I tried to send this yesterday and don`t think it happened. If it
did, I apologise. If it does again, further apologies.
With an eye turning for entry, most will
gather as others have, from the spicy bed
of a rising vertical trust: enough to clear
line to line clasp essentials, all
the same to claim plus set-off,
to shun this terrible cure.
(from Not-You, p.18)
To go, with the reading of page one. Reading, or trying to read, or
failing to read, most will assemble their interpretation, or assume
one, or [relating to "thread out" from first poem in sequence] draw
material into series of folds by threading it themselves and pulling
tight, from the aromatic bed (or ground) "of a rising vertical trust"
- echo of thrust, taken with "spicy bed"=diagnosis of interpreter`s
desire in interpretation, but (and this is where I get unexpectedly
relevant) - "rising vertical trust" as reader`s reliance on,
confidence or faith in, manoeuvres up and down the vertical,
paradigmatic axis (like I just did with "thrust") to arrive at a
reading. To do this enough to get over the hurdles (or erase the poem in
reading) "line to line" and get the gist...nevertheless, to "claim",
to make claims and ("plus") embark on your own journey, or cause an
effect, or act as a contrast to, or offer reading as set-off of your debt to the
creditor-Prynne, OR to smudge, to commit an error (set-off, also
called off-set, being ink from one heavily inked or undried printed
sheet transferred to next in pile) & so on...in order to evade a
risky but effective form of therapy, the poem.
To not-change the subject. I met Prynne once, in Glasgow, November 1995.
The controversy over Derrida`s on/off honorific from Cambridge came
up. Prynne reported that "idiocies were said on both sides"; that he
locked himself in his house for a fortnight to escape it. Some small
talk. Then he said, "There are a lot of things you can say about Derrida."
Not altogether favourable, I surmised. Instead of saying, "Hang on, while
I get a pen and some paper...", I took another forkful of my lunch.
Sorry.
all best
robin
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