Abominable Jetsons,
I've been busy actually *doing stuff*, and not attending to you all as I would
wish. Thought I'd heave up some small bits of salmagundic response in no
particular order (and meagre cardinalship even). Sorry for the entwining of
the various threads in question: get luddite on my e-loom for revenge kicks if
you will.
1. the unwrapping of the mummy 'how'
>>>cris says:
'What happens in the gaps can be surprising and the time-frame within which it
occurs is not fixed. I do realise how extreme I'm getting here though.'
Chris says:
Couldn't agree more about the first bit. Perplexed beyond the orbits of the
conscionable by the notion that this is dead extreme, though. Seems to me not
merely reasonable but mild. If this sort of conclusion is having to be so
*tentatively* approached and generously signposted in company of this (I mean
your collective) stature, I'm going to have to take off my spectacles and rub
the bridge of my nose and sigh. (Amn't I?)
2. (post)/modern/is/m
>>>David B says:
"Meanwhile, since i for one never liked the term 'post-modern,'--why put
yourself down by taking the name Harry Conick Junior?-- let me advocate its
termination. 'Present writing' will do jes' fine. Start there, the sub
categories will quickly follow"
Chris says:
The objection about Harry Connick Jr aside (given that it's a complaint with a
fairly limited reverberance) - and agreeing that these terms are mostly for
writing in a patch of hot breath on a bus window and then erasing with the
palm - may I say that I don't think 'present writing' will do just fine as a
substitute. Or at least may I propose, already, subcategory #16: me. I
consciously use certain post/modernist strategies for certain aesthetic &
political reasons; but reject *emphatically* many others, and the sometimes
subliminal assertions about value and indifference that support them. I can't
help being a 'present writer' if I must be, though I'd much rather be an
absent one: but I'm certainly not a post/modern writer - just a writer
post-Modernism, I spose. Subcategory #16 would be something to do with
swallowing a bit and spitting the rest out. (Maybe when everyone's started
using the word 'postmodern' a bit more carefully we can have a think about
'postwar'.)
3. Playfulness
Paul Taylor says:
"Play is a fine thing. Bungling or pretentiousness are not so palatable."
Chris says:
Perhaps this is old or quite freshly-trodden ground, but I'd love to know what
'pretentiousness' means here. Partly because of the observation - which is
rapidly becoming a Wise Old Saw de nos jours - that we Brits (as reading
persons, perhaps, specifically) call pretentious what French readers, e.g.,
would more readily call ludic or jouissant or carnivalesque. Certainly the
playfulness and pretentiousness of a writer like Cixous are irreversibly
compound, and neither is amiss - indeed, both are fundamental (if they can
be). But also that there's a similar discrepancy of attitude: pretentiousness
as shameful, boastful, decadent; or as aspirant, generous and game (adj.)
What do we think? (Marks will be deducted for reference to JHP.)
4. Metaphor
Metaphor has long seemed to me the only integral carrier of information and
sense between art and science, but I've never properly investigated the
hunches that seem to me to be pertinent.
Are other list-members aware of any good-quality work on the links between
metaphor and quantum physics? or between metaphor, punning and depression? I'd
be delighted to know.
5. signal of intent
(which I trailed hereabouts recently) happened in a flakzone of assertive
applause and cheeriness last night. Keston Sutherland and Jeremy Hardingham
were both, literally and almost irresponsibly, sensational. My eyes turned
green and they've stayed green. Those who missed it can gnash and
self-flagellate at a review that's already appeared (from a source unconnected
with signal to noise - honest) at:
http://pijons.tripod.com/
6. stephen,
at least when a cat brings you a dead bird, it *thinks* it's delivering
something precious. (Something my grandmother would have said if she'd been
here to see all this.) In the light of this, can you say any more about your
'CO2' poem? ...That's a question, btw, not necessarily an invitation. ;-)
Meantime, as Aretha Franklin used to say: lie down and use your man like some
ears!
:cx
PS. This is not a throwaway postscript.
PPS. Intrigued by the denigration of C-A Duffy as 'careerist'. Presumably
we're all - what? - vocationists?
------------------------------------------------
Chris Goode
Director, _signal to noise_
24 Newport Road
London E10 6PJ
U.K.
+44 181 556 4492
[log in to unmask]
"Yes, my real name is Jordan. I just thought that Taylor would bring out the
color of my eyes." - Taylor Hanson
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