Essay response
From Harry Mathews "Translation and the Oulipo," he writes about the differences in language and how words can be translated in many ways. I liked the example of the New Guinea tribes. Though living similar lives using similar speech, they say different things. The different ways to translate Racine's Phidre by the slightest letter made such a difference . My favorite thing Mathews says is once written down, "words are no longer true or untrue." As creative writers, I personally feel that is the greatest thing I can take away from this essay.
Poetry response
Maybe I didn't understand the point of most these poems, or maybe that's just it, there's no real point but I had a hard time getting any solid thing. Mathews does say once written down "words are no longer true or untrue." So maybe that is the real point. I'm not sure. However, I did have a favorite. "Cold Chicken for breakfast is not my custom, but I was damned if I would fight on an empty stomach."
Jackson MacLow
Essay responseIn MacLow's "Poetry and Pleasure, art is described as having the desire to help slowly change or shift pain and suffering. I agree that certain art, including poetry, has the need to change and "prevent warfare and other causes of unnecessary suffering." Why do we write what we write? I mean, sometimes we want to inspire, may that be ourselves or others. But sometimes I feel that I need to create to just create. Not always am I concerned about shifting the pain and suffering in the world. Ultimately, I want the outcome to be positive, much how MacLow describes most artist that want to provoke change. But I have to admit, it's often for my own gain, positive or negative.
Ronald Johnson, Radios response
While reading these collections of poems, at first I started to wonder what this piece was originally about before Johnson did some re-creating. But after some time, I no longer looked at the space as missing words but part of the piece.
The Tom Phillips piece did not show up on PDF
No comments:
Post a Comment