the world begins
in my mouth
the fierce clear light
between a caterpillar and a cloud
*
a printer, a poet, a lover
*
labors feathers and wax
where wind and birds
the heart attacks
- Frank
Maybe it's blues too.
***************************
Frank Parker
[log in to unmask]
http://frankshome.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, April 08, 2005 2:35 AM
Subject: Re: Naming, &c
> On 8/4/05 12:41 PM, "Frank Parker" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > My bent is more esoteric, "In the beginning was the word...", that
naming
> > one's world is an act of divination, bringing into being, acknowledging
that
> > the conscious stones and our own consciousness is entwined. I also think
of
> > Jacob wrestling the angel who would not let him go until Jacob could
name
> > him (the angel). The power of language is not just in order to grasp
things
> > better, it is to know them and ourselves inter-related in the dance
(that
> > dancing sitting down even).
>
> Yes, I see what you're saying Hal... Handke's (and Sebald's) take on
> language is rather darker. And despite the beauty of St John's logos, I
> tend to gravitate towards the feeling that description is a form of
> ownership; the Victorians with their relentless imperial categorisations
of
> nature come to mind... How is knowing _not_ grasping? I'm not suggesting
> that one shouldn't know or name; just saying that that seems to me one of
> the dilemmas of consciousness.
>
> > Over the years I've heard the word opaque used in connection with poetry
and
> > it grates on me. Why would I want an opaque literature, "impenetrable by
> > light; neither transparent nor translucent, not reflecting light; having
no
> > luster"?
>
> Sebald's idea of opacity as a rebellion probably bears a little
explication,
> as I've done it no justice. He is wondering whether language can, in any
> sense, be an adequate expression of experience; and he is thinking of
> Kaspar's pre-speech existence, which he retrieves through a series of
images
> ("candles and bloodsuckers; horses and pus; hoarfrost and rats..." which
> seem to him, nevertheless, to be "authentic documents of his being.
Thanks
> to them he can say, 'I still experienced myself"."
>
> Sebald goes on to remark: ""The training to which he (Kaspar) has been
> subjected could not entirely obliterate his memory of his beginnings. He
can
> still go back behind what he has learned. The wild metaphors he brings
back
> from such excursions are, in their disparate nature, like what have been
> called 'metaphors of a paranoia...a poetic protest against the invasion of
> others'. The crystallisation point of this sign of intended rejection
comes
> at those moments when... 'the utmost need to communicate comes together
with
> the ultimate speechlessness'. However, where images escape that paralytic
> confrontation they feature, being impenetrable ciphers, as examples of
> broken rebellion."
>
> So a failed freedom as a radical alienation, rather than a finally
releasing
> wrestle with the named angel... I must say that the former seems truer to
> me.
>
> Best
>
> A
>
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
>
>
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