have seen this
coming, but i
couldn't... anyway... point is that i get questions from my tech.
students, even
now,
that conjure up my former institutional self, & set my teeth on edge
as
to what it is makes a writer tick... i'm still not sure i know...
3. & fact is, over the past decade, the academic job scene has
become, as we
all
know, miserable... & the politics of the past decade, well... i mean,
i came out
of the
early 70s... as i progressed more & more in my saying activity as a
poet, i
became
more & more aware of the language poets, thanks largely to the
liberal learning
atmosphere at albany... in any case, the work itself, the poetry,
struck me as
incredibly difficult, strikingly different from what i had envisioned
poetry to
be...
i never quite came to aesthetic terms with works such as, say, ron
silliman's _lit_---& i take this to be a mark of my own poetic
limitations,
tastes, etc. (but i'll come back to this question of how to evaluate
aesthetic
practice)...
at the same time, i found myself engrossed in the sorts of debates
over poetic
practice that (had & have) emerged from this collective enterprise, &
although
i found the work, contextually speaking, a reaction in some ways to
the
political
realities of the day (this is not a political assertion per se, but
an aesthetic
assertion---& methinks one would be well-advised not to read
political ethos
too closely into aesthetic articulations), i nevertheless recognized
that
these folks were *serious* about what they were doing... & at the
same time,
it was clear to me that they were constructively self-conscious as to
their respective institutional histories... they were, in all, i felt
(& still
feel) against the grain...
4. but the scene, the academic scene (as i've said) was getting
tighter &
tighter
job-wise... & in fact that the language poets were, relatively
speaking, fully
theorized (if for some, theoretically overdetermined) played well in
light of
the american academic tendency toward theory... at least, this is how
i read the situation, in broad strokes... hence folks like charles
bernstein
[sorry for picking on you, charles!] thankfully found their way into
'the academy'... &, i might add, this development was long overdue...
5. but my 'initiation,' if you will, into the community of language
poets---&
i'll
refrain from speaking in terms of 'generation' & the like, & by
'initiation' i
mean simply acquaintance/friendship & the like---didn't really
come until march 1993, at the new coast conference... my colleague &
friend here
andrew levy had been invited to speak, so i decided (again!) to
attend to
promote
my own little venue.... there i stood during the day, my kinko-green
sheets in
hand
(as some of you may recall), trying to get participants interested in
my
electronic
writing collective, *nous refuse* (juliana spahr & i had discussed
the
electronic
stuff electronically prior to the conference)... i found the general
tenor of
the conference, at the time, extremely exclusive at times... that is,
i felt my
place in the proceedings marginal at best, & i found the overarching
discourse,
what with presumptions as to a 'new coast," downright presumptuous...
in retrospect, this was a somewhat hasty judgement, to the extent
that many
folks at that conference knew each other, had shared histories,
whereas i had no
reason to expect these folks---strangers initially---to understand
either me,
say,
or my electronic orientation ipso facto... but there was, i'll
maintain, an
(unintended)
air at the conference, to one such as me, of self-importance---not
perhaps
entirely without warrant, but perhaps a bit off-putting initially to
other sorts
of aesthetic orientations... i mean, one can't be all things to all
people, but
then, i thought, just who were these people? (many of whom were a
good deal
younger than me, albeit no less equipped to discuss their craft)...
6. before i entirely alienate many of you out t/here, i wish to
state as
clearly as possible that the thing that's really struck me since
march '93
has been the *generosity* of the folks i met at buffalo, thereby
invalidating
my hasty evaluation as to 'exclusivity' & the like, at least in
personal terms
... near everybody i met there, & have since met, who are linked in
some
way with that group (if i may) has been extremely interested in
discussing &
promoting poetic practice---alternative, mainstream, what have you...
sometimes
the discussions are heated, yes---but this need not be a sign of
agon, simply of
commitment... i've found the group in general to be among the most
tolerant & supportive around when it comes to appreciating aesthetic
diversity,
whatever one's "taste" (& no, i don't wish to neutralize this latter
category,
simply to bracket it for a moment)... in fact it might be argued that
this
(now somewhat academically centered) group is far more tolerant than
most academic press poetry groupings... i'll leave this latter
speculation to
this list's collective imagination...
7. but ysee, now that i've discussed Personalities-Writ-Large, as it
were
(hopefully in the process avoiding any unnecessary vitriole from
whatever quarter, incl. mine) i need to come back to this issue of
aesthetic practice---not 'vs. political practice,' not even 'as
informed
by political practice'---i wanna talk aethetics as such for a moment,
and
bracket
for a change---not the social, but the political per se... i can't
hope to lay
out
parameters here---this is not what i'm about, in any case... & i'm
with tom
as to the necessity of practicing what (& mebbe AS) you preach... but
at the
meta-level, anyway: what i see the need for at the moment is less
manifesto
(& this reverses my sentiments of a coupla years back) & more a
discussion, in
critical terms, of how to situate the artist/poet amid this
increasingly
academic environs... what is the purpose of poetry in shaping even,
for example,
the
*poetic* part of one's world?... i'm a persistent promoter, on the
one hand,
of things electronic, & i might even be heard to drone on
occasionally as to
the more existential or pleasure-based or non-utilitarian value of
the
various pursuits in which i indulge myself... on the other hand, it's
lost
on me not for a nanosecond that this text, & those prompting it, come
to you-us courtesy of our postsecondary institutions (similar such
entities
being
where *most* of you are no doubt currently locating your corporeal &
ethereal
selves)... along these lines, i'm reminded of charles' superb piece
in alh last
year,
"what's art got to do with it?" etc... we need *more* such work,
motivated by
such concerns...
8. perhaps we need more poetry too, a new poetry, as tom indicates, &
despite whatever modernist misgivings i---we each---may have...
9. but perhaps, as well, situating the artist/poet as a member of a
specific
ecological or ontological or intellectual sect is somewhat less
important
than shaping new discourses---poetic-critical hybrids, creoles, what
have you---
the point being that *all* forms of code-switching & mutating should
be
explored... & explored with at least some consideration given as to
why one
would wish to so explore as well as where one is, institutionally
speaking,
while
exploring (& as michael joyce from the hypertext world would be quick
to
point out, *constructing*)... what is the value of the alphabet in a
world such
as ours, such as ours is becoming?... & what do we do (if this is not
too
naive a question this late in the 20th. century) with the more oral
basis
for poetry, the idea of poetry 'readings'?... perhaps we need a
better
collective
sense as to the history of readings of this latter variety, as
opposed to the
currently more popular tendency to read critical reception as a
writing
enterprise (?)... is this a political issue, strictly speaking (& i
have the
debates over literacy fluttering around in my head as i write this,
as well as
talk of
discursive hegemonies of one sort or another), or is recourse to
politics here merely one way of avoiding sustained discussion of the
value
of a specific aesthetic dimension? (& again, not that i wish to avoid
either
ideology
or politics per se)...
10. & as to politics per se, & given the very real & recent concern
evident in
these regions as to the status of aesthetic practice in general in
american
society:
perhaps we need to work harder to convince folks outside of our more
individualistic aesthetic pursuits that, whatever this our contested
site, it's
not a luxury...
joe amato
humamato@minna.acc.iit.edu
(line breaks courtesy of elm)
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 11:06:50 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing Update
In-Reply-To: <199501190419.XAA04520@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
In regards to the "Freeley Espousing" event in Washington, D.C., my
e-mail was incorrectly listed. I can be reached at mdw@gwis2.gwu.edu
Thanks
mark wallace
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 17:50:34 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: udle114@KCL.AC.UK
Subject: EM
To all the friends of Eric Mottram:
This is just to keep you up to date with whatever is happening in London.
Eric's family placed notices in the national papers that there will be
a smallprivate cremation ceremony on the 25th of this month. They regret
that it is not possible to have a ceremony open to all of Eric's friends
but there will be a celebration of Eric's life and work in a few weeks time.
To this all are welcome. The family have also asked that no flowers be sent -
they hav asked instead for contributions to the Eric Mottram Trust Fund
which they are planning to establish. The address for any donnations is
The Eric Mottram Trust Fund
1 Sandford Close
72 The Avenue
Beckenham
Kent BR3 2ES
United Kingdom
I am Shamoon Zamir at the Department of English at King's College, London.
If you have any question or need further information please do not hesitate
to contact me on e-mail or by phone or fax.
Shamoon Zamir
Department of English
King's College
Strand
London WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom
Phone: Country code + 71 873 2551
Fax: country code + 71 873 2257
e-mail: udle114@bay.cc.kcl.ac.uk
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 10:44:56 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Christopher Reiner <creiner@CRL.COM>
Subject: *Freely Espousing*
In-Reply-To: <199501190616.AA02416@mail.crl.com>
Have you heard from anyone in L.A. about a *Freely Espousing* event
here? If not, I don't know if I could put one together
single-handedly...but it might be worth a shot. This is not really a
big town for poetry, as you might expect. But there are reading spaces,
and there are poets (tho mostly the type that relate their bouts with
bad drugs or bad dates). If someone else is doing an
event, I'd be glad to help. If not, I'll do what I can.
--Chris Reiner
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 16:01:40 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501191903.AA27218@panix2.panix.com>
The Apex if it's M exhibits the superficies of the dialectic and boy is
the thesis the. But the seeds of the M in the L are multiple while the
interpretation of the seeds by the M is faulty but understandable. The
quotation which I have overused from Wittgenstein helps my explanation.
"If we speak of a think, but there is no object that we can point to,
there, we may say, is the spirit."
Those objectless things in the L include, but are not limited to, vaguely:
-the sign: the signified is not the thing, but the idea of the thing,
-the body which is a constantly referenced thing but sex in most of the L
is skirted to a spirit of the body by both the French and the L, and
-Language itself which is constantly reified by the L writers;
and also create the hook by which the M writers can attach to L and attack.
That these things are misinterpreted by the M writers need not be
disputed to thwart the attacks by the L writers. They are the places
where we have left openings for the next generation of artists. That the
M takes unfair advantage of these ideas doesn't matter either,
misinterpretation has already been valorized by the L.
The attacks by the M writers are particularly galling, but again
represent the same tactic used by the L writers on the previous
generation of NY School and Beat writing, although the M writers are less
substantive in their attacks on the L than the L was on NY, but isn't
that what the M is saying, so at the very least they are consistent.
The sad parts of the issue for me are the lack of recognition of these
facts by the L and the unconsciousness of the M writers about the openings
which they have left to be eviscerated by not only the next generation of
writers whom we can conveniently dub... the Nth. They will rue the day
they used the word spirit in their fashion when it is used to attack
their right to write as they write. For that reason, the most
egregious and annoying part of the M is how they have forgotten the
lessons of the enlightenment exposing the weakness of spiritual
allegiances and its institutions. But I guess we have to "pay to keep
from going through all this twice."
James
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 17:20:24 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing Update
Dear jennifer & Steve-- What about Philadelphia? When I lived there
(1986-1992) we had gotten a pretty interesting scene together, most
of whom seem to be gone now or at least not on line. There's Perelman
who is on line, but he's probably too busy with school. Ditto no doubt
for DuPlessis. maybe Gil Ott, is he still sick. Or Julia Blumenreich.
I could senf you there mail (not email) addresses. Valerie Fox of the
magazine 6ix is now in Japan. There's Mossin and the TO crowd but they're
more aesthetes than politicos it seems. My friend Dave baratier just
moved to phila. and edits pavement saw magazine there--If anybody, I
would suggest him. Of course, just over the river in CAMDEN is Lamont
Steptoe, black vietnam vet poet who used to run readings at the Painted
Bride but now works at the Walt Whitman Ctr. and he would probably be
a very good connection for you in terms of the NEA. I have a phone #
again but no email. Does anybody else know anything about Phila.????
There's Eli Goldblatt. (Charles Alexander probably has his address. I
lost it) at (is it) Villanova?
For PENNSYLVANIA may be a crucial state as well, Jen & Steve, especially
with the new conservative senator replacing Woffod (though I'm not mourning
the loss of its conservative democrat governor CASEY to a conservative
repub. etc.). Wofford not Woffod. Anyway, just to send this along in lieu
of being able (i think) to do anything here in (sm)allbany. Chris Stroff.
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 17:16:51 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Alan Berheimer <abernhei@HOOKED.NET>
Subject: NEA Enemy Action
In defending and rallying round the NEA it could be useful to
distinguish the underlying Republican impulse from some of the
straw men that are trotted out for the bonfire. I heard
recently of a meeting involving Gingrich financial backers in
which it was clear their objections were not to Mapplethorpe
and other well-known NEA headline "scandals" (much as these are
useful ammunition in appealing to fellow conservatives). What
really sticks in their craw is their belief the NEA is
promoting multiculturalism at the expense of "American"
culture. Implicit and explicit is their view that the latter is
qualitatively superior. (I have to resort to reference like
"the latter" since "what means American if not multicultural?"
seems so obvious to me, but you can let your imagination run
wild with what it means to an angry white male.)
What can we do with this information? Use it to build a broader
base of support for the NEA by appealing to multicultural
constituencies, undercutting elitism-based arguments and
drawing the debate away from kinkiness that so frightens
moderate politicians.
Alan Bernheimer
abernhei@hooked.net
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 21:43:03 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Apex of the M
poet in mid-career, defined: a poet in the middle of a long
publishing life. As far as delicious: sure, why not? This
is a controversial term? gimme a break
tom
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 22:11:15 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
IN James Sherry's post he rightly sees the apexers critique cum
rejection of the Language poets in a continuum with the LP's
treatment of the generation preceding. Surely, it is true that
this need to get this seemingly pervasive presence out of the
way, so to clear a space to write, afflicts or at least affects
any generation. I don't like it, but it makes sense to me; I
can even see it as a strength of character.
There remains the question of what is done in this cleared space,
and by whom.
I'm not sure I understand the first 1/3d of James' post, unless
he is beginning to list the features of Language Poetry that he
sees as taken over by the Apex of the M group. If so, I'm
interested to read a more lengthy treatment of that. Of these
non-thing objects.
The influence on some Language poets of the NY school is also
undeniable, esp. on the early work of Charles Bernstein, Kit
Robinson, Steve Benson, Tom Mandel, and others.
The intellectual rigor of Language theory is also as open to
critique as the intro to the Apex volume which lurks behind
this discourse (smugly, non-dislodged, I think). You have
only to read the banner and statement of intentions in the
early Language magazines (w/ =, etc.) to find yourself in
an ill-stirred pudding of the Whorf-Sapir thesis, an utterly
misconceived version of the speech/language distinction in
(oh what's his name; the swiss linguist's lectures - I really
am losing my grip if I can't remember his name... and I can't!),
and other sinking suspensions. But, this in no way excuses
the Apex intro, does it?
All the same, I'm not sure there're any definite _lessons of
the enlightenment_ which must be held onto, but James will
have expected my disagreement in that matter. I am an utterly
secular person (that is, I cd _describe myself_ as _an
utterly spiritual person_), and in some sense I like the
world I live in (less and less). But I'm afraid I must
say that the secularizing of the world over the last 500
years has not pluralized the world, not at all. Just different
and even more baleful idols being worshipped. And it is
a pluralizing, call it a creolizing if you want, of our
world is all can save it. Purity cults, even my favorite
one the Pharisees, have demonstrated their horrendous
effects over and over, and theese are magnified and
multiplied in a world of weapons and media with such
powers to make a hell of difference.
Finally, if, as in the Apex intro I find so appalling, the
poet is to be an iconoclast, she will have to knock over
an idol and smash it. Another poet is a poor choice to
begin.
tom mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 20:38:24 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: call for work for interface 10 (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <199501181919.LAA10381@whistler.sfu.ca> from "Pierre Joris" at
Jan 18, 95 10:56:12 am
I am curious about that phoenix in Tanya Manning's message.
What does the phoenix mean by the sentence: "I am woman!"?
I have heard it before, in some pop song, I think, and elsewhere, but
I have a real curiosity here.
I can understand, say, "I am a woman."
Or "I am the woman."
Or "We are women."
Or "I am French."
?
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 11:38:24 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: udle114@KCL.AC.UK
Subject: Eric Mottram
Update on the planned celebration for Eric Mottram:
The celebration will be held on March 3rd (Friday) between 6 and 8pm in
the Great Hall at King's College in London.
If anyone wants to send messages, poems etc. (on tape, in print etc) please send
be present at the event.
Shamoon Zamir
Department of English
King's College
Strand
London WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom
Phone: Country code + 71 873 2551
Fax: Country code + 71 873 2257
E-mail: udle114@bay.cc.kcl.ac.uk
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 09:51:07 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: krickjh@MCGRAW-HILL.COM
Subject: GovAccess.091: Congressional contact-vectors (pass it along
More congressional stuff via Jim Warren's GovAccess
If I'm overdoing the forwards of this material, someone please let me know.
John Krick
______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: GovAccess.091: Congressional contact-vectors (pass it along
Author: Jim Warren <jwarren%well.sf.ca.us@interlock.mgh.com> at Internet_Mail
Date: 01/20/95 09:02 AM
Received: by ccmail from interlock.mgh.com
From jwarren%well.sf.ca.us@interlock.mgh.com
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Received: from well.sf.ca.us by interlock.mgh.com with SMTP id AA03914
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Th
u, 19 Jan 1995 16:07:47 -0800
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 16:07:47 -0800
From: Jim Warren <jwarren%well.sf.ca.us@interlock.mgh.com>
Message-Id: <199501200007.QAA23805@well.sf.ca.us>
To: nobody%well.sf.ca.us@interlock.mgh.com
Subject: GovAccess.091: Congressional contact-vectors (pass it along!)
Congressional Phones, Faxes and - Sometimes - Email Addresses, as of 1/12/95
The following *only* lists U.S. Senate members - all of 'em. The list for
the House of Representatives is so large that I'll leave it for those who
desire it to fetch from the several sites that have been cited in this and
recent GovExcesses. However --
The *next* GovAccess - much shorter than this one - will give the
email-addrs of those relatively-few Senate *and* House Congress-creatures
who have eaddr and reportedly accept public email ... at least from their
state/district constituents.
--jim
<author!> <author!> <applause ...>
Thu, 19 Jan 1995 13:54:31 -0500 (EST)
>From Grace A York <graceyor@umich.edu>
You're welcome to share the [following] information. I can't claim
perfection; typing all those names and phone numbers is tedious. Am more
than willing to make corrections, however.
The latest version of the House and Senate directories, Congressional
e-mail addresses, and a fledgling list of committee assignments are
available on the University of Michigan Library Gopher. LC Marvel also
points to them under its
U.S.Congress section.
Grace York, Coordinator
Documents Center
The University of Michigan Library
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1205
Phone: (313) 936-2378
Fax: (313) 764-0259
E-Mail: graceyor@umich.edu
[illustrating the list's geneology and rapid infection-rate]
Wed, 18 Jan 95 15:33:16 EST
>From Chris_Casey@kennedy.senate.gov
Thu, 12 Jan 1995 11:57:32 -0500 (EST)
>From Grace A York <graceyor@umich.edu>
To: Chris_Casey@kennedy.senate.gov
1-12-95
UNITED STATES CONGRESS
SENATE DIRECTORY
104th Congress
1995-96
Capitol=Capitol Building
DSOB=Dirksen Senate Office Building
HSOB=Hart Senate Office Building
RSOB=Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
E-Mail correspondence may be limited to constituents. Include your
mailing address with your e-mail message if a reply is desired.
P ST Name and Address Phone & E-Mail Fax
= == ======================== ============== ==============
R AK Murkowski, Frank H. 1-202-224-6665 1-202-224-5301
706 HSOB
R AK Stevens, Ted 1-202-224-3004
522 HSOB
D AL Heflin, Howell T. 1-202-224-4124 1-202-224-3149
728 HSOB
R AL Shelby, Richard C. 1-202-224-5744 1-202-224-3416
509 HSOB
(Switched to the Republican Party on 11-9-94)
D AR Bumpers, Dale 1-202-224-4843 1-202-224-6435
229 DSOB
D AR Pryor, David 1-202-224-2353 na
267 RSOB
R AZ Kyl, Jon 1-202-224-4521 1-202-224-2302
363 RSOB
R AZ McCain, John 1-202-224-2235 na
111 RSOB
D CA Boxer, Barbara 1-202-224-3553 na
112 HSOB
D CA Feinstein, Dianne 1-202-224-3841 na
331 HSOB
D CO Campbell, Ben N. 1-202-224-5852 1-202-225-0228
380 RSOB
R CO Brown, Henry 1-202-224-5941 na
716 HSOB
D CT Dodd, Christopher J. 1-202-224-2823 na
444 RSOB
D CT Lieberman, Joseph I. 1-202-224-4041
316 HSOB
D DE Biden Jr., Joseph R. 1-202-224-5042 na
221 RSOB
R DE Roth Jr. William V. 1-202-224-2441 1-202-224-2805
104 HSOB
D FL Graham, Robert 1-202-224-3041 na
524 HSOB
R FL Mack, Connie 1-202-224-5274 1-202-224-8022
517 HSOB
D GA Nunn, Samuel 1-202-224-3521 1-202-224-0072
303 DSOB
R GA Coverdell, Paul 1-202-224-3643 na
200 RSOB
D HI Akaka, Daniel K. 1-202-224-6361 1-202-224-2126
720 HSOB
D HI Inouye, Daniel K. 1-202-224-3934 1-202-224-6747
722 HSOB
D IA Harkin, Thomas 1-202-224-3254 1-202-224-7431
531 HSOB
R IA Grassley, Charles E. 1-202-224-3744 1-202-224-6020
135 HSOB
R ID Craig, Larry E. 1-202-224-2752 1-202-224-2573
313 HSOB larry.craig@craig.senate.gov
R ID Kempthorne, Dirk 1-202-224-6142 1-202-224-5893
367 DSOB dirk_kempthorne@kempthorne.
senate.gov
D IL Moseley-Braun, Carol 1-202-224-2854 na
320 HSOB
D IL Simon, Paul 1-202-224-2152 1-202-224-0868
462 DSOB senator@simon.senate.gov
R IN Coats, Daniel R. 1-202-224-5623 1-202-224-8964
404 RSOB
R IN Lugar, Richard G. 1-202-224-4814 na
306 HSOB
R KS Dole, Robert 1-202-224-6521 1-202-224-8952
141 HSOB
R KS Kassebaum, Nancy L. 1-202-224-4774 1-202-224-3514
302 RSOB
D KY Ford, Wendell H. 1-202-224-4343 na
173A RSOB
R KY McConnell, Mitch 1-202-224-2541 1-202-224-2499
120 RSOB
D La Breaux, John B. 1-202-224-4623 na
516 HSOB
D LA Johnston, J. Bennett 1-202-224-5824 na
136 HSOB
D MA Kennedy, Edward M. 1-202-224-4543 1-202-224-2417
315 RSOB senator@kennedy.senate.gov
(www address: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/
Kennedy/homepage.html)
D MA Kerry, John F. 1-202-224-2742 1-202-224-8525
421 RSOB
D MD Mikulski, Barbara A. 1-202-224-4654 1-202-224-8858
709 HSOB
D MD Sarbanes, Paul S. 1-202-224-4524 1-202-224-1651
309 HSOB
R ME Snowe, Olympia 1-202-224-5344
176 RSOB
R ME Cohen, William S. 1-202-224-2523 1-202-224-2693
322 HSOB
D MI Levin, Carl 1-202-224-6221 na
459 RSOB
R MI Abraham, Spencer 1-202-224-4822 1-202-224-8834
B40 DSOB
D MN Wellstone, Paul 1-202-224-5641 1-202-224-8438
717 HSOB
R MN Grams, Rod 1-202-224-3244
R MO Bond, Christopher S. 1-202-224-5721 1-202-224-8149
293 RSOB
R MO Ashcroft, John 1-202-224-6154
R MS Cochran, Thad 1-202-224-5054 na
326 RSOB
R MS Lott, Trent 1-202-224-6253 1-202-224-2262
487 RSOB
D MT Baucus, Max 1-202-224-2651 na
511 HSOB
R MT Burns, Conrad R. 1-202-224-2644 1-202-224-8594
183 DSOB
v. Jack Mudd
R NC Faircloth, D. M. 1-202-224-3154
702 HSOB
R NC Helms, Jesse 1-202-224-6342 na
403 DSOB
D ND Conrad, Kent 1-202-224-2043 na
724 HSOB
D ND Dorgan, Byron L. 1-202-224-2551 1-202-224-1193
713 HSOB
D NE Exon, J. J. 1-202-224-4224 na
528 HSOB
D NE Kerrey, Bob 1-202-224-6551
303 HSOB
R NH Gregg, Judd 1-202-224-3324 1-202-224-4952
393 RSOB
R NH Smith, Robert 1-202-224-2841 1-202-224-1353
332 DSOB
D NJ Bradley, William 1-202-224-3224 1-202-224-8567
731 HSOB
D NJ Lautenberg, Frank R. 1-202-224-4744 1-202-224-9707
506 HSOB
D NM Bingaman, Jeff 1-202-224-5521 na
1110 HSOB Senator_Bingaman@bingaman.
senate.gov
R NM Domenici, Pete V. 1-202-224-6621 1-202-224-7371
427 DSOB
D NV Bryan, Richard H. 1-202-224-6244 na
364 RSOB
D NV Reid, Harry 1-202-224-3542 1-202-224-7327
324 HSOB
D NY Moynihan, Daniel P. 1-202-224-4451 1-202-224-9293
464 RSOB
R NY D'Amato, Alfonse M. 1-202-224-6542 1-202-224-5871
520 HSOB
D OH Glenn, John 1-202-224-3353 na
503 HSOB
R OH Dewine, Michael 1-202-224-2315 1-202-224-6519
R OK Inhofe, James 1-202-224-4721
453 RSOB
R OK Nickles, Donald 1-202-224-5754 1-202-224-6008
133 HSOB
R OR Hatfield, Mark O. 1-202-224-3753 na
711 HSOB
R OR Packwood, Robert 1-202-224-5244 na
259 RSOB
R PA Santorum, Rick 1-202-224-6324
R PA Specter, Arlen 1-202-224-4254 na
530 HSOB
D RI Pell, Claiborne 1-202-224-4642 1-202-224-4680
335 RSOB
R RI Chafee, John H. 1-202-224-2921 na
567 DSOB
D SC Hollings, Ernest F. 1-202-224-6121 na
125 RSOB
R SC Thurmond, Strom 1-202-224-5972 1-202-224-1300
217 RSOB
D SD Daschle, Thomas A. 1-202-224-2321 1-202-224-2047
317 HSOB
R SD Pressler, Larry 1-202-224-5842 1-202-224-1630
283 RSOB
R TN Thompson, Fred 1-202-224-4944
506 DSOB
R TN Frist, Bill 1-202-224-3344 1-202-224-8062
R TX Hutchison, Kay Bailey 1-202-224-5922 1-202-224-0776
703 HSOB senator@hutchison.senate.gov
R TX Gramm, Phil 1-202-224-2934 na
370 RSOB
R UT Bennett, Robert 1-202-224-5444 na
241 DSOB
R UT Hatch, Orrin G. 1-202-224-5251 1-202-224-6331
135 RSOB
D VA Robb, Charles S. 1-202-224-4024 1-202-224-8689
493 RSOB Senator_Robb@robb.senate.gov
R VA Warner, John W. 1-202-224-2023 1-202-224-6295
225 RSOB
D VT Leahy, Patrick J. 1-202-224-4242 na
433 RSOB senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
R VT Jeffords, James M. 1-202-224-5141 na
513 HSOB vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
D WA Murray, Patty 1-202-224-2621 1-202-224-0238
302 HSOB
R WA Gorton, Slade 1-202-224-3441 1-202-224-9393
730 HSOB
D WI Feingold, Russell 1-202-224-5323 na
502 HSOB
D WI Kohl, Herbert H. 1-202-224-5653 na
330 HSOB
D WV Byrd, Robert C. 1-202-224-3954 1-202-224-4025
311 HSOB
D WV Rockefeller, John D. 1-202-224-6472 1-202-224-1689
109 HSOB
R WY Simpson, Alan K. 1-202-224-3424 1-202-224-1315
261 DSOB
R WY Thomas, Craig 1-202-224-6441 1-202-224-3230
Corrections to grace.york@um.cc.umich.edu
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure Domestic Tranquillity, provide for the Common
Defense, promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty
to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the United States of America. [via sig-file of Brad
Schrick (esc@ape.com) ]
Mo' as it Is.
--jim
GovAccess is a list distributing irregular info & advocacy, maintained by
Jim Warren, columnist, MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc.
345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request>
jwarren@well.com (well.com = well.sf.ca.us; also at jwarren@autodesk.com)
& To add or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.com . &
& Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation. &
& Past postings are at ftp.cpsr.org: /cpsr/states/california/govaccess &
& by WWW at http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/govaccess &
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 11:17:58 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: NEA Enemy Action
In-Reply-To: <199501200729.AA25307@panix.com>
I too would support Alan Bernheimer's approach to creating extended
constituencies both for supporting NEA and for breaking down the petty
fiefdoms which have grown up in the arts, especially non-profit arts,
over the past decades. The appeal might also be to attack elitism in the
for profit arts which will both confuse the issue and focus the point of
the artists for social production as opposed to artists for commodity
production, a fight which we have been waging for decades also.
But the real issues are I think not those which Alan raises, although
they are the public ones. The real issues are twofold and come from
different consituencies.
1. When I worked for Hearst Corp. a few years ago, their beef was that
the government was funding small presses to be able to compete against
them and that was unfair to the for profit presses. Why should Sun & Moon
and Greywolf, etc. be allowed to compete unfairly against William Morrow
and Avon? (Obviously they are not the same market, but that argument does
not convince the "shelf-space" conscious marketeers who are threatened by
any kind of alternative as competition.) I think the same argument is at
the root of the corporate attacks on NEA and holds true for public
broadcasting as well.
2. The other constituency that is attacking the NEA is the right.
Originally their attention was galvanized by the body oriented art that
received so much publicity, but their real concern is that NEA is not
funding their art. They are not represented. I think if a painter of
Elvis on Velvet from North Carolina were funded and publicized that a lot
of this constituency's opposition will disappear.
I don't make these points to discourage coalition building that Alan
suggests, I simply think the real (indefensible) anxieties of the
attackers needs to be addressed in addition to coalition building.
Perhaps some of the more astute political organizers can suggest the
route to coalitions that can be effective.
Finally, I think the big entertainment money support of NEA will save it
or kill it. Pell's argument that it's either NEA or Social Security tells
a lot about what even the more liberal in Congress really think and the
falsity of their polarizing. Alas.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 11:21:20 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: call for work for interface 10 (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <199501200856.AA16948@panix2.panix.com>
The phoenix of course replies at the end of any discourse whether "am
woman" or "am French", "je suis fini". James "born again" Sherry
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 09:04:46 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marjorie Perloff <perloff@LELAND.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501200717.XAA08804@leland.Stanford.EDU>
It's true, of course, as Tom Mandel says, that every generation needs to
clear a space for itself and that the Language poets, as James Sherry
points out, did the same thing to the NY poets of the previous
generation. And Frank O'Hara and company did it to T. S. Eliot (God save
us from fisher kings!").
Still, there's an air of implosion about this latest "manifesto." For
one thing, the language poets were attacking an Establishment, but it's
hardly the case that today the L poets ARE the establishment. Most people
around the country still consider them upstarts if they've so much as
heard of them. Let's get real.
Secondly, if you want to launch a line of attack, you must have an
articulated position. "Violence and precision" as Marinetti put it. It
needn't be totally coherent--and I agree that the Language manifestos of
the 70s were hardly argued through--but you have to stand for something
that's then visible in the poetry itself. I just don't see this "change"
in Apex of the M. The poets printed therein take for granted that poetry
is written in free verse (or prose) for starters. It's a given. The
rejection of a "high style" is another given. And so on. That leaves
the manifesto with saying, more or less, we're more against capitalism
than the Language poets were and, at that level, the rhetoric fizzes out
because the L poets in question had/have a particular Marxist position
and carried it through. Ron Silliman, after all, was editor of the New
Socialist Review. So if the editors of Apex don't share that position,
but feel Capital is the source of all evil, I'd like to know what they
propose to do to fight capital.
Marjorie Perloff
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 12:53:48 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jonathan Monroe <jbm3@CORNELL.EDU>
Subject: Cornell Poetry Conference
CALL FOR PAPERS * CALL FOR PAPERS * CALL FOR PAPERS
PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE TENSE:
A CONFERENCE ON
CONTEMPORARY POETRY
Cornell University
March 31st - April 1st, 1995
Speakers include:
Charles Altieri
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Bei Dao
Li-Young Lee
Marjorie Perloff
Evangelina Vigil-Pinon
Proposals are invited for a conference on the consequences for poetry of
the global redrawing of cultural, political, and economic boundaries
underway since the late 1980's and the implications of the increasingly
multicultural, multiethnic, multilingual environment within the United
States for poetry's inheritance from the past and its legacies for the
1990's and the new millenium. Possible topics include, but are not limited
to:
dominant modes and alternative practices; anthologies, canon formation, and
the distribution and reception of poetry; reading habits and writing
communities; poetry's potential and actual contributions to the idea of a
"culture-at-large"; poetry and gender; multiculturalism and the poetics of
voice; lyric and narrative; poetry and interdisciplinarity; modernism,
postmodernism, and contemporary poetry; poetry after the Cold War; language
poetry; expansive/new formalist/new narrative poetry; poetry, technology,
and mass media; creative writing and critical theory; poetry and
performance; how poems matter, what poems know; bodies in/of poetry;
poetries of the Americas; U. S. poetry in international context.
Please send 500-word abstracts (for twenty-minute papers), suggestions for
additional panels, or inquiries by February 10, 1995 to:
Jonathan Monroe
Department of Comparative Literature
Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-3201
email: jbm3@cornell.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 15:30:36 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ted Pelton <Notlep@AOL.COM>
Subject: More Espousing
To those of you doing freely espousing gigs around the country:
My name is Ted Pelton and I was an NEA recipient in fiction this past year.
I was in touch this morning with Alexander Ooms at the NEA and he faxed me a
list of some 250 well-known recipients of fellowships. If you want to
contact him directly, his number is 202-682-5731. Unfortunately the NEA
doesn't have email (they are so wasteful with their current budget, I guess).
He's a friendly sort who I don't think would mind giving a 15 minute rap
about where they stand right now or faxing you info like he did me. He says
the current feeling is the fight could go either way, with a lot depending on
how the hearings went yesterday and today with the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting (no word yet -- he's going to keep me posted). But, if not the
full list, let me list some names which may be of interest to poetics
subscribers from the NEA grantee names he sent me:
Walter Abish, Rodolfo Anaya, Bruce Andrews, Paul Auster, Amiri Baraka,
Jonathan Baumbach, Charles Bernstein, Ted Berrigan, John Berryman, Mei Mei
Berssenbrugge, Paul Bowles, T. Corahessan Boyle, David Bromige, Rosellen
Brown, Charles Bukowski, Ana Castillo, Lorna Cervantes, Sandra Cisneros,
Lucille Clifton, Andrei Codrescu, Clark Coolidge, Robert Coover, Robert
Creeley, Diane DiPrima, Stuart Dybek, Louise Erdrich, Clayton Eshleman,
William Gaddis, Dagoberto Gilb, Allen Ginsberg, Nikki Giovanni, Spalding
Gray, Marilyn Hacker, Joy Harjo, Michael Harper, Lyn Hejinian, Linda Hogan,
Fanny Howe, Charles Johnson, Janet Kauffman, Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong
Kingston, Galway Kinnell, Denise Levertov, Jackson MacLow, Carole Maso, Harry
Mathews, Bharati Mukherjee, Fea Myenne Ng, Alice Notley, Peter Orlovsky, Joel
Oppenheimer, Maureen Owen, Ron Padgett, Grace Paley, Robert Pinsky, Francine
Prose, Carl Rakosi, Ishmael Reed, Donald Revell, Kenneth Rexroth, Alberto
Rios, Kit Robinson, Leslie Scalapino, Ntozake Shange, Leslie Marmon Silko,
Ron Silliman, Charles Simic, Jane Smiley, Ted Solotaroff, Gilbert Sorrentino,
Gary Soto, Ronald Sukenick, James Tate, Paul Violi, Anne Waldman, Rosmarie
Waldrop, Alice Walker, David Foster Wallace, Lewis Warsh, Bruce Weigl, Hannah
Weiner, Marianne Wiggins.
This is meant as a list to help people, but let me apologize for any
exclusions (good NEA-winning writers left off -- I'm sorry). The NEA press
release highlights the most visible authors; Ooms then threw in some more
experimental writers he knew off the top of his head. Then I selected names
I knew from this hodgepodge of names. And, to top it off, I'm a fiction
writer; names of other fiction writers are more familiar to me than poets.
Nonetheless, it's an impressive list. Many are older names, reminding us
that the NEA came into existence in the 60s, but also that they gave out a
lot more awards then, and the amount actually could buy you a year to write.
Fewer awards at a sum that hasn't been adjusted for inflation -- this makes
me think that after we win this battle (I think we will), we should keep the
pressure on to fund the arts at a rate more consistent with what's spent
elsewhere. The current NEA budget is 64 cents per U.S. citizen. Canada and
france each spend 32 dollars per, and Germany 27 dollars. The NEA itself
makes a good case for more money, but there's no little grass roots support.
Quoting from their press release:
"Every dollar awarded by the NEA attracts $11 from state and local arts
agencies, corporations, foundations, businesses and other private entities.
The not-for-profit arts create $37 billion in economic activity and suppost
1.3 million jobs. They also return $3.4 billion to the Federal Treasury
through income taxes, 20 times the budget of the NEA."
While I'm uncomfortable with this kind of language (support arts because it's
profitable), I think it can be turned to our advantage more than it is
currently. In other words, if this is the language that's being spoken, and
it shows us off well, we might as well learn to manipulate said language to
our own benefit. Will this deprive us of counter-languages? In the
short-run, perhaps; but in the long run it could turn to our benefit. How do
you feel about being a state-supported artist? Well, that's a question we
have to answer each for ourselves. But if we want the endowment, we should
also want to use the best terms to make it strong within the framework that's
most successful.
Sorry for the digression. I'd like to thank Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley
for getting this ball rolling. I live in a small city, Sheboygan, Wisconsin,
and was lamenting not being able to get something like this together here.
But then word came in about the Milwaukee gathering. They're only an hour
away, but I found out about it on-line. This was an insight into the new
technological geography for me. I like it.
Ted Pelton
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 17:14:06 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jonathan Brannen <jbrannen@INFOLINK.MORRIS.MN.US>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing Update
Does anyone know if plans are being made for Minneapolis/St. Paul
participation in Freely Espousing? If not, there should be since
the red flag the Newt most likes to wave is a misrepresentation
of an event sponsored by the Walker Arts Center in the Twin Cities.
If anybody knows of existing plans or is interested in bringing
Minneapolis/St. Paul into the loop, please contact me.
Jonathan Brannen
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 19:27:58 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Espousing Update 1/20
We're working on a more exhaustive update
to be posted tomorrow, but Ted Pelton's
recent post seques nicely with the fact
that Joe Ross has gotten Alexander Ooms
to speak at Freely Espousing-DC.
We also have a new & improved Press Release
(courtesy of Diana Cantu's expertise) which
we will be happy to fax to you upon request.
Cities we currently have initial leads in
now include Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia
(thanks to Chris Stroffolino for the open
post on that one), and Wilmington/Charlotte,
North Carolina. If anyone has scoop on those
communities, please e-mail us (or: make a
few exploratory calls of your own and then
let us know what you've found).
Finally (for now): we want to encourage
anyone who is not able to attend Freely
Espousing to compose a statement that can
be worked into the various programs across
the country. We're exploring the possibility
of having Net-links at some of the events,
but short of that we'd at least like to have
virtual participation along with the palpable
participation.
More shortly.
Steve Evans
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 20:25:06 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
When I mentioned that we L poets critiqued the NY school
I did not go on to say, as I shd have but didn't want to
take the time to, that in fact our reaction was _not_
against them, nor against the New Am. Poets, but against
the devitalizing and de-authorizing and de-pressing
movement in conventional postwar american verse, e.g.
the Wm. Stafford school with its endless white male
middleclass and most often academic epiphanies of
symbolic yet private experience, so small ever so
small so heart's needle small and yet so important
ever so important so much something they at the
center of the universe were doing for everyone;
_I did it for all of us_ as Stafford puts it
somewhere. Not for me buddy. No thanks.
Stafford died earlier this year, having devoted most
of more than eighty years life to poetry. I don't
like his work one bit. So what. My opinion, and even
my critique, is an unproductive fact in the face of
his work (which was his life). The only effective
counterpoise I can make to work I reject is *my own
work*, my own commitments, and beyond that some way
that I may intend deeply that they create a community
which does not present itself as a symbolic order
in place of social life but an example of social
life modeling itself as in the making. That *is*
a counterpoise.
(Not earlier this year, but in '94 of course)
tom mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 20:28:44 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Saussure, you dummy
Kit Robinson kindly mailed me to remind of the name of _the
Swiss linguist_ in my post a couple of days ago. Saussure,
bien sur. But were it Ferdinand or Fernand, I fergit?
tom mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 14:50:45 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Stephen Ratcliffe <stephenr@ELLA.MILLS.EDU>
Subject: ???
X-To: Group@ella.mills.edu, Discussion@ella.mills.edu,
Poetics@ella.mills.edu
I come back from long winter break, spent mostly travel to Mexico, Calif.
mountains & Hawaii, to find some 370 pieces of mail from all of you -- so
my work's cut out. Can I catch up???
Ratcliffe
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 22:49:14 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Wolfgang Staehle <wolfgang.staehle@THING.NYC.NY.US>
Organization: [ THE THING NYC ]
Subject: Saussure, you
> bien sur. But were it Ferdinand or Fernand, I fergit?
It's Ferdinand de Saussure. I misspelled Foucault the other day.
wolfgang.staehle@thing.nyc.ny.us
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 23:27:56 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ron Silliman <rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: NEA Enemy Action
James Sherry wrote that
> The real issues are twofold and come from
>different consituencies.
>
>1. Why should Sun & Moon
>and Greywolf, etc. be allowed to compete unfairly against William
Morrow
>and Avon?
This, I think, is exactly right. I've heard this argument made against
all manner of nonprofits, quite aggressively, up to and including public
schools and libraries. (Jack Shoemaker used to complain bitterly about
how libraries reduced the need to sell individual copies of a book. As
someone who didn't even know about bookstores until I was 15 or 16, I
always thought that was nuts.)
>
>2. I think if a painter of
>Elvis on Velvet from North Carolina were funded and publicized that a
lot
>of this constituency's opposition will disappear.
>
Wrong on this one, James. George Dukmejian (whose last name I think I
just butchered), back when he was governor of California, made a very
pointed effort to appoint fellow Armenians to every single commission in
California. So his "painter" on the Cal. Arts Commission was a woman
from Long Beach who did watercolors of battle ships. It made no
difference.
By the way, folks, the right is also currently blasting Stanford for
spending $1 million+ on the archives of Allen Ginsberg. (His membership
in NAMBLA is their main point.) So there will be a focus on censorship
at the opening of his archives on February 10. Marjorie Perloff, Carl
Rakosi, Ginsberg, Nancy Peters (editor at City Lights) & your humble
servant will be on one panel. Kathleen Sullivan (the law professor &
wife of the former mayor of SF, Joe Alioto) is doing something else (I'm
not sure what). And Allen's reading.
Feb. 10 at Stanford. I'm sure Marjorie's got the details.
Ron Silliman
rsillima@ix.netcom.com
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 11:45:09 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 20 Jan 1995 09:04:46 -0800 from
<perloff@LELAND.STANFORD.EDU>
As usual, I feel as if I am blindly shooting into an argument that I know
nothing about, not having read any of the apex manifestoes and only
having scanned briefly all previous postings on this subject.
However, it seems to me as if someone needs to say the stupidly
obvious and that is that every revolution, including any poetry that
pretends to be fully fulfilled revolutionary poetry, is written in
language.
This point, an admittedly stupid point, I think is important
when you realize how many revolutions have failed due tothe fact
that they are indeed, simply a revolution of the existing social
structure, a kind of endlessly self-fulfilling Hegelian loop that
we don't seem able to get around.
For instance, I remember this guy Mike I used to work with at
Taco Bell and he hated the manager for her petty and often cruel
treatment of employees. He began a systematic, and I always thought
very intelligent campaign to discredit her in the fact of the owner.
After many highly entertaining confrontations, he was able to get her
fired. Of course, as I'm sure is already apparent, he was then named the
manager and after an agonizing, I mean you could see it on his face
a lot of the time, three months, he began to do the same things the person
he so hated did before him. Simple, easy, maybe too easy, but the point
is that you cannot change the particulars of any culture without changing
the way if functions.
You can't have a revolutionary poetry that says I am revolutionary
and therefore I am going to write about coal miners in the language
of coal miners etc. Transparency doesn't exist in the poetic context.
It seems to me that Language Poetry is a neccessary, but certainly
not final step towards a revolutionary poetry because it takes as its
project the subversion of language. I don't know anywhere else to start.
It doesn't end here, of course, but any revolutionary poetry that is
going to succeed Language Poetry, and that will inevitably have to happen,
will have to take into account its achievements, as well as its problems.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 14:11:14 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: Environmental Systems Research Institute
From: Michael Waltuch <mwaltuch@ESRI.COM>
Subject: Address
If you know the current address of the Slovenian poet Tomas Salamun,
please send it to me.
Thanks,
Michael Waltuch
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 16:16:32 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: ???
Back to Mexico, Stephen! But this time, take me with you...
tom
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 16:57:44 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Kali Tal <kalital@MERCURY.CIS.YALE.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
I'm outside both the traditional academic and literary poetry circles.
Until Joe Amato introduced me to the work of the Language Poets, I'd never
heard them. I like Joe's work (that's why I publish it), but my
longest-lasting literary affections lie with "movement" poets, primarily
feminist and/or African American and/or war veteran writers who see
themselves and their work as inseperable from their politics and their
activism. My perspective on the whole _apex of the m_ debate is shaped by a
general distrust of manifestos which seem to be substitutes for action, or
which are taken *as* actions in and of themselves. I'd like to respond to
some of eric pape's comments in that spirit:
>every revolution, including any poetry that
>pretends to be fully fulfilled revolutionary poetry, is written in
>language.
I am not sure that this is true. In extremity, language is a luxury that
many cannot afford. Violent revolutions (and perhaps most acts of physical
violence) are *not* written--that is specifically what makes them violent;
pens are *not* swords, however much the revolutionary (or reactionary) poet
might wish that they were, might yearn to make language strike like a blow.
My particular critical speciality is "literature of trauma"--specifically,
the literature of "survivors" of man-made violence (Holocaust, combat, rape,
etc.)--and I have found that a characteristic spanning every literature of
trauma which I have yet uncovered is the agonizing tension between the
failure of language ("You *can't* understand!") and the desperate need for
language to suceed (You *must* understand!). Revolutionary poets yearn to
write with such strength that their audience is traumatized as they have
been traumatized (Jones/Baraka raging that "poems are bullshit unless they
are/ teeth or trees or lemons piled/ on a step," wanting his own poem to be
a machine gun, reduced to helpless ratatatting; the anger is real, the
danger *behind* the poem is real, but the *poem* can never be real in the
sense Baraka desires it to be).
There was, last year, a lengthy discussion of "terrorist" poetics/poetry
on the TNC list--some of you will remember. It seems to me that both
"terrorist" and "revolutionary" poetry are impossible constructions unless
one is talking about them as documentary (at one remove) rather than actual
(the thing itself). Soldiers who write or talk about combat state
unequivocally that language fails to describe their experience. Yet every
soldier who writes or talks about combat says *something*--uses language in
*ways* that fail, though he/she uses it all the same. There are qualities
of "revolution" which lie outside of language--the violence that language
can describe in the before and the after, but never at the now. The realm of
the traumatic event is *silence,* speechlessness, a breach in the narrative,
a space for which there are no words or explanations or stories: THIS ISN'T
SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPENING! Narrative constructions come later, to explain,
to rationalize, to describe "what happened," but they can never represent it
properly, since its nature and impact are derived from the fact that trauma
is *un*representable. There are some truths which cannot be conveyed, some
instances in which "only being is believing."
>It seems to me that Language Poetry is a neccessary, but certainly
>not final step towards a revolutionary poetry because it takes as its
>project the subversion of language. I don't know anywhere else to start.
The subversion of language is certainly the project of poets like Audre
Lorde (whose description of language as "the master's tools," and whose
position as the Sister Outsider make even her *use* of language and the
poetic form subversive) and Margaret Atwood and Monique Wittig, and so on.
But these feminist poets are not considered (I believe) to be connected to
the Language Poets. Nor are they given much serious attention by either the
literary or academic establishments (dismissed as "political"--and therefore
possessing an "agenda"--as lesbian, as feminist). I am asking, as an
outsider myself, the honest question: what is subversive about what the
Language Poets? What is the distinction between the sort of subversion
practiced by Lorde, for example, and various Language Poets?
> You can't have a revolutionary poetry that says I am revolutionary
>and therefore I am going to write about coal miners in the language
>of coal miners etc. Transparency doesn't exist in the poetic context.
Sometimes I think that we don't *see* poetry when it *is* transparent. We
don't usually look very carefully at what coal miners are doing... or what
disfranchised black ghetto kids are doing... or what working class women are
doing... Some of the strongest and most "revolutionary" American poetry is
spouted by kids at house parties, and used-to-be-kids who now have recording
contracts with major record labels. Ice-T *is* a poet, though you might not
much like what he's doing (I do). Ice-T is writing poetry about
revolution--even if it is not revolution itself--and at least the *poetry*
is being televised (hey, Gill Scott-Heron has a new album out, did you
hear?). Black Entertainment Network rap programming and "Yo! MTV Raps" are
pretty interesting.
Which brings me back around to the _apex of the m_ intro, which I haven't
read, but have now read *about* at length. It seems to me that one can't be
revolutionary without being clear what one is *for* and what one is
*against*, and without being willing to put one's body on the line for one's
beliefs. (Revolution is risky.) In a culture where a poet can be taken out
and shot for writing a protest verse, it makes sense to talk about
"revolutionary" poets. In *this* culture, it might even make sense to talk
about *some* poets that way. But it's real hard for me to swallow the
notion of "revolutionary" poets who live in relative comfort and are not
actively engaged in taking physical risks to participate in social or
political movements. Maybe I'm just a hard-line kinda gal, but I like to
save the word "revolutionary" for times when I really *mean* it....
Kali Tal
_______________
Kali Tal
Sixties Project & Viet Nam Generation, Inc.
18 Center Rd., Woodbridge, CT 06525
203/387-6882; fax 203/389-6104
email: kalital@minerva.cis.yale.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 19:06:21 -0500
Reply-To: Robert Drake <au462@cleveland.Freenet.Edu>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Robert Drake <au462@CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
i'd like to suggest a reading experiment (hat tip to chas b.'s
"writing experiments") in re _apex of the m_: begin reading on
page 9--an excerpt frm ed dorn's "langue d'oc around the cloc"--
and read thru or around in the following 168 pages... & form
an opinion ov the work presented. then, & only then (if you
want), go back and read the introduction. how is your opinion
of the contents changed?
ov course, this is a sham--even if you don't read the intro
first, you've read the various comments here, & have those in
mind. & my comment--the screed that passes for an introducion
is even more vitrolic than the intro to AotM #1; despite that,
the issues raised are (to my mind) important ones, and worth
addressing--and not just defending against.
yes, my proposed re-vision of the work-as-a-whole is a reading
that is _not_ the reading intended by the editors... defer to
their intended reading if you prefer. fr m'self, i learn several
thangs (so far)--i enjoyed much of the work presented (chris
stroffolino, susan thackery, & peter gizzi among others,1st
time thru); i'm still unable to appreciate jerome rothenberg's
work, despite being sympathetic to his stated poetics; the
work seems to me to be various & assorted, some better than
others, but none of it "revolutionary"; and finally: i _can't_
find the connection between th intro and th work. that might
well be my failing as a reader. it might also be a failure
of vision, self-perception, or articulation of the editors--
this assuming that the intro is the work of the editors, tho
it is unsigned... at anyrate, reaction so far has seemed to be
reaction to the intro, rather than the work-as-whole--3 pages
out of 176.
praps the "problem" is one of perspective. one editor confided
in me that one impetus was a collective tiredness with poor
imitations of Language poety--something you might well tire of
(as tiresome as poor plath imitations, or bukowski imitaitons),
especially if yr in the relatively narrow confines of a particular
graduate program. but in the rest of the world, we've never heard
of l=a=n=g=a=g=e, let alone tired of it; while others with an
personal investment might feel their own bastions under attack.
i dunno--it hardly seems like getting worked up over, there's
so little at stake...
lbd
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 19:52:53 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: Resent-From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
Comments: Originally-From: Evan/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: New Press Release
From Freely Espousing Headquarters:
A slightly punchier version of our press release is
attached below. We invite you to forward this message
but ask that you encourage Internet rather than phone
responses in your prefatory language. Our e-mail
address is ST001515@brownvm.brown.edu.
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 1995
Contact: Steve Evans 401-274-1306
ARTISTS & WRITERS ORGANIZE NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION
TO DEFEND NEA, NEH
Events Planned in Seven Cities to Protest
Attack on the Arts
Writers, artists, scholars, and concerned citizens in more than
a half-dozen American cities have organized *Freely Espousing,*
a day of events in support of public arts funding on Saturday,
January 28th, 1995. Marathon readings, exhibits, and other
activities are being planned in response to threats that the
new 104th Congress intends to slash federal funding for the
arts and humanities provided through the National Endowment
for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities
(NEH).
Initiated by two Rhode Islanders--RI Senator Clairborne Pell was
the architect of the 1965 legislation that created the NEA/NEH--
the idea for a day of protest spread quickly across the Internet
from Providence to New York City, San Francisco, Milwaukee, San
Diego, Buffalo, and Washington D.C.
Providence event organizers Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley say
"we chose the name *Freely Espousing* in order to underscore the
vital role of the arts in a democratic society. It is important
to call attention to the lack of rational, public debate not just
on this issue, but on a range of social and cultural issues currently
being forced through the Congress under the leadership of House
Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole."
The centerpiece of *Freely Espousing* events nationwide will
be a marathon "read-in" of literary works created with NEA support.
Featured speakers, round-table discussions, musical performances,
exhibits, and other events are also planned.
###
(append local information here)
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 12:27:30 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Moxley/Evans <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Freely Espousing 1/22 Update
What follows is a lengthy post updating you on
the progress of *Freely Espousing.* Ten days
after our initial announcement, momentum continues
to gather and to lead in unexpected directions.
Jen and I want to thank everyone who has contributed
advice (technical and imaginative) to us in recent
days.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
The Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities
is composed of the following 16 senators. We give phone
numbers for each Senator, followed by fax (if available)
and e-mail (if available). This is a subcommitte of the
Labor, Human Resources, and Education Committee. Testimony
regarding the NEA is scheduled to begin Tuesday, January 24.
Jeffords (chair; R-VT): 1-202-224-5141, vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
Kassebaum, Nancy (R-KS): 1-202-224-4774, 1-202-224-3514
Dodd, Christopher (D-CT): 1-202-224-2823
Harkin, Thomas (D-IA): 1-202-224-3245, 1-202-224-7431
Simon, Paul (D-IL): 1-202-224-2152, 1-202-224-0868, senator@simon.senate.gov
Coats, Daniel (R-IN): 1-202-224-5623, 1-202-224-8964
Kennedy, Edward (D-MA): 1-202-224-4543, 1-202-224-2417, senator@kennedy.senate.
gov
Mikulski, Barbara (D-MD): 1-202-224-4654, 1-202-224-8858
Abraham, Spencer (R-MI): 1-202-224-4822, 1-202-224-8834
Wellstone, Paul (D-MN): 1-202-224-5641, 1-202-224-8438
Ashcroft, John (R-MO): 1-202-224-6154
Gregg, Judd (R-NH): 1-202-224-3324, 1-202-224-4952
Pell, Clairborne (D-RI): 1-202-224-4642, 1-202-224-4680
Frist, Bill (R-TN): 1-202-224-3344, 1-202-224-8062
Gorton, Slade (R-WA): 1-202-224-3441, 1-202-224-9393
DeWine, Michael (R-OH): 1-202-224-2315, 1-202-224-6519
(Nine Republicans, 7 Democrats)
*
FREELY ESPOUSING CONTACT PEOPLE (A REMINDER)
Seven cities have confirmed events for Jan. 28.
Home phone and e-mail information for contact
people follows. Very different formats exist
for the days events so be sure to be in touch
with the local Contact Person for details!
Providence: Steve Evans, Jennifer Moxley
401-274-1306
st001515@brownvm.brown.edu
Buffalo: Jena Osman
716-884-2213
v210j9vn@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu
note: in Buffalo, event will not be called
*Freely Espousing.* Instead it will
publicized as *SAVE THE artWORLD.*
Milwaukee: Bob Harrison
414-962-5989
Robert.A.Harrison@jci.com
New York: Jeff Hull
212-777-7436
HarborRat@aol.com
San Diego: Craig Foltz
619-291-4945
San Francisco: Kevin Magee
510-527-9485
(fax) 415-399-3041
Washington DC: Joe Ross
202-745-0454
jross@tmn.com
*
SPONSORING A WOODLAND PATTERN READER
Woodland Pattern has agreed to link their
already-scheduled Marathon Reading to
the *Freely Espousing* effort. Bob Harrison
informs me that WP seeks "sponsors" for
each person reading on January 28: suggested
sponsoring fee is $25. This Benefit was
scheduled in anticipation of lost/reduced
NEA support in the coming year.
Their address is: 720 E. Locust St., Milwaukee WI 53212.
Their fax number: 1-414-372-7636.
Please contact Bob for more information.
*
BEYOND JAN 28 Part 1
Los Angeles, Baton Rouge, St.Paul/Minneapolis,
Wilmington (NC), Seattle, Portland, Charlottesville,
and Pittsburg as some of the cities where people
have expressed interest in organizing a *Freely
Espousing* event. Because of obvious time constraints,
it is unlikely that more than a few of these places
will be able to join us on the 28th. We therefore
strongly encourage people to synchronize a second
wave of events for the following Saturday, Feb. 4th.
Our goal from the beginning has been self-organization
strengthened by open information channels. Jennifer
and I, in concert with the Ad-Hoc Committee of Literary
Publishers here in RI, will be happy to provide what
advice and coordinating support we can to interested
parties. As combined independent agents, we can be sure
that viewpoints excluded by the extant arts bureaucracies
have a place on the program (even while including spokes-
persons from those art bureaucracies).
BEYOND JAN 28th Part 2
Most people we've talked with have expressed concerns
about *sustaining* and *expanding on* the momentum
generated by these events. We invite an open debate
on how this may best be done. As Alan Bernheimer
and James Sherry have pointed out in open posts to
the Poetics List, communication across segmented
aesthetic, generic, and (most importantly) social
lines is imperative if our larger goal of preserving
and sustaining democratic means of expression and
action is to be approached. I doubt anyone needs
reminding of what 1996 could bring if concerted
efforts are not made now to generalize the material
and symbolic conditions of possibility for democratic
action. The "Loose Coalition for Democratic Inspiration"
that Rod Smith, Lee Ann Brown, and Mark Wallace
proposed a while back (vis-a-vis the Prayer in the
Schools initiative) is something we should all consider
"joining."
*
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON MEDIA ISSUES
The opening of Senate hearding on the NEA certainly will
be overshadowed by Clinton's State of the Union Address
later the same day. The advance line on the Address proffered
by Administration spokespersons today indicates that Clinton
will not so much as mention the NEA/NEH on Tuesday night (the
highlight, we are told, will be a xenophobic initiative to
increase spending on anti-Immigration measures). If by
some chance the NEA/NEH is mentioned, by all means use the
opportunity to increase local media coverage of your standpoint
on Federal Arts Funding. If it isn't, sit tight: the NEA
will probably surface in Thursday's print media.
Anybody who can get a Charger or 49er to make a statement
in support of the NEA/NEH will be guaranteed early entrance
into the Small Press Hall of Fame.
You may wish to seize on Murdoch's funding/bribing of a writer
of little discernible talent (cf. _The Window of Opportunity_)
and a nationally-recognized penchant for obscenity as a
brilliant argument for why we need alternatives to the *market.*
(_Window_ is Newt Gringrich's 1984 "blueprint for the future,"
published by Tom Doherty Associates, written when NG was Reagan's
point-man for SDI).
And finally, vis-a-vis Censorship. We abhor the NEA's imposition
of censorship on itself as an agency and on the artists it funds.
The point to keep foregrounded is that eliminating Federal Funding
for the Arts and contributing to the further consolidation of
corporate ownership of the means of expression is itself an unparalleled
act of censorship. Herb Schiller's *Culture, Inc.* (NY: Oxford,
1989) remains a great reference on this point.
*
Steve Evans & Jennifer Moxley
401-274-1306
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 13:40:05 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: Message of Sat, 21 Jan 1995 16:57:44 EST from
<kalital@MERCURY.CIS.YALE.EDU>
Kali: Just a brief response to your provacative posting in the midst of
all the Freely Espousing excitement.
What is beyond language? You speak of the traumatized persons you
work with expressing their frustration at the fact that they cannot
communicate their experiences; you *can't* understand; you *must*
understand. This seems to me certainly as you suggested a symptom of
the inadequacy of language, but it also seems to see some personality,
or personality issues that are beyond or before language. Isn't
language the closest thing we have to an identity, a personality? Which
means, I think, that identity is something we share with others,exterior.
This is what I was trying to get at when I was speaking of transparency
as not being in the poetic context. I'd like to amend that and say as far
as I know transparency, despite Carl Rogers, is not in any context.
Transparency assumes the stability of both the sender and the receiver.
I can't tell you how many times I have spoken or wrote and said not five
seconds after that I was full of shit and how could I say such things. It
wasn't me who said them I think to myself. The frustration everyone feels
with language is in this lack of coherence of identity from moment to
moment. There is no rapport; something always escapes.
As far as language poets vs. Lorde and others, well, that is something
I'd rather not get involved in. I can say that I think of Lorde's most
subsversive act is simply being there, unavoidable, unplacatable. What
she does with language, which is considerable, is to remind us that there
are other forms out there that not only have a right to exist, but have
informed the dominant language greatly.
I should shut up about the apex of the m'ers, because frankly I don't
know anything about them. Nor do I want to be seen as some language school
apologist. I mean, I just got here. Nobody knows me. I'm surprised
anyone even listens to me.
I find them intersting (and here I speak of them as if they were
already stuffed and mounted on a gallery wall) because I think they
have pinpointed where to begin to define an oppositional, or revolutionary,
or whatever, poetry. We start at the beginning of poetry, at the beginning
of personality, at the beginning of culture. We start with language.
What I find particularly interesting is that not only do many
language poets *subvert* language, like you have properly noticed
Lorde doing, but they make a sort of intervention into language. They
try to change its structure. If we are to make any kind of intervention
into history, this seems to me a model we can work with.
Maybe the apexers are working with this. Maybe not. I don't know. I will
say at this point that I think folks tend to discount manifestoes. Must
be some sort of American anti-intellectual thing. The fact that both the
language poets and the apexers wrote manifestoes is all to their credit as far
as I am concerned. If we have learned anything in the last few years of NEA/NEH
controversy after controversy it is that the people doing the work had better
take the time to define themselves before someody else, like Lynn Cheney,does.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 22:51:39 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Charles Bernstein <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: Address
In-Reply-To: Your message dated "Sat, 21 Jan 1995 14:11:14 -0500 (EST)"
<01HM40FF9HG28X3KUN@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
No I don't. Sorry.
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 01:01:05 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
Hey, Kali Tal--have you heard that new Gil Scott Heron album? Is it
as good as 1980? and some of the other stuff he did before his decade
or so hiatus from recording/releasing?
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 08:49:48 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: Environmental Systems Research Institute
From: Michael Waltuch <mwaltuch@ESRI.COM>
Subject: Re: Freely Espousing
Steve Evans & Jennifer Moxley:
Here's a suggestion: This week's What's New with NCSA Mosaic Pick of
the Week Home Page is something called BookWire, "the book publishing
industry's Online Information Resource". They will doubtless have a lot
exposure this week at their Web site. It might be good to send them a
press release. They are at http://www.bookwire.com or
www@bookwire.com.
Michael Waltuch
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 09:57:16 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501200051.TAA19815@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
In regards to James Sherry's post, why the (again) valorization of the M
as the sole "meaningful" response of younger "experimental" writers to
Language poetry?
Why does no one respond to A Poetics of Criticism, Poetic Briefs, various
essays in Witz and Texture and (sometimes interesting essays) Talisman,
which have all said much more complex, insightful, and useful things
regarding this issue?
mark wallace
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 12:58:18 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: Converted from PROFS to RFC822 format by PUMP V2.2X
From: Alan Golding <ACGOLD01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject: New Press Release
In-Reply-To: note of 01/21/95 19:59
Associate Professor of English, U. of Louisville
Phone: (502)-852-5918; e-mail: acgold01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu
Steve/Jennifer:
Have you distributed your Freely Espousing press release to the TAMLIT list?
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 23:25:31 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Espousing Update 1/23
This will be a brief one.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
We have learned that the Senate Committee
on Labor and Human Resources has postponed
their scheduled hearing on the NEA until
later in the week. As usual, the Committee
staff proved rather unforthcoming, but we
will post the new time as soon as we learn
it.
Also, in yesterday's post we provided detailed
information on the Subcommittee on Education, Arts,
and Humanities. This week's hearing was called by
the Full Committee (L & HR), not the subcommittee,
so the people you see on C-SPAN may not be precisely
the one's we provided information for.
CALL FOR STATEMENTS
As we have mentioned before, one way to participate
in *Freely Espousing* is to post a succinct statement
expressing your viewpoint on the issue of federal
arts funding. We will do our best to distribute these
statements to all participating sites. So far,
response has been very low on this count. We think these
statements can play a crucial part in facilitating
solidarity between otherwise isolated locations, so please
do consider writing one.
ATTACK ON INTEREST FREE LOAN DEFERMENT FOR GRAD/PROF. SCHOOLS
We received an action alert today (via the Marxist Literary
Group's list-serve) concerning *Contract with/on America*
legislation to dismantle interest free loan deferments to
grad students. We will be happy to forward that post upon
request. A 1-800 number, similar to the one established
by American Arts Alliance on the NEA issue, has been set
up (cost $3.95). We haven't got the number to hand, but
will include it in our next update.
Alright--we're a little weary here in Providence, and
a little nervous after having moved our event to a much
larger space, but reports from across the country are
very encouraging. Good work everyone!
Steve Evans & Jennifer Moxley
401-274-1306
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Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 07:24:20 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ryan Knighton <knighton@SFU.CA>
Subject: sign
Could you please sign me up or on or whatever.... Or, could
you tell me how. Or, at least tell me something.
thanks,
Ryan Knighton (knighton#sfu.ca)
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 16:06:55 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
Dear mark--maybe a hint at an answer to your question about APEX BASHING
may be found in the analogy with U.S.A. cold war politics...The USA
certainly paid far more attention to the USSR than it did to England
or France (despite its force du frappe) and the BIPOLAR POLITICAL MODEL
still seems to exist in the poetry scene, despite the hype to the contrary...
This had alot to do with how the L poets "got (in)famous" and have similar
effect on MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 22:46:38 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: Message of Tue, 24 Jan 1995 16:06:55 -0500 from <LS0796@ALBNYVMS>
This analogy is very useful if only to demonstrate the absurdity of reducing
all the alternatives, political or poetical, down to two.
But considering the structural similarites of Soviet and US style
administration, I wonder if you're trying to draw some correlation
between the claims of m and of the l school?
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 23:22:04 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501250043.QAA10081@slip-1.slip.net>
Dear Chris, If what you're saying is true (about hate giving its object
power), then wouldn't the same apply to Newt Gingrich?
All Best, Spencer Selby
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 02:05:20 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Espousing Update 1/24
Another late-night update:
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
The Senate Hearing on the NEA has been rescheduled
for Thursday, January 26th, at 9:30 am.
The Congressional Record for January 23rd includes
a speech given by Senator Pell in defense of the
Endowment which event organizers/participants may
wish to glance at. Also included in the record
are editorials from various national newspapers.
They are:
We Need the NEA (Providence Journal 1/15/95)
Don't Axe Federal Support for Art (NYT 1/13/95)
Maintain Subsidies to Support the Arts (Chicago Sun-Times 1/13/95)
Shunning the Yahoo Point of View (Wall St. Journal 1/13/95)
Making a Case for the Arts (Atlanta Constitution 1/10/95)
GOP Has A Song for NEA: Taps (LA Times, Washington edition 1/11/95)
America's Art and Soul (Boston Globe 12/17/94).
In the House, the Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on
Interior and Related Agencies, was to have met this afternoon
at 1:30. I haven't yet seen or heard anything about that (check
tomorrow's papers).
NEA "PLANS TO" DISTRIBUTE $24 MILLION
Or so I read in 1/24 Boston Globe (but nowhere else so far).
Massachusetts artists and orgs got $1.3 million. Reports of
who received funds in your area could be a handy-way of tracking
down further *Freely Espousing* participants.
Best to everyone,
Steve Evans & Jennifer Moxley
(401) 274-1306
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 02:31:25 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
No, eric (pape), actually, the analogy is severely flawed. I apologize
for bringing it up. I do not know "the dealing that goes on behind the
wings" but I prefer to be naive enough to hold out hope that if Mr.
Mandel or Ms. Perloff sent work to Apex that they would read it seriously
and "on its own merits" as it were. I don't want to put words in anyone's
mouth, but in a letter I received several years ago from a dear friend
of mine who happens to be an APEX editor, Mandel's work was mentioned
positively--So I don't understand why he needs to say "I'm a language
poet" in such a card-carrying way, as if these NAMES matter more than
the poetry...
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 02:38:45 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
Well, Spencer, that IS a tricky question is it. Let's SAY i HATE Newt
Gingrich, or at least the interests for which he stands. Well, certainly
that hatred isn't gonna make him or them go away, nor necessarily make him
a larger threat then he is (except perhaps in our minds--LEST WE FORGET,
etc.). It may be a quite different phenomena we're dealing with with the
"divided left" which is basically how i read this L vs. M controversy...
That the L vs. the M debate seems to obscure a more real debate...
If we're going to be political, be political. Anyway, it's way more
complicated than this...I'll use paper "without a net" to engage it
more. All for now, Chris.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 09:22:53 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: James, please post this; couldn't do it to: poetics@ ,
ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu (fwd)
Leslie asked me to forward this to the group.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 15:40:27 PST
From: twhite@mendel.Berkeley.EDU
To: jsherry@panix.com
Subject: James, please post this; couldn't do it to: poetics@ ubvm.cc.buffalo.ed
Dear James,
L&M S&M?, you're right. The most troubling thing is we've now got
G.O.D. known only by the (spiritual) authorities (the fundamentalists; and
even people saying they're Zen which they want codified, saying even Zen is
essentially authority /convention as a positive assertion); where analysis
(of one's language/form), or the form being what occurs or where/how it
occurs, is to be overthrown as 'conservative.' Or 'merely reactive.' What's
to occur as 'vision' must be given one from outside in that case. Yet that
again is similar to the L's (on the West coast, usually two or three
dominants, by whose ideas the entire group was then characterized -
sometimes messages being given in manifesto group style; the point being
that this behavior, which is now reoccurring, is jousting for dominance in
which value is defined as power not related to literary substance per se,
given credence by the stated assumption that displacing one's predecessors
and peers is necessary. This is not the same as being a 'capitalist.'):
always saying 'Question yourselves (laid bare by writing process), not us,
or you're conservative; and you're (politically/socially) conservative by
'definition' if you question us.' 'You' not being an authority. Lew Daley's
book on Susan Howe and John Taggart uses the word God as the reference
authority about every third line; it's limiting the vocabulary. Similar to
Perelman in the past finding the word "intuition" meaningless, essentially
wanting to eliminate it; but not finding the word "thought" meaningless.
Daley's book is a work of engagement (certainly passion) and complexity,
yet his 'God' is as if a given which 'we' are supposed to know (by
authority/tradition) (and renders valid the poetic observations?) rather
than phenomena 'to be found out' by experience. In either case, elimination
of vocabulary is exclusion of words which allow the perception of those
distinctions as they are 'making' distinctions; which exclusion is also
'ordering.'
The work of most Language poets is still continually changing and
vital as is that of the various multitudinous dark horses, who're always
there changing what is occurring.
I think the poetic issues, delineated by the two (M/Language) here,
parallel the contemporary religious and political moves; are not merely
reactivity by them. For that reason, the Apex of M writing these matters is
provocative.
Personally, I'd rather 'react' to a humane rationalist (meaning
even the limitations of such a specifically delineated stance) from which
'place' one can bound freely into one's own (inner) terrain, not usurped by
anyone, than to have to have 'vision,' 'tradition' and 'spirituality'
('one's own place,' so that one would simply have to make another place)
defined and held as a product or a poetic 'position;' which, when defined,
and defining as power (as one avant-garde overtaking another), is voided.
Leslie Scalapino
Tom White Leslie Scalapino
Fax: 510-522-1966 510-601-9588
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 10:15:11 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Pierre Joris <joris@CSC.ALBANY.EDU>
Subject: Re: James, please post this; couldn't do it to: poetics@ ,
In-Reply-To: <199501251508.KAA18140@sarah.albany.edu> from "James Sherry" at
Jan 25, 95 09:22:53 am
Just as I was reading Leslie's piece, that wierd "G.O.D." in her
second line appeared in huge letters on the side of a truck driving
down Madison in front of my window & explaining in smaller letter
that it meant:
Guaranteed Overnight Delivery
=======================================================================
Pierre Joris | He who wants to escape the world, translates it.
Dept. of English | --Henri Michaux
SUNY Albany |
Albany NY 12222 | "Herman has taken to writing poetry. You
tel&fax:(518) 426 0433 | need not tell anyone, for you know how
email: | such things get around."
joris@cnsunix.albany.edu| --Mrs. Melville in a letter to her mother.
=======================================================================
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 10:30:18 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "David W. Clippinger" <dwclippi@MAILBOX.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Cid Corman
I was wondering if anyone has Cid Corman's current address. Your help
would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
David Clippinger
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 10:32:03 PST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jerry Rothenberg <jrothenb@CARLA.UCSD.EDU>
Subject: el cid
For David Clippinger --
Cid Corman's address, as of maybe two years ago, was the following:
Fukuoji-cho 80
Utano
Ukyo-ku
Kyoto 616
Not in any way private as far as I know, so I send it to you over the net.
Jerome Rothenberg
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 09:01:29 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Kit Robinson <Kit_Robinson@BANDO.COM>
Subject: Re: G.O.D.
Reply to: RE>G.O.D.
Pierre,
Wow! I thought Leslie meant Grand Old Deity.
Kit Robinson
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 11:14:59 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: LAURA MORIARTY <moriarty@MERCURY.SFSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Cid Corman
In-Reply-To: <9501251717.AA06515@mercury.sfsu.edu>
David,
The address we have at the Poetry Center as of 1991 is
Fukuoji--Cho 80
Utano, Ukyo--Ku
Kyoto, 616, Japan
Also:
c/o Dr. Leonard Corman
87 Dartmouth St.
Boston, MA 02116
On Wed, 25 Jan 1995, David W. Clippinger wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone has Cid Corman's current address. Your help
> would be much appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David Clippinger
>
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 14:23:47 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/23
X-To: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <199501240535.AA06973@panix3.panix.com>
NEA is a good thing for our country to support. A nation should support
its culture not as a business but as its representative to the world.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 14:26:50 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501250828.AA08139@panix3.panix.com>
Chris, What do you mean that the L vs M debate obscures the real debate.
What is this real debate? James
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 13:36:00 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: Message of Wed, 25 Jan 1995 02:31:25 -0500 from <LS0796@ALBNYVMS>
Wanted to post this to Chris privately, but the nodeid wouldn't work.
Will have to display my further ignorance of M.
I was very interested in Chris's reply to Spencer: if you're
going to be political, be political. I agree entirely, but isn't a
technique, a method, a mode of production political? Is politics
simply contents?
Because Forche and others say their work is revolutionary even
though written in what may be considered reactionary forms, do we
accept this?
And this is where my ignorance is most apparent. I know nothing of
M, their claims or their practises. The work seemed to be characterized in
a certain way on the list and it was this characterization I was responding
to.Perhaps illegitimately?
I am interested in M materials. Any suggestions as to who and where?
I *do* believe there is now room in poetry and poetics for another vital
movement, another school in the American passion for schools. My concern
is that this other take into account the insight into politics and poetics
I believe L school provides.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 14:59:05 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501231648.AA14450@panix3.panix.com>
I think, although others may differ, that the attention to M is based on
its "belligerent" attack on L, its infantile "why aren't we being
included in the scene" resentment, and its frontal oversimplified
politics when addressing such sensitive and subtle issues as spirit.
People are too eager to accept or credit or pay attention to these
simplified attacks as if such simplicity were a more direct line to
truth. The L group has tried to represent an alternative to such
bluntness as antithetical to the complex process of writing and the
multifold relations between that process and its dissemination to other
writers to individual readers to the culture as a whole through its ideas
and recursively to the writer of the original work. M seems to be trying
to replace that complex web with an antiquated iconography thinly
updated. I think also that Pam Rehm is a fine poet and the prose writing
in Apex is admirable and profoundly misdirected. I think it's that
combination which has attracted attention.
A Poetics and my personal favorite of the new publications "Chain" and
others have not gotten that attention and that speaks to the exchange
Chris Stro.. is involved in today. They are engaging in an ongoing dialog
on many and interesting issues which we wouldn't think about combining in
some false rubric and reifying to death. They are getting on with the
work of making a world of poetry.
I wish that the M issue would just go away, but it won't and needs to be
addressed even if addresssing it does make it more palpable. I wish all
of those reactionaries disguised as the "new" thing would go away but
Newt must also be dealt with and all such metered nonsense by people
afraid to face the future.
I hope that's what you meant by why. Jamses
On Mon, 23 Jan 1995, Mark Wallace wrote:
> In regards to James Sherry's post, why the (again) valorization of the M
> as the sole "meaningful" response of younger "experimental" writers to
> Language poetry?
>
> Why does no one respond to A Poetics of Criticism, Poetic Briefs, various
> essays in Witz and Texture and (sometimes interesting essays) Talisman,
> which have all said much more complex, insightful, and useful things
> regarding this issue?
>
> mark wallace
>
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 16:18:23 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: apex of the m
In-Reply-To: <199501211803.KAA16981@whistler.sfu.ca> from "eric pape" at Jan
21, 95 11:45:09 am
In 1964 a revolutionary Central American poet told me what he thought
about the relationship between language and fighting. He said
"Agrarian reform of the mind before agrarian reform of the land."
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 02:37:03 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501250828.AAA18246@slip-1.slip.net>
Dear Chris,
When it comes to most editorial response today, names do
matter more than the poetry. You're not naive to believe otherwise, you're
in denial, and you've got a lot of company. (Forgive me for responding to
yr letter to eric rather than the one to me, which I did appreciate.)
Yrs, Spencer
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 08:18:17 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Michael Boughn <mboughn@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: Up in smoke
Is the question, Is L more genuine than M, or is M less rigorous than
L? Or is it that L + M = (aside from a nostalgia for smoking) M + L
which is greater than the sum of its parts. Actually, you have to hand
it to the Mers, who seemed to have learned well from the Lers (who I
suspect, if "truth" be told, got it from the Yippies) (who, of course,
got it from Madison Avenue) that a catchy logo(s) is half the battle of
marketing. That and a "movement" to tag it to.
Call me I=R=R=E=S=I=S=T=I=B=L=E.
Mike
mboughn@epas.utoronto.ca
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 12:03:35 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Peter <PGIZZI@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Up in smoke
In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 26 Jan 1995 08:18:17 -0500 from
<mboughn@EPAS.UTORONTO.CA>
Connell McGrath is in the process of breaking down the o-blek office
and asked me to post the following announcement:
_______________________________________________________________________
POETRY READERS
o-blek magazine is out of business and I want to pass
on our overstock to interested readers. They are available
on a first-come first serve basis at the following rates:
o-blek /#'s 1 thru 9 & 11 are a $1.50 per book, o-blek/12's
are $4 per set while they last. These amounts will cover
the cost of mailing materials and postage. Please help
me to get these wonderful books into the right hands. Tell
all who may be interested, buy as many as you like, do it soon.
Respectfully,
Connell McGrath
Send Check made out to o-blek to:
o-blek
PO Box 1242
Stockbridge, MA 01262
_____________________________________________________________________
Please feel free to post this annoucement to other lists or
to print out and pass on to others. Thanks
Peter Gizzi
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 15:32:31 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jorge Guitart <MLLJORGE@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: a reading of apex of the m 2
I have read Apex of the M 2, of the famous editorial.
Nothing in it is 100% certified radically transparent--and that includes the
editorial calling for radical transparency.
Some of the stuff in the editorial struck me as radically opaque
Some as medium opaque
Some of the poems were of medium transparency
some of medium opacity
but every poem was extraordinary (though not in the sense of "used for a special
service or occasion"--I thought of the wall street journal, where the
editorials are conservative and (some of) the stories liberal. Here the editoria
"radical" and the poems are "conservative".
i am pessimistic about radically transparent poetry bringing about the classless
waste your time on me: organize.
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 19:22:05 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marc Nasdor <ABOHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject: Re: NEA Enemy Action
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 20 Jan 1995 11:17:58 -0500 from
<jsherry@PANIX.COM>
RE: James's posting on the NEA:
I think maybe I can rustle up a few "big hair" and long-nail salons out here
in Staten Island to apply for a grant to satisfy the GOPpers. Do you think
we should apply under the Folk Art category? :-)
Seriously, though, an effective strategy would be to accentuate the positive
and argue for the NEA's survival based on the many small arts organizations and
presses, etc., that the endowment funds. They should have have gotten rid of
the fellowships a long time ago anyway. Besides, you can't even live for a
year on $20,000 anymore, at least not on the coasts.
Cheers,
Marc Nasdor
abohc@cunyvm.cuny.edu or Nasdor@aol.com
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 19:38:56 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Marc Nasdor <ABOHC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Subject: Re: New Press Release
In-Reply-To: Message of Sat, 21 Jan 1995 19:52:53 EST from
<ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
I've been off the wire for awhile.
Could someone tell me where the New York Freely Espousing event will
take place, and at what time?
Thanks.
Marc Nasdor
abohc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Nasdor@aol.com
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 21:11:50 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ted Pelton <Notlep@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: freely espousing
Thinking about the NEA again and just having listened to NPR: When is it
better to lose than to win? Jane Alexander testified to the senate today
about all the travelling she had done and when she spoke to the common people
how much art meant to them. Then the freshman senator from Missouri (I
forget his name) asked about the problem of art being funded that the
majority of Americans felt challenged their basic values. Did Jane Alexander
then say that that was precisely the type of art that a democracy should
fund? No. Instead she waffled about how they were trying to make sure that
such things didn't happen in the future, that they had safeguarded again
funding such things in the future (Mapplethorpe, of course, but not said out
loud). Seeing an opening, the senator then said that he for one did not
trust the NEA to make such safeguards themselves. Do you see where this is
going? What if the NEA is preserved, but only to fund orchestras and such?
Talking to Alexander Ooms (in the lit program at the NEA) a week ago, he
mentioned something that happened in Louisiana a couple of years ago. The
legislature axed all arts funding. This so mobilized the arts community that
they put enough pressure on government and the next year the legislature gave
the arts funding at a dollar per citizen, double their previous budget.
The NEA being eliminated might not be as bad as what's currently shaping up.
What if federal grants to individual artists were dropped and all money
given to states in block grants instead? One can imagine that this might
lead to no new artists being funded at all, at least in some (most?) states,
the climate being such that what's most feared is anything potentially
perceivable as dangerous, as critical, as confrontational.
I don't like the way this is going.
Ted Pelton
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 22:55:03 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501252344.PAA05941@whistler.sfu.ca> from "eric pape" at Jan
25, 95 01:36:00 pm
Cienfuegos said, when the Communist Party was trying to impose
socialist realism on Cuban art and writing: "Revolutionary art is
part of the revolution." He did not mean realist stories about heroic
peasants. He did not mean (have you seen it?) the 1960 National Art
Museum in Sofia.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 01:57:54 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steve Evans <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: New Press Release
In-Reply-To: Message of Thu, 26 Jan 1995 19:38:56 EST from <ABOHC@CUNYVM>
Marc,
You may want to double check with Jeff Hull, but I
am pretty sure *FE* will be at the Poetry Project
(Parish Hall) from 3-6pm. People are being encouraged
to attend Kate Rushin's reading at the Ear Inn and
then proceed over to the Project.
Jeff's number is (212) 777-7436 or you can call
Brenda at the Project.
Glad to hear of your interest in all this.
Steve
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 02:03:08 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: Resent-From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
Comments: Originally-From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.brown.edu>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Espousing Update 1/26
This didn't make it through on a first try....
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
As the 28th draws near, reports from all *Freely Espousing*
sites sound very encouraging. We once again thank everyone
who has devoted some of (or all of) their time recently to
making sure that the events will be thought- and action-
provoking. We will try to make "field reports" available
to the list as soon after the events as possible. So far,
attempts to have on-line links haven't panned out, but that
was probably more due to time constraints than anything else.
SUGGESTED PETITION LANGUAGE
We, the undersigned, wish to make known our unwavering support
for federal funding of the arts, humanities, and public broadcast
media.
We endorse a strong, uncensored National Endowment of the Arts;
a vigorous National Endowment of the Humanities; and continued
public ownership of and access to the airwaves.
As citizens, we will oppose all attempts to dismantle the nation's
cultural infrastructure. Arts and education must be democratized, not--
as some members of the 104th Congress currently argue--privatized.
Furthermore, in our capacity as artists, writers, scholars, educators,
students, curators, and persons committed to democratic cultural and
social ideals, we will continue to assist the public in coming to an
informed opinion about the enormous return on what is indeed a modest
national investment in the arts and humanities.
(Note: Joe Ross may have suggestions for alternative language on the
petitions by tomorrow. Joe--can you post such if indeed you get it?)
ALEXANDER'S TESTIMONY
We were unable to listen to JA's testimony this morning, but on Ted
Pelton's account it seems well within her usual range. And we agree
with Ted that it is a sobering/depressing range indeed (tho not so
sobering perhaps as Mr. Heston's House testimony!). The narrowly
economic approach being taken by many of the arts advocacy bureacracies
should, we think, be countered by an articulate collective voice within
the context of continued support for federal arts funding. Here in
Providence, that's one thing we'll be interested in watching on
Saturday: as organizers, we are arguing democracy, not the bottom line, as
the bottom line. Many of our featured speakers, however, will take
the prevailing economic line. Should be interesting.
PROVIDENCE FEATURED SPEAKERS
We don't have detailed programmes for other sites, but we thought
people might be interested to know the speakers we'll be featuring
on Saturday. They are:
Roger Mandle, President of Rhode Island School of Design and NEA
Advisory Counsel Member
Liam Rector, Freedom to Write-Boston
C.D. Wright, RI Poet Laureate
Ray Rickman, Host of PBS's _Bestsellers_
Terry Ann Greenwood, Director of RI Arts Advocates, Dir. of RI Philharmonic
Randy Rosenbaum, Director of Rhode Island State Council on the Arts
Doreen Bolger, Director of RISD Museum
Michael Harper, Professor of Creative Writing at Brown, Former State Laureate
Rudy Cheeks, journalist for local alternative weekly(The Phoenix)
Congressman Jack Reed
Mayor of Providence Vincent "Buddy" Cianci
Many other people from the education, dance, theater, small press, and
artists collectives "scenes" in RI have leant support and will participate
throughout the day.
STATEMENTS FROM AFAR
After our last request, we received several excellent statements that
will be read on Saturday. We'll include further statements if they
arrive in time to be printed up, so take twenty minutes tomorrow and
dash one out.
NEA COVER STORY IN THIS WEEKS VILLAGE VOICE
A valuable four pages or so in this week's *Voice* includes a
terrific piece by Michael Feingold in which he applies to Switzerland
for "amnesty" on behalf of the U.S.'s half-million cultural workers.
C. Carr's "Hanging by a Thread" is useful for identifying the key
advocacy groups currently working on saving arts funding. Elizabeth
Hess tallies the costs of internal censorship on both the NEA & NEH's
parts.
AND DON'T MISS
The editorial in today's NY Times entitled "Eating Her Offspring" by
Mike Rich. Rich adopts OJ-speak to point out the considerable contra-
dictions in Lynne Cheney's testimony to Tuesday's House subcomittee,
most importantly her attack on the National History Standards that
she helped to write and that she now cites as evidence of the NEH's
unacceptable behavior.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 08:35:51 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501270715.AA22832@panix.com>
OK George, what DID he mean? James
On Thu, 26 Jan 1995, George Bowering wrote:
> Cienfuegos said, when the Communist Party was trying to impose
> socialist realism on Cuban art and writing: "Revolutionary art is
> part of the revolution." He did not mean realist stories about heroic
> peasants. He did not mean (have you seen it?) the 1960 National Art
> Museum in Sofia.
>
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 16:07:57 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "I.LIGHTMAN" <I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
Subject: apex of the m
The truth of a process makes sense to and among those at the end of the
process, where the transcription of thought on the page is a clean mirror
to both writer and readers, writer as s/he writes, reader as s/he reads;
the book unwritten is the look that speaks volumes between and among such.
This so rare that most of us do in the name of more, ever more, vocal and
verbal, dropped out of empathy then yanked back, the lack of us in "you-you"
the vocation of study, time out.
Oscar does not believe that art is being and thought is ugliness. He says so
as in his day was no art and thought. Those who use Freud as if he were
himself as benign and liberational as they do what he did not put sex against
the ban on sex, power against stable.
Such sects! Lift up hearts, prey on. The dream can only create if sleep is
not for the provision of rest, o day for rest and night for study. Bade the
body. The good faith goads the intellect setting the church of our agenda
which, fulfilled, burns. We digest the stone and break into a jog.
Dream breathing. Think, your very heart beating is bleeding and the blood
next to come is bleeding into your heart, the oxygen is bleeding to become
blood, the folks with beating blood are beating the air only. Dream wing.
All every night walk by the venue in their heads where perfect truth of
process plays the energy of creation. All have greater artists than
Shakespeare to meet, but avery eye, don't converse, few attend, few
remember, we are special in knowing we're special not especially.
The perfect dreamer in all, in each, not a speaking to us all. Few go to
sleep with the energy to mingle. I know I'm not alone in this. Shakespeare
the artist in history, fifty of the sixteenth and seventeenth hundreds of
years, everyone is Shakespeare.
The dead can dance. Dreams trot through our excuses, scared to knock such
vital guards. The fear's not explained till the dream's not come back
against twenty such sentries. Step out of the stage and into the tubes.
Stick to your gun till you blow off your head, walk again on your legs no
one else's, carry your seed as she grows in your arms, out of your pain, let
her, away from your pain. Think well of yourself, use your hands, get a grip,
on the non-carnal gun.
So many arms, swinging under the noosed throats, the unspoken carried on so
many legs. Like dream life's accidents, vile, we dream nearer and nearer, the
guard hangs in the air, twitching, tapping. We feel bumped into until, joy,
we are alive.
The ambient never wake up. Like you don't. You begin to ban humour and
alcohol, the mares buck and head for the guards in new hope. Rest is not it,
without truth towards process towards truth.
If you're still reading, no-one's got anything. Some *should* let thoughts
fester in the mind, process the festering. I know mortally the years from
when I was born, each day the unit of measurement cuts history into me-sized
portions, knowing ledges. I dodder to think the art of it.
Sophocles mortal braved Freud, now so less winning. The Freud-led walk through
him, more to hurt that if they'd gone by him, on every shelf in every
flame-stricken library? Mind how you go. Excavate Plato, afraid to go out,
for dream research.
Nothing like life to keep you from dying, the nerves are steel strings, loud
acoustic. Song begins the vibration, words reason the entry, into society,
largely worthy of nothing so clarity!
Be you once, the harsh heart sooner or timely, a slick into two dimensions,
of prose, this nuisance is losing its once fascination, the pattern returns
to its usual dynamic. Think in the two, drink in the third, things they don't
want to reveal indicate why do you say that.
I get it. Draw on planes, repairing the prairie, the gasses from the busses,
the hole us. Destroy two to save three. The hurt behind the face understood
yields to surf on the face again.
The month from a flame that took our collection, from our senses, and
flashed a banner over a dish of a dominant hemisphere, the northern, a cap
with the bill right in front of our eyes. A missable interactive experience,
a miserable sky made it so.
Is cool holodeck sky? I sensed it cambe back to my name, but a short therapist
circuits the patient, tree dimensional. I'll take my "clumsiness", I didn't
dream "it" up, I ride broken in the bumps of a world I ought never to have
believed was mine only thought. Alive-in world.
The process of a sense makes truth to and among those at the head of a
process, where the transcription of truth on the page is a claimed mirror to
both writers and reader, writer as reader as utter; the book unsmitten is
the look that speaks volumes between and among such.
MANIFESTO FOLLOWS SHORTLY
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 16:09:52 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "I.LIGHTMAN" <I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
Subject: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
From: CPCMB::P280 "I.LIGHTMAN" 27-JAN-1995 15:42:29.58
To: P280
CC:
Subj:
1) Spiritualism. Never assume that in attacking something as religious,
you are not part of a religion yourself. Jung not Freud.
2) If you are going to use the I-Ching, notice how your interaction
with it produces a different work than is produced by someone else using
the I-Ching. Notice that your works are more like each other, than your
I-Ching works are like I-Ching works by other artists. Stockhausen not
Cage.
3) Keep listening.
5) Have Pound's decency to look back on what you've represented.
Next Generation not Kirk.
8) If improvisation is free, why do many of its evenings go out to the
same boundary and no further? Leibniz not Newton.
13) To lecture, Stein milking not mocking a restrained common
vocabulary to write descriptions, not Derrida punning and concatenating
with abstracts to provoke, always with fixed unspoken loyalties of his
own, and not own explicitly. Close to who you pretend?
21) Non-Freudian not neo-Freudian post-structuralism, if any.
34) Gloria Steinem not Julia Kristeva.
55) Fuck gender-fuck, open up genre. Harryman not Silliman.
Thresh hold of "becoming" an adult and "no longer" being like
a child. Neil Gaiman not Ridley Scott. Nurture, non-sexual
love sexual life; actual practice of community, professor.
Elizabeth Burns' _Letters to Elizabeth Bishop_, not Derrida's
_The Post Card_.
89) Hyper-reality and reality, extend, object both ways. Posters
and paintings of words not handwritten notebooks. Brush syntax.
Johanna Drucker meets Emily Dickinson.
144) The sentence was a good stretch, but now I choose my
jailors. Sing energy. So long when you misuse lyric poetry as
a prison term. "The voice makes possible the entire continuum
from the most extreme consonant-like noises to the purest
vocal sound, and is far superior to even the most modern
apparatus for creating tone-colours". Stockhausen not Zukofsky,
the musical phrase, remember, not the metronome.
IF YOU FOLLOW (OR ARE NEARER TO THIS MANIFESTO THAN
TO OTHERS), PLEASE SUBMIT WORK TO "CHEERFUL FOLK
POP OUT OF BUXTEHUDE"
I.LIGHTMAN@UEA.AC.UK
OR
IRA LIGHTMAN
48 GLOUCESTER STREET
NORWICH
NR2 2DX
UNITED KINGDOM
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 12:03:47 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jorge Guitart <MLLJORGE@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: cienfuegos and socialist realism
Was that Camilo Cienfuegos, who disappeared mysteriously in Oct '59?
(played centerfield for the San Francisco Seals (AAA) before the Rev)
it couldnt have been Osmany Cienfuegos, Castro bureaucrat and murderer of bay
of pigs invaders (put them in a cattle truck without ventilation).
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 12:42:19 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
Hey--great fibonnuci (sic0 sequence, Ira. Anyway, Elizabeth Burns
is here in Albany, NY and she'll no doubt to be thrilled your mention
of her icw Derrida. Ah, names! chris s.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 20:20:31 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "I.LIGHTMAN" <I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
HI Chris,
Isn't Katie Yates in Albany? She's fab. How would one move to Albany, work
there? I'm thinking of it as a next place to live. Ira
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 18:33:45 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: Life Supports
In-Reply-To: <199501271039.FAA21994@fermi.clas.Virginia.EDU> from "Steve
Evans" at Jan 27, 95 01:57:54 am
Does anyone know how i can obtain a copy of Life Supports, William Bronk's
Collected Poems, which seems to have recently and lamentably become
"unsupportable," i.e. gone out of print?
Steve Shoemaker
ss6r@fermi.clas.virginia.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 15:48:29 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501250927.BAA20542@slip-1.slip.net>
Well, Chris, I don't know about yr distinction here. You talk about work
read "on its own merits," that's what I was responding to.
To me the group label is a secondary issue, though certainly related to
what I consider primary--namely that people are unwilling or unable to
respond to the work on its own merits. They need the signature, the name
behind it, whatever might go along with that, whether it be group
affiliation, things they've heard about you, yr publishing and/or life
history or what they know of it, relations or encounters they've had with
you, what they think of you, what they've heard other people think of
you, what you believe and what you say about yrself (or anything else
under the sun). In short, what they know or think they know of who you
are. This is what I mean by name, and this is what is more important in
our social reality than the work, unfortunately--most unfortunately.
Yrs, Spencer
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 09:07:27 JST
Reply-To: nada@twics.com
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: nada@TWICS.COM
Subject: Re: el cid
I talked to Cid Corman on the phone a couple of months ago. His current
address is
Fukuoji-cho 88
Kyoto 616
JAPAN
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 19:44:08 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
In-Reply-To: <01HMBKJHUYF6L1XPUJ@asu.edu>
I am standing on the fringes. . .of this NEA thing, interested and
provoked, yet not quite knowing where I stand on the issue. I am curious
if someone would care to articulate the argument exactly why the federal
government should keep funding the arts, humanities, etc. Now, keep in
mind I am of the inclination that it should be continued--that we need
support for arts and culture in this country--but that I am particularly
curious how it is possible to argue with what appears a majority (hardly)
who feel that such funding has been to undermine their values. How does
one make the argument that the government ought to fund something that
may militate against convention and "American" values? The way I see
this is that it is going to very difficult to persuade people with power
(reflecting the national mood-swing) to fund something that offends
them. Does the federal government have a responsibility to fund art?
Yes, of course it does, but if resources are few and the choices even
fewer then . . .? Gosh, you know, I know I may be putting my head in the
proverbial lion's mouth here, but I am interested in what and why on this
issue and ask it so that I might understand it better. I don't want to
offend anyone who feels strongly about this, I mean, afterall, I'd much
rather the government fund education, art, mass transportation, etc, etc,
than the military, etc, etc, etc. . . . And I'm also interested in the
possibility that this fiscal argument is actually a covert way of making
a cultural argument, of defunding the opposition. But here's where it
gets real interesting, doesn't it, I mean, should those that feel that
their values are under attack from these agencies honestly be persuaded
that they should cough up tax money for something that offends them.
It's our money, too, I suppose, but, sometimes I wonder if they're aren't
more of them than there are of us. . . and I hate saying that cause we
should all be having a broader dialogue with others of different opinions
so we can explain what it is that we are attempting when we reread
Western Civilisation and so they can articulate why it upsets them . . .
and this all makes it so clear of how much is really at stake I suppose
and I have to wonder if the opposition between the for/against isn't a
distraction from some larger issue that we should be paying attention to
...or, I mean that the argument is a distraction from something else we
should be noticing or . . . . And, you know, I just want to know why,
why is arts funding important and why should someone who believes it's
not fiscally responsible and culturally offensive pay for it? Sorry so long.
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 19:26:37 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
X-To: "I.LIGHTMAN" <I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
In-Reply-To: <01HMC3TL8RQQL1XTHY@asu.edu>
"DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST"? Hm.
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 22:17:16 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: epc.news (note)
A slightly corrected version of the epc.news posted to this list has
been placed in the Electronic Poetry Center. Epc.news is available
through the web version under the "hotlist."
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 23:46:24 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Charles Bernstein <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: sign
In-Reply-To: Your message dated "Tue, 24 Jan 1995 07:24:20 -0800"
<01HM80YKV9N28X6W68@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
How did you hear about the Poetics List? IS SFU State?
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 00:10:09 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Charles Bernstein <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: sign
In-Reply-To: Your message dated "Tue, 24 Jan 1995 07:24:20 -0800"
<01HM80YKV9N28X6W68@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
Welcome to the Poetics List.
Please note that this is a private list and information about the list should
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1 May 1994 09:47:10 -0500
You can then send the "get" command to "Listserve" in the format:
get filename filetype (eg: get poetics log9403
get poetics log9403
get poetics notebook)
or
get filename filetype f=mail
depending on which log file you want (you can also get multiple
files with one message). Note that each of the files has a
different beginning and end date, eg LOG9404 starts 7 March and
goes to 31 May and that dates overlap. Go figure! "Poetics
Notebook" is an anomalous name for what is, in effect, another
log file.
*******
To subscribe to RIF/T, the e-poetry magazine at UB's Poetics Program:
Send an e-mail message to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu. Leave
the "Subject" line of the e-mail message blank. In the body of
your e-mail message type:
subscribe e-poetry Firstname Lastname
where Firstname and Lastname correspond to your name.
You will receive a confirmation of your subscription soon
thereafter. (Nonsubscribers can automatically sub to Poetics
using this same format, but substituting "poetics" for "e-
poetry".)
**
____ ____ ____
/ / / / / /
EEEE PPPPP CCCCC
EE / PP PP CC C/
EEE PPPPP CC / URL=gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/
__EE /_ PP |__ CC C ____
/ EEEE/ PP/ CCCCC/ / internet/library/e-journals/ub/rift
/__________________________/
|--------------------------|
| Electronic Poetry Center |
|__________________________|
___________________________________________________________________
E P C . N E W S
No. 1 (January, 1995)
___________________________________________________________________
_Contents:_
1.0 Basic Assumptions
2.0 Poetry and the Electronic Place
3.0 Interfaces: Gopher, Web, Mosaic; Bookmarks
4.0 RIF/T Notes
5.0 EPC New Additions
6.0 How to Connect
___________________________________________________________________
1.0 Basic Assumptions
The Electronic Poetry Center seeks to provide a central _place_
for Internet resources for poetry and poetics.
The lay of the land:
1.__Welcome : Electronic Poetry Center Welcome & FAQ's
(About)/
2.__RIF/T : RIF/T / New Poetry, Prose, & Poetics
(Texts)/
3.__Poetics : Calendar, Poetics List Archive & Files
(Texts)/
4.__Authors : Electronic Poetry & Poetics - Authors
(Texts)/
5.__E-Journals : Gateway to Electronic Poetry Journals
(Texts)/
6.__E-Resources : Gateway to Electronic Poetry
Resources (Connects)/
7.__Small Press : Electronic Poetry Center Small
Press Alcove (Cites)/
8.__Gallery : The Electronic Poetry Gallery
(Visuals)/
9.__Sound : The Electronic Poetry Sound Room (Sound
Files)/
10._Documents : Poetry & Poetics Document Archive
(Texts)/
11._Exhibits : Electronic Poetry Center Exhibit case
(Texts)/
12._Notices : Electronic Poetry Center Announcements
(Info)/
The Center continues to provide access to the electronic poetry
and poetics journal, RIF/T, and the archives of the Poetics List.
Needless to say, the EPC provides quality archival materials for
these resources. For the Poetics archive, a feature has recently
been added to allow keyword searching for the immense number of
files comprising this archive.
The EPC author library offers texts and/or information about
contemporary poets in a variety of formats.
A number of electronic journals are archived and distributed by
the EPC. Journals distributed through the EPC differ from other
e-journal archives in a significant way: the texts presented here
have been checked and verified by their issuing agency, thus at
least getting to you versions of electronic journals that have a
direct link to their source. We are delighted to offer these
journals to you and will continue to make sure texts presented
are done so in collaboration with their producers. For resources
outside the EPC, we have written links to make seamless
connections to these resources. It is our aim to be vigilent
about our links so that persons interested in poetry and poetics
do not have to spend a lot of time digging for addresses,
remembering sites, and locating resources. Through the selections
available at the EPC, users of the system have simple and direct
access to many other related Internet resources.
The Center also provides information about contemporary little
magazines and small presses engaged in poetry and poetics. Since
this information is often difficult to locate, it is presented at
the EPC in hopes of recongizing these contributions, facilitating
communication, and providing an additional outlet for these
extremely valuable print sources. Look here also for Selby's List
of Experimental Magazines.
The Poetry & Poetics Document Archive provides access to a number
of documents of use to poets, teachers, and researchers. Here you
will find essay material and current obituaries. This area should
be consulted in conjunction with the Poetics Files and Small
Press Sources areas, which also offer material of pedagogical
use.
The EPC also presently offers gallery, sound, exhibts, and an
announcements area.
___________________________________________________________________
2.0 Poetry and the Electronic Place
Compared to say, a year ago, many people might agree that the
idea of some sort of an electronic forum for poetry is not only a
possibility but an inevitability. We have seen the continued
growth of the Poetics List (I counted around 250 postings the
month of December 1994 alone) and the development of the
Electronic Poetry Center. The EPC has maintained a significant
circulation. We regularly get letters from various world outposts
attesting to the reality of such connectivity. Interesting also
are the number of visits taking place, both locally and across
distance; despite the dips and peaks that typify any active
place, the EPC has seen a good amount of traffic across its
doorstep. For those with such inclination (and it is illuminating
that the following compare favorably with circulation statistics,
say, for a little magazine) here are some numbers:
_Month_ _Connects_
Nov 1994 573
Oct 1994 429
Sep 1994 367
August 1994 348
July 1994 614
June 1994 110
These statistics give only a sense of scale, it should be noted,
since direct connections to EPC submenus and entries through
Veronica searches, a significant number of connects, are not
included in the above statistics.
___________________________________________________________________
3.0 Interface: Gopher, Web, Mosaic
Even as activities converge, it is also the time of divergent
interfaces. I am often surprised by the number of our
contributors and participants who do not even have gopher access.
(These, again, not represented in the above statistics.) Most
people, we figure, have at least gopher access, though Web access
is quickly becoming a standard. Mosaic, it would be assumed,
though assuming predominance in the University setting, has
hardly become a reality for most dial-up users, particularly
internationally. (For the sake of a common ground, gopher is an
ascii-based interface that offers access through the selection of
menus; the web is an ascii-based interface that offers access
through _screens_ of information with links to other areas
appearing as highlighted text; Mosaic is a graphical interface
basically superimposed on the Web structure that offers images,
sound, video, and allows you to use your mouse as a navigational
tool.) The EPC is accessible through any of these interfaces. It
is presently evolving strongly towards exclusive Web/Mosaic
access.
_Informational Notes_: (1) The standard for Web/Mosaic documents
is the markup protocol called html. These are imbedded codes that
you will see once in a while when you download an html document.
These codes give instructions to the software about highlighting,
fonts, and screen layout, as well as providing for the _hot
links_ that make possible Web/Mosaic navigation. (2) A feature of
these interfaces that should be mentioned is the bookmark. You
may wish to investigate this as most systems allow you to set a
bookmark, say at the EPC, and gain immediate access to it when
you invoke your interface.
___________________________________________________________________
4.0 RIF/T Notes
Forthcoming from RIF/T are two special issues. The first of these
is the Transpoeisis issue (see EPC Announcements for details)
which will offer a muti-faced and multi-format approach to the
presentation of translations. Also forthcoming, a planned special
issue on Charles Olson. RIF/T will also soon issue the first in a
series of special chapbooks. Much on the way!
___________________________________________________________________
5.0 EPC New Additions
Many additions have been made to the EPC in the past six months.
Following are some of the journals archived and directly
distributed by the EPC:
DIU / Albany
Experioddi(cyber)cist / Florence, AL
Inter\face / Albany
Poemata - Canadian Poetry Assoc. / London, Ontario (Info)/
RIF/T: Electronic Space for New Poetry, Prose, & Poetics
Segue Foundation/Roof Book News / New York
TREE: TapRoot Electronic Edition / Lakewood, Ohio
We Magazine / Santa Cruz
Witz / Toluca Lake, CA / via Syntax
Significant connections which the EPC would like to highlight
include the following:
Alternative-X
Basil Bunting Poetry Centre (Durham, England)
[Informational]
Best-Quality Audio Web Poems (Rhode Island)
Carma Bums 'Tour of Words'
CICNET Electronic Journal Archive
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
(Virginia)
Internet Poetry Archive (North Carolina)
Michigan Electronic Text Archive
Nous Refuse Discussion List (Illinois)
Postmodern Culture (North Carolina)
Whole Earth 'Lectronic Magazine
___________________________________________________________________
6.0 How to Connect
The Center is located at gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
Gopher Access: For those who have access to gopher, type
gopher writing.upenn.edu
at your system prompt. First choose Libraries &
Library Resources, then Electronic Journals, then E-
Journals/Resources Produced Here At UB, then The
Electronic Poetry Center. (Note: Connections to some
Poetry Center resources require Web access, though most
are presently available through gopher).
World-Wide Web and Mosaic Access:
For those with World-Wide Web (lynx) or Mosaic access,
from your interface, choose the _go to URL_
option then go to (type as one continuous string)
gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
(Substituting hh for 11 in the URL above may produce better
results on your system.)
Check with your system administrator if you have problems with
access. Also ask about setting a "bookmark" through your system
for quick and easy access to the Center when you log on.
If you have comments or suggestions about sites to be added to
the Center, do not hesitate to contact Loss Pequen~o Glazier,
lolpoet@acsu.buffalo.edu or Kenneth Sherwood,
e-poetry@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
___________________________________________________________________
The Electronic Poetry Center is administered in Buffalo by
E-Poetry
and RIF/T in coordination with the Poetics List.
Loss Pequen~o Glazier
for Kenneth Sherwood and Loss Glazier
in collaboration with Charles Bernstein
__________________________________________________________________
End of EPC.News #1
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 04:44:10 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
Yates left Albany in August for Boulder, Co. Naropa scene buddhist
holistic meditation trip. Her whereabouts are unknown to me and as
far as I know to most here in Albany. If anybody, probably funkhouser
would know....
As for moving to Albany, I'm torn about what to tell you. We certainly
would enjoy the presence of another poet here. Why would you want to
leave England for a country (gendered masculine--sorry) who has
"Blown its wad" in a century that is approaching its end? Just
curious--chris
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 06:52:31 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: braman sandra <s-braman@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Funding Arguments
In-Reply-To: <199501281241.AA12451@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> from "Jeffrey Timmons" at
Jan 27, 95 07:43:54 pm
In answer to Jeffery Timmons, and anyone else --
As a scholar whose field of research is information policy, I've spent
some time over the past couple of years articulating reasons why a
nation-state should be concerned about arts policy. The arguments I
offer differ from those traditionally available (makes money for the
communities, eg...) because I believe the position of the arts within the
postmodern condition/the information society play a different role vis a
vis private and public power structures. Theories of self-organizing
systems are used.
Happy to send a "popular" and/or academic version of these arguments
fully laid out to anyone who sends a snail address, and will try to put a
one-screen version of the arguments up later today.
Sandra Braman
Institute of Communications Research
University of Illinois-Urbana
s-braman@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 07:13:41 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ron Silliman <rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Katie Yates
When I saw her at Naropa last summer, Katie Yates was saying that she
planned to move permanently to Boulder. She'd attended Naropa before
Albany (and is, in fact, the first grad of the Kerouac school to go on
to get a PhD in writing, odd degree that that is). She was on this list
when she was at Albany, but I don't know if she still has access. Katie,
are you there?
Ron Silliman
rsillima@ix.netcom.com
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 10:41:30 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: Funding Arguments
In-Reply-To: Message of Sat, 28 Jan 1995 06:52:31 -0600 from
<s-braman@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Sandra:
We would love to make the "popular" version of your
argument available to the audience at *Freely Espousing*
this afternoon. Any chance of having it, via e-mail,
by 1:30 or so?
Yours,
Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 11:14:40 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Pierre Joris <joris@CSC.ALBANY.EDU>
Subject: Re: Katie Yates
In-Reply-To: <199501281515.KAA15749@sarah.albany.edu> from "Ron Silliman" at
Jan 28, 95 07:13:41 am
Ron,
A PhD in writing wld be an odd degree indeed. The Albany grad
program,however, involves what we call "a nexus of discourses" with
three primary areas: writing / criticism / pedagogy. A degree has to
involve at least 2 of those, as did, for example, Katie's.
Pierre
=======================================================================
Pierre Joris | He who wants to escape the world, translates it.
Dept. of English | --Henri Michaux
SUNY Albany |
Albany NY 12222 | "Herman has taken to writing poetry. You
tel&fax:(518) 426 0433 | need not tell anyone, for you know how
email: | such things get around."
joris@cnsunix.albany.edu| --Mrs. Melville in a letter to her mother.
=======================================================================
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 11:51:17 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Scheil <cschei1@GRFN.ORG>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
In-Reply-To: <199501280746.CAA26484@grfn.ORG>
Jeffrey Timmons has articulated certain vague apprehensions that I have
also entertained in regard to the whole NEA funding controversy. In
particular, I have always entertained a certain unease about the funding
of individual artists; there is a sense that by allowing the government
(through whatever assemblage of artist-advisors brought in to make value
judgements, ect) to pick and choose them, that we are perpetuating a
hegemonic acceptance of and de facto perpetuation of whatever stylistic
movement is deemed to have sufficient cultural currency at any given
time.
Rather, I would probably like to see the NEA become an organization
dedicated to funding other local organizations, who in turn would support
those individuals in whom they find merit. Let The Knitting Factory, the
local Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, and the regional art
organizations decide where the federal dollars are spent. Local
funding, local control...
Just wanted to put my 2 cents in...
Chris Scheil
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 13:14:13 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: braman sandra <s-braman@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Art Policy in the 90s
In-Reply-To: <199501281544.JAA41268@argus.cso.uiuc.edu> from "Evans/Moxley" at
Jan 28, 95 10:41:16 am
The following more lengthy message articulates in broad brushstrokes what
art policy might b e in the 1990s relative to today's policy environment,
the postmodern characteristics of our culture, and what it means to be in
an information economy. The NEA ain't the only game in town. Sandra Braman
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 13:20:48 -0600
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: braman sandra <s-braman@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Apology -- it didn't work
In-Reply-To: <199501281544.JAA41268@argus.cso.uiuc.edu> from "Evans/Moxley" at
Jan 28, 95 10:41:16 am
Attempt to send art and poetry policy text failed. Sorry to have
disturbed you. Iced and snowed out of freely espousing in Milwaukee.
Will try again later. S. Braman
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 17:18:55 -0500
Reply-To: Robert Drake <au462@cleveland.Freenet.Edu>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Robert Drake <au462@CLEVELAND.FREENET.EDU>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
<deleted musings on NEA as arbiter/bestower of "quality">
>Rather, I would probably like to see the NEA become an organization
>dedicatd to funding other local orgaizations...
so would i, but that sort of thing is _exactly_ what the first
round of hearings made clear was unacceptable to congress. they
want _more_ control, not less...
and, since i have in the past voiced my own misgivings about
the NEA, let me say that Newt Helms & co. do not need my help
in bashing any segment of the arts communities, and i hope the
Espousing events went well...
luigi
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 15:13:52 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: cienfuegos and socialist realism
In-Reply-To: <199501272114.NAA18863@whistler.sfu.ca> from "Jorge Guitart" at
Jan 27, 95 12:03:47 pm
Cienfuegos didnt disappear all that mysteriously. His plane went down
somewhere, not all that much to the dismay of the CP adherents who
didnt like his barbudo style.
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 15:25:50 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: to Mark Wallace
In-Reply-To: <199501231649.IAA24004@whistler.sfu.ca> from "Mark Wallace" at
Jan 23, 95 09:57:16 am
Did you write a review of Bromige's book from Brick Books? If so, wd
you get in touch with me at
bowering@sfu.ca
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 15:16:09 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: George Bowering <bowering@SFU.CA>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501271347.FAA04763@whistler.sfu.ca> from "James Sherry" at
Jan 27, 95 08:35:51 am
He meant revolutionary ART,
not art about the revolution.
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 19:31:55 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
I'm changing the "name" of this debate/discussion--not so much because
I necessarily see the issue as more 'real' in an absolute way but it
is perhaps more empowering. There are several 'issues' or 'insights'
I'd like to 'address'. Tom Mandel's recent post claims "difference is
where it's at" and basically I agree. The question then becomes a
matter of the debate between the structuralist "Difference between"
and the post-structuralist "difference within," a "meta" debate I
find engaging. When Tom writes "I want the discourse to proceed at the
level of the poetry" he raises the question of the RELATION between
poetry and polemics. Eric Pape brings up the "politics is not simply
content" but also form and that can be a little too black and white
at times. For the example he uses claims that the trouble with Forche
is her work in "reactionary forms". Yet, maybe that wouldn't be such
a problem werethe work engaged in a more rigorous questioning of the
complexities of current political/ideological/economic questions rather
than the relatively SAFE poems about World War II, etc. And maybe Kali
Tal would argue, but too much VIETNAM poetry seems to do this too...
Nonetheless, I do not wish to reject these voices out of hand. And
in terms of this i find Leslie Scalapino's comments quite helpful.
She considers Lew Daly's appeal to "God" as a too limiting vocabulary
and equates it to perelman's rejecting "intuition" but not "thought."
And this illuminates but one way in which the L poets (Baby boomers?)
and the M editors (gen. x?) are actually quite similar, despite James
Sherry's assertion that "The L group (not the CHUBB group] has tried
to represent an alternative to such bluntness as antithetical to the
complex process of writing..." Yes! However, I can not necessarily
totally side with the urge for boundless vocabulary. In the first
place, even if i hold it a value to have no taboos in my work and
say everything (as it were), there are certain "charecteristic" things
I return to often.In the second place this may be as much of an issue
of "difference within" as "difference between" (When I first got into
poetry in around 1986 I remember going back and forth, dialectically
as it were, between Brecht and Ashbery and i also remember being rather
skeptical towards the "times they are a changing" and the "gotta serve
somebody" dylan--prefering the more complex "Bringin' It All/Hiway 61"
stuff--but then one day it hit me "YES, there is a certain level on
which it's BLACK AND WHITE"). I do not claim to solve any of this
nor do I mean to come off like some "independent" "third party candidate"
with an "open mind" (ever hear the song by MAGAZINE--"My mind ain't so
open that anything would crawl in") but I'm curious when Tom (Mandel)
writes that a NEGATIVE RESPONSE IMPLIES A CLOSED MIND. In the first
place, what IS a NEGATIVE RESPONSE? Don Byrd told me (forgive me if
I'm misquoting you Don) that although his last book of poetry was
reviewed quite favorably, it wasn't the response he wanted. he didn't
think people "got it." Often, so-called NEGATIVE responses show far
more engagement with the work than so-called POSITIVE ones. But not
always. One last point I would like to flog like a dead horse is the
question of Mandel's definition of the identity of himself as a LANGUAGE
poet as historical and not card-carrying. Do we define say David Shapiro
or John Godfrey, roughly the same age and with many of the same concerns
as a good number of the L poets, as LANGUAGE poets--historically.
Doesn't this become like the academic co-optation of poets. i had a
teacher at Temple who was bent on proving that marianne moore was an
objectivist, because she saw herself as an objectivist and began to
like Moore. That can be interesting I suppose, but what i'm more
interested in at present is what Leslie Scalapino calls "multidinous
dark horses."(typo at multitidinous) In what context? Chris...
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 17:13:09 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BLUOMA <bluoma@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Re: Espousing back at ya-hoo
Reply to: RE>Espousing back at ya-hoo
Thanks, all goes well in nuevoyourko. gringos & heathens alike.
when yall comin to town?
BillyDglsMark&Jeff
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 17:35:00 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BLUOMA <bluoma@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Re: the real language poet
Reply to: RE>the real language poet
look, the other day i was sitting in this stupid pretend english pub that
was less like a real english pub than anyone in hollywood could ever
imagine (even the evil eisner), & my head bounced off the fucking floor
when i realized that james sherry, tom mandel, & charles bernstein were
raking this guy over the coals for writing an article 2 (not one, but 2)
YEARS ago about Language Poetry. (& how they weren't that thing.)
FINE--They're not, infact no one except ME ever was.
Yes--I AM THE FIRST, THE ONE & ONLY LANGUAGE POET.
Silliman, Andrews, Bernstein, Hejinian, Harriman, Palmquist,
Veal-Scalapino, 1000w Lig htBulb, & Hello Kitty Robinson are all
imposters-posers-reactionary posse. (at best PROTO-LANGUAGE poets.) {More
precisely, NEO-Door.}
I am THE Language Poet.
Group identification is merely another marketing ploy & the oldest
one at that.
-Tony Door
Calabria, Italy
1/29/95
--------------------------------------
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:56:30 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ted Pelton <Notlep@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
Reply to Jeffrey Timmons re: arts & humanities funding:
First of all, I don't believe that there is a national mood supporting
Gingrich & co., but rather that it's manufactured; neither do I believe the
country is in terrible financial trouble, as NEA/NEH detractors would have
it. Sometimes their manuevers are naked: witness Lynn Cheney testifying
against the NEH two years after chairing the agency herself and testifying it
should be renewed, and that at a time when we had a worse deficit. But to
the point (I could get into an interrelated media and politicians and
corporations thing, but it's a rather familiar tune by now), I offer the
following quotations:
"I believe, as a free society, we need to protect diversity and encourage the
exchange of ideas. I regard some recent attempts to cut funding for NEA as
attempts at censorship, and at silencing one part of this discussion."
"The world leadership which has come to the United States cannot rest solely
upon superior power, wealth, and technology, but must be solidly founded upon
worldwide respect and admiration for the Nation's high qualities as a leader
in the realm of ideas and of the spirit."
"Democracy demands wisdom and vision of its citizens. It must therefore
foster and support a form of education, and access to the arts and the
humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located
masters of the technology and not its unthinking servants."
The first quote is from Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin. Why doesn't
something like this come from Jane Alexander was my question a couple days
ago. It isn't outside the debate, but she chose to compromise before the
fight began. Conservatives are trying to censor those who stand for values
they don't agree with. Values is a word that's been taken over by the Right,
as if you have to be a fundamentalist to have values. But things that are
happening in Congress right now are deeply offensive to my values -- the
right to have an art that functions as critique and antidote to prevailing
norms, a neccessity in a democracy. (That much more necessary because the
press -- which Madison and Jefferson and co. thought would save us -- have
abdicated their adversarial position vis a vis government, preferring a
scandal-sheet mentality.) The second two quotes are also from the center, or
at least what used to be the center: both come from the original NEA/NEH
charter in 1965. I particularly like "masters of their technology and not
its unthinking servants." Is it possible that the US Government once
produced language like that? Now all the powers that be seem to want are
unthinking servants. Thus the endowments are opposed.
Who are *the people* we're always being told support this and condemn that?
I don't buy what I'm told the people want. Polls are a sophisticated form
of lie; similarly, I can structure my lectures to my students so that I see
my own phrases coming back to me on tests. But as a part of the people, I'm
going to demand what I think the nation should stand for; that first
government quote hits home for me -- I'm tired of being known around the
world for our endless flow of weapons to the world's thugs, or as the world's
biggest thug. James Sherry said something similar the other day: "A nation
should support
its culture not as a business but as its representative to the world." I
could add: others will represent you if you don't represent yourself.
Ted Pelton
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 23:22:39 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Archives Department <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.BITNET>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Dark Ages Clasp the Daisy Root, Sept. 1990
X-To: poetics@UBVMS.BITNET
[The editors of Dark Ages Clasp the Daisy Root are preparing electronic
versions of some of the material from their magazine, which will soon
be available at the EPC. This text is provided as introduction.]
Dark Ages Clasp the Daisy Root #4, Sept. 1990
Editorial:
We live at a time in which "modern" no longer makes clear
what differentiates the present from the past. Comes instead the
prefix "post-," illuminating like a metaphysical truth an age
that never did, perhaps, exist, signifying above all our wish to
be rid of words that no longer help us speak. What Beverly
Dahlen calls "a journey of indecipherables.a way in the cloying
dark" defines a relation to history no longer indifferent to
language. Fate throws the darkness in our path. We believe that
terms, outwitting their applications, charge us with the task of
preparing further journeys.
The "ancient confidence" Charles Olson felt when he named
himself "POST-MODERN," idiosyncratically, to state that he _did_
belong to something called a "universe," no longer moves us to
overthrow estrangement. As long ago as 1950, Olson realized that
what is modern is "Man" itself, that "Man's" only means of
opposing "himself"--withstanding the brutality of "his" will, the
tyranny of a modern logos--is the body, "intact and fought for."
Without this ground--without an experience specific to time and
place--we are lost. "The _modern_," declared Olson, writing
Robert Creeley, "(and we have to push this biz, of the SINGLE I,
to undo the modern) does--admit it or not--feel he does _not_
belong to what--just, quick, call it, the universe."
Such "undoing" (a word that recalls the spinning of the
Moirai) represents what theologian Mark C. Taylor terms "errant"
thought. "Repeatedly slipping through the holes in the system
within which it must, nevertheless, be registered," writes
Taylor, "such thought is perpetually transitory and forever
nomadic." The individual, the single I, given over as one might
yield the most useless of properties, to the _properties_ of that
"Worth"--a breath that is taken, the beating of a heart no less a
fact than the fiction of God by which history is made and
written--insofar as _it is_ given, announces itself as an
illusion. This is what the Old Testament called _tselem_: a
phantom, a representation, an image.
Held in the procreant hands of time, the postmodern--
applying that word as Olson coined it--enters upon the Earthly
Paradise so errantly addressed in _Maximus_.
Man came here by an intolerable way. When man is
reduced to so much fat for soap, superphosphate for
soil, fillings and shoes for sale, he has, to begin
with, one answer, one point of resistance only to such
fragmentation, one organized ground, a ground he comes
to by a way the precise contrary of the cross, of
spirit in the old sense, in old mouths. It is his own
physiology he is forced to arrive at. And the way--the
way of the beast, of man and the Beast.
If Olson resists the call of God in this, he does so to repossess
creation, to mark and insist "that the idea of one god itself is
only an extension of the principle, that one man can, by the
labor of his life, give light that others can use to have
theirs."
Man and woman--in _their_ image, the shadow of divinity,
fallen. Is this the apotheosis of what Postmodernism would
inaugurate? What other names for our relation to the past, for
the burden of our present? _So many stumble / going out of the
world_, writes Susan Howe, _word flesh crumbled page edge . . . A
question of overthrowing_. No longer indifferent to language,
have we become, in our disaffection, our estrangement, unused to
other paths, other ways through the cloying dark? Has the
brashness denoted by the prefix "post-" become a despair, an
intellectual despair, rigorous as geometry?
A journey of indecipherables
A question of overthrowing
_For its power_, writes Olson, thinking of what he came to call
the soul, _is bone muscle nerve blood brain man or woman, its
fragile mortal force its old eternity, a stumbling_.
Andrew Schelling & Benjamin Friedlander
September 1990
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:38:39 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
X-To: Ted Pelton <Notlep@AOL.COM>
In-Reply-To: <01HME4FZA3O6L1Y7OA@asu.edu>
I thought Ted's response was pretty right on about the manufacturing of
consent (Chomsky?) and I agree with him on this point, but (and this for
the sake of sorting this out better for myself) doesn't that idea sort of
deny the validity of those that--false consciousness or manufactured
consent be it may--honestly hold and feel as strongly about their
beliefs? And that's what seems to me to be the issue here: cultural
conflict, in the sense that various versions of America are being brought
into conflict, that it's being described as a battle, a cultural war, and
it's actually taking on more and more shades of division and separation
between my America and your's--so to speak. Proposition 187 and the
calls for tighter immigration, the Haitian invasion, Newt's defense of
American Civilisation, and all the negative reactions
to multiculturalism as a weakening of WESTERN CIVILISATION--these all
seem to reflect an attitude or a drawing of battle lines or a
restratification ... where am I? Or as Emerson said, "Where do we find
ourselves?" I think that's what he said . . . The point is, the
question I have for Ted is if consent or opinion is manipulated or
manufactured does that mean that those that hold those views are
embodiments of a form of false consciousness--and does that make us any
less subject to alternative forms of that same process from other loci
of power? And if--if, mind you--their consent or opinion is not
manufactured and neither is ours and we both have--demand--a
representation in America of our views how do we mediate these
positions. This is only a lame attempt to think about these issues, so
don't hold me to any accuracy or clarity in articulating them--they've
been hounding me, especially as I've tried to listen over the past few
months to conservative points of view in order to understand the
arguments. I'm a registered independent, for what it's worth. Anyway....
Jeffrey
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:40:48 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
In-Reply-To: <01HMCPRS0NKI8X2YRZ@asu.edu>
Interested in seeing the text sandra braman alluded to.
Jeffrey
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 23:51:47 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
chris stroffolino can't be serious in thinking that if I'm
historically a language poet (I hope this subject goes
away soon) then I must mean that anyone else my age is
too. I meant my history and that of the others associated
with this group.
Anyway, what difference can it possibly make?
it's not whether your mind is open or closed but what is
it closes or opens your mind. What makes this the end
of a century? a convention. What makes this _late_
capitalism. a convention. what makes this the deadend
of a culture? a convention.
the music of alois haba invalidated the theoretical/
critical/historical harmonic judgment theories of
schoenberg. work renders theory its meaningful or
meaningless place. but haba's music does not
invalidate the music of schoenberg. work only
underlines the interest, the possibility, of
other work - of previous work, of new work.
a discourse in re: poetry that is interesting to
poetry is one that adds space for poetry to be
made. Adds space. It is in the nature of powerful
work, interesting work, fabulous work, to provide
more not fewer places for next work to take off
from. Hence, "a fundamental break with the past"
is a marketing term with meaning if you want
to rev your network, but of no interest to
long scope activities like poetry. a connection
with the past is no different from a connection
with the future. This is the reason it is possible
for poets like Duncan or Mandelstam to write
about Dante in ways that unveil new possibilities
for poetry.
tom mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:54:16 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Funding Arguments
X-To: Sandra Braman <BRAMAN@VMD.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <01HMDAYP16WY8X3EL5@asu.edu>
I agree with Robert Drake that it's not a rational issue at all. It
seems very weird to me (or par for the course) that the smithsonian
exhibit has taken so much flak (ha) for daring to challenge the
conventional wisdom of the enola gay. Conventional, not informed
opinion, apparently. And isn't this what it comes down to, that history,
politics, poetry are empty--essentially (were there such a thing)--and
that we and everyone else realizes this and that we are contesting who
gets to define and represent such things as Hiroshima and the dropping of
the bomb to ourselves? I share robert drake's pessimism, particularly
when it comes to being able to negotiate competiting histories. More to
say, always more to say, but not more time to say it . . . .
Jeffrey Timmons
PS--sorry about the weird posting
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 23:55:02 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: the real language poet
Luoma - henceforth and immediately : stop stealing my ideas
and if you are going to steal them, please present
them in boring ways. If you continue in your
present mode, you will only bring credit upon
yourself.
mandel
a period alone at the margin on a line by itself
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 22:03:50 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
X-To: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <01HME8I0GKGIL1Y8P6@asu.edu>
On Sat, 28 Jan 1995, Tom Mandel wrote:
> a discourse in re: poetry that is interesting to
> poetry is one that adds space for poetry to be
> made. Adds space. It is in the nature of powerful
> work, interesting work, fabulous work, to provide
> more not fewer places for next work to take off
> from. Hence, "a fundamental break with the past"
> is a marketing term with meaning if you want
> to rev your network, but of no interest to
> long scope activities like poetry. a connection
> with the past is no different from a connection
> with the future. This is the reason it is possible
> for poets like Duncan or Mandelstam to write
> about Dante in ways that unveil new possibilities
> for poetry.
Invalidated schoenberg? Hm. Long scope? Yeah, ok. And, well, a
connection with the past is different than a connection with the future,
but connection is the important thing. As with capital so with poetry,
there is no out; and that's ok. Eliot discusses this in Tradition and
the Individual Talent; it's really also Bloom's argument in any number
of places where he takes about revisionary ratios and misreading, la,
la, la.... And tom, if I read this right, is right: marketing strategy,
but not useful. Tradition, if only to empty it out.
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 22:10:38 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
X-To: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <01HME8I0GKGIL1Y8P6@asu.edu>
Tom Mandel wrote:
> work renders theory its meaningful or
> meaningless place.
>
Ok, how is theory not work? Freud said writers had said all that he said
before and better (rough paraphrase, I assure you) than he--is this the
difference between theory and work? In a sense, then the poetry is no
less theoretical. I missed the schoenberg is not invalidated--but tom
had it the other way as well--schoenberg is invalidated. " I contain
multitudes . . . ."
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 1995 21:50:55 -0600
Reply-To: quarterm@unixg.ubc.ca
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: peter quartermain <quarterm@UNIXG.UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: Up in smoke
In message Thu, 26 Jan 1995 12:03:35 EST,
Peter <PGIZZI@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU> writes:
Peter Quartermain asks,
Can you please reserve me one dozen copies of #12 at $4.oo each, PLUS
TWO complete sets of Oblek #1-#9 at $1.50
each?
I've put a cheque
for $75.00
in the mail but the Canadian Post Office
is sometimes so slow that they might all otherwise
be sold before my cheque reaches you. Thanks.
Peter
(I'd be grateful indeed if you could forward this
message to Connell McGrath. Thanks.
> Connell McGrath is in the process of breaking down the o-blek office
> and asked me to post the following announcement:
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
> POETRY READERS
>
> o-blek magazine is out of business and I want to pass
> on our overstock to interested readers. They are available
> on a first-come first serve basis at the following rates:
> o-blek /#'s 1 thru 9 & 11 are a $1.50 per book, o-blek/12's
> are $4 per set while they last. These amounts will cover
> the cost of mailing materials and postage. Please help
> me to get these wonderful books into the right hands. Tell
> all who may be interested, buy as many as you like, do it soon.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Connell McGrath
>
> Send Check made out to o-blek to:
> o-blek
> PO Box 1242
> Stockbridge, MA 01262
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Please feel free to post this annoucement to other lists or
> to print out and pass on to others. Thanks
>
> Peter Gizzi
>
__________________________________________________________________________
Peter Quartermain
128 East 23rd Avenue voice and fax (604) 876 8061
Vancouver
B.C. e-mail: quarterm@unixg.ubc.ca
Canada V5V 1X2
__________________________________________________________________________
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 00:24:46 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ron Silliman <rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: NEA & Randy Cunningham
The individual most likely to determine whether or not the NEA survives
in 1995 is a GOP Congressman from San Diego, Randy ( Duke ) Cunningham.
Every writer (and, indeed, artist) in California needs to contact this
dude and let him that his future as a statewide politician may hinge on
the House reauthorizing the NEA.
Others with less strategic, but nonetheless critical, roles include
Congresspeople (I believe they are all men actually) Livingston of
Louisiana; Bill Goodling of Gettysburg, PA; Kasich of Columbus, OH;
Regulia of Canton, OH; Gunderson of Wisconsin (the gay member of the
GOP); Rukema (of where?) and Castle of Delaware.
Not one of these folks has email.
These are the key players according to Eliot Figman of Poets and Writers
& Jim Sitter of CLMP, with whom I met today. Both have been accompanying
Gigi Bradford, the lit director of the NEA, on a tour. (Bradford s
constrained by her position from discussing such matters, although she
was quite enthusiastic about the Freely Espousing events.)
Figman & Sitter believe that, with Kassabaum (I m probably misspelling a
lot of these names, but I m working fast late at night ) and Jeffords
both supporting the Endowment, the votes exist in the Senate for the
NEA, but that House is much more problematic.
Here s why: for reasons of parliamentary procedure, the NEA needs to be
blessed by three separate processes in each house this year. It must
first receive authorization from each house. It must also receive an
appropriation. And the budget must leave enough room in the general
category for the appropriation to be budgeted. The first two processes
are especially important, since the third can happen through a number of
different scenarios.
If the Senate authorizes and the House does not, it goes to conference
committee. In such a circumstance, the bill is not conferenceable,
meaning that you can t half authorize it. It s all or nothing. So the
Senate version would have to win out in conference. The exact same
scenario applies for appropriation. If the House fails to authorize
and/or appropriate and its version wins in either conference committee,
then the NEA is kaput. On the budget bill, there s much more room for
raising and lowering sums and jockeying around between categories.
This means that the chance of the NEA of surviving is at best one in
four.
Randy Duke Cunningham chairs the House committee that is charged with
authorizing (or not) the NEA. To give you an idea of its centrality to
that committee s purpose, it s the Early Childhood, Youth and Families
subcomittee (of Ways and Means?).
Goodling chairs the committee that it reports up to. So that s his role.
Regulia and Livingston are keys in the appropriation bill. My notes are
not clear on the committee that Gunderson, Goodling, Rukema and Castle
all sit on, but it may be budget.
I don t know if Cunningham is a pure opportunist reactionary (as is
Newt Gingrich, a man who once co-authored a bill to legalize marijuana
for cancer patients), a true believer libertarian type (a la Barry
Goldwater), or a not wrapped too tight dingbat (a la John Briggs,
Michael Huffington, Bullet Bob Dornan and Sonny Bono), but that tends
to be what the Southern California GOP serves up. In this case,
opportunism is good. If Cunningham wants to go onto a larger stage later
(for example, Pete Wilson was once mayor of San Diego, a very weak
position from the point of view of formal power, and now he s got a
50-50 chance of being on the 96 national ticket for the GOP). Every
California Republican expects to be president someday. But the arts play
a major role in California, both commercial and nonprofit. And failing
to authorize the NEA is one way to get identified as an ideologue. He
could "authorize" the NEA without voting for its appropriation, for
example, and accomplish some real good.
We need to let him know that this is a high-profile issue and that he is
being watched closely. Can anybody in San Diego give us more details?
I should note that last time the NEA came up, Cunningham voted against
its appropriation and went so far as wave a check for $2,000 to the San
Diego Symphony (I m not certain that that was the agency), saying that
this is how the arts deserve to be funded. Gingrich copied this gesture
this year right down to the dollar figure (his donation was the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting).
If the NEA gets authorized in both houses, but appropriated only in the
Senate, its chances of making it through the conference committees is
much better. So Cunningham is the key.
I should note that I share a lot of the same reservations about the NEA
that just about every poet has, certainly every progressive poet. But I
agree with Luigi Bob completely that we should not aid Helms, Gingrich
et al by airing those problems at an inopportune moment. I d rather
communicate those directly to the folks at the NEA (and I have, from
time to time). The lit program receives 16.85 percent of all
applications at the NEA, even tho lit gets only 3.05 percent of the
program's funds. I too have doubts over the Lit Program's commitment to
funds for individuals over programs (it has the highest percentage of
funding for individual artists of any NEA program). However, I noted
that seven of the current winners (there were just 37) were writers I
read and pay attention to. Frankly, just under 20 percent's not that
bad.
Maybe Jack Krick or someone can get us the phone and fax #s for these
people. Let's do it!
Ron Silliman
rsillima@ix.netcom.com
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 02:51:05 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
In-Reply-To: <199501290034.QAA18561@slip-1.slip.net>
A lot of this discourse is interesting, but I question whether it leads
to many of the values being alluded to for the work. This discourse does
not proceed at the level of the poetry. I don't believe it. Nor do I
believe much space is being added for this different, fabulous work, this
dark horse that may be too dark to recognize or see.
Spencer Selby
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 06:56:10 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BLUOMA <bluoma@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Re: Re- the real language po
Reply to: RE>Re: the real language poet
Re>> Luoma - henceforth and immediately : stop stealing my ideas
and if you are going to steal them, please present
them in boring ways. If you continue in your
present mode, you will only bring credit upon
yourself.
<<
Fortunately or unfortunately, Tony Door is Dougy Rothschild MD, who was a
guest on my account.
Bill Luoma
BLUOMA@VANSTAR.COM
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 10:46:04 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BLUOMA <bluoma@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Re: Re- the real language po
Reply to: RE>Re: the real language poet
In 1989, the Sixth District Court of the United States ruled in the case
of Jeffery M. Masson vs. Janet Malcolm & The New Yorker that, "Fabricated
quotations do not prove actual malice." {This decision was later over
turned.} [sic]
The information gathering sources which i have employed for the past few
years seem to be defective. Previously they had informed me that Mr.
Charles Bernstein was at an unspecified drinking establishment speaking on
the weather or knots of language poetry. Further inquirey has re-veal-ed
that he was not. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Bernstein.
There was indeed a third party at the poetics-fest; it was, however, NOT
Charles Bernstein.
Tony Door
out on a canal
Venice, Italy
30/1/95
--------------------------------------
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 15:13:07 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Steven Howard Shoemaker <ss6r@FERMI.CLAS.VIRGINIA.EDU>
Subject: Life Supports
Thanks to everyone who responded w/ suggestions for getting hold of the
Bronk volume. Seems like i shld be able to scrape up a copy one way or
another...
steve
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 19:18:33 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Chris Stroffolino <LS0796@ALBNYVMS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
Dear Spencer--Yes, immediately after sending my "contribution" to this
discussion I felt like I wanted to retract--not so much everything I said
as the way I said it. Agitation. Agitation. Oh what good does any of it
do. In fact I was considering asking to temporarily cancel my subscription
to this list, since it's taking up way too much of my psychic energy and
is frustrating. To OVERDOSE on polemics, etc. Instead, I will try to
hold myself to avoiding getting caught up in such argumentative vortexes.
But will others do it? I guess it doesn't matter who started it. It was
probably Tony Door disguised as Nils Ya disguised as Saint Geraud disguised
-----BUT, then, Spencer, I'd like to ask you to help me with something...
If we (and I think we're similar in this) want to get the discussion here
in this email forum to be more like poetry, HOW can we go about doing it?
Should we send rough drafts of poems to each other over email? Would that
work? I'm considering it. Any other ideas? I'm certainly "open." Chris
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 22:55:41 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 27 Jan 1995 19:26:37 -0700 from
<mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
How can there be a decisive break with the past when the past is neither
decisive nor is the break? I have two responses to Lightman which I have
been thinking about a lot this weekend and I'm going to sound pompous as hell
but that hasn't stopped me before and it only proves I am interested.
First, the manifesto. This is not a break at all with the past and it
in fact repeats old conflict. It in fact only sees those conflicts that
have been handed down to it from, where, the past? Freud and Jung?
Not really interesting anymore. Lacan and Butler would be perhaps a little
more interesting. Maybe. Irigaray and Steinem? Who? What about Sedgewick
and Wittig? Derrida? Which Derrida? Where's Bhabha, Haraway, Acker?
My point is not to parade a list of names, but to demonstrate how much
this list seems determined by a past that is not at all broken with. Nor
should it.Nor can it be.
Not that there isn't anything of interest in both the manifesto and to
a greater extent the work. There is the possibility of great confusion which
seems interesting. I'm interested in the reference to Gaiman. It seems to me
that there may be room for a messier poetics to come. Not sure this is it,
but may be a proper direction. When I think of L school poetry and poetics,
I think of a very pure poetry, in its engagement of its materials. Could
be a legitimate response to muddy up the waters.
But if there is going to be this Jung stuff, then forget it frankly.
There is a lot more interesting things happening out there and a return,
and I do mean return, to crypto-fascist mysticism instead of say a hybrid
(to jargon bait a little) form of cultural community won't be able to compete.
There may be something to this, and its probably not fair to judge
a movement on the basis of one guys work over an impersonal medium, but I
think it is important to be very very aware of the past, to break with or
to build with. And I believe also that the difference between mainstream
poetry and avant-oppositional-experimental-whatever poetry is how well it is
theorized. Mainstreamers don't bother to do that at all and as such, they
are just not that interesting. Thus it'scrucial for any movment to compete
theoretically as well as poetically. To pick the right voice.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 23:24:25 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
In-Reply-To: Message of Sun, 29 Jan 1995 19:18:33 -0500 from <LS0796@ALBNYVMS>
Chris, Spencer and all: I understand the frustrations and the anxieties very
well. I've just got on the list not too long ago and already I've been in more
wars then I can remember. Probably my fault, certainly, but what I want to say
is that I think these have as well as being stressful been very stimulating.
I've been forced to think about poetry and poetics thanksto Chris and Tom,
and Ron and Steve, in ways I would never have before. Brecht-like, I say,
you've made me think and I don't think that is a bad thing.
I think the list is doing what well what it should do.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 14:33:30 +0900
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: John Geraets <frank@DPC.AICHI-GAKUIN.AC.JP>
Subject: Langusage
When words stop being logical they sound like this.
Breath usually is quite nice because it isn't outlined.
John Geraets
frank@dpc.aichi-gakuin.ac.jp
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 10:14:40 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Espousing Update 1/30
A quick overview of what transpired on 1/28:
*We estimate that 500 people turned out for
Freely Espousing events on Saturday. (This
figure does not include the many people who
attended Woodland Pattern's benefit reading
in Milwaukee.)
*While it is difficult to estimate the amount
of mail generated, we do know that between
New York City and Providence at least 150
letters and 250 postcards were generated.
Actual numbers for the combined events are
probably safely estimated at somewhere
around 700 pieces of mail. In our push to
Outwrite the Right, we made a good start.
*Here in Providence, we had sympathetic coverage
from the Providence Journal. A substantial article
appeared in the Sunday ProJo entitled: "Writers gather
in Providence to fight cuts in Endowment" (by John
Castellucci, 29 Jan 95: B3). Rather than focusing
on our "big name" speakers, Castelluci reported on
the small press crowd: the Waldrops, Jennifer Moyer
of Moyer Bell, Peter Gizzi, Lee Ann Brown, and Sianne
Ngai were all cited. The article closed with words
from Keith Waldrop's _Potential Random_!
Jena Osman reports that at least two Buffalo
t.v. stations covered her event, and WBFO (the NPR
station there) has run two pieces on the event.
Cole Heinowitz expects coverage of the San
Diego event in today's San Diego Union.
On a more modest note, Brown's campus daily is
beginning a three part series on FE and on the
right's attack of federal arts funding more generally
today.
*We have compiled field reports from the various sites
and we hope to have time, by late today, to post again
with info about the specific shape the various programs
took.
*As one of our organizers remarked, making sure Saturday's
events went smoothly was like "tending a wildfire." To
all the people who so tended, our very deep thanks.
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 13:51:19 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Ted Pelton <Notlep@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
Jeffrey,
Let me know if you find anything interesting in your forays into contemporary
conservative political thought; to my mind, an anti-immigrant movement or a
desire to keep the U. S. culture pure means no more today than it did when
the Know-Nothings tried it in the 19th century. I don't consider fear of the
unknown a viable or useful political or cultural philosophy.
I, like Ron Silliman, find that many writers I read have gotten individual
awards (not to mention benefitting from funded presses, mags, etc., through
the pittance given the lit program). That's a good thing, to my mind, which
is the only one I can speak for. *The People* (some say) don't find their
values represented in NEA/NEH funding decisions. I don't believe that.
Let's give the NEA and NEH bigger advertising budgets so they can circulate
their truths. Then we might be able to talk about it. In the meantime, I
distrust anyone who claims to speak for American values (Chomsky does read
this well, I agree); the main American value I personally see as having come
out of the recent elections is that the overwhelming majority of citizens
lead private lives very distant from the machinations of policy-making and
choose not to participate (or at least don't actively seek to vault the
blocks preventing their participation).
Generally speaking, I think that it's in the interest of a healthy state to
help support an avant-garde that will question the values the state puts
forth as mainstream. A state that becomes intolerant of and seeks to
eliminate such non-mainstream voices is, to my mind, that much less healthy.
When cost of such programs is called a main issue and we're talking about 65
cents a person, then the distortions have reached an obscene level to my
mind. I resist the current rhetoric that persists in such mislabelling under
the umbrella of traditional values. My own values are insulted. You may be
right, it may be cultural war, but I know what side I'm on if that's true
(and so do you, I'd suspect).
Ted Pelton
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:27:13 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "I.LIGHTMAN" <I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
Eric Pape is missing my point but, ah well. For what it's worth, I know some
history, and I have read all the writers Eric Pape mentions, could indeed
argue out reasons against each, mainly covered by my point "non-Freudian
not neo-Freudian post-structuralism, if any", which was in the manifesto. The
line before my line about "Jung not Freud" sets what I meant: the utterly
rationalist, that's religious therefore dumb, line pervades everywhere in
Language Writing and indeed on POETICS. "Jung rather than Freud", if you
want. So many buy into Freud, and not into Jung even a little; fascist
connections don't make the rest of Pound unreadable, and not Jung either;
Freud's connections with countless molesters of children should rule him
out totally of consideration by the same logic, but I don't like the logic,
applied to Jung or Freud. If you look, Eric, at the start of Lacan's ecrits,
you will see he raises exactly my point, that Freudians attack religion but
are not religious. I thought I'd make the point without explicit reference
to Lacan, as Lacanians would get it anyway (some hope). You've also missed
everything I said about painting and music. Ah well.
Ira Lightman
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:12:13 GMT
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: "I.LIGHTMAN" <I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
Hi Chris,
I just got the Dec issue of Poetic Briefs in the mail from Elizabeth: it
and your own response to my posting are reasons why I'd like to get to a
continent where I can write to, meet and telephone some people who've read
the same books with the same mix of part enthusiasm part reservation and
thresh that all out till we write our way into new ways forward. Perhaps
the worse the state of the U.S., the more the writers will be shook up to
write better?
Ira
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 11:52:59 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Stephen Ratcliffe <stephenr@ELLA.MILLS.EDU>
Subject: Re: sign
learned about Poetics List via letter from Juliana Spahr, who suggested
not only its interest (indeed) but possibility I might "notice" Avenue B
books to those in group who might be interested. Hope to do get to that
(having seen Peter Gizzi's similar announcement re: o.blek. Look forward
to seeing you Charles here next week.
Stephen Ratcliffe
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 15:16:46 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501260023.TAA04735@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
I appreciate James Sherry's remarks about my query. I have one more query
for him. James, what is it about the "prose style" (hope I'm getting it
right) of Apex that you find admirable?
mark wallace
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 14:15:48 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:27:13 GMT from
<I.Lightman@UEA.AC.UK>
It is quite possible that I missed the point of Ira's posting. I don't deny
that, nor did I mean to imply that I somehow know more names than he and as
such am more qualified, though I admit it sounded that way even to me after
I read it.
My point is that the past has never been fixed, thus no break. The
enterprose is flawed in itself and I tried to demonstrate that the conflicts
mentioned are perennial, not new.
And as far as Jung goes, I'm just not interested. Remember also that
Lacan's point was not that God exists, but that s/he is unconscious, as
for example is woman, which also doesn't exist. I'm not claiming, by the
way, that this is any more interesting.
Anyway, thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 11:45:19 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Stephen Ratcliffe <stephenr@ELLA.MILLS.EDU>
Subject: Gertrude Stein
"Listening and Talking at the Same Time": Gertrude Stein at Mills College.
October 26-28, 1995, the 60th anniversary of Stein's appearance on the Mills
campus in Oakland, where she delivered her lecture "Poetry and Grammar"
to 500 students and faculty in the Music Hall, after having learned there isn't
any there there). Inquiries/proposals for papers/readings to Stephen Ratcliffe,
Mills College, Oakland, CA 94613. (510)430-2245. stephenr@mills.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 13:07:13 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
In-Reply-To: <199501300023.QAA07919@slip-1.slip.net>
Dear Eric, I'm not saying this forum is a bad thing. I'm saying it's
important to interrogate the discourse (some of it, at least) as much as
the participants seem to want to interrogate each other.
Dear Chris, Thank you for yr response, yr honesty and willingness to step
back. I'm not sure sending poems is the answer, though I wouldn't rule it
out either. As I say above, there are times when the overall discourse
deserves more critique than the positions individuals are taking.
I admit that I don't buy this "theory is practice" thing. I know people
can be very articulate in that direction and I know there's not always a
clear line between the two and I know theory can be helpful to practice.
But it can also be a negative, a weapon, a suit of armor, a
self-promotion, an excuse to revel in one's intellect and ability to
rationalize.
Or maybe theory/practice is not the issue. Maybe the issue is the
relation between the social discourse of writers and the work. Here again
the discourse is helpful and even necessary, but it can also be
destructive and counterproductive. Maybe more attention should be paid to
the dark side here, to the ways this discourse may close off space or
possibilities.
My other suggestion would be to encourage those who don't participate to
get involved, offer their two cents, or reconsider their silence. Perhaps
it's natural that few do most of the talking, but it's certainly not
preferable. I will even say it doesn't seem right that so many signed on
here seldom if ever jump in.
Spencer Selby
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 16:19:04 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Carlos Gallego <kritik@LELAND.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
In-Reply-To: <199501302054.MAA23085@leland.Stanford.EDU>
perversion of context, but that's o.k.-- it serves a purpose
(Wittgenstein):
tHE PaST (or) His-Story--HiStOry: "In you more than you..." THUS,
"a decisive break with past?"
hm is (?) right
(all this more of an interruption than a position-- like
listening more than saying)
P.s. "In you more than you..." some french guy named Lacan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carlos Gallego
Stanford Univ. (THE tower of Babylon)
kritik@leland.Stanford.EDU.
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:18:10 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Comments: RFC822 error: <W> CC field duplicated. Last occurrence was
retained.
Comments: RFC822 error: <W> CC field duplicated. Last occurrence was
retained.
Comments: RFC822 error: <W> CC field duplicated. Last occurrence was
retained.
Comments: RFC822 error: <W> CC field duplicated. Last occurrence was
retained.
From: Ron Silliman <rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: NEA & Randy Cunningham
X-cc: semaz@aol.com
Here are the office phone #s for the members of Congress who will
determine whether or not the NEA gets funded. Also included are their
snail mail addresses (LHOB = Longworth House Office Building, I believe;
RHOB = Rayburn; I don;t what the C is for).
As I noted in my last email, Cunningham is the person who will have the
most impact. Michael, Jerry, Rae -- you can have the most impact of all
the people on the list. Steve/Jennifer, call in your old San Diego
friends.
My experience as a lobbyist in the mid-70s (when I stopped over $240
million in construction funds for new prisons) taught me two things
worth remembering:
1) Almost all legistlation comes down to one or two interested members
who basically trade their pet projects with each other to make up
coalitions and majorities. These are the folks for the NEA.
2) It is awfully easy to halt spending, much harder to start it. The NEA
is up against the wall.
Member Party State/ Room Phone
Name District Number Area Code: 202
Michael N. Castle R DE00 1207 LHOB 225-4165
Randy "Duke" Cunningham R CA51 227 CHOB 225-5452
Newt Gingrich R GA06 2428 RHOB 225-4501
William F. Goodling R PA19 2263 RHOB 225-5836
Steve Gunderson R WI03 2185 RHOB 225-5506
John R. Kasich R OH12 1131 LHOB 225-5355
Bob Livingston R LA01 2406 RHOB 225-3015
Ralph Regula R OH16 2309 RHOB 225-3876
Marge Roukema R NJ05 2469 RHOB 225-4465
These numbers are all available through Thomas, the congressional WWW
site.
And, oh yes, I was wrong. There is one woman involved in the process at
this level. But the general boys club effect still seems to hold.
Onward,
Ron Silliman
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 21:33:26 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Re: NEA & Randy Cunningham
In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 30 Jan 1995 17:18:10 -0800 from
<rsillima@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Thanks to Ron for the concise breakdown of key
legislators on the NEA issue. On Randy "Duke"
Cunningham, I understand from Cole Heinowitz
in San Diego that a group of people stayed
after *Freely Espousing* wrapped up on Saturday
to discuss ways of working on him. Cole mentioned
a tentative plan to work with the Escondido Arts
Center (Escondido is "Duke"'s district) and possibly
the mayor of SD to get a meeting with Cunningham.
If anyone has information that could help in this
effort, please pass it along, either via e-mail to
us or by phone directly to Cole.
Cole's phone number is 619-291-4945. She is working
with Deedee Halleck (of Paper Tiger TV & Video),
Roderigo Toscano, and several other people on this.
And Ron--did your contacts mention a time-line for
the House appropriations process? I'm assuming the
curve is shorter there than in the Senate's reauthorization
process, but precise info would be highly valuable.
We won't have time to post a detailed update on 1/28
this evening (our lives--more or less suspended for
the past two weeks--demand some attendance just now).
We'll get something to the list shortly.
Greetings to All.
Steve Evans & Jennifer Moxley
401-274-1306
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 22:04:12 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Loss Glazier <lolpoet@ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
Subject: How to Subscribe to RIF/T (Informational Posting)
RIF/T Subscription FAQ Rev. 1-28-95
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H O W T O S U B S C R I B E T O R I F / T
(An Electronic Journal of Poetry, Poetics, and Writing)
To subscribe to RIF/T send an e-mail message to:
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Leave the "to" and "subject" lines of your e-mail message blank.
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Recent contributors include Charles Bernstein, Ben Friedlander,
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Thanks for your interest in RIF/T,
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=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 22:53:04 EST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Evans/Moxley <ST001515@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU>
Subject: Correction
I mistakenly provided Craig Foltz's phone number
in my previous post. The actual number for
Cole Heinowitz is: 619-295-8311.
Sorry for the confusion.
Steve Evans
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 15:17:22 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501260023.TAA04735@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
to add to my post of a moment ago, I see that James said "prose writing."
My query still stands.
mark wallace
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 07:21:42 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Catherine Yates <kdyates@CSN.ORG>
Subject: subscription
Please send me information as to how to re-enlist myself on the poetics list.
I've forgotten. With thanks.
Katie Yates
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 08:47:12 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BLUOMA <bluoma@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Re: Re- CALL FOR A DECISIVE
Reply to: RE>Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST
(NURTURE THE_
Ira,
I'm encouraged by your reply to Eric Pape contrasting Freud and Jung.
Could you do this for all your points?
I haven't read a whole lot and I'm wondering who Stockhausen is and why
Stockhausen is better than Cage and Zukofsky.
Bill Luoma
BLUOMA@VANSTAR.COM
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 09:04:49 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: BLUOMA <bluoma@VANSTAR.COM>
Organization: Vanstar Corporation
Subject: Re: Re- reified names vs. bo
Reply to: RE>Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
Spencer,
>> But it can also be a negative, a weapon, a suit of armor, a
>> self-promotion, an excuse to revel in one's intellect
>> and ability to rationalize.
Yes, I agree theory often functions in this way. It's also a way to
market yourself, especially in terms of academic jobs. If you want to eat
on the university meal ticket, you'd better be able to argue convincingly
if not arrogantly.
However, there are other times where you need a thorough and convincing
polemical stance to accomplish some "good" means. What if you were on a
senate panel with Jesse Helms? What if you were a Language Poet in 1980
and you saw what was passing as good writing and good teaching?
Thanks to the L poets (and Tony Door), the field is now wide open. I
would like clarification from the M on why they want to narrow down the
present opening to one acceptable "lyric" mode.
Bill Luoma
BLUOMA@VANSTAR.COM
--------------------------------------
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 13:37:07 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Charles Bernstein <BERNSTEI@UBVMS.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Organization: University at Buffalo
Subject: Re: subscription
In-Reply-To: Your message dated "Tue, 31 Jan 1995 07:21:42 -0700"
<01HMHPARZ7UA8X0VT6@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
Sign yourself up using these instruction: however if you have any
problem doing that just reply to this message and I will sign you up.
It is funny to see you send that message to the whole list since there
were several messages inquiring/speculating about yr whereabouts on
the list last week or the week before, as you will no doubt now here
from other! --charles
****
Welcome to the Poetics List.
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message, with no subject line, to the listserv address:
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{or}
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I will be sent a notice of all subscription activity.
ARCHIVES
There are two ways to get archives. The easiest way is to use the archives
of the list at the Electronic Poetry Center (EPC), for which see the end of
this message. The other way is described below:
Anyone interested in an archive of all postings after March may
send this message to "Listserve":
index poetics
or
index poetics f=mail
You will receive a list of archived files in a format that
includes something like this:
* rec last - change
* filename filetype GET PUT -fm lrecl nrecs date time
POETICS LOG9403 ALL OWN V 80 1012 94/05/31 07:17:17
Started on Mon,
7 Mar 1994 12:51:12 -0600
POETICS LOG9404 ALL OWN V 83 1864 94/05/31 07:18:54
Started on Sat,
2 Apr 1994 16:01:07 -050
POETICS NOTEBOOK ALL OWN V 640 1693 94/06/09 15:27:09
Started on Sun,
1 May 1994 09:47:10 -0500
You can then send the "get" command to "Listserve" in the format:
get filename filetype (eg: get poetics log9403
get poetics log9403
get poetics notebook)
or
get filename filetype f=mail
depending on which log file you want (you can also get multiple
files with one message). Note that each of the files has a
different beginning and end date, eg LOG9404 starts 7 March and
goes to 31 May and that dates overlap. Go figure! "Poetics
Notebook" is an anomalous name for what is, in effect, another
log file.
*******
To subscribe to RIF/T, the e-poetry magazine at UB's Poetics Program:
Send an e-mail message to listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu. Leave
the "Subject" line of the e-mail message blank. In the body of
your e-mail message type:
subscribe e-poetry Firstname Lastname
where Firstname and Lastname correspond to your name.
You will receive a confirmation of your subscription soon
thereafter. (Nonsubscribers can automatically sub to Poetics
using this same format, but substituting "poetics" for "e-
poetry".)
**
____ ____ ____
/ / / / / /
EEEE PPPPP CCCCC
EE / PP PP CC C/
EEE PPPPP CC / URL=gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/
__EE /_ PP |__ CC C ____
/ EEEE/ PP/ CCCCC/ / internet/library/e-journals/ub/rift
/__________________________/
|--------------------------|
| Electronic Poetry Center |
|__________________________|
___________________________________________________________________
E P C . N E W S
No. 1 (January, 1995)
___________________________________________________________________
_Contents:_
1.0 Basic Assumptions
2.0 Poetry and the Electronic Place
3.0 Interfaces: Gopher, Web, Mosaic; Bookmarks
4.0 RIF/T Notes
5.0 EPC New Additions
6.0 How to Connect
___________________________________________________________________
1.0 Basic Assumptions
The Electronic Poetry Center seeks to provide a central _place_
for Internet resources for poetry and poetics.
The lay of the land:
1.__Welcome : Electronic Poetry Center Welcome & FAQ's
(About)/
2.__RIF/T : RIF/T / New Poetry, Prose, & Poetics
(Texts)/
3.__Poetics : Calendar, Poetics List Archive & Files
(Texts)/
4.__Authors : Electronic Poetry & Poetics - Authors
(Texts)/
5.__E-Journals : Gateway to Electronic Poetry Journals
(Texts)/
6.__E-Resources : Gateway to Electronic Poetry
Resources (Connects)/
7.__Small Press : Electronic Poetry Center Small
Press Alcove (Cites)/
8.__Gallery : The Electronic Poetry Gallery
(Visuals)/
9.__Sound : The Electronic Poetry Sound Room (Sound
Files)/
10._Documents : Poetry & Poetics Document Archive
(Texts)/
11._Exhibits : Electronic Poetry Center Exhibit case
(Texts)/
12._Notices : Electronic Poetry Center Announcements
(Info)/
The Center continues to provide access to the electronic poetry
and poetics journal, RIF/T, and the archives of the Poetics List.
Needless to say, the EPC provides quality archival materials for
these resources. For the Poetics archive, a feature has recently
been added to allow keyword searching for the immense number of
files comprising this archive.
The EPC author library offers texts and/or information about
contemporary poets in a variety of formats.
A number of electronic journals are archived and distributed by
the EPC. Journals distributed through the EPC differ from other
e-journal archives in a significant way: the texts presented here
have been checked and verified by their issuing agency, thus at
least getting to you versions of electronic journals that have a
direct link to their source. We are delighted to offer these
journals to you and will continue to make sure texts presented
are done so in collaboration with their producers. For resources
outside the EPC, we have written links to make seamless
connections to these resources. It is our aim to be vigilent
about our links so that persons interested in poetry and poetics
do not have to spend a lot of time digging for addresses,
remembering sites, and locating resources. Through the selections
available at the EPC, users of the system have simple and direct
access to many other related Internet resources.
The Center also provides information about contemporary little
magazines and small presses engaged in poetry and poetics. Since
this information is often difficult to locate, it is presented at
the EPC in hopes of recongizing these contributions, facilitating
communication, and providing an additional outlet for these
extremely valuable print sources. Look here also for Selby's List
of Experimental Magazines.
The Poetry & Poetics Document Archive provides access to a number
of documents of use to poets, teachers, and researchers. Here you
will find essay material and current obituaries. This area should
be consulted in conjunction with the Poetics Files and Small
Press Sources areas, which also offer material of pedagogical
use.
The EPC also presently offers gallery, sound, exhibts, and an
announcements area.
___________________________________________________________________
2.0 Poetry and the Electronic Place
Compared to say, a year ago, many people might agree that the
idea of some sort of an electronic forum for poetry is not only a
possibility but an inevitability. We have seen the continued
growth of the Poetics List (I counted around 250 postings the
month of December 1994 alone) and the development of the
Electronic Poetry Center. The EPC has maintained a significant
circulation. We regularly get letters from various world outposts
attesting to the reality of such connectivity. Interesting also
are the number of visits taking place, both locally and across
distance; despite the dips and peaks that typify any active
place, the EPC has seen a good amount of traffic across its
doorstep. For those with such inclination (and it is illuminating
that the following compare favorably with circulation statistics,
say, for a little magazine) here are some numbers:
_Month_ _Connects_
Nov 1994 573
Oct 1994 429
Sep 1994 367
August 1994 348
July 1994 614
June 1994 110
These statistics give only a sense of scale, it should be noted,
since direct connections to EPC submenus and entries through
Veronica searches, a significant number of connects, are not
included in the above statistics.
___________________________________________________________________
3.0 Interface: Gopher, Web, Mosaic
Even as activities converge, it is also the time of divergent
interfaces. I am often surprised by the number of our
contributors and participants who do not even have gopher access.
(These, again, not represented in the above statistics.) Most
people, we figure, have at least gopher access, though Web access
is quickly becoming a standard. Mosaic, it would be assumed,
though assuming predominance in the University setting, has
hardly become a reality for most dial-up users, particularly
internationally. (For the sake of a common ground, gopher is an
ascii-based interface that offers access through the selection of
menus; the web is an ascii-based interface that offers access
through _screens_ of information with links to other areas
appearing as highlighted text; Mosaic is a graphical interface
basically superimposed on the Web structure that offers images,
sound, video, and allows you to use your mouse as a navigational
tool.) The EPC is accessible through any of these interfaces. It
is presently evolving strongly towards exclusive Web/Mosaic
access.
_Informational Notes_: (1) The standard for Web/Mosaic documents
is the markup protocol called html. These are imbedded codes that
you will see once in a while when you download an html document.
These codes give instructions to the software about highlighting,
fonts, and screen layout, as well as providing for the _hot
links_ that make possible Web/Mosaic navigation. (2) A feature of
these interfaces that should be mentioned is the bookmark. You
may wish to investigate this as most systems allow you to set a
bookmark, say at the EPC, and gain immediate access to it when
you invoke your interface.
___________________________________________________________________
4.0 RIF/T Notes
Forthcoming from RIF/T are two special issues. The first of these
is the Transpoeisis issue (see EPC Announcements for details)
which will offer a muti-faced and multi-format approach to the
presentation of translations. Also forthcoming, a planned special
issue on Charles Olson. RIF/T will also soon issue the first in a
series of special chapbooks. Much on the way!
___________________________________________________________________
5.0 EPC New Additions
Many additions have been made to the EPC in the past six months.
Following are some of the journals archived and directly
distributed by the EPC:
DIU / Albany
Experioddi(cyber)cist / Florence, AL
Inter\face / Albany
Poemata - Canadian Poetry Assoc. / London, Ontario (Info)/
RIF/T: Electronic Space for New Poetry, Prose, & Poetics
Segue Foundation/Roof Book News / New York
TREE: TapRoot Electronic Edition / Lakewood, Ohio
We Magazine / Santa Cruz
Witz / Toluca Lake, CA / via Syntax
Significant connections which the EPC would like to highlight
include the following:
Alternative-X
Basil Bunting Poetry Centre (Durham, England)
[Informational]
Best-Quality Audio Web Poems (Rhode Island)
Carma Bums 'Tour of Words'
CICNET Electronic Journal Archive
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
(Virginia)
Internet Poetry Archive (North Carolina)
Michigan Electronic Text Archive
Nous Refuse Discussion List (Illinois)
Postmodern Culture (North Carolina)
Whole Earth 'Lectronic Magazine
___________________________________________________________________
6.0 How to Connect
The Center is located at gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
Gopher Access: For those who have access to gopher, type
gopher writing.upenn.edu
at your system prompt. First choose Libraries &
Library Resources, then Electronic Journals, then E-
Journals/Resources Produced Here At UB, then The
Electronic Poetry Center. (Note: Connections to some
Poetry Center resources require Web access, though most
are presently available through gopher).
World-Wide Web and Mosaic Access:
For those with World-Wide Web (lynx) or Mosaic access,
from your interface, choose the _go to URL_
option then go to (type as one continuous string)
gopher://writing.upenn.edu/11/internet/
library/e-journals/ub/rift
(Substituting hh for 11 in the URL above may produce better
results on your system.)
Check with your system administrator if you have problems with
access. Also ask about setting a "bookmark" through your system
for quick and easy access to the Center when you log on.
If you have comments or suggestions about sites to be added to
the Center, do not hesitate to contact Loss Pequen~o Glazier,
lolpoet@acsu.buffalo.edu or Kenneth Sherwood,
e-poetry@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu
___________________________________________________________________
The Electronic Poetry Center is administered in Buffalo by
E-Poetry
and RIF/T in coordination with the Poetics List.
Loss Pequen~o Glazier
for Kenneth Sherwood and Loss Glazier
in collaboration with Charles Bernstein
__________________________________________________________________
End of EPC.News #1
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 12:21:40 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
X-To: Mark Wallace <mdw@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <01HMH2UMPWO28X42MZ@asu.edu>
A naive question from the unlearned:
Would someone please articulate in what ever fashion possible some
general practices/theories of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry? What a hassle to
type that. I won't hold anyone responsible for the reductive nature of
categorizing what is (obviously) a highly diverse assortment of writers
and writing. Ok?
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 12:48:25 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Espousing Update 1/26
X-To: Ted Pelton <Notlep@AOL.COM>
In-Reply-To: <01HMGHAGU34IL1YP15@asu.edu>
On Mon, 30 Jan 1995, Ted Pelton wrote:
> Let me know if you find anything interesting in your forays into contemporary
> conservative political thought; to my mind, an anti-immigrant movement or a
> desire to keep the U. S. culture pure means no more today than it did when
> the Know-Nothings tried it in the 19th century. I don't consider fear of the
> unknown a viable or useful political or cultural philosophy.>
Well, I would say that I'm sure that while there are similarities, the
particular purposes to which such attitudes are harnessed speak to are
different--at least to the extent that that was then and this is now.
What more precisely do you see as the similarities though? How did that
turn out? And, again, simply for the perverse interest I have in what
"those" folks are saying, perhaps you don't consider it a viable or
useful political/cultural philosophy but there are others who are using
it successfully to garner and wage power. Unfortunately.
In the meantime, I
> distrust anyone who claims to speak for American values (Chomsky does read
> this well, I agree); the main American value I personally see as having come
> out of the recent elections is that the overwhelming majority of citizens
> lead private lives very distant from the machinations of policy-making and
> choose not to participate (or at least don't actively seek to vault the
> blocks preventing their participation).
American, then, would seem to equate with something very unpleasant--at
least in our eyes. But while I agree most choose not to participate, it
is particularly disturbing that those who do not agree with that version
of America don't vote; or, another way, those that do agree with that
version of America do vote. There's a poetics of America here that I
would like, some day, to articulate--perhaps it's been done, but to set
it in terms of the present need be done. Any suggestions, in terms of
poetry of who's doing this? I think of Ginsberg, obviously, but who else?
On another note: I have been in favor of proportional representation and
continue to think that our system is too anachronistic (sp?) to
"re-present" the plurality that is America. La, la, la....
> Generally speaking, I think that it's in the interest of a healthy state to
> help support an avant-garde that will question the values the state puts
> forth as mainstream. A state that becomes intolerant of and seeks to
> eliminate such non-mainstream voices is, to my mind, that much less healthy.
And there is an interesting point to make here: is an avant-garde
antithetical to the mainstream? Isn't it by definition? I would argue
that it's just the opposite of how you describe it: a state has an
obligation to delimit, maintain, police, and exclude those voices which
question its power, authority, and ability to narrate its existence. You
know? Yes, though, you're completely right: the state is unhealthy when
it seeks to eliminate voices. And it is about as sick as I've ever seen
it.
My own values are insulted. You may be
> right, it may be cultural war, but I know what side I'm on if that's true
> (and so do you, I'd suspect).
Yes, so are mine. Constantly. I read with great disappointment today
that the smithsonian will exhibit the enola gay without comment. A
victory for a representation of war and America (perhaps I should use a
little "a" for now on) as entirely justified in its destruction of
thousands of lives--as if to question that perception were tantamount to
treason. It frightens me greatly that alternative views of that horrible
event cannot be funded or articulated; though, at the same time, I don't
think that questioning of our actions (dropping the bomb) has ever been
stronger than at present. And yes, I know what side I'm on. I just want
to know what it is that's being said, who's saying it, and why. It's
hard to argue with the opposition if you don't know what they're
arguments are--an obvious point, I'm sure.
One last item: I've been reading Micheal Berube's new book Public
Access. It's a wonderful examination of the culture wars and attacks on
academia, especially as it tries to correct the distortions of the right
about higher education. Particulary in the literary studies area. But
what I find most valuable about it is that it seeks to engage a wider
audience than a strictly theoretical readership--something long overdue
at this juncture.
Regards,
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 13:11:58 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
X-To: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
In-Reply-To: <01HMGMP71CLUL1YQOE@asu.edu>
On Mon, 30 Jan 1995, Spencer Selby wrote:
> Dear Eric, I'm not saying this forum is a bad thing. I'm saying it's
> important to interrogate the discourse (some of it, at least) as much as
> the participants seem to want to interrogate each other.
> Dear Chris, Thank you for yr response, yr honesty and willingness to step
> back. I'm not sure sending poems is the answer, though I wouldn't rule it
> out either. As I say above, there are times when the overall discourse
> deserves more critique than the positions individuals are taking.
>Maybe the issue is the relation between the social discourse of writers and
>the work. Here againthe discourse is helpful and even necessary, but it can
>also be destructive and counterproductive. Maybe more attention should
>be paid tothe dark side here, to the ways this discourse may close off space or
>possibilities.
Hey, yeah! You know what, though, I'm not sure we have a discourse here,
as is being said. Sometimes we do, as discussions on Apex, experiment
show; other times it seems to waffle in this vague, disembodied
dislocation of personal interrogations. I guess, if I were to make a
suggestion along these lines, it would be (as Tom Mandel might
suggest, if I might be so bold) to be more specific. What is the
discourse of L poetry that is under question, whose practice and why is
under consideration. Poems, poems, practice and theory.
In another sense, too, perhaps the extant discourse is closing off
something that needs to be accounted for--what are we not talking about?
The connection of social discourse to writers seems interesting. What
does it mean in terms of specific writers?
> My other suggestion would be to encourage those who don't participate to
> get involved, offer their two cents, or reconsider their silence. Perhaps
> it's natural that few do most of the talking, but it's certainly not
> preferable. I will even say it doesn't seem right that so many signed on
> here seldom if ever jump in.
Yes, I agree. Perhaps some basic questions might help. What are we
interested in? Who are we interested in and why? Why did we join the
poetics listserv? For myself I thought it a good channel to supplement
my interactions with other people, with other views about poetry and
poets. Duh, huh? It's turned into much more than that, though. Bosnia,
Freely Espousing, Academia and the work world. . . . How marvelous.
Just what I wanted.
I also joined because I was very interested in Charles Bernstein's work
and hoped to listen in on what he had to say about poetry and his own
work; I have Dark City and am very intrigued and amused, though I don't
claim to understand. I laugh a great deal. I think of television and
commercials, as if he's doing a pastiche, clashing and inserting various
ranges of discourse--a very perverse inversion of Eliot's "I can
connect/Nothing with nothing." I don't know. It's fun and I hope to
keep learning from my reading of it--any suggestions?
I'll leave off here--for no particular reason.
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 16:02:36 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
X-To: mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU
words must be read in context. read my words in
context, not as an abstract opposition of poetry
and theory but as a contextualized one. sure,
theory (or criticism, or history, whatever) is
also an art activity, an art form, a form of
writing, what have you. And yet.... are we
to succumb to the idea that there is no
difference between Moses Und Aaron and
Harmonielehre? I think my point was clear
enough. What use to react to it in a way that
is no reaction at all?
tom Mandel
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 16:21:41 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Tom Mandel <tmandel@UMD5.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: CALL FOR A DECISIVE BREAK WITH THE PAST (NURTURE THE APEX)
Eric Pape writes:
Thus it's crucial for any movment to compete theoretically as well as
poetically. To pick the right voice.
This is true and interesting, like so much of what Eric writes in
this forum. I, on the other hand (or is that "for example") didn't
suggest that Schoenberg's harmonic theory wasn't essential to
his music - to him writing his music. Only that the music doesn't
topple when the theory's knocked over.
tom m.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 15:55:52 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Spirits, etc.
Just to clarify. This is as true as stories get.
My great-grandmother and her sister sit at the kitchen table. The wind
heaves sheets of sand at the screen door. They're telling me about the lost
people of the lost country of Mu, on the lost continent of Lemuria. These
are the first people, on the first world. The strange words you hear just
before you fall asleep is their language.
We and Elves and Martians are related to the Lemurians. Aunt Alice
mentions how once she traveled in a dream to Mars and taught the women
there to use ladles, because before they had only their tongues to scoop
up the thin soup they cook on that planet.
My great-grandmother mentions how once she opened up her closet door
to find Elves dining with spiders, but they didn't have enough to eat so
she poached an egg for them. As a result, all the black widows that plagued
her garage left for the desert over night.
Making them principles does not serve spirits.
There is no compassion in racial memory.
Engendering stereotypes does not create a community.
We are related to the first people by language.
We do live in a world where Martians need to be taught to use
a ladle and where Elves should be fed.
That this story came from my family is not insignificant, because
spirituality *cannot* be faked.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 17:21:16 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Rodger Kamenetz <ENRODG@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Spirits, etc.
In-Reply-To: Message of Tue, 31 Jan 1995 15:55:52 CST from
<ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
ERic Pape writes: There is no compassion in racial memory.
"Also you shall not oppress a stranger: for you know the soul of a
stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Ex 33:9. ( I know I know I'm quoting out of context & there's
plenty of blood curdling racial memories in the same text.)
RK
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 16:33:10 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Spencer Selby <selby@SLIP.NET>
Subject: Re: Re- reified names vs. bo
In-Reply-To: <199501311834.KAA28623@slip-1.slip.net>
Dear Bill, What is a "thorough and convincing polemical stance" in the
U.S. Congress? I shudder to think... As for L poets, I give them credit
for opening things up in certain ways, but it's also true that the
openings they accomplished were only partial, and that there were
closings which also resulted. I wouldn't call the field today "wide
open." If it were so, there'd be more unique, original work than I
believe there is.
Dear Jeffrey, Be specific, sure. But if you get too specific it will
again be people talking or arguing about their personal tastes and
beliefs. Some of that is inevitable and fine, but I think the value of
this forum would be limited if that's what dominates. There needs to be a
balance between the general and specific, in my opinion. Otherwise
there's no basis for communication that different people can relate to.
Yrs, Spencer Selby
P.S. Sorry if I seem argumentative. I do appreciate the input from both
of you.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 18:05:25 -0800
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Stephen Ratcliffe <stephenr@ELLA.MILLS.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
dear spencer,
I'm getting on board this group talk/mail thing, and want to ask you to
send me another copy of your magazine list, which I seem to have misplaced
and want now to pass along to some interested students. Thanks, and keep
up the good work (writing/reading)!
Stephen Ratcliffe, P.O. Box 542, Bolinas, CA 94924
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 20:08:53 CST
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: eric pape <ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Spirits, etc.
In-Reply-To: Message of Tue, 31 Jan 1995 15:55:52 CST from
<ENPAPE@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>
That last sentence should read:
.....spirituality cannot be faked, only shared.
Thanks, Eric (enpape@lsuvm.sncc.lsu.edu)
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 21:25:26 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501282354.AA13133@panix3.panix.com>
..but how did he make the argument from the perspective of the practice of
revolution, since revolutions in art take resources away from the
political revolution. This was a brave statement for him to make and I
wonder in what context and in what way he made it, since his argument
must speak to the questions that are continuously raised about the social
utility of art. Best, James
On Sat, 28 Jan 1995, George Bowering wrote:
> He meant revolutionary ART,
> not art about the revolution.
>
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 21:41:25 -0500
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
In-Reply-To: <199501310437.AA01784@panix2.panix.com>
Being a fan of Richard Hooker, I find Lew Daly's style remarkably
independent of the last 300 years of prose writing and yet it has a
current ring to it; and I wonder how both impressions can be the
case. I haven't looked back at it to reply in detail, but if
you're interested we can take a detailed discussion off-line, since I am
concerned lest a polemic ensue. Thanks for your interest. Jamse
On Mon, 30 Jan 1995, Mark Wallace wrote:
> I appreciate James Sherry's remarks about my query. I have one more query
> for him. James, what is it about the "prose style" (hope I'm getting it
> right) of Apex that you find admirable?
>
> mark wallace
>
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 20:06:22 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: reified names vs. boundless vocabulary
X-To: Tom Mandel <tmandel@umd5.umd.edu>
X-cc: tmandel@umd5.umd.edu
In-Reply-To: <199501312102.QAA15308@yorick.umd.edu>
On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, Tom Mandel wrote:
> words must be read in context. read my words in
> context, not as an abstract opposition of poetry
> and theory but as a contextualized one. sure,
> theory (or criticism, or history, whatever) is
> also an art activity, an art form, a form of
> writing, what have you. And yet.... are we
> to succumb to the idea that there is no
> difference between Moses Und Aaron and
> Harmonielehre? I think my point was clear
> enough. What use to react to it in a way that
> is no reaction at all?
Ok, ok, I'll try harder. Let me, then ask, what constitutes a "reaction"
in your view? This is not a trick question....
Jeffrey Timmons
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 20:13:44 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Re- reified names vs. bo
In-Reply-To: <01HMI6NCAQ768X4GVT@asu.edu>
Yes, Spencer, general and specific would be best. So much seems so
general, though, that I thought ....
Jeffrey Timmonss
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 20:16:33 -0700
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
Sender: UB Poetics discussion group <POETICS@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Jeffrey Timmons <mnamna@IMAP1.ASU.EDU>
Subject: Re: apex of the m...
X-To: James Sherry <jsherry@PANIX.COM>
In-Reply-To: <01HMIBC9DGRM8X3KB5@asu.edu>
On Tue, 31 Jan 1995, James Sherry wrote:
> Being a fan of Richard Hooker, I find Lew Daly's style remarkably
> independent of the last 300 years of prose writing and yet it has a
> current ring to it; and I wonder how both impressions can be the
> case. I haven't looked back at it to reply in detail, but if
> you're interested we can take a detailed discussion off-line, since I am
> concerned lest a polemic ensue. Thanks for your interest.
Why off-line? I'd like to see what it is and how you account for it.
Jeffrey Timmons