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Among the Theoristas
I was surprised to see this quotation on Al Filreis’s blog: Reading is usually taught in school so as to walk hand in hand with assimilation. And it is at its most oppressive when taught through principles of absolute meaning. Beginning reading exercises tend to emphasize meaning as unambiguous and singular; the word ‘duck’ in the primer means the bird, not the verb. Further, as a learned and regulated act, reading socializes readers not only into the process of translating symbol into word with a one-to-one directness, but also into specific social relationships.Read More
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Poetic Expectations
Al Filreis recently posted a quotation from George Hartley’s book Textual Politics and the Language Poets. He also posted a link to a larger excerpt from that book, which is one of the most illuminating pieces I’ve seen on the subject. In the excerpt, Hartley explains that Language poets are united by their “rejection of the dominant model for poetic production and reception today—the so-called voice poem.Read More
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Smackdown? Not exactly…
Kenny Goldsmith takes on Al Filreis here. No contest.Read More
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Some Poundian Nuggets
I’ve lifted a few quotables by Ezra Pound from Donald Hall‘s Paris Review interview with him, published in 1962 but linked a few days back by Al Filreis: [In response to Hall’s question about how Pound would plan a new canto. “Do you follow a special course of reading for each one?”] One isn’t necessarily reading. One is working on the life vouchsafed, I should think. I don’t know about method. The what is so much more important than how. * Technique is the test of sincerity.Read More
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Nothing Doing
Al Filreis has a new post with embedded audio on Cubist language. Wonderful! He uses two exemplary quotes: Stein: “Any one doing something and standing is one doing something and standing. Some one was doing something and was standing. / Any one doing something and standing is one doing something and standing. Any one doing something and standing is one who is standing and doing something. Some one was doing something and was standing.Read More
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Ron’s On
If you haven’t picked up a copy of Ron Silliman’s 1000-page L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E adventure The Alphabet, written over a period of 30 years, you can get a taste of it here. I’ve never heard him read in person, but person who has (Al Filreis) says, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him read so well. He was on,” and I have to agree.Read More
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Rimbaud par Ernest Pignon-Ernest
I ran across this image of Rimbaud on Al Filreis’s blog… … and thanks to the image’s filename was able to track down the artist, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, whom I’d never heard of. What a gap in my awareness! I highly recommend a visit to his site.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
