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the Russian week is absolutely my favorite poem... :-) On 4/15/07, mairead byrne <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Dear Tilla, > > This is very apt for me this morning. The conference was disciplined by > time rather than word-count. The proceedings however will be totally > disciplined by word-count: 5,000 words for keynote papers; 4,500 for plenary > papers, and 2,500 for parallel papers. For the conference, because I > worked with time and speed (!), I was able to present 4,100 words in a > little over 20 mins. One can always trim but probably not reduce by 40% > without extensive rewriting, which is also vetoed. So it's a conundrum. > Structure is necessary and it was a beautifully-organized conference. Yet > hierarchy, rigidity, and standardization also have their dangers. It's > interesting that as the papers migrate into a book, the issues of time & > timing are shaved away. > > I also interested in what you say about stress. I don't enjoy going > anywhere unless I'm working. Or, to put it another way, I feel more > alienated when I'm not engaged with a place through work. I think some of > this has to do with being an emigrant, and the horrible Rip Van Winkle > feeling of returning home. Poetry and scholarship make it bearable for me > to go back. That said, it probably is a pity that stress is built-in to the > deal. I was certainly *extremely* nervous in Plymouth, knowing very few > people. When I think back to what I said before: about how giving a hug to > a stranger (a woman) in the empty room after my talk was my reward, I can > see how laughable that may seem. Yet it's as good a reward as any I've got, > and I've been around a long time. > > I am getting more impatient with spaces which don't include (actually) > people of different ages and circumstances. Difficult as negotiating > professional life is, with children, I am growing more and more impatient of > professionalism which requires their absence. It's a tension, because I > myself like nothing more than to go places, alone, with poetry. Even that > has its downside. Children can have an enormously isolating effect on one's > professional life, just as they sew one more closely into a local community > (or at least more closely than I, for one, would be without them). If you > are the sole caregiver for someone, child or otherwise, liberation often > means going somewhere alone. Going somewhere with other adults, on a poetry > tour, to a residency, etc is a step beyond all that, maybe unattainable for > another decade. > > Time, for me, is the great discipliner, not word count. I was a journalist > for nearly 10 years so I know all about the discipline of word count, poetry > continues that discipline. But word count is not salient in the way that > time & timing are, for me. Time is the live issue. Maybe a poem might > explain my point better. Forgive me if I've sent it before. > > Mairead > > > > THE RUSSIAN WEEK > > Inside this week is another week & inside that week is another week & inside > that week is another week & inside that week is another week & inside that > week is another week & inside that week is another week so that instead of 7 > days each week is actually composed of 7 weeks each one a little smaller > than its container week but still workable & with rosy cheeks. This > arrangement is necessary. If a week were only a week aka a standard 7-day > week it would not be possible to get things done. Therefore voila: The > Russian Week. As soon as it becomes apparent that everything cannot get done > in the albeit larger, more commodious week, one can simply crack open the > inside week, only slightly less commodious in size. Then, when things pile > up as they are wont to do, one proceeds to the inside-inside week, its size > only slightly less commodious again. And so it goes. I will not go through > the process in tedious detail. For that it would be necessary to have an > inside-inside-inside-inside-inside-inside-inside week, > i.e., 8 weeks in all and obviously that is impossible. There may be some > future in developing a system whereby each of the 7 weeks which constitute > the week would in turn contain 7 weeks, giving 49 weeks in all inside one > week, and indeed the prospect of an ad infinitum progression. But this > proposal lacks the calm symmetry of the established model. It is knobby & > hectic where the other is smooth, rounded, generous, economical—and natural. > Thank God for the Russian week. > > > > > On 4/15/07, Tilla Brading < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > > As a female-gendered participant at the conference in Plymouth, I saw > quite a percentage of other women there who, maybe, like me, were working, > moving, caring for others etc etc so weren't able to present a paper on this > occasion. It was great to participate without the 'stress' anyway. Further, > would I dare to call the conference preponderance of 'page/text-based' > writing often within mathematical parameters to have a more male appeal? > .... as in mathematical=boundary setting ....?? > > ???? > > Tilla > > > > > >