Monday, July 23. 2007
Louise Glück, "Against Sincerity"
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Be sincere but indirect without falling too far to convoluted, so as to let the reader flirt the meaning out. If a reader has to work thru allegory, or if the meaning can slip past the judgment intellect filter by symbolism, it can lodge deeper in the brain.
"a suspension of didactic conclusion" yes. Staid accurate homilies get no points for their truth because they don’t get far inside enough the mind to resonate. I could see that.
One must be interesting and speak of what stood out not that which was flat and common. It allows one to be more extreme and distorted than reality.
Would that be like saying caricatures are more representational than any photo since it highlights what is uncommon?
Elegiac works? here’s a review: http://www.whimsyspeaks.com/2007/06/
"a suspension of didactic conclusion" yes. Staid accurate homilies get no points for their truth because they don’t get far inside enough the mind to resonate. I could see that.
One must be interesting and speak of what stood out not that which was flat and common. It allows one to be more extreme and distorted than reality.
Would that be like saying caricatures are more representational than any photo since it highlights what is uncommon?
Elegiac works? here’s a review: http://www.whimsyspeaks.com/2007/06/
Thanks, Pearl. Pleasure as always to hear from you.
I’m not sure caricature works in the same way as persona - i.e. giving voice to aspect-perceptions that represent the "psychic autobiography." The downside of caricature is the exaggeration of stock features (the big nose, the jutting chin) - but I would say distillation and essentialization is absolutely the stuff of lyric. Tricky - because when you talk about that as some kind of conscious effort, a game of what-to-hide and what-to-reveal with the reader, my experience is such a linear approach ends up clunkier than what happens on inspiration, what "comes together" as the intangibles you discover after the fact. So, I suppose when I talk about determinism I mean intention - not a linear plan but a direction of discovery, ending in a sense of sentience about the work, whose mechanics are only revealed in dissection - not assembly.
I’m not sure caricature works in the same way as persona - i.e. giving voice to aspect-perceptions that represent the "psychic autobiography." The downside of caricature is the exaggeration of stock features (the big nose, the jutting chin) - but I would say distillation and essentialization is absolutely the stuff of lyric. Tricky - because when you talk about that as some kind of conscious effort, a game of what-to-hide and what-to-reveal with the reader, my experience is such a linear approach ends up clunkier than what happens on inspiration, what "comes together" as the intangibles you discover after the fact. So, I suppose when I talk about determinism I mean intention - not a linear plan but a direction of discovery, ending in a sense of sentience about the work, whose mechanics are only revealed in dissection - not assembly.
That makes sense. Certainly conscious poetry is clunky as thinking about how to walk.
Sense by sitting inside the negative capability of another, letting it wash in. By dissection or osmosis of reader of the unconscious intent of the writer.
If the writer’s hand is not firm enough or trained enogh, it can become automatic not to revealing truths but repeating cliches that come easily. By conscious practice of pruning, the suckers of these automatics can stay in control.
Sense by sitting inside the negative capability of another, letting it wash in. By dissection or osmosis of reader of the unconscious intent of the writer.
If the writer’s hand is not firm enough or trained enogh, it can become automatic not to revealing truths but repeating cliches that come easily. By conscious practice of pruning, the suckers of these automatics can stay in control.
Indeed. That was always the problem I had with most literary criticism - it told you nothing about craft, only how to "murder to dissect" as it were. Stephen Booth’s approach is still the closest I’ve seen to a critical approach that benefits writers and keeps the work alive on the operating table.
I’m more in the Lee camp than the Gluck. I think, despite the merits of her work, it’s that refined reticence that’s holding her back, favoring an artifice that hurts her work.
Recently I quoted Rexroth on my blog, from his intro to DH Lawrence’s Selected Poems. He said that the ‘greatest poetry is nobly dishevelled’. Sometimes one must streak the naked truth.
Recently I quoted Rexroth on my blog, from his intro to DH Lawrence’s Selected Poems. He said that the ‘greatest poetry is nobly dishevelled’. Sometimes one must streak the naked truth.
Hi Jim,
One of the things I liked about this essay, once I got into Glück’s viewpoint, is that it did not seem to be divisive - that is, there seems no need to pick "camps" - any temptations in that regard are likely semantic. That said, I suppose the issue of control is a matter of taste, and while I favor noble dishevelment in theory, in practice I find Glück’s precision as elucidating as any rant.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers,
Robert
One of the things I liked about this essay, once I got into Glück’s viewpoint, is that it did not seem to be divisive - that is, there seems no need to pick "camps" - any temptations in that regard are likely semantic. That said, I suppose the issue of control is a matter of taste, and while I favor noble dishevelment in theory, in practice I find Glück’s precision as elucidating as any rant.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers,
Robert


