On Election Day

In the first stanza the imagery is thick with descriptions of working class people and communities, there is a lot of despair in these images. The interesting thing about them for me is that this neighborhood is universal. This neighborhood could be Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Belgrade, Tehran, or any other working-class neighborhood.

This feeling of commonality evoked through the images Bernstein uses continues throughout the poem, which is not to say that it is not a good poem. What I am saying is exactly the opposite of that. Bernstein’s poem allows for everyone to believe that he is talking to and about their personal experiences on a daily basis, because for many people “election day” is just another day.

Tribes of Dr. Lacan

Bernstein’s reading of this poem, which I listened to him read from the links provided for us, was interesting to me for two different reasons. After listening to the audio portion of this poem, I jumped from the critical perspective of the words on the page to the poetic perspective of knowing, that as a poet your lines never stay the same, they are always moving, changing, and evolving. I felt this evolution in hearing Charles Bernstein read.

The other interesting aspect of listening to the audio before I read the piece is the knowledge of the space in which it was taking place. I was literally listening to it on my laptop with my headphones on, but as I closed my eyes I was in that space, I could hear the audience fidgeting in their chairs, papers rustling, and could even smell the coffee brewing.

Against National Poetry Month

The essay “Against National Poetry Month” was something I knew I had to read, not just as a poet, but also as someone who tries and has yet to be successful at fully participating in the ideas and festivities of it. I was curios if or when my own thoughts and ideas would align or intersect with Bernstein’s. For me it was also a must read because it is National Poetry Month (and no I didn’t even try this year to participate).
I was very excited to read this essay and find out that I am not alone in the 4 week struggle of National Poetry Month, hopefully one day when I’m retired I will actually survive the challenge, but for now there are papers to be written, bills to be paid, and exams to study for.

A Virtual Play

In the first act or section of this piece I was intrigued and uncomfortable at the same time. In the beginning I could not help but have the same uncomfortable feeling of playing “Galatea” for the first time. I felt uncomfortable in places of the play because it was not set up in what I think of when I think of a play. I think this is exactly the twist Mark Americka was intending to do to us, his audience. He wanted us think of plays in the traditional sense and take this ideal and spin it on its head. This seems to me to be a prime example of what all or most postmodern writers were attempting to do as they took the old canonical ideals and spun them on their head.
I felt the unfamiliar, uncomfortable “Galatea” feeling in the short lines. Now I realize this experience with the play and my experience with “Galatea” were similar only for me, because that was the singular struggle that I had. The difference between “Galatea” and the play is that everyone is supposed to feel a little lost and discombobulated, it is part of the process when you are learning from and being inserted into the play. Over time I’ve become comfortable in being uncomfortable.
For me it always reminds me of being at an amusement park and riding a rollercoaster. The heart starts pumping as you make your way through the line. Then you reach the front and you hear the people I front of you getting strapped in. Finally, it’s your turn and the sounds get louder and you start to really feel the “butterflies” in your stomach.

Writer As

The writer as section reminded me of the same discombobulated feeling. However, there was words and ideas that I was very familiar with from my time at Naropa University. One of those ideas is about repurposing, which also brings to mind Kenny Goldsmith. Repurposing as discussed in the section on the virtual play, which I realized after reading and writing about it was not necessarily the section we were supposed to read. However, it was my favorite section and I noticed parallels between the sections.

As I was re-reading “Citizen” by Claudia Rankine so many different ideas, thoughts, and questions were running through my head. The first of which was all of the imagery that is evoked in each poem. These images helped create a photo album of sorts in my mind’s eye. I keep coming back to the section on the Williams sisters over and over again. These images are so powerful, not because I can see them in there bright colored tennis outfits running back and forth across class and grass courts all over the world, that’s there too. However, what struck me most about the prose poems (if I must attempt to classify them), is how much I never considered them as game changers or outsiders. This is not because of that cliché response to racial injustice “I just don’t see color or sex,” it has more to do with perspective. I sadly came to the realization that part of me never once even considered how tough it must be for them, to go into certain arenas or certain countries and do something they have loved to do their entire lives. Having arrived at this realization I was more than a little upset at myself, because, I couldn’t believe that after all of these years I finally saw something that was looking us all right in the face. The other half of my new consciousness was very happy to have arrived at this point, even though it took longer than I would have liked.

Rankine gives many other examples of injustice from many different perspectives. I was excited and more than a little intimidated by all of these different perspectives. I felt at different points in the collection that I was in complete agreement and understanding with her. Than all of a sudden I thrown into something else completely. I would have to again find my bearings and would be okay again.

I started to wonder why she would consciously make the effort to put all of these images and sections into one collection. After thinking about this question sporadically for a few days, I believe I came up with one of many answers to my own question. I believe she is attempting to show that we are all citizens on this planet and we are all going through something that we must overcome. Rankine is also brings show many different injustices to the table, which will hopefully bring a voice to the voiceless and cause people to want to do something about them.

When I first clicked on the link, I was very excited because “choose your own story” books have always been my favorite. I used to love the idea that I was able to dictate the outcome of the story, simply by choosing the path the main character went onto next. I loved it so much I found myself re-reading these texts multiple times, in an effort to follow every avenue that the author set up. As look back on that experience, I see now that it was helping me become a better reader as well as satisfying my need to control the outcomes of each story.

This need for control is something I’ve been thinking about not only in this class, but in my entire experience as graduate student. In my MFA program, I learned very early on that I was going to be challenged in ways I never was and that it was okay to only have a small sliver of information be all mine. As a PhD student I’m learning that this small piece is in the eye of the tornado.
This is how I felt as I struggled with entering the text. In my first read through, it was not very impressive to me. However, I kept having this feeling in the back of my mind, that I was missing something. I could not shake the feeling, until I went back and tried to play game over and over.

Eventually, I found my footing (of sorts) and started feeling like I was at the intersection of leading troops into battle and a voice activated robot who moves on my commands. This made me feel more at ease with idea of moving through the text. Although, there is this feeling of a lack of understanding that persists in the back of my mind as I type in commands. I am happy to say that no matter the struggle, I never tried to take it easy on myself and use the cheat codes (any form of them). For me, the struggle is half the battle, and if I “make it” or not, the struggle has taught me numerous things about myself and being able to fumble through things.

Everything We Do is Political

Rachel Zolf does a fantastic job of putting this book together in a way that does not make us think she is telling us what to do or talking to us as if we are stupid. She starts us off with finally crafted lines and poems that use a minimal amount of words and still leave is wondering about things, makes us want to look up information about what she is trying to tell us. In the first section she is writing poems that put us at ease in a sense, because the language is language we all use in every day conversations to communicate with each other. In the first section Zolf also in a quiet manner leaves us hanging at the end of each poem, because she doesn’t use punition to end her poems. This lack of an ending makes me think of two things: unfinished business or a window of opportunity for reader to enter into the work, and this idea that everything is connected and talking to each other. I am not sure which if either Zolf is trying to discuss and it doesn’t matter to me. However, it is very interesting from a writer’s perspective to consider these things.

The second section titled “Book of Caparisons” is interesting because of its paired down language, Zolf gives us a minimalist approach to this section. This second section seems focused on the correct words and nothing else, while she gives us titles as numbers. These numbers cause us to do a few things, stop and then think about what these numbers represent. At first, I thought they might be dates, but this idea was soon left on the side of the road a castoff of a continued reading. I never did figure out what the numbers represent, it was in this failure (of sorts) that I find myself the most intrigued. Zolf does nothing without thinking critically, this much is very obvious. As this section continues the minimalist approach to writing flows into the third section.

The third section is a much more personal section. This shift is evident in its title “Innocent Abroad” and the lack of blank pages between the title page and poems. She does not want us to have a break in the information process, while simultaneously not giving herself a break. This section seems almost like what she wanted to write from the beginning. The first two sections are what she needed to write to prepare herself to write this section. This is by far my favorite section.

The Nam

Fiona Banner, does an interesting job of intersecting and writing into and through these different, iconic movies about Vietnam. I was interested to find out through a cursory search of Banner online, that she is an artist working and living in England. It started me thinking about what this distance (in both time and place) did for this writing project. I think the way in which it was produced with such conscious fluidity from movie to movie was aided by both time and distance. It is probably fair to assume that she has no family connection to the Vietnam War, which allowed her to focus on only the words, images, and production of texts that came from her interactions with them. This to me as a writer is a very interesting way to conceive a project.

Spooked and Considering How Spooky Deer Are

K. Silem Mohammad’s interview/article was very interesting to me as a writer, because it gave the interview question and answer’s first than a sample of what the question was asking. I enjoyed this aspect of the article for two principle reasons: it allows the reader to gain insight into the poet/writers mind and process, and it than becomes both essay and collaboration between two people, instead of only a transcript of an interview it became a well thought out article. In “Spooked” and “Considering How Spooky Deer Are,” we the audience are able to see not only the process but also the resulting product.

In considering both of these poems and the interview about the process, it was interesting to me to think about inspiration. As a poet, I get my inspiration from the everyday comings and goings of the world around me. I go to a coffee house or sit outside and take notes on things I hear and see. Mohammad does something that is incredibly foreign to me, he does what I do but in the universe of the internet. As far as using the internet in this fashion, I am proudly, if not stubbornly “old school.” I would much rather use my five senses to experience the outside world in a much more localized manner. My hope is to start looking into this electronic universe more for inspiration as both poet and professor.

Zong

M. NourbeSe Philip’s groundbreaking work “Zong” is one of these texts that I knew nothing about before my fateful two year journey at Naropa University. It was here in a place that I felt uncomfortable and at times unwanted that I first came into contact with this book known as “Zong.” Looking back on it now, I realize that my feelings at the time regarding the school were parallel to the feelings brought on by this book and its foundational materials. For two summers I was able to workshop and work with M. NourbSe Philip and much like her work here, she challenged me and pushed me further than I knew, wanted, or understood at the time. So, this opportunity to become reacquainted with “Zong” as a text was great.

I was able to consider just the text and its creation, where in the past readings I was strictly focused on where it came from. I’m not saying that it wasn’t or isn’t important to consider all of the lives that were thrown away as lost product. However, this time I was able to put my feelings aside and examine the production of this text with a critical eye on how it was repurposed and reproduced and what that does to make the story relevant even today. For me the negation of texts from the original court document is quietly giving a voice to those people who lost their lives on that boat, possibly for the first time, better late than never.

Traffic

Kenny Goldsmith is a master at taking something that I will call every day, some might classify it as the mundane, and taking it to the extreme and making it comical. He accomplishes this in his piece “Traffic.”  Goldsmith takes a simple interview with the notoriously reclusive Andy Warhol and repurposes into a minute by minute exaggeration. These pieces that he does, always border on the line between offensive and funny without ever really crossing the line to offensive, but always having his toe on the line. Doing this not easy, because it is incredibly difficult to not really care if you offend a small portion of the public, while still be mindful of the majority of your audience.

Soliloquy

“Soliloquy”, has a very frenetic feel to it as you drag your mouse across the screen and receive numerous responses to the same question at the top of the pages, until you move down the page in the same direction, than it becomes an instant message or text conversation between people. This was a disorientating experience for myself. However, having met and seen Goldsmith perform his work, this feels more authentic to my experience on both of these occasions I had the pleasure of sitting in the audience.

The confusion and disorientation I felt reading “Soliloquy” was something I had expected and was more than a little surprised when reading “Traffic.” This is not to say that I didn’t feel disoriented while reading “Traffic,” it was just a different feel. In “Traffic” it was more of a barrage of text in a minute by minute transcript. While in “Soliloquy” it is a what will happen if I do this feel. Both these methods are challenging.

Uncreative Writing

Goldsmith does a great job in this essay of explaining his work and the reasons for this trajectory. I had never heard of Marjory Perloff before this, or her idea about the extinction of the romanticized idea of the isolated genius who emerges from isolation to present a masterpiece of literature or original thought. Unfortunately, the proceeding generations as a whole will never experience such an idea. It is most definitely time that we embrace this and find a way to use this hyper connective of the digital age to benefit humanity. In the process if writers can make an honest living doing this, than we should, keeping in mind that what we put out there is important and will affect people in some way.

J.R.Carpenter

I had never heard of, much less read any of J.R. Carpenter’s work. That being said, I have to say, I was very much challenged by it, in a profound way. When I first clicked on the link, it was an interesting interaction between image, text, and technology. In my first read through, it was not incredibly impressive to me, but I kept having this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I was missing something. I could not shake the feeling, until I went back through each piece a few more times.

I began to feel more than a little unsure of what was going on as pieces I had read moved around the screen, almost as if they had a mind of their own, or possibly alive in the same way other mechanical things are alive. This moving feeling never subsided, in fact as I kept leaving and coming back to the texts, I found myself faced with different experiences each time. I made five separate attempts and had five different experiences. These experiences left me thinking about the writing process, storytelling, and the acquisition of knowledge.

The knowledge we have gained as individuals comes in many forms and from multiple sources, many times from more than one source at a given moment. How do we as educated individuals deal with this? This is a question I struggle with on a semi regular basis, as like all of us, I interact with people in many different situations. I struggle with shaping the message for a particular audience, while allowing enough space for people to feel comfortable entering a situation at any given moment. This is I how felt in my numerous attempts. In my first attempt, I felt very comfortable reading each text.  However, as I went from one text to the next, my feelings of control went away.

Chris Mott

Chris Mott makes many compelling arguments for  the teaching and usefulness of electronic literature. For someone like myself, this is a huge compliment. I agree completely with with him when he mentions the practicality of it in the current moment. “The first reason to teach electronic literature is practical: digital media are the most rapidly growing forms of communication, and they will only grow in their influence and pervasiveness”.  I understand that this is indeed the reality of what we as future college professors are up against. It makes a lot of logical sense that we need to become more and more familiar with this new form of communication.”Further, many teachers find themselves attempting to improve their students’ understanding of academic discourse by bridging the gap between the academic world and the world of popular culture”. This idea of bridging the gap between worlds, is the main reason I become a writer and than decided to continue on and pursue a doctoral degree and help people in two ways. The first, as a poet/ performer I attempt to tell my stories in away that allows a kind of freedom for myself and the audience to feel each word and inspire them to tell their own stories and help others in their own way. Lastly, the study of critical theory, the hardest part of the process of showing value in the study of literature. “Surely, we in the humanities who have taught critical literacy all along are the best equipped to shoulder the responsibility of helping our students not only to understand and use, but to evaluate and create in and through electronic media”.  All of these things are valuable to us and if we do our future jobs, can become a valuable and a life line for our students.

Thoughts on Vicuña

Introduction

Rosa Alcalá’s introduction was helpfully and insightful for me on a number of different levels. First, as humans we all love the idea, whether consciously or subconsciously, that others who have experienced something we have, have felt the same feelings we did. None of us wants to feel alone or inadequate. If you have never had the pleasure of experiencing a Cecelia Vicuña performance, you will feel both of these in the beginning. Because, as Alcalá tells us in the introduction, Vicuña is very much a performer of her work, or to use a cliché Naropean phrase “she embodies her work.” She takes many things into consideration as she prepares for a performance; however, she is such a master of her own preparation that it feels like she is just making things up as she goes along. This is not true in the traditional idea of what we in the United States think of as making something up on the spot. However, what she does take into consideration is the venue, the geographical location, and the audience.

The one and only time that I was able to experience a Cecelia Vicuña performance was in Boulder, CO at a Naropa University Summer Writing Program the summer of 2012. In this particular venue, one of the things I noticed was her use of every noise at her disposal. She raised and lowered her voice, which not only had this effect of being pushed and pulled, it also brought forth the hum of the recording equipment (everything at Naropa is recorded for the archive), her whispers allowed be to hear the background noise of the leaves and animals coming through the open side door of the gym. These I could tell were things that she knew would be available at her disposal, having been coming to Naropa for years.  

Space between Performance and Page (Collaboration)

I do not envy anyone who attempts to take on the enormous challenge of trying to put these performances into book form for people to study and enjoy. It is not only a challenging task, but as we enjoy the fruits of this labor by both performer and transcriber, must consider both perspectives. Because from a performance aspect, everyone should feel something different as they view Vicuña in the specific venue and bring their own expectations with them. These expectations we as the audience come in with are shattered in the process of viewing such performances, especially if we are thinking it’s going to be just another reading.

The collaboration as I see it, has four participants, in regards to this book. The first is the performance presented by Cecelia Vicuña, the second is the venue, the third is the transcriber, and lastly the audiences of both the performance and book. All four are very important and view the works of art in different ways, none of them are inaccurate, even if they don’t ever come together in some sort of concrete way. This is consequently Vicuña’s greatest accomplishment and greatest challenge. It is clear to see, especially as an audience member attending one of her performances that some people are pushed too far out of their comfort zones and won’t be returning to another performance. Some will even leave in the middle of a performance. All of these reactions are valid and expected when you are pushing the boundaries.