Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick Mullin
Of course it's worth doing again, Stephen, until somebody gets it right.
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Actually, Rick, that's a good point, and one which I was going to make, albeit in a different way. To wit: Goldsmith gives the game away in his interview. He's just too damn coherent. He leaves one with the sneaking suspicion that he wants to be understood and appreciated after all. I mean, why doesn't he just make barfing chicken noises or pick his nose in silence? Or if that's too sarcastic for your taste, why doesn't he just, say, quote random snatches of prose out of context? Like this, maybe . . .
Poets.org: How would you explain conceptual poetry to a younger audience unfamiliar with the tenets of conceptual art?
Kenneth Goldsmith: Hans Heilman's version to be added soon. In Visigothic Spain, Merovingian France, and Viking Europe, slavery--if not always dominant--was never less than critical. If you are unable to load any pages, 高祖为人，隆准而龙颜. Le mot
kran désignait en moyen-haut-allemand l'oiseau échassier.
Poets.org: Are there conceptual strains/models you find in classic works by poets like Homer or Sappho, Shakespeare or Keats? Or is the tradition grounded solely in the work of more postmodern writers like John Cage, Jackson Mac Low, Andy Warhol?
Kenneth Goldsmith: Includes a definition of constipation and information on how it develops, how it is diagnosed, and how it can be treated. St. Thomas Aquinas' entire masterpiece, in an easy-to-use format. Ο ίδιος θεωρούσε πως καταγόταν από αυτοκρατορική οικογένεια. I like purple much better than orange.
And so on. That would be much a more convincing demonstration, I think.
An objection anticipated: Does this mean that formal poets would have to give their interviews in rhyming, metrical verse? Well, if the point of formal verse was that it was out to "smash the constraints of prose speech" (or whatever--and yes, I recognize that natural speech is indeed quite another thing than "prose"), then I suppose there might be a consistency problem in falling back on prose the rest of the time. But if your declared program is "against expression," well . . . be more consistent, I say. Whence the need for explanation? Unless, that is . . . you have something you want to express after all.
Rick, I was going to quote Wolfe again earlier but I held off. Would you like to do it this time?
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