No point at all in watching one episode.
Hal
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Halvard Johnson
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On Mar 30, 2007, at 12:20 AM, Dominic Fox wrote:
> Thanks Fred. I must admit I've never watched a single episode of 24...
>
> I wonder whether it would still seem obscure if I hadn't mentioned its
> obscure origin. One of the figures in Cooke's "Morning is broken" is a
> rather dejected-looking halloween pumpkin...
>
> Something I'm always trying to do is give a legible public face to an
> essentially very hermetic and private tissue of references and
> associations. It may be a mistake even to let on that this inner world
> exists, since to all intents and purposes it *doesn't* for almost any
> possible reader.
>
> Dominic
>
> On 3/29/07, Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Dominic, I like this a lot. Not only, I hope, because I'm a "24"
>> fan; most
>> readers will know enough about the series, even if they don't
>> watch it, to
>> appreciate the poem. Problems: not only is the "Pumpkin-head"
>> reference
>> obscure, it also feels extraneous, digressive -- for me at least
>> it weakens
>> flow and energy. "by the dawn's early pre-light" is awkward and a
>> 'cheap
>> shot.' However satirically the figure is meant, give him his
>> dignity; I
>> suggest simply 'in pre-light.' Otherwise, tough and tight.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dominic Fox" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 5:11 PM
>> Subject: A Shorter Book Of Hours (one of three)
>>
>>
>> > 00:00
>> >
>> > The kobold phantom chronograph
>> > worn by Kiefer Sutherland in "24":
>> >
>> > his ticking timepiece
>> > as the boot goes in.
>> >
>> > 01:00
>> >
>> > Sleep-famished he saw everywhere
>> > hobgoblins, some in the uniform of guards
>> >
>> > stirring gruel-pots and chattering
>> > obscenely amongst themselves.
>> >
>> > 02:00
>> >
>> > Movements of aircraft carriers
>> > in darkened waters, of unmarked containers;
>> >
>> > improvised rendition of old numbers,
>> > hymns of elimination.
>> >
>> > 03:00
>> >
>> > They now gnaw at his feet while he lies
>> > insensible, working his empty mouth,
>> >
>> > his shaking lips incompetent
>> > to form the words of dismissal.
>> >
>> > 04:00
>> >
>> > It was a sounding grotto, vaulted,
>> > vast; the walls imprinted
>> >
>> > with sullen figures, stilled lives
>> > on heavy rotation, leering from the murk.
>> >
>> > 05:00
>> >
>> > This also, by the dawn's early pre-light:
>> > night-terrors clothing themselves with substance.
>> >
>> > The *racailles*: why have they not fled to their burrows?
>> > The devils, why are they still here?
>> >
>> > 06:00
>> >
>> > Divers alarums. The first howls of morning:
>> > dogs, children, cars. The sun puts out his rays.
>> >
>> > The papers declare: "Pumpkin Head Escapes!" -
>> > blurred orange jumpsuit in daring cross-country dash.
>> >
>> > 07:00
>> >
>> > The phantom chronograph - like something
>> > from children's literature. Timekeeping
>> >
>> > a vanished technique in this land of the dead:
>> > whole days dance widdershins about the clockface.
>> >
>> > * * *
>> >
>> > Some context for this may be found in k-punk's excellent
>> articles on
>> > Nigel Cooke and The Fall ("Pumpkinhead Xscapes" is the title of a
>> > relatively obscure Fall tune) - see especially:
>> >
>> > http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/008654.html
>> >
>> > and
>> >
>> > http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/archives/008993.html
>> >
>> > - these are among the best things Mark has ever written, and I
>> cannot
>> > commend them highly enough.
>> >
>> > Dominic
>>
>
>
> --
> Shall we be pure or impure? Today
> we shall be very pure. It must always
> be possible to contain
> impurities in a pure way.
> --Tarmo Uustalu and Varmo Vene
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