> Certain gardens are described as retreats when they are really attacks.
> Ian Hamilton Finlay
Doug - perhaps in the context of both parenting and formalism - I remain
intrigued by this Finlay quote. How do you interpret it?
What is the garden's role in the "attack"?
What is the gardener's role - attacked or on the attack? Feminine or
masculine!!??
Does Finlay define his garden as an "attack" in the sense of an aggressive
statement about the nature of gardens and the outside community, including
the State that impinges on the garden?
Does a garden require an heroic couplet to both contain and nurture?
If I remember right, Finlay has at least one couplet cut into stone on one
of the edges of his garden. Ironically - in terms of the George Bowering
quote - the couplet invokes both Rousseau and Poussin! I did a little Google
research and could not find the quote, but Mark Scroggins, a critic whose
work I really like, has a piece on Finlay in Jacket which I want to get back
to and read:
http://jacketmagazine.com/15/finlay-by-scroggins.html
I must say I am somewhat enthralled by the Finlay quote. I just want to know
if he's talking about a problem with invasive weeds or, as most likely,
something else. And how is the quote in service of your own work? (Briefly,
of course).
Speaking of work I have to get down to it!
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