hello out there. it's been ages. the semester has come and gone with nary a visit to this here thingy i've created. i'm not sure i even know what it is. i think it ought to be a blog of intelligent things that intelligent people would want to read but i can't bring myself to it. can't shake off my pedestrian attitude towards it. i get busy, write (intelligent?) stuff for other things (like classes) and this blog has become a tchotchke on a shelf in sore need of dusting. a blog sounded like a good idea but alas... this dog is half dead. and all the more embarrassing since a few people i greatly respect have actually linked to it from their own more successful blogs.
here i sit drinking coffee, gearing up for my last semester, thesis semster, at the school of disembodied poetics. i plan to write my thesis on the poetry of Aase Berg and am slowly working up the nerve to contact Johannes Göransson in the hopes of engaging in a dialogue on her work. there is, as of yet, very little written on her in english - which i'm sure will change in the future due to the important work Göransson has done translating her, publishing her, and inserting her into the literary dialogue over here in the states. but first i need to prepare, read a bit more bakhtin, remainland (for the 5th or 6th time), a number of other texts, and collect a few thoughts so as not to sound like a complete numbskull.
i love her work. love. love. love. in the paper i mean to talk about excess, the grotesque, the ecstatic, the body, the animal, the black hole. it will hinge, i think, nicely to the project i've been working on about fatness and transgression.
a preliminary section of the text which hinges to Berg's work:
I come to writing for what Aase Berg describes as “the secret’s warp slope of Nothing.” (29) I come to poetry for this kind of progestational secret. The kind that dangles from the bottomless cut that carves us out of the landscape and threatens to rupture and reproduce. I come to poetry for what the body makes possible. The secret is excessive. It is, I think, something like a black hole but despite its gravity, its unapproachable density, a wormhole opens, a single throat with many mouths, and something escapes – a semiotic, rhythmic animal. The animal leaks through the page, hatched from the infinitely dense, infinitely fecund egg of a collapsed star. Generation is always messy. The adjective/abjective site of excess, expelled to the margin, presses against the slutty membrane. A poem is a severe and thoughtful animal that cuts itself open, sutures itself with a thread of language to the writer and reader. Each line is a stitching pattern and, through its hollow thread, its system of lack, its cut, its line of flight along the skin of desire, which always wants to break, it re-stitches itself to the animal, to the excess of Life. I abandon the “clean body” politic for the rat’s nest. Quoting Lorca, “[poetry] likes the edge of things, the wound, and … it is drawn to where forms fuse themselves in a longing greater than their visible expressions.” (Lorca 206) This is where I locate the narrative. It creeps through the white space, invisible but for the stitches. I come to poetry for what body makes possible – the messy, brute lyric of the animal. This is the language of fat."
i'm excited for what this semester has in store.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
summer close-out
hello peops. back in boulder after a month of summer travels and gearing up for my last semester of classes at Naropes. spent a lovely week in milwaukee. strange being back after a year. everything was the same and different at the same time. strange. i guess it doesn’t really feel like home anymore. something i wasn’t expecting. the shock sent me into a little fit of ennui but i had a great time despite!
most of my time in mke was spent hanging out with the people i miss. and i wish i got to see more of them. i spent too much money at woody p, but got an awesome Duncan broadside and some great rare books. lou and i got back to boulder just in time to see our friends nick and marissa before they left for Chicago. sniff, i’m going to miss those two. and jamie and rachel too, who’re off to philly. AND, geez this is getting depressing, james and jess who took off for Albany. 'tis the season for the great student switchout - students leaving, students coming.
after a short four day respite at home i took off for the land of 10 billion lakes to visit the fam. spent two gluttonous weeks at the family cabin eating swedish pancakes and swimming/lounging in glorious Bass Lake. one of my favorite places on earth - although i am alarmed at the sharp drop in the frog population. ugh. i blame it on the increase of large boats on the lake and long for the days when there were less cabins, and more paddle boats and canoes.
that is the short synopsis of summer. i can't believe how quickly it went.
in other news, i've been engaged in a rather fierce online debate spawned by an article on one of milwaukee's "alternative" online entertainment zines. it disturbs me that so many people seem to think this article is "right on" and "what everyone thinks but doesn't say"....
if you're interested in checking it out and adding your own opinion to the fray here's the link:
my commenter code name is "ug"... what do you all think of this? are you as offended as i am?
http://www.altdash.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=49
the debate has become almost like an addiction. i keep waiting for the author to suddenly say, "oh my god! i totally see what you're saying! i had no idea i've been propagating a cultural fallacy constructed to keep women down and fighting amongst themselves rather than fighting the REAL problem." but the sad thing is that's never going to happen. this girl just really can't see it. i guess, if nothing else, reading some of the comments left on the article by men make me appreciate lou even more.
and in other, other news... i'm embarking on a cross-disciplinary independent study of fatness and transgression tracing how fat functions in the animal world and how we, as humans, got so effed up about it. here's the description from my proposal.
Course Description:
This independent study will be a critical exploration of the function of fat in the animal world and how it relates/diverges from the function of fat in human culture/history. Through the lens of abjection developed by Julia Kristeva and various writers who delve into issues of fatness, desire, and bodily transgression, this course is a trans-disciplinary study between the natural sciences, theory, anthropology and where these aspects of human experience collide with poetry.
Goals and Objectives:
Through the course of this study I mean to develop an understanding of how fat has become a site of transgression and abjection in contemporary culture and how this mirrors or departs from animal existence as a way to further explore my own bodily mapping – physically, psychically and in my body of my poetic text. I plan to seek out experts in the scientific field who I can engage in a dialogue on these issues. This study will serve to inform and direct my current project in poetry, Leviathan, which deals with aspects of the abhorrent female body under patriarchal rule.
if anyone knows of resources i ought to be looking at for this or people i should be talking to please let me know!!
all for now.
xox
m
most of my time in mke was spent hanging out with the people i miss. and i wish i got to see more of them. i spent too much money at woody p, but got an awesome Duncan broadside and some great rare books. lou and i got back to boulder just in time to see our friends nick and marissa before they left for Chicago. sniff, i’m going to miss those two. and jamie and rachel too, who’re off to philly. AND, geez this is getting depressing, james and jess who took off for Albany. 'tis the season for the great student switchout - students leaving, students coming.
after a short four day respite at home i took off for the land of 10 billion lakes to visit the fam. spent two gluttonous weeks at the family cabin eating swedish pancakes and swimming/lounging in glorious Bass Lake. one of my favorite places on earth - although i am alarmed at the sharp drop in the frog population. ugh. i blame it on the increase of large boats on the lake and long for the days when there were less cabins, and more paddle boats and canoes.
that is the short synopsis of summer. i can't believe how quickly it went.
in other news, i've been engaged in a rather fierce online debate spawned by an article on one of milwaukee's "alternative" online entertainment zines. it disturbs me that so many people seem to think this article is "right on" and "what everyone thinks but doesn't say"....
if you're interested in checking it out and adding your own opinion to the fray here's the link:
my commenter code name is "ug"... what do you all think of this? are you as offended as i am?
http://www.altdash.com/ShowArticle.aspx?ID=49
the debate has become almost like an addiction. i keep waiting for the author to suddenly say, "oh my god! i totally see what you're saying! i had no idea i've been propagating a cultural fallacy constructed to keep women down and fighting amongst themselves rather than fighting the REAL problem." but the sad thing is that's never going to happen. this girl just really can't see it. i guess, if nothing else, reading some of the comments left on the article by men make me appreciate lou even more.
and in other, other news... i'm embarking on a cross-disciplinary independent study of fatness and transgression tracing how fat functions in the animal world and how we, as humans, got so effed up about it. here's the description from my proposal.
Course Description:
This independent study will be a critical exploration of the function of fat in the animal world and how it relates/diverges from the function of fat in human culture/history. Through the lens of abjection developed by Julia Kristeva and various writers who delve into issues of fatness, desire, and bodily transgression, this course is a trans-disciplinary study between the natural sciences, theory, anthropology and where these aspects of human experience collide with poetry.
Goals and Objectives:
Through the course of this study I mean to develop an understanding of how fat has become a site of transgression and abjection in contemporary culture and how this mirrors or departs from animal existence as a way to further explore my own bodily mapping – physically, psychically and in my body of my poetic text. I plan to seek out experts in the scientific field who I can engage in a dialogue on these issues. This study will serve to inform and direct my current project in poetry, Leviathan, which deals with aspects of the abhorrent female body under patriarchal rule.
if anyone knows of resources i ought to be looking at for this or people i should be talking to please let me know!!
all for now.
xox
m
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
fake translation
here's something a wrote during SWP in Pierre Joris workshop. This is inspired by Armand Schwerner's Tablets. It is a fake translation. The premise is that the following poem is translated from ancient scrolls found inside petrified termite mounds. Some of the text has been eaten by termites, other areas are untranslatable or have *contested meanings...
days of (untranslatable) dark
I rest by that
(eaten fragment)
burial (eaten fragment) that
I stifle without mouth*
(*or opening)
Expect (fragment) drains
the born dawn been (untranslatable) dead
the long hours of the pale grass* (*or perhaps desert)
Fragrance flight of (untranslatable) stairs in my face
that I expect an (eaten fragment) of tomorrow
I see its skin shine In The (untranslatable) Black Rupture of the (untranslatable) night
oscillate slow of (eaten) moonlight
The (untranslatable) interior sea of my (untranslatable) sex
powder in powder
I Hammer in (untranslatable) (eaten fragments)
mattress* (*or pillow, or *lover)
Sun smile (untranslatable) hand beats
(untranslatable) indifference bends Cruelly (eaten fragments)
song dressed in direction of empty (eaten fragments)
You do not say (untranslatable)
(eaten fragments)
and the smallest object that
the (untranslatable) body of woman protects
arcs perfume below
Artificial hour in the couch (*or river bed)
For (eaten fragment) that pales
I left for rank (untranslatable) isolation
I (untranslatable) moonstone in oval framework
another (eaten fragment) fights of hard-jointed
insomnia* (*or lust) again
a knife throbs in (untranslatable) Delirum* (*or monsoon rain)
the (eaten fragments) of tomorrow desire
(eaten fragments)
of my lost (untranslatable) faith
days of (untranslatable) dark
I rest by that
(eaten fragment)
burial (eaten fragment) that
I stifle without mouth*
(*or opening)
Expect (fragment) drains
the born dawn been (untranslatable) dead
the long hours of the pale grass* (*or perhaps desert)
Fragrance flight of (untranslatable) stairs in my face
that I expect an (eaten fragment) of tomorrow
I see its skin shine In The (untranslatable) Black Rupture of the (untranslatable) night
oscillate slow of (eaten) moonlight
The (untranslatable) interior sea of my (untranslatable) sex
powder in powder
I Hammer in (untranslatable) (eaten fragments)
mattress* (*or pillow, or *lover)
Sun smile (untranslatable) hand beats
(untranslatable) indifference bends Cruelly (eaten fragments)
song dressed in direction of empty (eaten fragments)
You do not say (untranslatable)
(eaten fragments)
and the smallest object that
the (untranslatable) body of woman protects
arcs perfume below
Artificial hour in the couch (*or river bed)
For (eaten fragment) that pales
I left for rank (untranslatable) isolation
I (untranslatable) moonstone in oval framework
another (eaten fragment) fights of hard-jointed
insomnia* (*or lust) again
a knife throbs in (untranslatable) Delirum* (*or monsoon rain)
the (eaten fragments) of tomorrow desire
(eaten fragments)
of my lost (untranslatable) faith
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
one month later
hello people.
long time no blog, right? well, here i am - emerging, finally, from the underground wasp's nest of the summer writing program. can you see my bleary, reptilian eyes rising from the poetic surf?
Man, it was great but I am exhausted. An entire month of poetic hyperdrive. here's a short recap: I took workshops with Marcella Durand, Alice Notley, dear friend Stacy Szymaszek and Pierre Joris.... had one-on-one conferences with Brenda Iijima, Roberto Tejada, Charles Alexander, Eleni Sikelianos, Sawako Nakayasu and Mei Mei Berssenbrugge.... I attended 19 panel discussions, 23 lectures and 23 poetry readings... and finally, just this morning, finished my 16 page critical response to the whole lot of it and 33 pages of creative work. wheww. i also acquired quite the farmer's tan and a spider bite that turned into a pink, grapefruit-sized rash.*
*a word to the wise: when you get a bite like this you really should go to the doctor -- but don't consult you friends first because if they're anything like mine they will start throwing phrases around like "lymes disease" and "hobo spider" and "gaping necrotic wound". usually these topics would fascinate me (and in a sick way they still did) but when these phrases are directly applied to your current bodily state the tendancy is to freak the fuck out - just a little. especially when you've accidentally let your health insurance lapse.
but, huzzah! no necrosis ensued and the rash faded away in about a week.
in other news - i discovered this morning that a colony of wasps are beginning to build a hive on the retainer wall that runs along our driveway... the driveway is quite narrow and i'm a bit worried for my safety. right now the nest is only a bit bigger than a golf ball but they are hard at work as we speak. however, with the diminishing population of such wonderful creatures i certainly don't want to lower my myself to buying poison. no no, i certainly don't want to harm the little buggers. does anyone out there know how i can get them to move? with no harm done? i want to do this soon before they waste anymore energy building their little house.
i thought about writing up a cease and desist notice but i doubt they've ever lowered themselves to learn english.
any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
that's all for now... over and out.
long time no blog, right? well, here i am - emerging, finally, from the underground wasp's nest of the summer writing program. can you see my bleary, reptilian eyes rising from the poetic surf?
Man, it was great but I am exhausted. An entire month of poetic hyperdrive. here's a short recap: I took workshops with Marcella Durand, Alice Notley, dear friend Stacy Szymaszek and Pierre Joris.... had one-on-one conferences with Brenda Iijima, Roberto Tejada, Charles Alexander, Eleni Sikelianos, Sawako Nakayasu and Mei Mei Berssenbrugge.... I attended 19 panel discussions, 23 lectures and 23 poetry readings... and finally, just this morning, finished my 16 page critical response to the whole lot of it and 33 pages of creative work. wheww. i also acquired quite the farmer's tan and a spider bite that turned into a pink, grapefruit-sized rash.*
*a word to the wise: when you get a bite like this you really should go to the doctor -- but don't consult you friends first because if they're anything like mine they will start throwing phrases around like "lymes disease" and "hobo spider" and "gaping necrotic wound". usually these topics would fascinate me (and in a sick way they still did) but when these phrases are directly applied to your current bodily state the tendancy is to freak the fuck out - just a little. especially when you've accidentally let your health insurance lapse.
but, huzzah! no necrosis ensued and the rash faded away in about a week.
in other news - i discovered this morning that a colony of wasps are beginning to build a hive on the retainer wall that runs along our driveway... the driveway is quite narrow and i'm a bit worried for my safety. right now the nest is only a bit bigger than a golf ball but they are hard at work as we speak. however, with the diminishing population of such wonderful creatures i certainly don't want to lower my myself to buying poison. no no, i certainly don't want to harm the little buggers. does anyone out there know how i can get them to move? with no harm done? i want to do this soon before they waste anymore energy building their little house.
i thought about writing up a cease and desist notice but i doubt they've ever lowered themselves to learn english.
any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
that's all for now... over and out.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Moyer's at NCMR
Watch this video. you will not be disappointed.
Bill Moyer's address to the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0r71L7cojE
and more info here:
http://www.freepress.net/conference/
XOX
Bill Moyer's address to the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0r71L7cojE
and more info here:
http://www.freepress.net/conference/
XOX
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