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On 2 December 2015 at 19:19, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This one demanded a long reading for the long writing Lawrence, but repaid.
>
> Shifts not just of tone but of who presents as I, & this book is both sure
> of itself & just a bit insecure (as is that prince).
>
> Yeah: I like it too
>
> Doug
> > On Dec 2, 2015, at 10:25 AM, Patrick McManus <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > L big snap paged out I'm a clay tablet man myself nothing like good
> jabbings in clay or even at a pinch I can accommodate a scroll -cheers P
> >
> > -----Original Message----- From: Lawrence Upton
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2015 2:49 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: the bok says
> >
> > the book says
> >
> > all pages are mine
> >
> >
> >
> > but more than that, the book says
> >
> > pages take on existence within me
> >
> >
> >
> > a page outside
> >
> > is not a page
> >
> > but a sheet of paper
> >
> >
> >
> > a sheet of paper does not make a page, nor many pages a decent book
> >
> >
> >
> > it is what is written, each page, judged as a page...
> >
> >
> >
> > the content matters
> >
> >
> >
> > the book says
> >
> > keep pages tiny, hand-sized,
> >
> > light but not light-headed,
> >
> > slightly too large for the average pocket --
> >
> > or your words and illustrations will not seem serious:
> >
> > be a nuisance and you will be heard
> >
> >
> >
> > the book says that binding and pages,
> >
> > considered as concept, content, object and participant,
> >
> > are two sides, recto and verso, of one thing,
> >
> > an eye to the world,
> >
> > a pulse in the throat,
> >
> > the subjective and its objective somehow interpenetrating --
> >
> >
> >
> > what is a spoke without a wheel? what is a broken wheel?
> >
> >
> >
> > until there were books, continua of pages,
> >
> > writings were individual, devoid *largely* of meaning --
> >
> > a note would come, perhaps from a great prince to a great prince,
> >
> > but would not be considered, situated as it was on a scrap of paper --
> >
> >
> >
> > and you may make the paper as you wish!
> >
> > kill the finest strongest animals you have,
> >
> > do whatever must be done to their skin
> >
> > to make it pliable and receptive to and retentive of ink,
> >
> > make the finest ink of the richest earth,
> >
> > make the smoothest pens with which to write,
> >
> > and practice your scribes in the art of writing
> >
> >
> >
> > but what is a piece of paper to a great prince?
> >
> >
> >
> > the *words* of the message are best conveyed by human voice
> >
> > and so much more easily destroyed --
> >
> > a tongue is no match for a knife
> >
> > and will not grow back
> >
> >
> >
> > for it seems to me that the message written is not the message
> >
> > but a copy thereof which may be thrown away and even forgotten
> >
> > but is not destroyed,
> >
> > whereas the severed tongue will be eaten by vermin,
> >
> > and the voice with which it spoke is itself a portion of the tongue, you
> > see?
> >
> > although now it is reduced to grunts by the power of my army –
> >
> >
> >
> > well, I am peaceful: if due credibility is given to my power in deed as
> in
> > word,
> >
> > and reparations paid for my distress in this matter and so on --
> >
> > make the usual threats
> >
> >
> >
> > the book says
> >
> > a prince who is not recorded is not a prince for long
> >
> > better he learn to cope with books than he eschew them
> >
> >
> >
> > and we all turn and listen to the book
> >
> >
> >
> > but what of the binding?
> >
> >
> >
> > the binding strengthens
> >
> > it is indispensable, but it lacks a separate existence;
> >
> >
> >
> > and the writing on the spine, and the book mark,
> >
> > and the index and the foreword, and the preface --
> >
> >
> >
> > I am not a thing to be so analysed! a book?
> >
> > these things are thin reads
> >
> > without the breath of the book entire
> >
> >
> >
> > so says the book
> >
> > as if a little foxed
> >
> > not quite as cogent as it might be
> >
> >
> >
> > on another page the book says see how I am arranged
> >
> >
> >
> > I have my defences
> >
> > where only those literary marks
> >
> > which are consonant with my aims and objectives
> >
> > are allowed to stand -- my guards
> >
> >
> >
> > each page is isolated from the next,
> >
> > and converses with its fellows through my structures;
> >
> > thus are they ruled, thus are their lives made sensible
> >
> >
> >
> > my territory is subdivided and each subdivision will structure itself
> >
> > according to conventions
> >
> >
> >
> > if I were to act, for instance, a certain space would be allocated to
> > personae,
> >
> > those labels we allow the threads which make up the fabric of a plot,
> >
> > to assert themselves, like roots, in so far as it is necessary --
> >
> > I have my doubts --
> >
> > there are more modern and technological approaches
> >
> >
> >
> > I would rather it were done with colour,
> >
> > I need a little tone, and some pictures,
> >
> > than to divide off from my narrative
> >
> > an element which is a part of me and it
> >
> > and yet is not.
> >
> >
> >
> > I cannot measure it.
> >
> >
> >
> > Directions to the actor, some reader who is not a reader,
> >
> > a fool who would commit to memory what I have written here available,
> >
> > are integrated in the words I have;
> >
> > and yet, the naming of the character itself, the transformational naming,
> >
> > is constrained, not quite inside, not quite without my jurisdiction,
> >
> > like some goods in bond
> >
> > or a rogue upon a diplomatic passport.
> >
> >
> >
> > I have similar concern as to acknowledgements.
> >
> > They seem to me like coded messages.
> >
> > I do not like them.
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
> https://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2
> (UofAPress).
> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>
> Done in by creation itself.
>
> I mean the gods. Not us. Well us too.
> The gods moved into books. Who wrote the books?
> We wrote the books. In whose dream, then are we dreaming?
>
> Robert Kroetsch.
>
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