tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20990868.post9161598010423395171..comments2024-01-29T10:50:15.619-08:00Comments on Modern Americans: "The Other Side of Language"rodney khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10515711262628729312noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20990868.post-52848126269231182352008-12-12T13:02:00.000-08:002008-12-12T13:02:00.000-08:00I thought i posted this last night, but perhaps th...I thought i posted this last night, but perhaps there was an error.. There might even have been an error in transcription also, so lucky to have a second chance, i try again:<BR/><BR/>Declan Kiberd wrote of Flann O'Brien (regarding his first novel <I>At Swim-Two-Birds</I>), that the author was "less anxious to say something new than to find a self that is capable of saying anything at all." (wikipedia)<BR/><BR/>"Saying something new" is code here for "doing something" (as opposed to doing nothing, or doing the same old thing). <BR/><BR/>The negativity (addressing the doubt, rather than claiming novelty) is a critical "act" that does have an "impact on reality" -- but with a dialectical force, not a positive one, or a 'progressive' one.konradhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15406820959535775135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20990868.post-33349125805486271882008-12-12T01:24:00.000-08:002008-12-12T01:24:00.000-08:00From a review by Declan Kiberd of Flann O'Brien's ...From a review by Declan Kiberd of Flann O'Brien's first book: <I>At Swim-Two-Birds</I> is "the work of an author less anxious to say something new than to find a self that is capable of saying anything at all."<BR/><BR/>Isn't "acting through writing" the same thing as "saying something new?" Perhaps writing really asks that question: can you do anything at all?konradhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15406820959535775135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20990868.post-42277353676727449682008-12-11T09:03:00.000-08:002008-12-11T09:03:00.000-08:00Hi Nada,One thing that intrigues me about Le Clezi...Hi Nada,<BR/><BR/>One thing that intrigues me about Le Clezio’s speech is that he tips his hat to the “must make better world” idea while fully recognizing that most peoples of the world don’t need literature to do that—they’ve got movies, or myth, or storytellers to do whatever socially useful things it is that that art does. That’s a weird bind to place the writer in, whose ability to even “remember” or bear witness or whatever, let alone change the world, becomes kind of superfluous. A desire to "have an impact upon reality" instead of a real possibility. The upshot's not a better world, but writerly malaise. That seems like a weird (and very possibly true) thing to say. <BR/><BR/>If you read the whole speech, I wonder what you make of this “Elvira” he dedicates his prize to (among others). Elvria is an Amerindian storyteller Le Clezio witnessed in performance in the Embera forest of Central America. I admire his humility and generous angle of vision, but why then aren’t we hearing from Elvira? Is Le Clezio’s (the novelist’s) global role just as middleman between cultures? It reminded me a little of that moment at the end of Heart of Darkness where the African “queen” that Chinua Achebe talks about in his critique of the novel gets to keen, but not talk. Not sure how to feel about all this … one reason I like it.rodney khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10515711262628729312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20990868.post-91441231317151939162008-12-11T06:55:00.000-08:002008-12-11T06:55:00.000-08:00I'm a little suspicious of the notion that one wri...I'm a little suspicious of the notion that one writes (poetry) to "make a better world." In fact, I criticized the otherwise wonderfully uppity authors of the "Neoliberal Poetry" essay in the new Crayon on that very point. <BR/><BR/>It just sounds so do-goody. I can accept that one writes poetry to create alternative paradigms, to build fantasies, to narrow or widen focus, to drive a wedge into, to collapse or overturn, to celebrate, etc. (this list could go on and on). I just don't think it's about "making a better world," which makes me think of nothing so much as Disney's Tomorrowland.Nada Gordon: 2 ludic 4 Uhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01448534316756256503noreply@blogger.com