I first came across Weldon Kees in a documentary made by Simon
Armitage. Iain Sinclair's characterisation is a little unfair but does
pinpoint something about the documentary which I hadn't thought about.
Simon Armitage (doggedly) traces Weldon Kees's footsteps up until the
point Kees disappears - literally, as WK's car is found abandoned by
the Golden Gate Bridge, IIRC. His body was never found.
For a long time, and even now, I find WKs tone appearing in my poetry.
As to isolationism, I find this quote apt:
The mirror from Mexico, stuck to the wall,
Reflects nothing at all. The glass is black.
Robinson alone provides the image Robinsonian.
It's the recursive, self-regarding (male) nature of Protestantism (and
most male-centered monotheistic religions?) which maybe up for
criticism with the Robinson character.
Roger
On 3/2/06, Edmund Hardy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >is the Robinson mentioned here
> related - in spirit - to the Robinson used by Weldon Kees? Kees did
> several of these robinson poems, IIRC. Kees' robinson isn't mentioned
> in the article yet they do seem related, superficially at least.
>
>
> Oh definitely - Robinson the out-of-time, Robinson the wanderer. In "London"
> it's a paradox because Robinson wants to be the flaneur, the 18th century
> man, the W.Benjamin, but he gets depressed and spends "four weeks staying up
> very late reading only Robinson Crusoe" - is he, after all, a ghost of
> Protestant isolation?
>
> Edmund
>
> p.s. [Simon Armitage writes some Robinson poems in "Kid", directly after
> Kees, writing which Iain Sinclair calls, perhaps unfairly, (in "Sorry
> Meniscus: excursions to the dome" - remembered quote) as "Simon Armitage
> hanging around Kees looking for crumbs"]
>
--
http://www.badstep.net/
http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
|