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About Me
me other places
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- "..Praise be to crustaceans in.."
- "..when I became water.."
- "..who tags the bats.."
- "No beams to weave the linen.."
- Poem comprised entirely of Three Stooges titles
- on Giorgione
- on J.M.W. Turner
- on Roberto Matta
- on Regina Silveira
- on Lygia Clark
- on René Char
- on Lyn Hejinian
- on Ezra Pound
- on Javier Sicilia
- on Leonor González Mina
- on Jean-Luc Godard
- on Max Ophüls
- on C.H. Douglas
- on Georges Bataille
- on Sylvia Beach
Some Poetry Blogs
- Alan Davies
- Alexander Billet
- Alli Warren
- Andy Gricevich
- Anne Boyer
- Ariana Reines
- Bhanu Kapil
- Buck Downs
- Charles Bernstein
- Cynthia Arrieu-King
- Cynthia Cruz
- Dale Smith
- dälek
- David Rafael Israel
- Dolores Dorantes
- Dominick Knowles
- Doug Lang
- Douglas Messerli
- Drew Gardner
- Eduardo Bahr
- Eric Baus
- Erica Kaufman
- Frances Kruk
- Gary Sullivan
- Geof Huth
- Goethe Girl
- Hailey Higdon
- Harmony Holiday
- Hoa Nguyen
- Jen Benka
- Jennifer Tamayo
- Jerome Rothenberg
- Jessica Smith
- Jim Leftwich
- John Sakkis
- Jukka-Pekka Kervinen
- Justin Sirois
- Kurt Hackbarth
- Linh Dinh
- Mark Nowak
- Mark Scroggins
- Mark Wallace
- Mark Woods
- Mary Ann Caws
- Maureen Thorson
- Mel Nichols
- Michael Kelleher
- Michael O'Brien
- Micheal Lally
- Michel Deguy
- Michelle Detorie
- Mike Young
- Nick Piombino
- Noah Mazur
- Pam Brown
- Paul Hoover
- Peter Manson
- Pierre Joris
- R.M. Haines
- Raúl Zurita
- Richard Kostelanetz
- Rob McLennan
- Robert Head
- Rod Smith
- Rodney Koeneke
- Rodrigo Toscano
- Ron Silliman
- Ryan Eckes
- Ryan Walker
- Spahr Luoma
- Stan Mir
- Stephen Baraban
- Sueyeun Juliette Lee
- Susana Gardner
- Tao Lin
- Thomas Devaney
- Tom Clark
- Tom Raworth
- Tony Lopez
- UbuWeb
- Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
- Wendy Trevino
1 comment:
I watched MacAdams’ documentary on Kerouac by chance the day before seeing the NY Public Library’s show on Kerouac, which is recommended (there til March 16) to fans of his in the area. Kerouac’s religious paintings and his study of world religion made me think of how Robbe-Grillet scoffed at the notion of the inspired artistic genius as a theological proposition, which can be seen as a de Tocquevillian contrast between the two cultural agents of the same era. Clark Coolidge’s reflections on first encountering Kerouac amplify that contrast: Kerouac was the anti-Sartre, affirmation, optimism, impulsiveness not curtailed by analysis.
Robbe-Grillet’s theoretical essays, in keeping with this contrast, are a series of negations, rabbit trails, gratuitous patricides, which in the end only play to his own strengths and exist for the function of his own psychology. The negation of the ‘outdated concepts’ are carried out by a agronomist and statistician with a tenuous grasp of literary history and philosophy convinced of his superiority, seizing the tradition of provocation. I watched his incompetent film La Belle Captive a few weeks ago, which revealed his debt to Surrealism after his denials of same in his early essays.
As he began to realize in his sixties, his work was intensely personal and had unique value and capacity for inspiration only when wrested from his dogmatics. The fixation on escaping the tragic flaws inherent in the human condition (The Erasers) is tragedy in its purest form, and Robbe-Grillet’s games, dodges, opacity, and irrelevant digressions are provide illustrations of this pure escape, a renunciation coupled with resigned deference to the natural world (Jealousy). His stated contempt for iconic characters can be seen as a confessional impulse: no Don Quixotes or Candides are going to mediate between the reader and piquant details of his explication of self. Last Year at Marienbad can also be seen as a personal work which, like his other works, acutely reveals the writer behind its persistent attempts at distraction and trivialization.
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