Literature and Art

Comment

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 3:38am

Whitman actually made a recording before he died. I never heard it but I had a prof who did and said it was this thick Brooklyn accent.

 

Theresa, I share your love of Sherwood Anderson completely - so glad to find someone who appreciates him.

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 3:30am

I've been in and out of the network twice - both times it was totally different and totally fascinating. For instance, I remember John Bennett and loving his work from the back in the day.I think that's common. I think it's also common to have a burnout syndrome. I think I've learned to pace myself.

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on July 29, 2011 at 3:23am

Well it can be dangerous.  So is getting up in the morning.

DVS, what do you mean you "came back to mail-art" due to interest in the relationship of Fluxus to postmodernism?  Were you involved and then not?  Not essential, just curious!

If people think Whitman was dangerous, what do they think of Sandburg?  An honest question -- I haven't read Sandburg since about 1968 nor heard of people studying him any active sense.

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 3:15am

No Theresa! This isn't a class! Fluxus people are here, and you'll just be exposed to it. That's what's amazing about IUOMA and mail-art - you are connected to very important things in the culture. I've always thought it was a well-kept secret, but now... Just enjoy - you'll absorb it all without knowing.

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 3:12am

Theresa & Nancy - you both talk about the sense of freedom you get from Whitman. I feel the same way. Sometimes - empowering people with that sense of freedom has been considered dangerous.

 

Free verse poetics - too huge!

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 3:08am

Oh yes, more darkness in Whitman than they want you to know. "The Sleepers" is kind of a dark reversal of "Song of Myself."

 

Mail-art - via Ray Johnson - has always had strong ties to the bigger avant garde movements. The kinds of poetry I mentioned exist independent of mail-art but definitely have become a fixture in the eternal network.

 

I am not preaching Fluxus at all - but Fluxus is a connector with the "big movements" and has a huge literary component. I came back to mail-art because I became very interested in the relationship of Fluxus to postmodernism about a year ago.

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on July 29, 2011 at 3:07am

Oh, yes -- very interested in Theresa's thoughts on DVS's last questions!

"Theresa, a question: Given your background in mainstream literature, do you see things going on in the mail-art network - asemic writing, visual poetry, concrete poetry, haptic poetry - as fully connected to literary tradition, or are they ultimately marginal practices? Strange hybrids of visual/ writing arts?"

Comment by Nancy Bell Scott on July 29, 2011 at 3:04am

I love WCW, and must admit I never thought of him as carrying on a tradition set by Whitman, "common speech" in poetics, though it makes perfect sense now that you say it.

It has always seemed a huge joke to me, people's concern about or interest in whether Whitman was gay.  I could go on, but will just say "who cares?" and "what does it matter?"  What matters is Theresa's mention of his sense of freedom and crossing of boundaries.

Never read Pound's "A Pact" -- very interesting indeed!  And quite a gesture for the character of Pound.

My brother is a college teacher of poetry and other creative writing, and he has yet to really explain to me the place of "free verse," but I am very curious and interested.

If every creative person were stopped by the question "is it attainable," culture would not move.

 

 

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 2:52am

Theresa, a question: Given your background in mainstream literature, do you see things going on in the mail-art network - asemic writing, visual poetry, concrete poetry, haptic poetry - as fully connected to literary tradition, or are they ultimately marginal practices? Strange hybrids of visual/ writing arts?

Comment by De Villo Sloan on July 29, 2011 at 2:30am

yeah, exactly! In this visionary view of America, the speech becomes beautiful and holy: "I hear America Singing" - that's Whitman for kids, right?

 

Do you realize William Carlos William, with his incredibly SHORT lines, was the one who pursued Whitman's common speech poetics most faithfully in modernism.

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