Applause for the deep diving, Rebecca!

Stephen V
 http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com



>> but that, too, the song, is a craft
>> and, maybe, ultimately just as challenging as the nausea and other obstacles
>> encountered in the flight or journey (walking) to "the other".
>> I suspect the energy/vision, etc. provided by the "other" compels the
>> patience to learn the craft of making something.
>> Those with the vision and without capacity to translate into whatever
>> language and medium either go crazy or wash dishes and clothes endlessly.
>
> Yes, Stephen, and thanks for your remarks. Well, some of the 'craft' is a worn
> out ship, so in some of those "my
>> visits/voyages out "there"
> liminal states one is trying to get out of a sinking rowboat, the dingy one's
> been
> in, so the liminal state is often a way of finding another language, to break
> one's
> old 'tongue' into some other song. And you're right about the nausea and other
> obstacles on the journey to the "other" since always part of what disgusts in
> the
> 'other' is ourself and self itself, or various selves, is part of what one
> must go
> through, though not so much in viewing it as an obstacle but perhaps
> embracing it. Very difficult, sometimes, but then it is not always a  voyage
> out
> there or beyond there, but down there or below there, into the underbelly or
> chthonic worlds where the material is more disturbing and ancient, and more of
> a risk to 'one' or 'other' and yet amid all that junk, there are pulses of
> real
> feeling, real being, that have been buried and which can have their own life
> like
> fireflies rising out of a swamp, a pearl or two buried in mud, real treasures
> and
> gifts, to me anyway. I guess it's inevitable that the process or one in it
> might be
> seen diagnostically, in terms of psychology and its definitions, or that even
> artists can be sort of morally or personally outraged and shocked by the blood
> and mud upon the stage. Perhaps it's the domestication of art, paying the
> bills
> as it often does and all that, or the prevalence of MFA programs, sort of the
> difference between writing poetry for an hour a week to meet one's writing
> assignment or hanging out in the Mermaid Tavern where the usual things
> happen, bloody lips, drunken stupors, unintelligible belligerences, sword
> fighting, etc. Well, and I think it would be easier if one could do it all at
> a
> teaparty, but that's not how it seems to work, for me anyway.
>
> best,
>
> Rebecca
>
> ---- Original message ----
>> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 15:15:03 -0800
>> From: Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: poets and shamans
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>> it seems to me that such a liminal state can be most
>>> useful to one's art, allowing the mimicry and rapid moving through various
>>> conventions, burning through various tired tropes and voices, allowing the
>>> marginal and despised into different positions in one's work, etc. but even
>>> there
>>> as you say it's the coming back to the everyday or simultaneously not having
>>> left
>>> it, it'd be different if one weren't or weren't capable of washing the
>>> clothes!
>>
>> Nicely put, Roberta. Washing the dishes, clothes, whatever, is often - upon
>> return - an attractive way to re-locate in the temporal & concrete. On my
>> visits/voyages out "there" I have always been instructed (as well) to come
>> back and "go & sing among the seculars." But that, too, the song, is a craft
>> and, maybe, ultimately just as challenging as the nausea and other obstacles
>> encountered in the flight or journey (walking) to "the other".
>> I suspect the energy/vision, etc. provided by the "other" compels the
>> patience to learn the craft of making something.
>> Those with the vision and without capacity to translate into whatever
>> language and medium either go crazy or wash dishes and clothes endlessly.
>>
>> Or make "horror" movies in revenge.
>>
>> Stephen V
>> Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com