The Olson essay is "Quantity in Verse, and Shakespeare's Late Plays." Just
came to me.
Mark
At 09:18 PM 4/15/2005, you wrote:
>Ron's there with the obvious , for a change. Olson's master's thesis Lear
>and Moby Dick (published in two parts in the first two issues of the
>magazine Twice a Year in 1938) became his first book, Call Me Ishmael
>(City Lights, 1947, and several reprints, and Johns Hopkins, 1997). He
>also wrote about Shakespeare's late verse, not surprisingly finding it a
>lot like his own. Someone will have to help me with the name of the essay,
>all of my things being entombed in storage.
>
>No reason you should know this, Alison, but Ron certainly does. Would have
>been nice if he'd mentioned his sources.
>
>Mark
>
>
>At 08:29 PM 4/15/2005, you wrote:
>>Ron Silliman (http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/) has a most interesting
>>meditation on the NEA program to bring Shakespeare to the American masses
>>and its possibly unpredictable effects, given that two American writers
>>deeply influenced by WS are Melville and Olson. Dang it, he's right...
>>Though I hadn't made the Olson connection - Silliman's idea of soliloquy
>>rather than "dramatic monologue" in Olson (maybe in a lot of modern poetry)
>>seems particularly apt.
>>
>>"So much of Olson reads as tho it were written to be shouted out over a
>>heath, or else to be whispered to an audience, a stage whisper capable of
>>reaching hundreds of ears at once. It is not so much dramatic monolog tho
>>Maximus is a persona as it is soliloquy. Olsonšs sense of how a sentence
>>interacts with the line something I suspect an entire generation or two
>>has internalized so deeply we donšt even recognize it has always struck me
>>as coming right out of Shakespeare, far more than from Melville or Pound.
>>This feel for the materiality of the relationship between the two is
>>apparent, right there on the surface, in Olson, & through his influence it
>>radiates outward. I can hear echoes in Creeley, in Duncan or Levertov, in
>>OšHara & Whalen & even in Ginsberg. And it ripples again, just a little more
>>faintly, through every one of us influenced by any of them.
>>
>>"So the idea of all these people reading, seeing, hearing Shakespeare is, I
>>suspect, much more of a wild card than the NEAšs leaders may comprehend.
>>Because where it wonšt lead is back to is either the homogenous retro-utopia
>>of so many a Congressmanšs dream nor to the same ol š stuff the School of
>>Quietude has been shoveling. Inseminating Shakespeare into the American
>>literary landscape is far more apt to generate a bunch of wild men & wyrd
>>sisters instead. As Olson himself most certainly was."
>>
>>I've been seeing a fair bit of WS lately (not only the stuff on my theatre
>>blog, though I won't forget that Hamlet in the shop front, which was just
>>wonderful...) Whenever I watch a good production - bad productions don't
>>count - I come out so vitalised and stimulated. Oddly, only last week I
>>watched the dvd of the RSC Macbeth Ron mentions, with Judi Dench and Ian
>>McKellan. It also features one of my favourite actors, Bob Peck as Macduff.
>>One of the darkest slants on Macbeth that you can imagine - Macduff comes
>>out at the end having killed Macbeth, holding the daggers in the same way
>>that Macbeth did from killing Duncan - and you realise that he's as crazy as
>>Macbeth was. Now that's bleak; the world may seem to be righted, but you
>>realise it isn't at all.
>>
>>Harold Bloom is erudite, of course, but I find him a bore on Shakespeare;
>>well, I try to read him, but my attention peters out. Maybe it's too narrow
>>a stream of water in all that rich delta of words. I like Kermode better;
>>and Jan Kott is wonderful on WS in the mid-20C, and particularly its radical
>>applications as a critique of power which was I think a big influence on the
>>RSC. But now I'm really blithering.
>>
>>Interesting blog comments too - someone claims Shakespeare was a Lutheran,
>>especially in Hamlet. Hmm. (Reminds me of the joke in Long Day's Journey
>>into Night that Shakespeare was an Irish Catholic). Considering how Hamlet
>>turns out, I wouldn't want WS as an advocate.
>>
>>Best
>>
>>A
>>
>>Alison Croggon
>>
>>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
>>Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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