tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post3766378012232527096..comments2024-03-19T21:14:01.007-07:00Comments on The Compass Rose: Permission to Treat the Witness as Hostile - Watten's Grand Piano 7 EssayCurtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-21990091861536954492009-09-09T07:50:57.348-07:002009-09-09T07:50:57.348-07:00Guilty as charged.Guilty as charged.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-62004456331823276822009-09-08T22:20:27.022-07:002009-09-08T22:20:27.022-07:00you're a pruner, not a punner, eh?
Ever seen ...you're a pruner, not a punner, eh?<br /><br />Ever seen a glass worker make a punty?Phanero Noemikonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430230355065457354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-35576479070887474452009-09-08T21:30:53.821-07:002009-09-08T21:30:53.821-07:00Not at all.
I took a graduate course in Boswell...Not at all. <br /><br />I took a graduate course in Boswell's Johnson, and one of the central themes was: To what extent can we "know" what the meaning of a life is? Being alive is a phenomenological trap, self-consciousness a kind of riddle. Wittgenstein was a genius at showing how the brain deludes itself--that's very unsettling. <br /><br />I think Watten deliberately set out to create a favorable account of his literary coterie. It's his major investment, since he seems to have completely given up writing "poems" in the last 15 years. He's "talked himself out of it" in a manner of speaking. Is it possible to become so preoccupied with how things may be apprehended that you become unable even to speak? That almost seems like some sort of mental illness. <br /><br />Your punning seems obsessive. Do you read Joyce?Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-92175395333479789222009-09-08T20:56:54.835-07:002009-09-08T20:56:54.835-07:00I would say, since, in a molecular sense, even the...I would say, since, in a molecular sense, even the participants can hardly know, that the idea is purely 'reflexive' ie a sort of project<br />pointing at the immensity of the discrete ie at the organic interface of memory and the material umwelt aka<br />historicity.<br /><br />They know they partook in history or 'hostory' and they can produce memories, and that production is likely to be whatever it is, but <br /><br />an evanescent history would be the ability to know and to track<br />every molecule which has come into <br />and left one's body.<br /><br />That ideal history is really the only one of interest, technically.<br /><br />The rest are always literary, folkic, happy-natty, semtimondtal, etc.. <br /><br />I know the 'character' of oxygen<br />mush better than any of these contemporary sapiens, and since I don't know any of them I would probably never buy such a thing.<br /><br />I can go to a junkyard<br />and look at various oxidation patinas<br />and have what would probably be<br />an equally interesting experience.<br /><br /><br />I can't really think of anything<br />I want to know about any of these people, not particularly, anyway.<br /><br />Maybe, I'm the asshole.Phanero Noemikonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430230355065457354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-60953702800359605882009-09-08T20:30:20.125-07:002009-09-08T20:30:20.125-07:00History was originally a different affair than we ...History was originally a different affair than we now regard it. Herodotus, considered the father of historians, believed that history was the accurate account of what people "told" him. "Istorin" for him was the "essence" (or significant meaning) of events, not a dry recitation of dates and places and persons. <br /><br />Is Watten advocating a creative use of memory, of jointly conceived "collective" autobiography? Is it intended to be a multi-faceted crystal, the intersection of 10 perspectives?Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-15296874114317200462009-09-08T20:18:21.542-07:002009-09-08T20:18:21.542-07:00Curtis, it's a single word.
Historicity.Curtis, it's a single word.<br /><br />Historicity.Phanero Noemikonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430230355065457354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-13070661336138535802009-09-06T13:17:17.660-07:002009-09-06T13:17:17.660-07:00I have considerable admiration for several of the ...I have considerable admiration for several of the so-called Language School poets, and for their works. <br /><br />My feeling is that the Grand Piano project, edited by Barrett Watten, is an ill-conceived attempt to preserve the memory of, and find useful meanings in, a specific period in the lives of a group of writers. I think the results speak for themselves. <br /><br />The individual essays contain much that is interesting and revealing, but my point is that autobiography is a notoriously ambiguous form of self-regard, and the risks of distortion and/or self-delusion, are much greater than the potential rewards. <br /><br />Could it have been done differently? Could it have been more clearly conceived? I'm not sure. I question the stated purpose to create a "collective" autobiography--just what the heck is a "collective" autobiography, anyway? And how do you go about it? Has Watten adequately defined it? <br /><br />It would have to have been more focused on actual event, instead of ratiocination about meanings and implications. Philosophical/cultural criticism applied to specific event is very problematic. It may be that the participants weren't sufficiently prepared. <br /><br />Writers, like other people, generally try to create a favorable impression of themselves. Writers may be more skilled at creating fictions, than they are at describing real event.<br /><br />There's a paradox about all of this. We want to know precisely what the participants wouldn't want us to know. This isn't a National Inquirer phenomenon, but an important problem. Most of what we do in life is a result of fear and loathing (not desire and love), despite what spin we choose to put on it. And that's exactly what we're guaranteed NOT to get from Grand Piano.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.com