Reading List March 1995
POETICS READING LIST FOR MARCH 1995
Here's a first attempt at establishing a community reading list resource.
Thanks for the many responses. I will try to post an updated list monthly
and this will depend on your participation. Please feel free to post what
you're reading or what you're currently obsessed with and I will collect
'em as they come in. (Or, if you don't want to junk up the list with info
that will be posted later, email me privately kgolds@panix.com).
--Kenneth Goldsmith
------------------------------
From: Gary Sullivan
Subject: Re: Goldsmith's Top 10 request
1. Aristotle's _On the Art of Poetry_. Section 20, focussing on
linguistic definitions.
2. Charles Lamb's _Selected Prose_. As Adam Phillips notes in the
Introduction: "[for Lamb] great art was unfinished in the sense that it
relied on the imaginative involvement of the audience to complete it. It
was not something that by virtue of its perfection diminished its
audience. It was not an idol but an invitation." From Lamb's essay on
Hogarth: "*imaginary work*, where the spectator must meet the artist in
his conceptions half way; and it is peculiar to the confidence of high
genius alone to trust so much to spectators or readers." (cf.
"reader-response writing.")
Lamb's essay "On the Tragedies of Shakespeare" is the first instance
of someone suggesting a preference for *reading* Shakespeare over viewing
the plays performed. An excellent, intelligently stated argument, with all
the panache (& thrice the wit) of Grenier's "I HATE SPEECH." (You'll have
to read Lamb's essay to see whether or not you agree--and to what
extent--Lamb's & Grenier's concerns are related.)
3. Gertrude Stein. No need to explicate. Richard Bridgman's _Gertrude
Stein in Pieces_ includes a (complete?) bibliography, with actual &
well-guestimated dates for each work, if you want to read her
chronologically.
4. Samuel Beckett, esp. _How It Is_, _Stories and Texts for Nothing_,
_Fizzles_, _Ill Seen Ill Said_, _Worstward Ho_, _More Pricks than Kicks_,
_Company_ and _Stirring Still_. A big influence on Coolidge, who seems a
big influence on lang pos.
5. Jack Spicer, _Language_. (cf. Silliman on this in _New Sentence_.)
6. Clark Coolidge, esp. _Space_, from 1970. The spine of this book
claims it was published by "Harper & Row"; I think they did that with
mirrors.
7. J.G. Ballard, _The Atrocity Exhibition_. Originally published in
1972 by Panther; reissued (expanded edition?) recently by Re/Search. His
notorious "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" (there's an Andrews title for
you) orig. appeared in 1968 in _Ronald Reagan, The Magazine of Poetry_,
edited by John Sladek and Pamela Zoline. (Includes groovy, Brainardesque
line-drawings by Zoline.) Andrews is funnier, but Ballard stays with you
longer. (Well, okay, "has stayed with *me* longer.")
8. Ad Reinhardt. It's been too long since I've read him to explicate,
but I remember, first coming across journals like _Ottotole_ and _Poetics
Journal_, that the Ad-man'd covered some of that conceptual ground with
respect to the visual arts. His art-world satire collages (including a
horse-racing form with the names of various abstract expressionists
substituted for horses) are not to be missed. He may or may not prove
relevant.
9. The Firesign Theater, _Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the
Pliers_. If anything can be said to've prepared me to read (& appreciate)
Bernstein, it was this record. I'm constantly amazed by the lack of
(serious) critical attention these guys have received. One of the members,
David Ossman, did the interviews of New American Poets published in _The
Sullen Art_. (Corinth published that, I think.) There are several e-space
"whatchyoucallems" devoted to the F.T. I've discovered using Gopher.
Can't remember where they are, how I got there. At least one site
includes the F.T. "lexicon," which might be valuable for the un- or
recently initiated.
10. Alan Davies, "Peer Pleasure," just published in _Cyanosis_ #2
(e-mail cyanosis@slip.net for info). Any serious study of a movement, group,
clique or tendency might include a well-stated, serious critique. "Peer
Pleasure" is an example.
--Gary Sullivan
------------------------------
From: Hank Lazer
Subject: reading now
In response to luigi-bob drake's request to mention what we're
reading & enjoying now:
biography of Coltran by Nisenson; poetry manuscripts by Charles
Bernstein and Lisa Samuels; books of poetry by Bei Dao and manuscript
materials by an amazing poet (from Suzhou) - Che Qianzi; music by
Coltrane & Monk (for classes I'm teaching later in the week); and
work by Norman Fischer, Precisely the Point Being Made (a joy of a
book) and subsequent manuscripts....
Hank Lazer
------------------------------
From: Tony Green
Subject: Re: reading now
In response to luigi-bob drake's request to mention what we're
reading & enjoying now:
Inventories of Cassiano dal Pozzo's collection of pictures; back
numbers of Burlington Magazine; Johanna Drucker's Theorizing Modernism;
Stephen
Davies's ms on Cage's 4'33";
Thierry de Duve's Au Nom de l'art --pour une archeologie de la
modernite which includes a thorough search through contemporary
methodologies for saying what "art" might be all in vain! and Art as
a Proper Noun; T de D's Resonances du
Ready-Made; Robert Kelly's The Loom (a bedside book, for re-reading)
Lacan The seminar bks I and II; Alan Loney's recent poems (ms)
Tony Green,
------------------------------
Rather than just list what I've been reading lately (which consists of
relatively little beyond recent books in the mail, such as Spencer
Selby's, Snow Crash by Neil Stephanson and Watten's Under Erasure [which
I read and reread the way Libyans read Khadafi's Little Green Book], then
massive numbers of Information Week, CIO, PC Week, Byte and the like for
work), I've been mulling over, rereading a series of "Lost Classics" that
I wish were still in print. I've gone so far as to think about trying to
package a series for a publisher.
By and large, these are longpoems, mostly from the 1960s, that I think
everybody should have and read because they're so wonderful:
A particular example of this genre would be Robert Kelly's Axon Dendron
Tree (which, with Finding the Measure & 20 Songs will always be the key
Kelly books for me because they arrived at just the right time to help me
with my own development as a poet, so that I have that deep love for them
that goes beyond articulation). Another is Ron Johnson's two Norton
books, Book of the Green Man and Valley of the Many Colored Grasses.
Another is Frank Stanford's battlefield where the moon said i love you
(writing from the job, so may have botched that title some). That may
still exist, tho would be hard to find, as would be the case I should
think with Grenier's Sentences (a "Chinese box" of 500 4x6 cards, the
sort of impossible project that extends Jonathon Brannen's insights sort
of toward a limit), a collection that I think all 1,000 subscribers to
the T-AMLIT list should read. Not to mention everybody here.
I think somebody could make the argument that the ideas in my own The
Alphabet are a direct (if transformed) descendant of the conception of
form implicit in Axon Dendron Tree and it still reads wonderfully today.
Anyhow, this after that's what seems powerful & moving and worth
mentioning
Ron Silliman
------------------------------
From: cris cheek
Iain Sinclair - Radon Daughters
Roger Griffin - The Nature of Fascism
Marjorie Perloff - The Futurist Moment
Allen Fisher - Breadboard
Tom Leonard - Reports from the Present
Kathy Acker - My Mother: demonology, a novel
Homi Bhabha - The Location of Culture
Bernadette Mayer - Midwinter Day (know it's old but I just got given a
copy)
Clark Coolidge - Solution Passage
William Burroughs - The Letters of 1945 to 1959
Forked Tongues - Comparing 20th Century British and American Literature
Alan Bullock - Hitler and Stalin (Parallel Lives)
Carla Harryman - Memory Play
------------------------------
From: George Bowering
Subject: Re: bedside reading
My guess is that responders re the question of bedside reading will
cook the books. Not me, though. I'm rteading (it has been on my
must-read-immediately shelf for years and years) Burroughs's _The
Western Lands_. Verrrry relaxin'.
------------------------------
From: Kit Robinson
Subject: Books on My Table
Reply to: Books on My Table
Here is some of what I have been, am, or will be reading --
lately, currently, presently:
Tom Raworth, Frames (Riva San Vitale: Giona Editions, 1994)
Chris Tysh, In the Name (Hamtramck: Past Tents Press, 1994)
Jessica Grim, Locale (Elmwood: Potes & Poets Press, 1995)
Kenneth Rexroth, Bird in the Bush: Obvious Essays (New York: New
Directions, 1959)
Marguerite Duras, Four Novels (New York: Grove Press, 1965)
Helmut Heissenbuttel, Texts, trans. Michael Hamburger (London:
Marion Boyers, 1977)
Etel Adnan, The Spring Flowers Own & The Manifestations of the
Voyage (Sausalito: Post-Apollo Press, 1990)
Bruce Andrews, Strictly Confidential (Gran Canaria: Zasterle
Press, 1994)
Wystan Curnow, Cancer Daybook (Aukland: Van Guard Xpress, 1989)
Rodger Kamenetz, The Jew in the Lotus (San Francisco:
HarperCollins, 1994)
John Yau, Hawaiian Cowboys (Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow, 1994)
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (New York: Knopf, 1994)
Regards,
Kit Robinson
kit@bando.com
------------------------------
From: Kenneth Goldsmith
Books by my bed:
1. Frederic Spotts "Bayreuth: A History of The Wagner Festival" (Yale
University Press, 1994). I heard Spotts speak to Stefan Zucker, host of
the now sadly defunkt "Opera Fanatic" show on WKCR, 89.9 NYC, for 4 hours
giving the real dish on the Nazification of the Festival. This book goes
deeper and unlike most books I've read on the Festival, this is juicy
stuff. Wonderful read.
2."The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna" by M (Vedanta Press, 1942) M was to
Ramakrishna what Boswell was to Johnson. Need I say more? This is a
permanent nightstand fixture.
Next up: "The Tunnel" by William Gass. Anyone read it?
Peace, Kenny G
------------------------------
From: Patrick Phillips
Subject: Bedside Books
The only book by my bed for the last week and a half has been the new
"Collected O'Hara." I've been sleeping very well after my 20-40 minute
perusings.
------------------------------
From: Ron Silliman
Subject: More Sixties Gold
Thinking further of great books from the 1950s and '60s that definitely
deserve to be preserved and put forward.
When the Sun Tries to Go On by Kenneth Koch. This 113 page poem is one
of the founding documents of the New York School. It was published in a
little magazine called Hasty Papers and then released as a book by Black
Sparrow in 1969 with a cover and 5 collages by Larry Rivers in an
edition of 1500. It's never been republished and Koch chose not to
excerpt from the poem in his Selected Poems in hopes of eventually
having the whole again in print. It's the most spontaneous and surreal
work of Koch's.
Poem of the Cid, translated by Paul Blackburn. The goofiest publication
of a major poem during that entire decade and maybe ever this appeared
as a "Study Master Publication" in 1966, a competitor with Cliff Notes.
It's an infinitely better poem in English than the Merwin (as anything
by Blackburn is, even tho I admit that I admire some of Merwin's work.
This was the source for Dorn's Gunslinger epic. 151 pages sans Spanish
in the original.
Others that come to mind include John Weiners' Hotel Wently Poems (the
impact of that book, with the Robert LaVigne illustrations, gets lost in
a larger gathering, as does Spicer s Language, for example; my copy of
the Weiners originally belonged to Bill Bathurst during his heavy
recreational pharmaceuticals period, bleary pen doodles everywhere;
Keith Abbott tells me he s cleaned his act up and is now serving as a
consultant to one of the post-communist countries in Eastern Europe),
Joanne Kyger s The Tapestry and the Web, Phil Whalen's On Bear's Head
(Norman Fischer is working on this as we speak), Kathleen Fraser's What
I Want, Curtis Faville's Stanzas for an Evening Out, and possibly Tom
Clark's Neil Young. There are some critical texts that also would
warrant rescuing: David Ossman's The Sullen Art, the original
Olson/Creeley Mayan Letters.
------------------------------
From: Ron Silliman
Subject: Re: Bedside Books
Books I'm either reading or about to that I forgot because I was
scribbling my email at work (avoiding the completion of a white paper on
"What is PC Asset Management?"):
Culture on the Brink: Ideologies of Technology, edited by Gretchen
Bender & Timothy Druckrey (Bay Press' DIA series), with pieces by
Stanley Aronowitz, Paula Treichler (Cary Nelson's SO) on AIDS and
Identity, Langdon Winner, Laurie Anderson, Avital Ronell, and Andrew
Ross. Anderson is the only one I didn't actively solicit for work when I
edited Socialist Review. These other folks are all terrific, but I will
be very curious to see if they actually understand what they're talking
about in this terrain. If I had a dime for every bad piece of writing on
technology meets culture, I'd never work again.
New Left Review 209 (Jameson on Derrida & Marx, Stuart Hall on Carribean
identity, Geras on Rorty, some other excellent looking pieces [meaning I
haven't read them yet]). Looks like the best issue of NLR in about 5
years.
Made to Seem, Rae Armantrout's new book from Sun & Moon. This is
rereading really, since I see most of these poems in manuscript first
(often in ten or twelve different versions with just one word or a line
break altered). Seeing them in a book is always a curious experience for
me since it means that they have now been "pinned down" in a way they
seldom seem to be "in life." Here's my favorite this week:
MY PROBLEM
It is my responsibility
to squeeze
the present from the past
by demanding particulars.
When the dog is used
to represent the inner
man, I need to ask,
"What kind of dog is it?"
If a parasitic
metaphor grows all
throughout--good!
Why stop with a barnacle?
A honeysuckle,
thrown like an arm,
around a chain-link fence,
would be far more
articulated,
more precisely repetitive,
giving me the feeling
that I can go on like this
while the woman
at the next table says,
"You smell pretty,"
and sends her small daughter's
laugh, a sputtery orgasm,
into my ear--
though this may not have been
what you intended.
It may not be a problem
when I notice
the way the person shifts.
Rae's poems often have the hallucinated clarity of a dream state (maybe
in this case, with the decidedly incestuous undertone of the mother
initiating the daughter's "orgasm," one of the dwarf dreams out of Twin
Peaks). Behind that lucidity the "narrative frame" is often either
unclear or unimportant compared with the rhetoric or structure of the
argument at the surface (a particularly Lacanian view of content I
suppose). I can't tell if the Bromige allusion in the title is intended
or not.
There's also a lengthy piece on Armantrout (the first that I'm aware of)
by Jeffrey Peterson in the new Sagetrieb. I continue to be amazed that
Rae hasn't been the "crossover" success of LangPo & G1 generally, but
where some fall back on beauty, humor, or anger posed as satire, Rae
never pulls punches in her work. The largest book to date is a selected
published in France in French. Amazing!
Ron Silliman
rsillima@ix.netcom.com
------------------------------
From: Mn Center For Book Arts
As to reading, beside my bed are John Cage: Composed in America, ed. M.
Perloff & C. Junkerman (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994), Robin Blaser's The
Holy Forest (Coach House, 1993), How to Make an Antique (artist's book by
Karen Wirth & Robt. Lawrence (pub. by the artists, 1989), Kevin Magee's
Tedium Drum (lyric &, 1994). I'm carrying around with me Kit Robinson's
Balance Sheet (Roof, 1994) and various books of poems by Emily Dickinson
(I seem to do that periodically). I'm looking at Keith Smith's
Non-Adhesive Binding, which gives fantastic ideas & instruction for real
& possible book structures. And I'm reading Tom Peters's The Pursuit of
Wow, which is very silly, but refreshes me on the need to be creative in
managing & directing an organization and the people who work with me
there. I'm also reading manuscripts by Anne Tardos and
typesetting/designing manuscripts/books by Mary Margaret Sloan and Myung
Mi Kim. A manuscript of sonnets by Tom Mandel is never far away, trying
to figure its best way to become the astonishing book it needs to be.
all best,
charles alexander
------------------------------
From: Ryan Knighton
Subject: Re: bedside manners
Currently I am re-reading/re-viewing the bp Nichol collection
"An H in the Heart". Taken before beddy-byes, this book will
allow you to have two to three dreams at once. Or so it seems.
------------------------------
From: George Bowering
Subject: Re: More Sixties Gold
Silliman had some beauties on his list.
Is Michael Rumaker's _The Butterfly_ out of print again? My, that was
a nice piece of prose at the time. It was so much UNlike what you
were reading in your U.S. Lit course.
------------------------------
From: Carl Lynden Peters
Subject: bed riddence
i read, and have been reading for the past long while, Leonard Cohen's
BOOK OF MERCY before going to sleep at night, because, you see, i never
know if i'm going to wake up on th' other side. wtch is interesting. i
dont really like Leonard Cohen
Carl
------------------------------
From: maria damon
Subject: what i'm reading
i like to know what people are reading; it's entertaining and
instructive. i'm
reading or have recently read cb's a poetics; louis, a book abt. louis
armstrong; a ms by lew ellingham about jack spicer's life and circle; ammiel
alcalay's after jews and arabs; marilyn halter's between race and
ethnicity (a
book about cape verdean immigrants to southeastern new england) in
connection w/
research on steven jonas; pat shipman's the evolution of racism, a
popular-ish
history-of-science account of the relationship between darwinism/physical
anthropology and ideologies of race and racism (not especially
recommended) in
connection w/ a project on jewish social scientists, esp. anthropologists.
charmed by the discussion of malleable cast so might add that to my
list. have
ordered some of hannah wiener.--maria damon
------------------------------
From: Gary Sullivan
Subject: Groovy Books
An extension of the "Sixties Gold/Classic O.P." discussion:
TEN GROOVY BOOKS
KEY: Groove Factor 1-3 = "Groovy"
Groove Factor 4-6 = "Very Groovy"
Groove Factor 7-9 = "Totally Groovy"
Groove Factor 10 = "Oh My Fucking God That Is Like
Totally *Beyond* Groovy"
Call me a fetishist, but what *I* like are "groovy" books.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"By what measure--'grooviness'?"
"Does the work *in* the book have to be 'good' for a book to be
considered groovy?"
"Can a 'fine print' edition of something be 'groovy'?"
Hey, thanks for asking. Well, first of all, *obviously* everyone's
going to have different ideas as to what's "groovy." For me, "groovy's
measure" is something I feel first in my gut then, later, spend hours on
the phone with friends, "verifying." I'll describe the book, after which
point I'll ask, "So, is this groovy, or what?" A "yes" answer from more
than 1/2 of all queried friends "verifies" grooviness. Level of
queried-friend enthusiasm determines Groove Factor. A "no" answer from
more than 1/2 can either (a) lower Groove Factor, or (b) annul said book's
"groovy" status. (Book becomes "just-a-book.") No, the work
doesn't *necessarily* have to be any good. But, it helps. Lastly,
"groovy," like "campy," is a value attributed more by audience
member, than maker. Most "fine print" editions--lovely though they
might be--are not "groovy." (It's a distinction that admittedly still
needs work.) (Chris Stroffolino, as someone in academia who's also
interested in contemporary rock music, you might be the perfect person
to--perhaps as a thesis?--hammer out the above admittedly "foggy notion"s
of "grooviness" into a "sharp" essay.)
So, in no particular order, here are 10 randomly chosen "groovy"
books ...
Alfred Tennyson, _Lover's Tale_, Walton Press, no copyright date.
This hardcover (library binding?) of Tennyson's poem includes three
"found" photos by Bern Porter. I gave this book 1 Groove Unit for each
photo. Three photos x 1 Groove Unit ea. = GROOVE FACTOR 3.
Chris Mason, _Click Poems_, Shabby Editions, 1982. "The Click Poems
were inspired by and are dedicated to the click language of the Bushmen in
South Africa, and the Ameslan sign language of the deaf community of the
United States." A beautiful mini-chap w/extraordinary work (can't
reproduce here; poems use "fermatas", illustrations of lips &etc.,
scribbled out text) found used in MPLS. GROOVE FACTOR: 5. Hey, wait! The
address says "c/o Cris Cheek"! And Cris is on this list! I've "talked to"
Cris! GROOVE FACTOR: 7.
Jack Spicer, _After Lorca_, (picture of cone = press name?), 1974. A
reprint (pirated?). Blue ink. The verso of the title page says: "This book
has been typed on an IBM Selectric blah, blah, blah, by Robin Cones and
printed by Marco Polio for the Government, with a cover from a photo by
blah, blah, blah, in March, 1974." Anyone know who made this book?
Delicious! GROOVE FACTOR: 10.
Patti Smith, _Seventh Heaven_, Telegraph Books, 1972. Patti's first
book, I think. GREAT cover photo: looks like Patti hasn't bathed since
1966, struggling to keep eyes open. Dedication: "this book is dedicated
to/ Mickey Spillane/ and/ Anita Pallenberg." How groovy? GROOVE FACTOR 8.
James Sherry, _In Case_, Sun & Moon Press, 1981. Great lurid pulp
cover, text pages printed on *pulp stock paper*. Jonathan Brannen (a
frequent Groove Consultant) mentioned that he'd seen a review of this book
that actually *criticized* the book for having been printed on such
"cheap" paper. (Critic obviously didn't "get" it.) GROOVE FACTOR
(including Brannen's anecdote): 6.
Maxine Chernoff, _A Vegetable Emergency_, Beyond Baroque Foundation,
1977. This 8-1/2" x 11" printed on cheap stock was published in an edition
of EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED copies. *Tell* me that's not groovy. Bonus
Groove Unit as I got it signed by Chernoff in '93, who explained the high
press run: "Yeah, they, um, they printed an awful lot of these." GROOVE
FACTOR: 6.
James Haining (editor), _Salt Lick_ Vol. 2, Nos. 1-2, 1972. Every
issue of _Salt Lick_ is groovy, but this one particularly so. Includes
Gerald Burns' _Boccherini's Minuet_ as a make-it- yourself chapbook insert
(!); also includes poems by Robert Slater, Robert Trammell's "George
Washington Trammell," poems by Ann Darr, Stephen Leggett, Bruce Andrews'
"Getting Ready To Be Frightened" ("go Gandhi go"), poems by James Haining,
drawings by Wilton David, and essays & reviews by Burns, Michael Lally, Al
Drake, Andrews, Victor Contoski, Darr, Ron Silliman, Daniel Castelaz, and
Haining. Reading this, you get the sense that, in 1972, anything might've
happened. Incredible list of Books & Mags received. GROOVE FACTOR: 10.
J H Prynne, _Kitchen Poems_, Grossman/Cape Goliard, 1968. Top o' the
line poetry, *beautiful* edition (great two-page "trig" drawing in red on
title & facing pages). GROOVE FACTOR 9. (Docked one point from perfect
score only because I found two copies in the same used bookstore.) (Groove
"aura" loss.)
Robert Gluck, _Marsha Poems_, Hoddypoll Press, 1973. Instead of
stapling this 8-1/2" x 11", the publisher bound it with red string. Also,
"Marsha"--the cartoon woman on the cover--has red flowers felt-tip penned
onto her dress. GROOVE FACTOR: 5.
Tom Weatherly, _Maumau American Cantos_, Corinth Books, 1970. The
title? *Way* "seventies." Includes subtitles like: "roi rogers and the
warlocks of space." You know what I'm thinkin'? I'm thinkin': GROOVE
FACTOR 8.
That's ten. Groovy.
Yours,
Gary
------------------------------
From: Rae Armantrout
Subject: Re: Groovy Books
I think someone should say that Carla Harryman's Memory Play
(O Books) is amazing. I guess it will have to be me.
Rae Armantrout
------------------------------
From: cris cheek
Subject: bedside reading
A slightly more English list of what's balanced (sometimes toppling) from
an upturned and suprisingly robust cardboard box by the bed. I sometimes go
to bed in the afternoon so this isn't always night-time reading or
pre-sleep induction. Also just becasue they're there doesn't mean they'll
all get read soon. Some are started, some up for occasional visits and some
hot. The piles change over about a six weekly cycle.
Iain Sinclair - Radon Daughters
Roger Griffin - The Nature of Fascism
Kathy Acker - My Mother: demonology, a novel
Jon Rose - Violin Music in the age of SHOPPING
Eric Mottram - Double Your Stake
Tom Leonard - Reports from the Present
Homi Bhabha - The Location of Culture
William Burroughs - The Letters of 1945 to 1959
Bernadette Mayer - Midwinter Day
Allen Fisher - Breadboard
Alan Bullock - Hitler and Stalin, parallel lives
Art & Design Magazine - 'Performance Art Into the 90s'
Macintosh Hypercard User's Guide
------------------------------
From: Jim Pangborn
An adage from the sixties: the only way out is through. Let me suggest some
texts that might be useful as ways to fight back--to critique the academic
folkways that oppress us:
Charles Bernstein, "What's Art Got to Do With It . . ." , etc.
John Dewey, _Art as Experience_
Larry Hickman, _John Dewey's Pragmatic Technology_
Ronald deSouza, _The Rationality of Emotion_
Mark Johnson, _The Body in the Mind_ (for the basic idea, not the
interminable
Kant-quibbling)
Peter Sloterdijk, _Critique of Cynical Reason_
Bruno Latour, _We Have Never Been Modern_
Jacques Derrida, _Specters of Marx_
. . . many of whom, of copurse, contradict one another completerly . . .
(Sorry these are all boys. I wish I had a good explanation for that. I'd add
Donna Haraway to this list except I have some fundamental objections I'm
still
trying to work through. I doubt it's accidental that my favorite women
writers
are all poets!)
--Jim the Scrivener
------------------------------
From: Charles Bernstein
Alan Loney has been
a subscriber to the Poetics List, but has recently signed off. He is the
author of two recommended books:
Missing Parts: Poems 1977-1990 (Christchurch, NZ: Hazard Press, 1992)
and
The Erasure Tapes (Auckland University Press, 1994), which Loney
describes in the Preface as "an autobiography in which I refuse to tell
the story of my life."
------------------------------
From: Tom Mandel
Subject: bedside books
I'm in the middle of _Intimate Letters_, Janacek's correspondence
with Kamila Stosslova. Also reading _Penser, Classer_ by Georges
Perec. This is a collection of short and occasional essays and
is wonderful (but untranslated -- don't miss _Avoid_ however
the translation of La Disparution, GP's novel without e's: it
shd be out just abt now).
Adin Steinsaltz's _The Long Shorter Way_
Laura (Riding) Jackson's _Lives of Wives_
Ron Silliman's N/O
Harry Mathews' _The Journalist_
are stacked up, and I'm waiting for the new books by Rae Armentrout
and Carla Harryman (mentioned here w/in the last week; but I'm not
near my booklist and alas can't remember the names) as well as
Jessica Grim's Locale. Also eagerly awaiting the new (18th)
volume in Patrick O'Brian's ongoing series of novels about
his twin characters Aubrey/Maturin and their lives and adventures
in the British navy during the Napoleonic wars. Again, I ccan't
recall the name of this not-yet-here volume.
Tom Mandel
------------------------------