After listening to the Penn Sound audio of “Sane as Tugged Vat, Your Love” I decided to look into the genre of Homophonics in general. Some things I found:

1. Penelope Cruz learned her lines for her first American movie: Hi-Lo Country phonetically. Not exactly the same as what Bernstein is doing but, it kind of is. She had no idea what she was actually saying or hearing, she just learned how to say it. Penelope Cruz: Gardian Article

2. Charles Bernstein created a website at UPenn with 94 “experiment” ideas for working with language using phonetic, homophonic, and other linguistic things. It is quite extensive list of things to do with language. It ends with this little nugget:

“Compiled by Charles Bernstein. (C) 1996-2014 by Poets’ Ludicrously Aimless Yearning (PLAY). Dispense only as appropriate and under the supervision of an attending reader. Individual experiments are not liable for injury or failure resulting from improper use of appliance. Any profits accrued as a direct or indirect result of the use of these formulas shall be redistributed to the language at large. Management assumes no responsibility for damages that may result consequent to the use of this material in educational institutions or individual writing project.” 

Which I find very wonderful. I think this is a really cool resource in general, but also when talking about his homophonic translation poems. He thinks about this stuff a lot from the looks of this list! Bernstein 94 Experiments

3. Next I found an article by a writing student at Columbia (not sure what level of student). His article attempts to explain why this type of poetry, translating homophonically, would be useful in the world of writing/litearture and he says:

“Because content represents the utilitarian, nothing seems less useful than the content-based translation of an old Latin poem. The poem is, if anything, more beautiful than useful.

I do not mean to insinuate that homophonic translation should be pursued in every case. That would be ridiculous. Imagine if Edith Grossman homophonically translated Don Quixote into English. The result would be an aesthetic mess more schizophrenic than the book’s quixotic anti-hero. What I am trying to say is that homophonic techniques create a dialogue and let audiences to question the unwritten codes of artistic modality. When one is reading a translation, one is always reminded of the daunting question: what is the function of art?” 

I found this article, this section in particular, useful in deciding why this type of writing would be worth pursuing other than for something “different” to do. Why homophonic translation

4. Finally, this last article is another attempt at deciding why this type of poetry exists, I tend to lean toward the first at this point but, it has another example and some fun comments. Homophonic translations as a game of telephone

This is obviously not an extensive list but I thought I would share what I found when delving into this area. It is kind of cool and might be fun to try at some point.

When reading the poetry of Bernstein I found the poem “A Theory’s Evolution” equally funny and cynical. It is basically stating that the idiocy present in the world could not have been produced in a “survival of the fittest” manner or by divine hand. In the first theory the “fittest” would have won; in the second why/how would an almighty being allow such a horrifying reality take place?

The Theory of Flawed Design is not a scientifically proven
Alternative to evolution.

This line sets up the fact that this so called “theory” is not in competition with already accepted scientific theories. This can create a false sense of ease when beginning the poem.

It is based on the everyday life Experience that natural selection could not have produced Such a catastrophic outcome.

And here we go. It started out as something innocent enough but this line plunges that reader into the cynicism of the poem “such a catastrophic outcome” obviously shows that the voice of the poem is put off by the state of “everyday life experience.” This line states taht natural selection, by itself, should have presented a more palatable state of affairs.

Optimists and the religiously Inclined will naturally prefer evolution as an explanation, Since ascribing Design to the state of humanity is almost Unbearable.

This line reminds me of “A Modest Proposal.” The argument of Intelligent Design and Evolution is stil (amazingly) a hot topic in education. To suggest that those who morally opposed Evolution would embrace it when faced with the idea of “Flawed design” comments, once again, on the voice’s dismal view of the state of the world.

For the rest of us, we must continue to insist
That the theory of Flawed Design be taught cheek and jowl,
Neck and neck, mano e mano, with Mr. Darwin’s
Speculations.

In this line I am asserting that the voice present believes very heartily (mano e mano) that children/students deserve to know a “whole truth.” Perhaps the theory of evolution is so difficult for some to grasp because of the state of the world; “how can THAT possibly be the only answer.” Well here is the “missing link.”

The Theory postulates a creator who is Mentally
Impaired, either through some genetic defect or because of
Substance abuse, and is predisposed to behave in a sociopathic Manner;

Here we get the clarification of why the “optimists and the religiously inclined” would prefer evolution rather than accepting such a statement. We also see the voice’s level of detest for the state of things. Words like: mentally impaired, genetic defect, substance abuse, sociopathic have a connotation related to asylums, hospitals, and detention centers. To compare all of society to these things speaks of a serious lack of faith in humanity.

although some Benign Flawed Design theorists, as
They call themselves, posit the radical alternative that the
Creator was distracted or inattentive and the flaws are not the Result of Malevolent Will but incompetence or incapacity.

This last set of lines barely gives an alternative. The only thing worse than a consciously “malevolent” or handicapped deity is one who is too distracted or incompetent to, pardon my French, give a fuck.

Now I don’t know enough about Bernstein or the voice he is portraying to know his actual view on faith, but I don’t know that I would call it strong. I think the overall purpose of the poem is to look at the state of the world (I keep repeating that line) and perhaps get people to stop arguing about silly things and really look at what is going on?

I found reading Bernstein very interesting. Usually when presented with essays or poems, I am more drawn to poems. However, in this case I really enjoyed reading the prose pieces. I would even venture to call them poetry…Every line in “Electronic Pies in the Poetry Skies” could be made into a stand alone quote. Each word seems to be chosen meticulously to make a statement. I am still processing the meaning of that piece because every line is the kind of line that I want to read over and over to get all the goodness out of.

I also found lots of humor in the Bailout prose piece. It is interesting however, to think about what he is really saying. Behind the sarcasm is a call to action…that I will have to ponder further before commenting on.

The poems, on the other hand, are a little more wonky. I think his selling point, in general, is sarcasm and cynicism and it’s fun to laugh at his jokes. I also feel that I need to do a little looking into some of the topics presented in the poems to really be able to benefit, perhaps I am not on his level…

I can’t wait to talk about him as a group because of all the texts we have studied throughout the course, his work seems the most…conventional? It will be interesting to talk about why that is, or why he is included.

linzeybilly.simpl.com

So, I was in the process of creating a website for my second creative project on Coal Mountain Elementary when I found that the app I had been using needs a subscription for my website to last for more than a few days. The above link is where my website would be if  I wasn’t stingy, it might still work today…

I decided to give the pieces I had put together here so that perhaps you can get the idea. (P.S. by clicking on the pictures you can read the text more clearly, just and FYI). I intended for this to be something that is read independently and contemplated as each piece is processed.

Page 1: Inspiration

Page 2: Memories

Page 3: Sounds

Page 4: Feelings

The three poems below were inspired by my father’s stories and the experiences detailed in the text.

1. There are 3-4 different dialogues taking place within this text (newspaper articles, a first hand account, lesson plans, and pictures). The font style tells us when the narrative is shifting. How does this shift effect your reading? Does the author present one global storyline through multiple sources or does he present disjointed, unfinished pieces of stories, or both? I think reading it both ways changes the meaning of the text but I am not sure how to process that.

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2. How would you compare the effect of the images in Coal Mountain Elementary as compared to those in Citizen? What is the purpose of these images in the text?

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3. Looking again at segments, does the change in writing style (personal to impersonal, shifts in pronouns, etc.) make certain storylines more believable? or more authoritative? Again, do you break the story apart into plot and subplots or let it run together to create one complete thought?

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4. In From Sago to Xinjiang, the author discusses the idea that Nowak is taking one American coal mining tragedy and showing it in a global setting. Throughout the book we receive dozens of Chinese news reports on various mine tragedies and specifics of one West Virginian mining tragedy, what is the significance of that aspect of the text? There ae plenty of other American mining incidents to pull from, is the way the text is executed effective in delivering a message?

Here are some questions/thoughts that I had while reading Rankine.

1. Rankine uses repetition throughout her work, both within individual sections and throughout the entirety of the text. She repeats phrases such as, “What did you say?” or “why…”, “Did you see their faces?” and “blue” imagery, to name a few. What effect does this repetition have on you as a reader? What emotions might the author be trying to evoke from the reader? How might readers with different backgrounds respond differently to these repeated themes?

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2. Rankine says in the interview in Bomb Magazine that “[the images] were placed in the text where I thought silence was needed, but I wasn’t interested in making the silence feel empty or effortless the way a blank page would.” Before this statement she says that the interviewers book, which Rankine borrows the idea from, “offer[s] pathways to consider, sidestep, and groove into disruption.” How did this work for you when you were reading? I found some of the images very relatable to the text read before it, and some not so much. What was your experience with the images? How did they speak to or direct your reading of the text?

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3. Another device used throughout the entire text is the use of the pronoun “you.” This word is used to force the reader to take part in the text. You can no longer just look at the scene being presented, you are center stage. What does this do for or to the reader? Or what does this do for the author?

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4. Another thing that I grappled with while reading was attempting to figure out when one “story” or “poem” ended and the next began. At the end of each page? (not always) at the end of each chapter (they seem to overlap too)? I did not find stories confusing when reading them, I just couldn’t always tell when a new experience was being presented. Is that the point?

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5. One final question that I would love for you all to answer is: Did you find one section or type of writing more moving or powerful than another? For me, the “personal” anecdotes were the most hard hitting, the stories of everyday experiences that were both personal but generic in their repetition within society. What did you think?

Galatea was one of the most interesting things I have ever read. The story of Galatea is a very interesting one and to have it from this persepctive is really fun. The game/interactive quality is what makes it so attention grabbing. I became more conscious of what i was asking/which commands I was using based on her responses. It is a bit mind boggling that you can interact so much with a program (insert robot apocalypse theory here).

I started with just using what I could come up with to “ask” or do, but it took me a little to understand how the interaction works. Asking about details from her explanations helped a little. I did find the “cheats” page very helpful, just in viewing that range of topics that could be discussed. I also found the status bar option to be really cool. I could tell that she was getting bored or frustrated with my line of questions and could adapt accordingly. I found myself pretending to be in a museum actually having the conversation with a statue to be able to think of valid things to ask.

I only went through a few of the “cheats” to see how the story differs and it is remarkable how different they are. They can end in so many ways, some with the statue doing all the talking, some with you “the character” doing more talking. The mood of the story changes depeneding of topics. It’s so complex. And there really isn’t a “true” story for this, not one is the “Right” path to take and that is fun too.  One final thought, I found myself becoming sympathetic toward her as a character. All of her stories are quite sad and full of imagery. The imagery of what it would be like to be carved as a living thing out of the stone, the visual of creating her eyes and of the polishing of the skin were very intense images. I think she (or this style) may be my favorite so far. It forces you to interact with the text and thus keep your attention. Very cool.

When I first read this Neighbor Procedure, I found myself extraordinarily frustrated. Aside from the occasional news broadcast or newspaper article, I have to admit that I do not know a lot about the Israel-Palestine conflict. I still do not know a lot about it, but I have learned a good deal more since reading this. As with Brathwaite, I think part of the author’s purpose is to make you learn about the events being written about. It seems like Zolf’s book is a mixture of techniques we have seen by other author’s so far.

Zolf has a poem similar to the Bergvall poem we looked at.  In “Messanger” Zolf takes a verse from the Quran and gives 10 translations all with very different meanings. I always find it interesting when I see different translations of religious texts. These types of texts are taken very seriously by many people and just this small sampling shows how religious teachings can be swayed by connotation.

Book of Comparisons, I believe, is a sort of “found poem” (if I read her explanation correctly) similar to what Nourbese Philip did in “Zong!” That, however, is as far as I can go with this one. I am still contemplating meaning in this poem.

One thing we have not seen before is the connecting of poems she does in “Nominal,” “Grievable,” and “Did not Participate in Hostilities.” I was particularly frustrated by these poems before reading her “Afterthought.” Until then I was horribly confused by these names, numbers, and actions. After reading it I was a little horrified at what the combinations meant. I see that without all of the context those individuals’ stories are forgotten; they have no meaning. Part of what Zolf is doing with this book is bringing awareness to both sides of the conflict. I think the overall confusion after reading the book but before reading the afterthought, is intended to evoke the feeling of the conflict itself.

(Side Note: I have read a few articles and personal stories about the “BirthRight” trips and they still baffle me.)

Not exactly a scholarly article but I found this article very helpful in trying to understand “BirthRight”

No Brainwashing a Skeptic Goes on BirthRight

So, I attempted a flarf poem and it was really fun! I am not sure I could ever get to Mohammad’s level, but I tried. I found it interesting as I was combining/compiling phrases that I wanted to create meaning, but also not. I attempted to put things in a logical order, but also not. Almost as if I was challenging myself to make a real poem and make a nonsense poem at the same time. My search term was “black cats” because my black cat, Binx, was staring at me/terrorizing my workspace while I was working.

Black Cats

1. Bombay, Oriental, Sphynx, Ragamuffin
Black: dense coal black
symbol of evil omens
omen of misfortune and death
act as a spy
strange black cat
a lady who owns a black cat
a fairy known as the Cat Sìth
a courier for witches or demons
witches in disguise, or witches reborn
Please, don’t try this one at home! (Or while you’re driving.)
August 17 is “Black Cat Appreciation Day”
~spooky~

2. the cat goddess
to change into human shape
~blends in~ on your little black dress
~artsy~ black and white photos
costumes, home decor, and party themes
To dream of a black cat is lucky
They’re basically miniature black panthers
They don’t have time for anybody’s shit
On the other paw
They’re masters of illusion
really cute fluff balls with eyes
I wonder who makes up these things
It’s honestly too much

I find the combination of these three authors’ works quite interesting. They are so different in style, subject/content, and approach. However, it is obvious why they share spaces in the same book. I love how different and interesting these passages are! I think I might be even more interested in the creation of the poems than in the poems themselves. That has never happened to me before and I really like that.

Mohammad: This is so cool! The “that’s what you get” attitude of the website description of flarf is absolutely entertaining and intriguing. I loved the Goldsmith explanation of making something so boring/bad that no one actually wants to read it. Like I said above, I really found his technique for finding content to be super fun. It reminds me of the Bing commercials where people repeat random facts about a keyword

And I love that my mind is trying so hard to find meaning in the texts, but I think that part of the point is to contemplate the fact that there is no meaning in some of it. Search engines give us such a grab bag of “hits” that we have to sort through them and find the relevance…or put them all together and admire our nonsensical work.

The other part of his work that made me laugh was the anagrams of Shakespeare’s sonnets. They are wonderfully ridiculous and I think remind us (or at least me) to remember that Shakespeare used the same 26 letters we use and that his letters can make many different poems/works. Very often we are so serious in our interpretations of Shakespeare, this is playful and I think, based on his comedies and such, that perhaps Shakespeare would have been entertained by this (sorry for the speculation). Mohammad was by far my favorite because it is fun and nonsensical.

Banner: This is a little more serious, I think, that Mohammad. Banner’s writing is pretty unique. I am not sure how to define it. It is an interpretation of an dramatization of events that could have happened in history (somewhat realistic fiction). What she is writing is new, but she is describing a film, very interesting. I found myself visualizing the movie and keeping interest, all while keeping in the back of my head that I am getting the same kind of commentary a sportscaster gives of a baseball game over the radio. Very unique experience.

Her art work is so cool too! I think I would like to go to an exhibit of her art because it would confuse me and make me think, some pieces more than others. My favorite was the Stamp Out exhibit, such a cool concept.

Philip: I save Nourbese Philip for last because her work is the heaviest for me. I find it interesting that she is compared to Vanessa Place and could be compared to Kenneth Goldsmith in her use of nonfiction text. I think that her work is what the others were trying to do, done right. Her work can be a political and poetic statement at the same time. Not to say that others do not do this all the time but that her message is quite clear in both ways when Place and Goldsmith’s messages were difficult to find.