tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61509404149010088372024-03-13T20:51:45.291+00:00xAnna McKerrow - Poet and author of the Greenworld Young Adult trilogyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-89834085173699556332015-01-15T15:58:00.002+00:002015-01-15T15:58:34.929+00:00Notes from ukyachat - representations of witches in YA/other fiction, and CROW MOON cover reveal!<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Lucy Powrie very kindly hosted me as a special guest this week on #ukyachat to talk about representations of witches in children's fiction as well as revealing the cover of CROW MOON, which was very exciting indeed. Here's the cover:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pretty!!!! Thanks Quercus! And, should you want to <a href="http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/anna+mckerrow/crow+moon/11362833/">preorder the book</a>, you can do it here. It's out on 5th March.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, like a massive nerd I had already made some notes around Lucy's questions but with the rapid fire nature of something like #ukyachat - I mean, I REALLY don't know how Lucy does it, she's amazing - there was a lot I didn't say, so here's a bit more stuff around the topics. For what it's worth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm going to do another blog post about my top witchy book recommendations and my favourite witches in fiction another time.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>QUESTION ONE: What are your favourite books about witches? How have they challenged the typical witchy stereotype? </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Arha in book 2 of the <a href="http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/childrens/the-earthsea-quartet-a-wizard-of,ursula-k-le-guin-9780140348033">Earthsea Quartet</a>, the Tombs of Atuan. Technically she's a priestess of an old cult rather than a witch but the whole setup is ceremonial and devotional rather than potions and wands. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's a lovely picture book for young readers called <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday-Witch-Liz-Martinez/dp/0747597022/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421335098&sr=8-3&keywords=the+everyday+witch">The Everyday Witch</a> which is where a little boy wonders if his mum is a witch riding a broomstick etc and when he asks she explains she is a witch, but in the sense that she uses family wisdom to heal, knows about herbs etc. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Witches-Eastwick-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/0141188979/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421335138&sr=1-1&keywords=the+witches+of+eastwick">The Witches of Eastwick, </a>the book (though the film is great) the witches are normal women with more of a grasp of manipulating the natural world than supernatural beings. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I liked Laura Powell's <a href="http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/childrens/burn-mark,laura-powell-9781408815229">Burn Mark </a>which was a YA title where the main witch character was very east end, working class, and the witches were kind of petty criminals. Her nan had taught her all she knew. It was nice to read a rather unglamorous witch rather than the sirens one tends to get. There's a siren character in Crow Moon but lots of middle aged ladies and awkward kids too. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Most witch fitch, though, (my term - I invented it - me) reflects the historical misconceptions of wise women, and the continuing lack of understanding about either Wicca being all spells and potions or ideas about white and black witches, evil, sexy sirens and toothless hags, and also the idea that witches are born with power and not made from hard work, dedication and practice! So somehow the witch stays as a paranormal concept out of reach of the normal person rather than a skill and faith anyone could develop, and empower themselves with. People seems to be genuinely unaware that there is a huge pagan and modern witchcraft movement going on RIGHT NOW and that though those people might not be riding around on brooms, they are witches. People who in very real ways are working to positively influence their own lives and those of others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On my most conspiracy theory days I would say that if popular culture tends to reflect the hegemony of the ruling elite, then it is in the interests of those that control us to maintain old superstitions and prejudices about concepts like the witch to discourage most people from pursuing enlightenment and gaining power for themselves. To keep imagining that magic isn't real. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My favourite novel specifically about a witch, a powerful woman, is <a href="http://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/essays-writing/sea-priestess,dion-fortune-gareth-knight-9781578632909">The Sea Priestess </a>by Dion Fortune. If you are remotely into witchy things you should read it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>QUESTION TWO: What affect do you think mythology can have on the way a story is told? </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Stories that draw on mythology always appeal to me because of that depth of meaning they draw on, a resonance of cultural memory, symbolism, jungian collective imagery. Tolkien based LOTR on existing mythology which is partly why I think it has such a strong resonance with us still. Narnia too, which is deep in Christian mysticism. Mythology (in my view) enables us to connect to the spiritual journey of the soul, in allegory, in symbol, to give a story deeper understanding. I keep coming back to "resonance". </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Mythology comes up in so many children's and young adult stories too, because I think on one hand children are immersed in legend and fable via fairytale so it's all current for them anyway, and on the other, it's a way to impart deep meaning in an apparently simple way. And I think writers are generally fascinated with myth, and want to work with it, refashion it, share what they love. I loved <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/children_sbookreviews/10776924/Bone-Jack-by-Sara-Crowe-review.html">Bone Jack</a> by Sara Crowe, which is the chasing the stag myth, the old pagan idea about the stag as the symbol of masculine energy, the sun and the earth, being sacrificed for a good crop, for the good of the land. And she reflects in that about how the stag chase needs to happen even more so, that maybe today we need to honour the earth more than ever before because it's sick, it's suffering. We don't honour the natural cycles anymore, and if we did, you can say for damn sure that we wouldn't be messing up the environment. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm really l</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ooking forward to <a href="http://www.usborne.com/downloads/press-releases/deep-water-lu-hersey.pdf">Lu Herseys Deep Water</a>, as that's a selkie myth. Margo Lanagan did one too - <a href="http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=397&book=9781742375052">Sea Hearts</a>. I also love anything with mermaids. I love the mermaid and siren myths. Basically I love all mythology. I would, I'm a pagan.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>QUESTION THREE: Crow Moon focuses on pagan teenagers. How important do you think it is for religion to be represented in YA?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I think it is - lots of people live in religious cultures, families, in the UK, and just because many households are more secular, or atheist, that shouldn't be the accepted norm in books. Again it's a diversity issue. Wicca and paganism are very popular with teens, and there are lots of teen Muslims, teen Christians , teen Jews, teen Catholics etc etc. Religion and faith is a big part of life for lots of people and is under-represented in all fictional media. Again, specifically for pagans, it can be annoying when the only representations of your faith practice are only this completely fictionalised lightning-from-fingertip thing, or evil hags. I mean, I like a pointy black hat as much as the next person, but I think it reflects an unfortunate assumption certainly in the UK that anything spiritual is a bit silly, and if those people were being rational they'd be atheists. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And now more than at any other time is the need for us to be talking about faith and representing it in a variety of ways, talking about the issues within it, the deep questions. I think it can be hard to work it seamlessly into fiction without sounding preachy or evangelical, or alternatively very negative. But actually one of the things YA does really well is consider the big issues - coming out, gender identity, race, bullying, growing up, friends, family. So I think it's a good place to see more representations of religion and faith.It doesn't have to be ABOUT religion. Faith can just be there in the background, sometimes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 13px;">QUESTION FOUR: </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 13px;">Have you read any cli-fi? Do you think there will be a rise in them as their relevance increases?</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: 13px;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I think so. With clifi it's the same challenge about not making the prose clunky with all the science, but on the other hand, scifi has been managing that one way or the other for a long time - I mean, some scifi is definitely for the scientists out there, some is a bit more accessible. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I thought <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/11/flight-behaviour-barbara-kingsolver-review">Flight Behaviour</a> by Barbara Kingsolver was very good, but even in that there were quite long passages about butterfly habits and classifications and stuff. I mean, I probably learnt a lot. Don't ask me about it now, mind. The <a href="http://margaretatwood.ca/maddaddam-trilogy/">MADDADDAM trilogy</a> by Margaret Atwood is amazing, and it's chillingly relevant to where we are today in terms of genetic modification, food production, biochemical engineering, GM crops etc. Also,</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> it's a cracking read. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But I think our common concerns are always reflected in fiction, and we are now very concerned about the environment. Just like the big dystopia epics are reflecting a worry about the rise of totalitarianism and government control, the divisions between rich and poor, power and disempowerment, like in The Hunger Games, I think we'll see more and more fiction thinking about climate change and environmental issues over the next few years. The longer story arc of the CROW MOON trilogy engages more and more with the energy crisis and the inevitable results of capitalism.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As the film 2012 klaxoned at us in mile high letters - WE WERE WARNED. Right before it goes really weird at the end and loses all sense of geographical logic.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-59306097869179133312015-01-09T14:16:00.001+00:002015-01-09T14:16:18.475+00:00Books that influenced Crow Moon<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It could be said that Crow Moon was influenced by every book
I ever read. I know that there are books that I’ve read over and over again
that have little or nothing to do with witches, or Cornwall, or any other
thematic elements of the Greenworld trilogy – but they’ve probably had a huge
impact on my prose writing style. Some novels I’ve reread so frequently that
their rhythms, language use, even their style of punctuation have infiltrated
my brain, like Dracula, Rebecca, Stephen Kings’s Firestarter and The Running
Man, Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News, Alias Grace, Lady Oracle by Margaret
Atwood, The World According to Garp, The Story of San Michele, 1984, Brave New
World. As well, there’s a raft of poetry collections and short stories that I
love – being a poet as well as a YA writer. Film and TV too – nothing was ever
the same in my brain after The X Files, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Alien, Battlestar,
Twin Peaks and Star Wars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, Crow Moon has some particular influences which I
thought it might be fun to share with you here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">1. Woman on the Edge of Time – Marge Piercy</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I first read this 1970s second wave feminist utopia/dystopia
novel for my A Level extended essay in 1995 (God I’m so old) and reread it many
times since; it is always thought-provoking. The story is of a woman undergoing
psychiatric treatment in a hospital that starts to “visit” a strange utopian
land. As the reader you are unsure whether it is real somehow or delusional.
The utopia is a free and anti-capitalist community based on love and sharing.
Romantic relationships are open, unheteronormative and for pleasure; parenting
happens within the community rather than in the traditional family unit; the
community are self sufficient and organic. By contrast, in the “real” world,
the main character suffers within an entirely repressive and dystopian
contemporary society which treats her unstated mental illness harshly; she is a
poor woman of colour that is exploited by an all-too-familiar patriarchal,
capitalist medical culture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The utopia/dystopia juxtaposition and the feminist nature of
the utopian land fed into the Greenworld and the Redworld. The Greenworld
shares much of Piercy’s anti-capitalist, organic and environmental focus, as
well as its community emphasis. However, as it is a “real” society and not
(potentially) a fantasy or vision, it had to have downsides and people that
lived within it that weren’t happy with things. Similarly, the Redworld has
many bad elements – pollution, corruption etc, which is explored more in books
2 and 3, but it’s not all bad. It’s short sighted and unrealistic to paint one
side all good and the other all bad – nothing is ever that way in life, after all.
And as Arthur C Clarke said <span style="background: white; color: #181818;">“Utopia
was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of
all Utopias—boredom.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #181818;">So I had to introduce this actually quite wonderful green
feminist nature-loving, woman-centred utopia through the eyes of a disaffected
teenage boy within it, partly because when you’re a teen, whatever your parents
do, even if they’re rock musicians or Nobel Prizewinners or heart surgeons or
astronauts, you think they’re totally boring and uncool. And partly so that
Danny could show us the chinks in the armour of this apparently wonderful place
– partly because nothing is perfect – the Greenworld witches are human, and
therefore subject to human weaknesses – and partly so that conflict could
occur. There would be no story if everything was perfect in the Greenworld. For
me, the ultimate message about both cultures – the Green and the Red – are that
they can learn from each other. There’s a fair amount of thought on my part in
the books about the relationship between magic, spirituality and science and
technology too, and how, in my view, the way forward is to learn from each
other and not persist in this false idea that they are opposites.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">2. The Sea Priestess – Dion Fortune</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This book is a beautiful, readable fiction novel underpinned
with a great deal of witchcraft practice, kind of in the same way that the
Narnia books have Christian mysticism at their core. Dion Fortune was a great
mystic and her work was one of the important precursors of the development of
modern Wicca and paganism in the 1950s. In The Sea Priestess, a man suffering
from severe asthma recuperates by the sea where he meets a mysterious woman
that teaches him about connecting with the natural energies of the sea. It is a
beautiful book, full of mystery, imagery and symbolism of the wild magic of water
and of the strong connections of the Goddess principle to tides, water and the
moon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I deliberately set Crow Moon in Cornwall because of the
intense magic in the landscape and the drama of the North Cornwall coast at
Tintagel. I wanted to explore a sense of the natural power that comes from the
waves crashing against rocks and sucking into the caves; I knew also that
Tintagel and Boscastle, just next door, are traditionally very witchy places,
not least because of the Witchcraft Museum and the King Arthur myth. Cornwall
has a strong tradition of natural magic, wise women, herbalists and healers. It
really was the case not that long ago that each village did have its own witch.
So I started thinking – what would happen if each village had one again (some
of them still do – there’s lots of traditional and modern witches in Cornwall
and Devon still, and all over the UK) but they had the ultimate power, instead
of being an outsider or whatever? And what if the culture was like 1970s
feminism/goddess religion had won and taken over?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">3. Oryx and Crake/The Year of the Flood –
Margaret Atwood</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Possibly one of my favourite fictional worlds ever, the Oryx
and Crake series has been a strong influence on the Greenworld books. I mean,
I’m a massive Atwood fan anyway. In this world, you have genetic engineering
gone so astray that ultimately it wipes out the planet and a few survivors have
to start again – and some of those survivors are Gods Gardeners, a kind of
semi-pagan environmentalist group. I loved how the Gods Gardeners had made
their own mythos, to some degree, about foreseeing a mass extinction event like
the biblical Flood, and in its wake, canonising real people from the pre-Flood
world as saints (my favourite is St Diane Fossey). Gods Gardeners also have the
skills to survive the chemical-induced end of humanity – permaculture, beekeeping, wilderness
survival etc – and the foresight to hole up until the worst is over. In
MADDADDAM, ultimately, it’s ecology, wilderness survival and a respect for the
natural world that wins out over science (which brought the world as we know it
to an end) and technology. I also liked Atwood’s pre-Flood polarised society,
where the rich and priveliged live in gated communities and the poor live in
the crime- and filth-ridden “pleeblands” – but that the rich and priveliged
live under close watch by a ruthless government and military and the poor are,
at least, freer in some ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">4. 1984 – George Orwell</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As for many people, 1984 is the classic fictional dystopia
that provides a horrifying and dark inspiration – the effect of absolute power
upon an initially utopian ideology. Sadly, in some ways and as I get older, it
feels like 1984 is closer upon us than ever, with government surveillance
increasing, the capitalist-driven media and growing gap between the super rich
and the poor. The Redworld is not as deeply propagandist as 1984, but it is a
dark world of suffering and corruption where only the super rich have access to
an extremely limited supply of fuel and the “proles” are repressed by ever more
violent means. However, the Greenworld too is increasingly in danger of moving
away from its beautiful ideals and towards a less tolerant stance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">5. Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet – Joanne
Proulx</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don’t hear as much as I’d like about this great Canadian
YA title, but I read it around 2009 and the voice of the main boy teen
character inspired Danny. Like a lot of YA it’s 1<sup>st</sup> person POV and I
just loved Luke’s disengaged, apathetic approach. The book has a slightly
paranormal theme, in that Luke appears to be able to predict people’s deaths,
but it is absolutely not a classic paranormal story. The story is completely
rooted in real life and the boring town Luke lives in; about being a teenage
boy, having a crush on someone, hanging out with your friends, swearing,
smoking and music.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">6.</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">How I Live Now – Meg Rosoff</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">HILN was probably the book that made me want to write for
young people. I was (and still am) so impressed by its sparseness (Crow Moon is
nowhere near as sparse) and emotional punch. Again, the “I” point of view works
brilliantly; there’s a strong character voice and the coming-of-age and self
realisation themes against a wider social conflict really stood out for me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">7. Glastonbury: Avalon of the Heart – Dion
Fortune</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I’m from the west country and it is a huge part of who I am.
For me and many others, Glastonbury (the location of some of book 2) is the
spiritual heart of this wonderful country we live in. The UK has a rich pagan
history and our ancestors had a deep connection to the land, as is demonstrated
by the many stone circles, burial mounds and sacred wells you can find in most
regions. We are lucky to have these things. It makes me sad that more people
don’t visit them more often and connect to the land we live in; take comfort
from it, respect it and learn its history and the history of the people that
once lived here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This book looks at the spiritual history of Glastonbury and
speculates what the Tor might once have been; it charts the development of the
town into its current incarnation as a new age mecca and considers the King
Arthur connection to Glastonbury as Avalon. For me, it’s a book that really
exemplifies the importance of the sacred UK landscape, which is very important
in Crow Moon. It’s important because it’s full of magic, but also because it is
our natural environment that sustains us, and it’s being threatened by
pollution, fracking and rampant, unchecked consumerism. Which needs to stop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">8. A Witch Alone - Marian Green</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I was thinking about the magic and the style of
witchcraft the Greenworld would use, I knew it had to be particularly the
nature-based part of Wicca and the general environment-loving element of
paganism. I think most people think instantly of spells and potions when they
think about witches, real or caricature, but the thing that is key about real witchcraft is
that it’s a nature religion. One observes and appreciates the elements, and the
Earth as a living source of wonder. All pagans and witches, then, are basically
environmentalists. If Nature is your God, you want to look after it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Marian Green is the poster-woman-witch for the Greenworld,
in that case. Her books (nonfiction) are all about how to become in tune with
the natural world around you and work with it to effect change in your own
life and generally make the world awesome around you. In the Greenworld, everyone is deeply in tune with the rhythms of the
earth. They notice the phases of the moon, the calls of the birds; they know
the energies of plants; they mark each passing season with the old, traditional
festivals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">9. Celtic Lore & Spellcraft of the Dark Goddess: Invoking
the Morrigan - </span>Stephanie Woodfield</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The central belief system in the Greenworld is a Celtic
pagan one, drawing on the ancient myths and legends of Ireland which is just as
present in Cornwall as a Celtic region. There are a lot of Irish, Welsh and
Scottish gods and goddesses, so for Crow Moon I had to simplify and focus on a
trinity of Brighid, Morrigan and Lugh as three deities from the Celtic belief
system. I knew of Brighid and Lugh already – Brighid, the Irish goddess of
heavenly cleansing fire and inspiration, poetry, farming (she is represented by
a cow – cows were important then. Still are) and Lugh, a sun god and warrior. I
was not so knowledgeable about The Morrigan, though. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I learned, though, that
the Morrigan is the Irish goddess of battle, death and rebirth, sex (wooh!) and
is a protectress of the land, and it was that element of her in particular that
made her appropriate for Crow Moon. Crows, ravens, horses, cows and eels are her animals. Brighid, the lovely light goddess of
agriculture, poetry and fire, sea and earth made a good general Goddess for
Greenworlders to worship, but the Morrigan’s feistier environmental warrior
aspect that really came to power the book along, and into book 2. She also fit
well with the feisty Melz character, as Brighid fit with her more pleasing
sister Saba.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">10. The Vanishing Face of Gaia – James Lovelock</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Kind of massive downer, this book, but it needs to be heeded:
the message is that we can expect huge environmental collapse quite soon.
Lovelock reckons that we currently have about 20 years to enjoy ourselves
before an energy crisis/global warming turns all the lights out and vast areas
of land are flooded, leaving our poor largely-capitalist butts in the midst of
basic survival without power, thousands/millions displaced, resources stretched
and basically if you do still have your house to live in, be prepared to
protect it from looters or worse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We are as a society so poorly prepared for
the reasonably likely consequences of global warming, even just as one part of
a huge brewing cocktail of chaos that Gaia (the living, breathing world) is
about to unleash on us, the irritating fleas on her back which have got out of
control, that the future really is likely to turn into a dystopian epic unless
something really quite major happens now. According to Lovelock, even if we did
stop doing all the bad stuff right now it would still happen anyway. I mean,
think about it. Look what happens if we have a heavy snow. What would happen if East Anglia and Cornwall flooded? Permanently? We’re not
prepared.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In the Redworld there’s an energy crisis and a pointless war
to try and get whatever tiny bit of fuel there is left. Rather than prepare for
an existence with less or no power and empower its citizens with Greenworld
agricultural and survival skills, The Redworld chooses to use its remaining
resources to fight each other. Hmmmm.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-22429821664117229482014-12-23T12:53:00.002+00:002014-12-23T13:00:22.189+00:00Writing tips 2: Keeping a writing journal<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One of the best and most effective things I’ve ever done as a writer is keep a writing journal, and I recommend you start one immediately. Go and get one. This is your task. Find a book you enjoy looking at and writing in. Make keeping a writing journal your new year resolution.<br /><br />In the past I’ve used Moleskine notebooks and now I use these amazing, hardcover, big journals from </span><a href="http://www.peterpauper.com/sub_cat.php?cPath=25_73"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Peter Pauper Press.</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> You can order them online (in the UK – from Amazon. SORRY) and they always have beautiful designs. At the moment I have one of their antique bookbinding designs, </span><a href="http://www.peterpauper.com/product_info.php?products_id=4708"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Cosmology Journal</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">, and let me tell you it’s possibly the most beautiful notebook I’ve ever owned. Apparently it is “adapted from the celebrated Catalan Atlas (1375), attributed to master map-maker Abraham Cresques of Majorca, Spain. This cosmological diagram places earth in the center, personified by an astronomer holding an astrolabe. Around the earth, the elements, planets, signs of the zodiac, and moon phases are displayed within concentric circles, and the four seasons are portrayed in the corners.” Woah. Irritatingly, I can't upload pics here for the moment for some reason, but look at the link.<br /><br />See, the thing is, in my opinion, your journal/notebook needs to feel special. You need to love it and feel excited about writing in it. So, find something cool.<br /><br />I do really, heartily recommend that this is an actual book with paper pages in it. I also recommend that you get a decent sized book. No piddly 1980s phone book sizes. You need to be able to scrawl. You need space. As an acting teacher I knew once said when complaining about having a small rehearsal room – I’ve got a class of lions and they need to prowl.<br /><br />Your journal will be the place that you prowl, writing-wise. Where you write all of your plans for stories, scribbled two-line rhymes, reworkings, thoughts, cut out pictures from magazines, quotes copied from books, odd diary entries, observations and descriptions of funny people you met on the train. No-one will read it apart from you: it’s your messy creative space. Messy space needs… space.<br /><br />However, that said, I’ve had students in the past that preferred to keep all their writing online – mostly because they found using a pen and paper difficult for one reason and another – in which case, apart from keeping a big word doc in a special private folder for these journal-ish thoughts, it’s good to look at something like </span><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Pinterest</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. Pinterest is an online scrapbook, a pinboard, where you can collect images that inspire you and organise them under different subjects. You can then follow other users who are pinning stuff you like, like their pins etc. I have a few boards – mostly not writing oriented, more “expensive dresses I like” for fun, but I also have pinboards of atmospheric pics that are mood boards for all my writing projects. You can check out </span><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/annamckerrow/crow-moon/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">my Pinterest board for CROW MOON</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> here. Incidentally, this is something that publishers seem to love, as it helps them envisage your story world, especially when it comes time for cover design.<br /><br />But anyway, using either a notebook or Pinterest (or both) will provide you with a place to draw together inspiring pictures, quotes, text, photos, art, newspaper stories – anything that interests you and makes you think hmmm, I’d like to do something with that at some point. That’s the point, right?<br /><br />The other thing I love about keeping a writing journal is it makes me feel like a writer (self image is all; if you don’t believe you can do it, you can’t and won’t do it), and it also makes me feel productive. Even if all I’ve done writing-wise all week is to note down a few plot ideas for my current project, I feel like I’ve done something. It’s hassle free, I don’t have to be neat or produce something with an arc. Damn arcs. <br /><br />It keeps me current, it keeps me in the flow of writing. You might not have danced the tango that week but you did your stretches.<br /><br />One of my favourite poets, Bernadette Mayer, has a famous set of journal ideas as part of her </span><a href="http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Mayer-Bernadette_Experiments.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Writing Experiments</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> – a huge list of quirky ideas for writing projects. If you’re having trouble thinking about what to do in your journal, do some of these:<div>
</div>
<div>
Write entries in your journal about:</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
* Dreams </div>
<div>
* Food </div>
<div>
* Finances </div>
<div>
* Love </div>
<div>
* Beautiful and/or ugly sights</div>
<div>
* Reading/music/art, etc. encountered each day</div>
<div>
* Rooms </div>
<div>
* Weather</div>
<div>
* People one sees-description</div>
<div>
* Subway, bus, car or other trips (e.g., the same bus trip written about every day) </div>
<div>
* Pleasures and/or pain</div>
<div>
* Answering machine messages/telephone calls</div>
<div>
* Colour </div>
<div>
* Light </div>
<div>
* The body and its parts</div>
<div>
* Clocks/time-keeping</div>
<div>
* Tenant-landlord situations</div>
<div>
* Skies </div>
<div>
* Dangers </div>
<div>
* Sounds </div>
<div>
* Coincidences and connections</div>
<div>
* Times of solitude</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Other ideas:</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
* Write once a day in minute detail about one thing</div>
<div>
* Write every day at the same time, e.g. lunch poems, waking ideas, etc.</div>
<div>
* Write minimally: one line or sentence per day</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
If it helps, write the above list as a reminder of topics in your journal to refer to. Don’t impose limitations on how much or little you write in one go (unless you are doing the “one sentence per day” rule), and most of all, don’t limit your imagination.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
So, to review: as well as being a messy creative space, keeping a writing journal will:</div>
<div>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Become a rich store of ideas you can rework, steal and come back to later </li>
<li>Make you feel like a writer </li>
<li>Give you a place to write without feeling like you have to finish anything or create a whole piece </li>
<li>Keep the momentum of your writing going – in a week, if you haven’t written anything else but done some stuff in your journal, you’ll still feel productive </li>
</ul>
<div>
Go and journal, my friends, and be free.</div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-78298944030370822092014-12-17T15:51:00.001+00:002014-12-17T15:54:25.921+00:00Writing tips. Number One: Start writing.<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You’re
starting to write. You want to write. You want to be a writer. But you don’t
know where to start. That’s okay. We've all been there.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Today
you will learn the secret of being a writer.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Are
you ready?</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here
it is.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">writing.</i></span></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That’s pretty
obvious, isn’t it?</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
You may think, and you’d be right. However, job one of writing “creatively” is
to actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">write</i>. Often. Get your
words on the paper or on the screen. Because until you do, it’s all just
something you mean to do and don’t.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I
play the bass – badly. I often think I’d like to form a band. An all-girl punk
band like <a href="http://therunaways.com/">The Runaways</a>/<a href="http://youtu.be/l5JvQHKlDqc">Hole</a> called something edgy and cool like The Razorettes or She Gives a Blank
Stare, but I haven’t done it yet. Why? I like the idea but I basically can’t be
bothered to find other band members and get a set together – or learn any hard
songs - (all key parts of forming a band, really) – but really, it boils down
to one thing: I don’t want it enough.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Writing
is the same. You have to want to actually do it. And then do it regularly. You
have to put the hours in. You wouldn’t expect to learn the cello without
practising, so apply that logic to writing. No writer in the world just sits
down one day and pens their masterpiece without hours and hours and years of
practice beforehand.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">That’s
a sobering thought, isn’t it? But the nice thing about writing is that it
shouldn’t be a chore – you enjoy writing, probably, that’s why you’re reading
this. So doing it a lot will be fun.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">But how do I start?</span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here’s what you do:</span></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Find
a half-sentence or phrase (open the newspaper or a book to a random page and
use that), and write continuously without stopping to a deadline – five or ten
minutes to start, and then once you get used to it you can go for longer. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It
doesn’t matter what you write – total nonsense is good. You just have to keep
writing, plunging onwards onto the blank paper, and ABSOLUTELY NOT READING BACK
WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN, STOPPING AND THINKING, CROSSING THINGS OUT OR TRYING TO
THINK OF BETTER WORDS. It’s about creating a flow of writing from your
unconscious and not judging what comes out. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Phrases
to start you off:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I
feel…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He
is…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She
was…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We
are not…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Or
you might like something more prescriptive, like:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It
was a crisp winter morning when…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She
walked into the kitchen and…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I
am furious about…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You
never know when…</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I
tell students that if they get stuck whilst writing they can repeat the opening
words I’ve given them and start off on another tangent, or if that doesn’t
work, they can write down all the items in their weekly shop, the colours of
the rainbow, describe their cat – whatever they want. They just have to keep
writing, and even those boring lists or whatever may lead to an interesting
avenue. Honestly.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Do
this every day for the next two weeks. The aim at this stage is to write little
and often rather than larger occasional splurges: that way, you’ll get used to
freeing up your mind and your writing hand. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This
exercise will:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span>
</div>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Reveal some
very interesting ideas from your unconscious</span></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span>
</div>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Demonstrate
the importance of not self-editing in the early stages of writing</span></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span>
</div>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Get words on
paper</span></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span>
</div>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Start to build
up a nice little collection of free writing you can perhaps draw on for
ideas in the future</span></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span>
</div>
<li style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Build your
confidence</span></span></div>
</li>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Off
you go! Write, don’t be afraid of writing rubbish, and write regularly.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Once you've done it for two weeks, do it for another two weeks.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Then another two.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">You see where I'm going here.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">After a while, you might think of something else you want to write. Maybe inspired by a book you really love.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Write that.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">If I applied this kind of work ethic to bass playing, I'd be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea_(musician)">Flea</a> by now.</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-41667490012032412122014-07-09T10:47:00.002+01:002014-07-09T10:47:52.429+01:00What is Regressive Poetics about?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You enjoyed my radio show last night, talking about <a href="http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/regressivepoetic.html">Regressive Poetics</a> with the smooth-voiced <a href="http://poeticpracticejournal.blogspot.co.uk/">Ryan Ormonde</a>, right? You weren't watching Germany decimate Brazil 7-1, right? No! Of course not. Here are my notes that accompany the programme which aired last night on 104.4FM, <a href="http://resonancefm.com/archives/19957">Resonance Radio.</a> You can listen again on Saturday night at 7pm which is probably when the bloody World Cup final is on. I was born on Cup Final Day, you know. It haunts me.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The next episode, next Tuesday at 9pm, features the Manchester-based poet <a href="http://department3.tumblr.com/">Richard Barrett</a> talking about, among other things, his books A Big Apple and Hugz, and Peter Barlow's cigarette smoking technique.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What is Regressive Poetics about?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Past life accounts
translated via a digital medium. I liked the idea of an account of something
being relayed from another time, and to be able to explore the notion of
information being conveyed from “the other side”, ie past lives, or from people
that are dead via mediumship. Mediumship always has this kind of inaccuracy
about it. You see psychic mediums frowning and straining to get the right
message through, and they can describe it as if they are trying to hear something
very faint, or garbled. I think people remembering or re-experiencing their
past lives is somewhat similar, certainly dreamlike, where things assume a
symbolic importance rather than a literal one, or where things are alluded to,
or where language is odd or nonsensical, but it has an internal logic
within-the-dream. I was reading a book called Swan on a Black Sea which is an
account of a series of mediumistic communications from the early 20<sup>th</sup>
century where the medium describes the experience of conveying information as
somewhat of a mixed grill – meaning that information, or meaning, is
transmitted inefficiently from the spirit world to this one, and as well as
that, the information comes through the veil of the medium’s own biases, her
take on it. So what emerges is very often a mix of the original message, the
distortion and the intermediary’s own effect on the language or the message.
Her kind of hegemonic bias.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How does this book relate to your other poetry?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am, overall, most
interested in the relationships between spiritual practices and poetics. In
2010 I published another processual book called Taropoetics, which was also a
durational work. I had dealt myself a spread of five tarot cards every week and
free-written, as much in a trance as possible, inspired by them – their images,
their associations, their juxtapositions. Like Italo Calvino in The Castle of
Crossed Destinies I thought the tarot was a good tool to investigate chance
procedures. After I had a year’s worth of writing I revisited the text and
shaped it into 52 individual poetic pieces. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So Regressive Poetics
takes a different type of spiritual experience – past life memory instead of
fortune telling, or spiritual introspection, and works with that narrative.
Both are ways to investigate the personal and both have their own kind of rules.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In terms of
presentation, I also used the forward slash that I had used as the only
punctuation in Taropoetics in RP, although the text is ordered differently and
not as uniformly as in TP. I like the forward slash as it has that sense of
onward motion, of distinction and cutting but also running together. So it
works really well for language where there are quite opposing statements or
thoughts, but they are joined together in one stream of consciousness kind of
effect. Both RP and TP have that characteristic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What works inspired you to create this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Both works draw on
Hannah Weiner’s Clairvoyant Journal and Susan Hiller’s Belshazzar’s Feast,
among other things. Both of those have a thematic similarity – trance and
clairvoyance – and I love Hannah Weiner’s jumbled, stream of consciousness
text. Like taking free writing to its furthest conclusion. Belshazzar’s Feast
is a film that aims to induce a sense of trance in the watcher and was
transmitted on normal TV – so different in not being text based, but
interesting because it’s aiming to provide a personal experience for the
watcher, that may be illuminative and unconscious and different for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In terms of durational
and process-based work I really also like Kenneth Goldsmith, I like that he has
that totality of approach and can work over long periods of time. If RP was
properly Goldsmith, though, it would be far more encyclopedic, like it would be
a definitive voyage into all of my past lives and the past lives of everyone I
knew, and he wouldn’t edit, he would just collate all the data, the language-data,
into one big book or website or something. Then he’d probably do something
clever with it like some performance art. Use it as an score for a happening or
something. Maybe I should do that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">How did you construct the poems?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I found a variety of past
life accounts, either published books or online, as well as online films of
people talking about their past lives. The printed accounts I read into a
digital dictation app that produces text, and the films I played directly into
the app. So for the films there was one less layer of interpretation, as
machine was talking to machine at that point.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I like to think of the
stages of the work as meat, spirit and digital. So for the accounts that were
read from books, you could look at it like:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Spirit (past life
memory) Meat (recount into book) Meat (read into app) Digital (app translates
and produces text) Meat (writer edits, adjusts, biased) Meat (printed in book)
Spirit (poem exists as new entity, in creative ether)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Whereas with the film
version, it’s Spirit-Digital-Meat-Meat-Spirit. It would be interesting to think
about how you could eradicate the meat element altogether, although I don’t
think you could. That’s the idea in Neuromancer, but as Stelarc points out, you
need embodiment to enable digital. At least at the moment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What questions did you ask of the work? Did
anything surprise you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I wanted to know how
much derangement I’d get using this method, whether it was a good way to do it,
or whether a manual cutup was better. And I wanted to know how something like a
digital dictation app would differ from pure cutup. And I also wanted to see if
anything truly enlightening or beautiful came out. Something that really reflected
the otherworldliness of a past life experience, that kind of symbolism of the
human experience, our spiritual destiny.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The app is quite
different to a pure cutup, actually cutting up every single word, mixing them
up in a bag and restringing it. Apart from the time restrictions for that
method (reading into an app is much quicker), the app adds something to the
source text. It changes it at source. A paper cutup can’t change the component
words or rewrite your sentences – it can’t mishear and creatively recreate a
sentence, changing perceived meaning and inference, which the dictation app
does. It produces sentences that make sense, even if as a whole document the
text doesn’t have a strong coherence. So that’s really interesting and
different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In terms of surprise, I
didn’t know until I had read a few sections into the app how accurate it was
going to be. There’s a certain amount of derangement that I needed for this to
work, and it surprised me how inaccurate the dictation app was – which was a
good thing. Additionally, it has a strong emphasis on digital language in its
translation – so it often misheard words as web-language, so there are quite a
lot of sentences about websites and internets and such, which is really
interesting and presumably reflects a bias on the part of the app itself – a
kind of programming bias towards digi-speak. I really like that. I like that
there are lines like:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I feel strange, like I’m not acknowledged in internet
intranets<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">like with a
nice Ethernet-like portrait reading<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">without
upsetting the 1950s into cookies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He leads to
me as inbox<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The
protected server is group of action.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">and
deterrent is dead/inside this ritual/burning in a past life online</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The very first lines of
text are a kind of meditation on the body and digital – meat and digital.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">click here
to request the inter body/performance is when the secret details are only<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">electric/not
limited to stain the body/intended from the body/follow those ranges<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">across distance –<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and there’s
this section in The Protected Server is a Group of Action<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The canine
women in prison make your body. These people appear to have all your
connections and have blood connections and laptops of things.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">and in Omm
Sety there is this great section where the online is conflated with the
spiritual space, and I think that’s a really interesting comparison.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">She
inserted the first meeting regularly, so totally astral plane, and occasionally<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Henry materialised my website on the bed, and
then she was transferred.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I think
there are also passages that have a surprising lyricism to them:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">question/I
found it very distasteful to think I could have one tiny<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">penis/she
was so decided to forget about her and focus on my music limitation<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">hygienist/wicked
dreams of myself stuck in watching women being beheaded in<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">front of me/until the dreams began picking the
recurrence of the streams –<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I also like
that there are several references to the nature of language itself:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">evenings are spent in feasting a music-making
free Celtic language of symbols<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">She wrote
her father excitedly, declaring </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;">this is my hand this is where I'm still
here<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;">otherwise
all broken.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What will you do next?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am working
on another durational project which is another year’s raw text generation, but
I don’t know what I’ll do with it yet. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-88086964144973817612014-06-28T21:51:00.002+01:002014-07-08T15:58:34.603+01:00Experimental Poetics on Resonance FM<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Details of the show I've been working on for <a href="http://resonancefm.com/">Resonance FM</a> on Experimental Poetics, starting next week. To tune in, listen online or visit 104.4FM.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This series, featuring four experimental poets from the UK, explores a rich variety of work that aims to foreground the materiality of language and promote process-led writing approaches. Poet and writer Anna McKerrow talks to her contemporaries about issues of the personal, or apparently personal, in experimental poetry; the presence and use of digital media in poetics; the distinctions between "experimental" and more mainstream work; the book as text object and the relationships between versions of things - books and films.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The series also considers the current experimental poetry "scene" and poetry's relationship to punk, butchers, meat, rage and subversion.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In particular, the series will profile four recent collections of poetry from the innovative poetry press <a href="http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/">The Knives, Forks and Spoons Press.</a></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Episode I - Tuesday 1st July, 9pm-9.30pm</span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Poet and performer Ryan Ormonde of the PressFreePress collective talks to Anna McKerrow about his book, "The of of The film of The book and The of of The book of The film" (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press) creating a book as text object, and<span style="color: black; font-size: small;"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">film and writing, archiving and putting into words. </span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Find</span> out more about Ryan's work on his blog: <a href="http://poeticpracticejournal.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://poeticpracticejournal.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html</a> [Repeated Saturday 7pm.]</span></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Episode 2 - Tuesday 8th July, </span></strong><strong style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9pm-9.30pm</span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To coincide with the publication of her experimental poetry collection "Regressive Poetics" (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press), Anna McKerrow talks to poet Ryan Ormonde about issues of memory, language and digital translation in the recording of past life stories. Anna's blog is<a href="http://annamckerrow.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">annamckerrow.blogspot.com</a> [Repeated Saturday 7pm.]</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Episode 3 - Tuesday 15th July, </span></strong><strong style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9pm-9.30pm</span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Poet and publisher Richard Barrett discusses his book "A Big Apple" (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press) with Anna McKerrow, considering issues of the personal and confessional in experimental poetry, and anger as an oppositional poetics. Find out more about his poetry imprint DEPTPRESS here: <a href="http://department3.tumblr.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://department3.tumblr.com/</a> [Repeated Saturday 7pm.]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Episode 4 - Tuesday 22nd July, </span></strong><strong style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9pm-9.30pm</span></strong></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Poet, short story writer and poetry editor at <a href="http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.co.uk/">V Press</a> Sarah James talks to Anna McKerrow about her second poetry collection, "Be(yond)" (Knives, Forks and Spoons Press), a book in three sections which treads the boundaries between "experimental" and "contemporary" poetry. Find out more about Sarah's work here: <a href="http://www.sarah-james.co.uk/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">http://sarah-james.co.uk </span></a> [Repeated Saturday 7pm.]</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-83032906805534149332014-06-24T13:11:00.000+01:002014-06-24T13:11:01.479+01:00Regressive Poetics is finally OUT!!
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A work that is complete in its
enveloping of the infinite intelligence of the incomplete refracted through the
mind of one powerfully alone in her own engagements, Mckerrrow's divination is exploration
of the explanation of divination written through the digital seascape of the
beautiful language warp. She is a longing voice echoing through walls, a
collected driven, a concerned concentration of poetry upon spiritualisms. It is
a unique and beautiful document you hold in your hands, a report from an other side.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><o:p> </o:p></span><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;">– S.J.
Fowler<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">'Why are you 51447435432
120142343?' ask the spirits via McKerrow via her digital dictation app. Think
you can answer that? There are less straightforward questions hiding in the
interference on the line - or is it interference? Who is speaking? Which are
the discrepancies and where is the message? Was that funny ha-ha or deadly
funny? Do not dismiss or pass over. Listen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">– Ryan Ormonde</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/regressivepoetic.html">Regressive Poetics</a>, my fourth book of poetry, is now available. The above review/blurbs were kindly provided by two of the poets I am coincidentally (!) interviewing for my upcoming series on Experimental Poetics for Resonance FM, beginning Monday 1st July at 9pm with the fabulous, was-almost-the-next-Orlando Bloom <a href="http://poeticpracticejournal.blogspot.co.uk/">Ryan Ormonde</a> and continuing with me, <a href="http://www.sarah-james.co.uk/">Sarah James</a>, <a href="http://department3.tumblr.com/">Richard Barrett</a>, <a href="http://www.sjfowlerpoetry.com/">S J Fowler</a> and <a href="http://verysmallkitchen.com/about/">David Berridge</a>. A full schedule will follow shortly. The show will focus on recent work by all of us for the awesome <a href="http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/">Knives, Forks and Spoons Press</a>, which is the most prolific experimental press in the UK.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">If you're curious to know what a process-based experiment in linguistics/poetics, using past life memory as a concept and digital dictation as a functional metaphor looks like, look no further! Here's the explanatory blurb at the beginning of the book. I like to provide explanatory context for the more avant-garde work because, lets face it, who would understand it otherwise?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldMT;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><strong>Regressive Poetics</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I became aware of the concept of
reincarnation at a young age, being presented with </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the idea that our souls use the earth as a
vast schoolroom, returning to it to learn </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">new lessons over many lives, as a
completely logical concept by my mother. I </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">continue to view it as entirely likely.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When I was older I discovered that my
grandmother had for many years been </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">secretary and editor to A J Stewart,
author of </span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;">Falcon:
The Autobiography of His Grace James IV, King of Scots</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">. Ms Stewart’s
fascinating book was the account of her past life as James IV, and she was
completely convinced of the veracity of her story.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The guiding ethos of this work is my
interest in the correlations between artistic and </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">spiritual practices, and the strong place
of language within practices such as </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">meditation, magic, divination etc. After
producing a process-based poetic work on </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the tarot I wondered whether past life
recall stories would be an interesting medium </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">for a similar processual approach.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I am interested in the way that a past
life “memory”, or story, is accessed via a </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">hypnotic state, and relayed to the
hypnotist or therapist in a state very much like a </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">waking dream. We have all had the
experience of language in dreams, where the </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">words that seem so profound in the dream
are nonsense when awake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There is also an element of translation or
decryption present in past life tales, in the </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">sense that they are usually relayed back
in a somewhat fragmentary way from the </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">border of the unconscious. In mediumship
this is a common problem, because </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">communicating with the spirit world is
described as talking with someone very far </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">away, or operating on a very different
frequency of sound. Discrepancies occur.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I see now how we
can wander and get lost in the memories of the automatist when </span></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">we so-called dead
try to communicate. This kind of mutual selection is bound to be </span></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">what my friend
Gerald calls a “mixed grill”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">– Received from Winifred Coombe Tennant by
Geraldine Cummins in </span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;">Swan on a </span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;">Black Sea: A Study
in Automatic Writing </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">eds Signe Toksvig, 1971.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I wanted to push this derangement of
language another step further, this “mixed </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">grill” of language from one side, death,
being translated through to the other side, </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I worked with a digital dictation app into
which I read published accounts of past </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">lives from a variety of sources. This
produced its own version of the text, complete </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">with interesting inaccuracies and
juxtapositions and a surprising amount of digital </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and online-speak, which can only reflect
the programming of the app to be sensitive </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">to current technological jargon. In the
way that the app “made sense” of what I gave </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">it, we too tend to interpret accounts such
as past life “memories” through the veils of </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">historical fact, bias, scientific
rationale, physics theory or personal prejudice.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">With past life regression hypnotic work
there is also the possible issue of suggestion </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">on the part of the hypnotist/therapist,
again echoing the possible adjustment of the </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">text. This mediation is also common in
mediumship, as mentioned above. In </span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia-Italic;">Swan on a Black Sea</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">, the spirit of the very
politically liberal Mrs Coombe-Tennant sometimes transmitted” far more
conservative political opinions, which was deemed to be the bias of the medium
Miss Cummins’ own beliefs on the original message.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Each poem in this collection is based on
one particular past life story and is the result<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;">of translation and rewriting from the
original text (the original experience) to a </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">doubly mediated text – a version of the
original mediated first by technology and </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">second by the writer (me). Some pieces
were recorded by the app direct from online </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">videos rather than being read aloud by me.
The poems are therefore subject to </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">technological, programmed language bias
and personal bias/artistic style on my part.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This is an integral part of their being.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I found that this method gave me some
linguistically interesting pieces which still m</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">anaged to keep a sense of dreamlike
mystery as well as highlighting the strange </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">hyperreality of “remembering” a past life
in such apparent detail. In these poems, </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">the stories are trying to “get through”,
but there is an imperfect medium (me) using </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">a flawed machinery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-53434733305162208352014-06-22T22:23:00.000+01:002014-06-22T22:23:23.294+01:00Where I ruminate on my favourite short story collections<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was looking at the bookshelf in the utility room today – because books are everywhere in this house –
and I started thinking about all the great short story collections I’ve enjoyed
over the years. A few caught my eye: creased spines from spending a week
splayed on armrests; creased covers from being lost in dusty handbags; folded
down pages. I trash my books. With love. I like the things I love to have that
lived-in look. That’s a backward compliment to all the men I’ve ever found
attractive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, I made a quick top ten – as I am wont to do. I like
a good top ten. And then I thought I’d write down the top ten. On the back of
an envelope, as it was handy, and I had a spare minute because I’d gone to the
loo and the window of leaving mummy alone because she’s in the bathroom was
still open.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Then, I remembered I had an underused blog, and I really
should be using it more. So here’s my top ten (in no particular order: I like
lists but rankings are beyond me) of great short story collections that may or
may not have influenced my writing over the years. N.B – I mean in style. I
have only ever written one short story, as a favour to a friend. Kind of a
strange favour without context. And then I wrote this out, and I lost the will
to live at eight. But eight is a lucky number for me, so I’ll leave it there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Corpus – Susan Irvine
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My fellow Quercus author (yeah, got a mention of my book
deal in!!! whoop whoop) Susan Irvine is, in my opinion, one of our greatest
living British authors. I have this collection and her novel <i>Muse</i>, which is also excellent, but it’s
the short stories in this book that really stand out as something beyond the
norm to me. <i>Corpus</i> is a series of
stories that all meditate in some way on the nature of the making of art and
the visual art world, whether it’s about a writer toiling away at her novel
about perfumes or an artist raising a nongendered child as a contemporary art
experiment. In “Chaplet of the Infernal Gods”, a story about a writer becoming
a writer via Julia Cameron’s seminal art-practice-as-spiritual-work <i>The Artist’s Way</i>, there is possibly the
dirtiest line I have ever read in a work of LITERATURE – about Napoleon writing
home to Josephine, telling her not to wash until he came home. He was,
apparently, a fan of the natural smell of the human (female) body. Irvine’s
writer-narrator says <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“he wanted Josephine ripe and runny as an old Camembert (…)
you get a highly-sexed, olfactively-arousable skanky Napoleon who wants to dash
home at the head of his victorious army and find Josephine emitting waves of
vaginal effluvia from under her muslin court dress.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And this letter to Josephine – “Home in three days. Don’t
wash,” was the inspiration for the perfume Je Reviens<i>. I return</i>. Food for thought.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I like to give this story to creative writing students to
read and discuss – on one hand because it is about the process of writing, of
beginning to write – but also because of the vaginal effluvia. Separates the
group somewhat. Amuses me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A Good Man is Hard to
Find – Flannery O’Connor<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of the masters of the short story form, Flannery
O’Connor was one of the many great American writers that attended the Iowa Writers
Workshop in the 1940s. She remains one of the best American short story
writers, and my favourite story in this collection is “A Stroke of Good
Fortune” mostly because the events typify what a short story is supposed to do.
It covers a small space of time – the time it takes for a woman to climb a few
flights of stairs. At the top of the stairs (the top of the story; the
climax/realisation/epiphany) she realises she is pregnant. She comes back down
the stairs and the tone changes a little from a sense of doomed expectation to
a more ambiguous possibility that there <i>may
</i>have been some good fortune. But only that there <i>may.</i> The writing is sparse but full of feeling; the imagery is
physical and the stories – all of them in the book – have a kind of violent
realisation in each one. O’Connor said that she was sick of people reviewing
the book and talking about the horrors that lie within it, because in her mind
they were everyday horrors. The everyday difficulties and spectres in most
people’s lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First Love, Last
Rites – Ian McEwan<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am not a huge McEwan fan, but this first publication is
raw and beautiful and horrifying. Menace and threat permeate the pages in the
inbetween places of the English landscape – canals, underpasses, rivers. I get
disquieted every time I read it, but that just means it’s doing its job. If a
book continually puts you on edge despite you knowing what’s going to happen,
that’s something special. The stories are incredibly dense and full of sadness
and weight at the same time, and all of the horror is horrifying and sad
because it happens every day to ordinary people in exactly the kind of
accidental and casual, unreported and unregulated way that McEwan depicts.
Depressing. But that has never been a reason I put a book down. Depressing is
at least honest and real. I tire easily of relentless optimism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Pretty Monsters –
Kelly Link<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Canongate published this volume of the American writer’s
ghoulish teen-esque/crossover short stories a few years ago with a cool cover (Shaun
Tan illustrated) and I wanted it on sight. Imagine my joy when I discovered
inside a writer that Neil Gaiman describes as a national treasure and Audrey
Niffenegger lauds as “the literary descendant of Jorge Luis Borges and Franz
Kafka”. I’m not too sure about that, as these are, after all, tales about
monsters eating people at a campout in a kind of self-conscious humourous
postmodern bloodlust and dead ex-girlfriends that you buried with your bad love
poetry, and then dig up because you want the poetry back – only to find that the
girlfriend is walking around with unmanageable hair, making derisory remarks
about your literary skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But I can see where Audrey’s coming from, if she is a little
grandiose – Kelly Link isn’t of the avant-garde. Neither has she created a
whole new genre of fiction or written something so densely philosophical that
it turns the whole notion of what reading is, what reality and knowledge is, on
its head. But she does write about monsters and transformation, and she
convenes a gothic horror sensibility with a post-something sense of humour and
a quirkiness in a minimalistic, IKEA showroom, and dazzles you with a balance between
literariness and the fantastical which is really, really, really good. Love
Kelly. Because fantasy and gothic horror and genuinely good writing are NOT
necessarily separate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Grace, Tamar and
Laszlo the Beautiful – Deborah Kay Davies<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is the kind of conceptual short story collection I love
– where each story is its own microcosm, but they all contribute to an overall
macrocosm of story. All of the stories in this book depict different moments in
the lives of Grace and Tamar in the title. And what I really love about it,
again, I guess, is the extreme physicality of the writing. Like, the way that
Davies emphasises the reality of life – the body. Blood. Milk leaking from
breasts. Lust. Snotty noses. That life is messy and people are primal, obeying
their primal urges, and life is full of edges and sharpness. Tamar, in
particular, is quite horrible in some of the stories. One of those heavy,
aggressive kids, sticky, thrusting, selfish. And there’s a terrific reality to
her and all the characters. The study of the (one presumes) badly post-partum
depressed mother whose best dress hardly buttons over her somehow obscenely enlarged
breasts, and who is convinced that the people are coming through the radio to
get the baby. And as ever with a child narrator, the eyes don’t judge – we do.
Really loved this book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Secrets of Dr
Taverner – Dion Fortune<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dion Fortune, the pen name of Violet Firth, a Christian occultist
and spiritual pioneer, was an author of many books of mystical fiction as well
as nonfiction volumes about the Qabalah and working within the hermetic
tradition. The first of these I read, in my teens, <i>The Sea Priestess</i>, made a huge impact on me and was one of the key
texts that developed my interest in paganism. However, <i>The Secrets of Dr Taverner</i> is a collection of short stories I read
much later on. The stories are a kind of “casebook” of a fictional modern (read
1940s/1950s) magician/occultist and his assistant, solving paranormal issues in
people’s lives with magic. Kind of like Medium/Charmed meets Sherlock Holmes,
and just as British as Conan Doyle, with the added bonus that all the stories
were based on Fortune’s real life experiences. <i>These things really happened.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And that, in many ways, influenced my own writing. All of
Fortune’s fictional works are cracking good reads in the style of Ian Fleming
meets Somerset Maugham; clipped and British and decidedly upper class, but with
sensational content. I wanted to write something similar – that had a base in
the reality of modern magical practice, but avoided being textbookish and was a
really enjoyable read. Whether I achieved this with the Greenworld trilogy will
be judged by history. In the same way that Tolkien considered LOTR history
rather than fantasy, because it, to him, was a fictionalised version of his
many years of research of Scandinavian and European mythology, The Secrets of
Dr Taverner is not fiction or paranormal entertainment. It is real.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Dancing Girls – Margaret
Atwood<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am a huge Atwood fan and so a collection of hers needed to
be here, but in fact it was hard to choose which one. I landed on <i>Dancing Girls</i> instead of, say, <i>Bluebeard’s Egg</i>, because it contains the
story “The Resplendent Quetzal”, a fabulous story, typically Atwoodian, that
dissects the weaknesses of man-woman relationships – especially old
relationships with old scars and fractures. In it, an apparently ordinary
holiday is enjoyed by a man and a woman that don’t really like each other
anymore, and ends up on a life raft, where the woman only starts to feel alive
once her life, and his life, is threatened. It’s a tough choice between Quetzal
and the story “LouLou, Or, The Domestic Life of the Language” in <i>Bluebeard</i>. Loulou is the story of a
successful woman potter who finds she is financially supporting all the slack
intellectuals and poets that form her ex-husbands and lovers; in return, they
patronise her. <i>You’re so Chthonic,
LouLou,</i> they say, and laugh at her face when she doesn’t understand the
word. Finally she starts seeing an accountant and gains closure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of the many things to love about Atwood is her sense of
humour; no situation is dire enough not to have a wry smile included somewhere.
Even though humans are strange and terrible and great and wonderful, they are also
usually a bit ridiculous. And I have also, in all her work, so greatly enjoyed
her characters, specifically because she writes original, intelligent female
characters that live real and large, and that love language. I somewhat feel
that the title, LouLou, Or The Domestic Life of the Language is a reference to
Atwood’s own meditations with language, and the practice of many of her characters
of playing with it. Tony in <i>The Robber
Bride</i> loves backward words. There is much joyful invention of words and
punnery in the Oryx and Crake series. And LouLou lives among male language, the
elaborate mummery of over-intellectualism, being the only really real,
well-drawn character; real, of the earth, her hands in clay. Atwood is one of
the cleverest people on the planet, but she’s too classy to disappear up her
own backside with needless pretension. Her abstraction and style is deep and
sonorous, intellectual and real. Excuse me while I disappear in a cloud of
worship. Ahhhhh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Bloody Chamber - Angela
Carter<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have a strange relationship with Carter. We haven’t spoken
for years. Not since she died. Haha. Bad taste. No, I mean, I love her writing,
but I only love it intellectually. There’s something about her characters that
are not lovable. But that’s okay. The Bloody Chamber is so amazing that it
doesn’t matter. This is a classic of the rewritten/reimagined fairy
tale/myth/legend genre, and Carter interrogates the natural gore and sexual
undercurrents of the original tales, as well as bringing bodily reality into the
stories. I wrote, in my BA dissertation, all those years ago in 1999, “Carter
writes the body on the page; corporeality pervades The Bloody Chamber” - yeah, pretentious – but TRUE. It’s all
sweat and piss and blood again. This is a bit of a theme in this list. More
importantly, all the stories explore the role of the woman in traditional
tales, and frequently re-present female characters in positions of power rather
than weakness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And – factoid - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_rock" title="Punk rock"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Punk</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">band<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Chainsaw" title="Daisy Chainsaw"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Daisy Chainsaw</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">adapted the story of "The Lady of the House of
Love" for their 1992 music video for "Hope Your Dreams Come
True" (from the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_play" title="Extended play"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">EP</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">of the same name and also later the album<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventeen_(Daisy_Chainsaw_album)" title="Eleventeen (Daisy Chainsaw album)"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Eleventeen</span></a></i>). There you go. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-17888296509494891132014-04-25T15:48:00.002+01:002014-04-25T15:48:47.569+01:00Post punk teenism<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Over the past couple of weeks I have been writing to my friend and fellow poet <a href="http://poeticpracticejournal.blogspot.co.uk/">Ryan Ormonde</a> as my 17 year old self, from 1994. He has been responding as his 17 year old self from 1999. We are using the amazing new technology called electronic mail which I have hitherto only encountered as a thing in the future in my Business Studies GCSE.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Having discussed it with with Ryan last night, as we recorded the first two episodes of a series on experimental poetics for <a href="http://resonancefm.com/">Resonance FM</a>, we are both loving the opportunity to write autobiographically but still "in character" as ourselves, but a past-self. And most of all we are both finding it cathartic, and surprising. It's enlightening to know that we were actually pretty cool in our own different ways, that we weren't as sad and pathetic as we thought we were, and we should have given ourselves a bit more of a break.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Music was always incredibly important to me since about 12, and by 17 I was thoroughly immersed in 80s-90s rock and heavy metal, as well as having a good grounding of prog rock from my dad's music collection. But it took until I was 16-17 for my first boyfriend to introduce me to punk. In 1993 he took me to see <a href="http://henryrollins.com/">Henry Rollins</a> in one of his spoken word concerts, though I had no idea who he was, this intense, tattooed man in paradoxically sensible shoes. I do remember, vividly, walking straight past him on the way in, and then feeling like he was talking to me when he launched into a story about how really waster guys get great girls. I really thought he was talking about me and my boyfriend because he saw us on the way in. Was there ever a better example of how it's all about you in your teens?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, I became a Rollins fan, and soon after heard the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Kennedys">Dead Kennedys</a> and <a href="http://www.officialdamned.com/">The Damned</a> and fell in love. From there it was just a short spit, jump and a pogo over to Jello Biafra's solo career, and his album with Canadian rockers DOA is still in my top five.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/oXALSRxazZA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You've gotta love Jello, and if his politics sounded paranoid in the 80s - hey, they're looking pretty spot on right about now. Here he is parodying himself on <a href="http://www.ifc.com/shows/portlandia">Portlandia</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/W-BTfh6S7uk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, all this to say is that this week I read a great YA novel which reflects my own current trip down memory lane, and plays the tunes that played then and now - I Wanna Be Your Johnny Ramone by <a href="http://www.stephaniekuehnert.com/home.html">Stephanie Kuehnert</a> - who is, coincidentally (OR NOT) based in the capital of hipsterville and home of US punk/grunge, the pacific northwest. Her character Emily Black is a cool girl with impeccable taste in music, and her own punk band, that goes on a voyage of discovery about her own music-loving, absent mother. It's a great coming of age story and I love that it's all about being the weird punky strident feminist girl in a boring small town. It reminded me a little of one of my favourite YA reads, Joanne Proulx's <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1204479.Anthem_of_a_Reluctant_Prophet">Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet</a>, which is also about music to some degree, and, in its excellent first person voice, was an inspiration for my main character Danny in Crow Moon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, though punk is supposedly over, we are still riding its eternal three chords to glory.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-89236903197388409162014-03-28T14:06:00.004+00:002014-03-28T14:07:55.793+00:00Crow Moon<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">That was a long pause, eh. I've been kind of busy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This week my book deal with Quercus <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/news/clare-jeffers-colfer-and-reeve-bologna-acquisitions.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">was announced in The Bookseller:</a> Crow Moon, the first in a Young Adult trilogy, will come out early Spring 2015. Exact release date TBC. My super-agent Ben Illis clinched three deals at Bologna including mine, and you can read about the others by Lu Hersey and Fletcher Moss <a href="http://www.the-bia.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. Lu, my mind-twin, won the Mslexia Novel competition with her thriller Deep Water, and Fletcher just won the Times/Chicken House Novel competition, so I am in esteemed and intimidatingly good company.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My Editor and Publishing Director Roisin Heycock said: ‘<i>I fell in love with the character of Danny. He’s a teenage boy full of energy, misguided love and more than a touch of selfishness. He is fighting a world he doesn’t want to become a part of but which needs him, and might just use him in terrible ways. Anna works with teenagers and she understands the way their hearts work; she brings such humour and observation to her writing.’ </i>I love her. And I think it's not so much that I understand teens <i>en masse</i>, just that I remember vividly how I felt at that time - and it's not overly different to how I feel now. Or, maybe it's not, and I'm kidding myself, as a mid-30s sellout. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I opened a letter I'd written to myself as a teen last year. Among other things it said "I hope you are staying true to your principles". 17 year old Anna did not elucidate on what these principles were - presumably thinking that if I had to ask... I think they were probably generally "Fuck The Man; Wear rockin' boots; Be a feminist; Don't stand for any shit". Judge for yourself. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, I'm doing final rewrites right now, then straight back to writing book 2. You spend (theoretically) your whole life writing book 1, and then you're on a book-a-year schedule all of a sudden which frankly is AWESOME because you get to have actual work time dedicated to writing that no-one can say anything about, because, after all, you are getting paid for it now. A revolutionary thing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I now also have a <a href="http://annamckerrow.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">tumblr </a>where I delightedly post animated gifs about <a href="http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Kara_Thrace" target="_blank">Kara Thrace</a>, witches, goth fashion and various other "cool" stuff. Cool to me anyway. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Hopefully soon I will be looking at cover designs, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">which is surely the best part of writing a book. </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">If it doesn't feature crows and moons, and be all moody, I will be surprised.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But really the best part of writing a novel for young people is the idea that next year, maybe some teens will read it and like it. That's really what all the work is for - to write the book I always wanted to read and could never find. The concept that an introverted, moody goth girl might read Crow Moon and like it is amazing to me. I mean, that anyone will like it will be amazing. But especially someone like me at 17. Someone who hasn't forgotten their principles; who lives by them and believes in a better future. Because that, to me, is the definition of that stage in everyone's life. The ability to define truth and believe in it - to know you can make a difference.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-27404260252027805582013-12-13T11:00:00.001+00:002013-12-13T11:00:42.078+00:00The materialities of digital poetics - an old essay from the MA days...<div class="Section1">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I haven't written an academic essay for a few years now, and writing a lot of Young Adult fiction kind of rewires your brain in completely another way. In 2008 this is what I was thinking about. Quite frankly, I am both impressed at my own academic loquaciousness and utterly confused about what it all means.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Using a detailed range of examples, discuss the
relationship between the materialities of digital poetics and that of the book
and / or recent and current writing practice. Try to refer to how your own
practice and practical interests relate to these issues.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Like any medium, the realm of digital
poetics houses and implicates its own particular structures and requirements
for writing. As Loss Glazier discusses in <i>Digital
Poetics</i>, from this point of view, the internet and/or the digital forum is
no different to the “new” development of the medium of film or that of the
novel in its time; we are, therefore, tasked with finding ways to critique and
understand the way writing, specifically poetry, works in this new form.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In this essay I will look at the following
issues engendered by a study of digital poetics and how they relate to the
materiality of poetry: the notion of materiality being the physical, and the
relationship between the body and the text as a body; the philosophy of the
link; dynamism; the role of the author and the philosophical issues of
cyberspace and the infinite. I will also look at my own work in relation to
these issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Using digital poetry as a medium
consists of a wealth of considerations. Instead of putting pen to paper and
making a permanent mark, one is manipulating identical and standardised
magnetic marks on a screen. What consequences does this have? It makes the text
potentially interactive and constantly changeable. It means there is no
“original” version – every version of the work is in a sense the original, as
the work is re-imaged and reactivated every time by a different user at a
different time. If published online on the internet, it means millions of
people have instant access to it and it can be written online – writing while
your audience watches. It is dynamic in the sense it can be animated to move,
change colour and link to sound and image. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Glazier considers poetry to be a
particularly suitable form for modern, innovative poetry because of poetry’s
avoidance of the traditional omnipotent “I” of narrative. Rather, its concern
with the multiple in discourse connects with the “polysemous, constantly
changing multiple-author text known as the web,” (<i>Digital Poetics</i>, p22). In discussing the character constructs of
William Gibson’s Neuromancer where at least one character has a cyberspace
existence rather than one of “form”, N Katherine Hayles also refers to the
ability of digital text to foreground the medium and the fictionality of
traditional forms:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“The displacement of presence by
pattern thins the tissue of textuality, making it a semi-permeable membrane
that allows awareness of the text as an informational pattern to infuse into
the space of representation,” (<i>How We
Became Posthuman</i>, p40)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Glazier
also notes that Jerome McGann considers poetry to be particularly conversant
with the digital form because:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“The
object of poetry is to display the textual position. Poetry is language that
calls attention to itself, that takes its own textual activities as its ground
subject,” (Jerome McGann quoted in <i>Digital
Poetics</i>, p21). Similarly, Glazier notes that “language is a procedure to
reveal the working of writing,” (p32).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As Marshall McLuhan said in <i>Understanding Media – The Extensions of Man</i>,
“the medium is the message”. This has a strong relevance to the understanding
of digital poetry, as McLuhan considered the medium of a message more important
than its perceived “meaning”. For instance, that what is shown on television is
unimportant; it is television’s impact on our lives as a medium that is
profound. He also thought that the particular medium that an individual
experienced a particular content through would inevitably influence the
understanding of that content. Modern poetic practice has a strong emphasis on
form and the relevance of materiality on the content of the poem – so much so
that, at best, the poem is its process and vice versa, and to ignore the
aspects that engineer the poem is to wilfully suspend oneself in the erroneous
sense of belief. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Modern poetry prefers to be explicit
about its terms and conditions, and does not expect these to be subsumed
seamlessly by the reader in an attempt to verify the godlike status of the
author and the “essential truth” of the work. Additionally, as Glazier points
out, multimedia does not simply provide an opportunity for convenient
juxtaposition of sources, but for the interweaving of media to create a
harmonious and (somewhat) holistic whole.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The weaving of multimedia sources in
digital poetics is an important aspect of creating a multitudinous text with a
nonlinear narrative. By linking to other sources from your original starting
point, and sometimes by following a seemingly eternal sequence of “doors” in a
labyrinthine journey, the ability of the internet to link from one place to
another is an essential part of the idea that the medium affects the message.
This can be seen in Diane Slattery’s <i>Alphaweb</i>,
where the reader can link from one poem to the next from a series of multiple
choices. Hence, the use of linking presents the reader with a non-predetermined
outcome to their reading experience. As Glazier says, “electronic poems are not
tied to the linearity of the page; this is not an end of linearity but an
emergence of multiple linearities,” (<i>Digital
Poetics</i>, p35).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Glazier also considers the ability to
link to other sources as similar to Freudian parapraxis – when the mind shifts
into an associative disposition and “links” apparently disparate
images/sounds/words together (this could be described as the ultimate aim for a
poet whose goal is to make eternally new associations between sources for the
reader, and express the energy of the work via new expressions and imagery that
have a strong, if unconscious, impact on the reader). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This idea, particularly closely associated
with synaesthesia (a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of
one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in
a second sensory or cognitive pathway – definition on Wikipedia), is something
that has inspired another of my own projects, the Flash Colour Spectrum
project. Briefly, this is a series of 8 panels that follow the human-perceived
colour spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, White) that
individually contain 8 synaesthetic associations/links per page. My aim is to
be able to animate these pages to be able to blend in and out of each other,
both to imitate the spectrum, to question the notion of the spectrum as a
continuum and where one colour starts and another finishes; also to pay a small
homage to Charles Olson’s ideas about energy in a text. This work is literally
about energy – colour is by definition energy vibrating at differing levels.
Overall, again, the medium is the message – associative linking of “object” and
“subject” – the colour and my synaesthetic response to it – and the eternal
circle of the spectrum, which confers a nonlinear text (although not totally
random either).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jorge Luis Borges’ <i>The Book of Sand</i> is one text that philosophically suggests the
infinite sense of the internet, and also explores the threatening notion of a
book without end where each page is always different and where the reader can
never reassure themselves by returning to the beginning or any familiar
previous page. In the story, the protagonist becomes so afraid of the book that
he hides it away from another discovery. The multiplicity it contains is
disturbing to him, and the threat of an eternally nonlinear “narrative” haunts
Borges. This, it can be said, describes somewhat the cognitive dissonance that
the reader of contemporary experimental poetry experiences, if accustomed to a
beginning, middle and end and a recognisable structure when reading.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Aside from the interesting reflection
that <i>The Book of Sand</i> precipitated
the internet, an infinite and boundless source of linked pages, the book itself
is the medium of infinity, as it has an infinite number of pages that can never
be returned to. The book is also the message, and the message is the
uncertainty and discomfort of the reader in the face of a lack of conclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i>The Book of
Sand</i>
is also a fictional book, a book within a book, which itself is a fascinating
paradox that foregrounds the essential falsity of the book as a “realistic”
structure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The materiality of (traditional) books
and bodies is something that N Katherine Hayles discusses in <i>How We Became Posthuman</i>. Both are forms
of information transmission and storage, incorporate encoding in a material
substrate (the body is material and is “programmed” by DNA; the book is a
physical object and its information is encoded in written form on pages and
bound) and cannot easily be changed/amended/destroyed. Both body and book are a
physical object, and both are a space of representation, or message. Therefore,
Hayles makes the organic link between the body and the message – and present
the realisation that to change one changes the other. Therefore, again, the
medium is the message and vice-versa, because they are linked so inextricably.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have tried to address this idea of
body/text and message in a new piece of work on DNA. As DNA is the programming
code of the body and computer code, be it HTML or ASCII, is the programming
code of digital poetics, I am interested in how they correlate. My first action
was to look at the existing programming code that lay “under” an entry about
DNA on Wikipedia. I then copied this into a Word document and looked through it
at text that might seem interesting and potentially for use in poetics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After finding the following list of
commands I thought they might be interesting to use to create a new “poem”, so
I took a 4-line excerpt and used it as a repeating “verse” in a DNA-shaped
image created in Photoshop. The “verse” is the horizontal text; the twisting
vertical text was the following text also taken from the original programming
code.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vertical
text (can be imaged as the verses of the piece):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var stylepath = "/skins-1.5";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgArticlePath = "/wiki/$1";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgScriptPath = "/w";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgScript = "/w/index.php";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgServer = "http://en.wikipedia.org";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgCanonicalNamespace = "";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgCanonicalSpecialPageName = false;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgPageName = "DNA";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgTitle = "DNA";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgAction = "view";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgRestrictionEdit =
["autoconfirmed"];<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgRestrictionMove = ["sysop"];<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgArticleId = "7955";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgIsArticle = true;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgUserName = null;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgUserLanguage = "en";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgContentLanguage = "en";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgBreakFrames = false;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var stylepath =
"/skins-1.5";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgArticlePath
= "/wiki/$1";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgScriptPath
= "/w";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgScript =
"/w/index.php";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgServer =
"http://en.wikipedia.org";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgCanonicalNamespace = "";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgCanonicalSpecialPageName = false;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgNamespaceNumber = 0;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgPageName =
"DNA";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgTitle =
"DNA";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgAction =
"view";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgRestrictionEdit = ["autoconfirmed"];<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgRestrictionMove = ["sysop"];<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgArticleId =
"7955";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgIsArticle =
true;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgUserName =
null;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgUserGroups
= null;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgUserLanguage = "en";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgContentLanguage = "en";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var wgBreakFrames
= false;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">var
wgCurRevisionId = "169270727";<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: auto;" />
</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Horizontal
text (can be imagined as the chorus of the piece):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><li
class="toclevel-2"><a href="#<b>Major_and_minor_grooves</b>"><span
class="tocnumber">1.1</span> <span
class="toctext">Major and minor
grooves</span></a></li><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><li
class="toclevel-2"><a href="#<b>Base_pairing</b>"><span
class="tocnumber">1.2</span> <span
class="toctext">Base pairing</span></a></li><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><li
class="toclevel-2"><a href="#<b>Sense_and_antisense</b>"><span
class="tocnumber">1.3</span> <span
class="toctext">Sense and
antisense</span></a></li><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><li
class="toclevel-2"><a href="#<b>Supercoiling</b>"><span
class="tocnumber">1.4</span> <span<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I liked the repetition of these
intriguing terms, which although generated from code, present a massive arena
of interpretation, onomatopoeic dynamism (“coiling” “pairing”) and even
self-referential irony, (“sense and antisense”). They have poetic qualities
because of their use of repetition of words, each time slightly customised for
the purpose of the particular line. Additionally, using this kind of
data-as-poetic-text opens up the potential to use the programming code’s use of
special characters as a dynamic form of punctuation, guidance for reading and
for breath (i.e., >< could be
interpreted by a reader as a pause)– as in
Charles Olson’s famous essay, <i>Projective
Verse</i>. You can see the finished result on my attached image. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, this is the first part of my
considerations of DNA, and in particular I became interested with the
potentially generative aspects of working with this embodied code. In genetics
and when creating a new gene, a new DNA code made of two “ladders” of protein
code is “zipped” up together to make a complete gene. This thought gave me my
first idea of being able to animate a DNA poem in Flash, so that two “ladders”
of randomly generated words from computer code, a little like the above
vertical text example, could be zipped up on-screen and generate a poem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From this desire to make generative
work based on the idea of DNA and code (on which premise a very interesting
work by Andreas Muller-Pohle is based, <i>Blind
Genes</i> (2002), cited in <i>Digital Art </i>by
Christiane Paul), I progressed onto an idea inspired by genetic engineering. In
the process of making a new gene, half a new gene (one “ladder”, if you like)
is dipped into a bowl containing a “soup” of proteins – always C, G, A and T
(Cytozine, Guanine, Adenine and Thymine, respectively). The molecules bond to
the existing structure and a new gene is made. Additionally, Adenine and
Thymine always bond together, as do Cytozine and Guanine. So, from a poetic
mindset, you can see that C and G together and A and T together make a subset
of potential poetry code.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From a generative point of view and
using the image of the bowl of protein (word) soup, I next imaged a stage of
the project where, rather like William Burroughs’ cutup method (, I could place
20 random words beginning with C and 20 random words beginning with G in a bowl
and pull them out, ordering them into a randomised “zip”, according to which
words came out in what order, only making sure that each line had a linked C
and G. This process also has the potential to be animated, both in the zipping
up and in the random generation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In this work and in the work of
genetics, to change the message is to change the medium (to link back to
Hayles), especially if the change in the “message” (encoding) refuses to make
the usual links between C and G, A and T. The medium (gene) will become mutated
if a different encoding process is followed. Hayles discusses the notion of
mutation as something that distorts a pattern in information, after the theory
of informatics: that information is identified with choices that reduce
uncertainty. Where mutation occurs, there is also a jump-off point for text to
go in a new direction. In the arena of modern poetics, this supports the aims
of making-strange and unfamiliarity in avant-garde processes used to create and
present poetry. Mutation makes something new:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“The catastrophe in the
pattern/randomness dialectic… a rupture of pattern so extreme that the
expectation of continuous replication can no longer be sustained,” (<i>Posthuman</i>, p33)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Loss Glazier discusses the notion of
“seams” he found in the world of the digital through its being of one language
being combined with another – computer code mixed with “recognised” language.
Marjorie Perloff decribed Charles Bernstein’s work as:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“..playfully exploits pun, anaphora,
epiphora, metathesis, epigram, anagram and neologism to create a seamless web
of reconstituted words” (<i>Digital Poetics</i>,
p36)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It is not too much of a leap to
consider a zip a seam – a thing that joins – and Glazier confirms that poetic
language “is a seam through which seep multiple parts of language” (p38). Hence
the materiality of this work directly reflects its message, and vice-versa: the
concept of the code-forming structure of DNA is described through the action of
its generation. The message is how the body (text) is formed; the medium shows
it being formed. The final “content”, in terms of the actual line-up of the C
and G words, in line with McLuhan, is almost irrelevant (it would be different
every time if accessed via a (reasonably) random online word-generator). All
that is important is that poetic language has been created via the seam that
joins multiple parts of language. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Where the poem on the page written by
hand could be said to contain an idiosyncratic “essence” of the writer, when
the work produced is channelled through the ownership vector (reference: Wark, <i>The Hacker Manifesto</i>) of the publication
process, the reader is dissociated from the author and the author is removed
from the production process. Not so with the digital realm for the poet, as
this is somewhere she can produce and publish instantly online for immediate
consumption. Immediacy, a multitextual approach and use of multiple linearities
are some of the methods that characterise the energy that animates digital
poetry and helps return poetry to its original reason for being, like all art –
to challenge and develop existing modes of expression. Recognition of the
material structures that “meaning” rests on – or recognising that meaning is
articulated by those structures – seems essential for the development of poetry
as a form, and by wider implication, serves the study of social structures and
an understanding of the (frustratingly) complex sense that there are no
definitives and no full stops in our daily, fractured experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm;">
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anna
McKerrow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2592
words<br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
<b>Bibliography<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">De
Giovanni, Norman Thomas (trans) and Clarke, Maximus, <i>The Book of Sand: A Hypertext Puzzle</i> <a href="http://artificeeternity.com/bookofsand/">http://artificeeternity.com/bookofsand/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Glazier,
Loss Pequeno, <i>Digital Poetics: The Making
of E-Poetries</i>, The University of Alabama Press, (Tuscaloosa and London,
2002)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“William
Burroughs and the Composite Text”, Oliver Harris (2007) on
www.realitystreet.org, <a href="http://realitystudio.org/scholarship/cutting-up-the-archive-william-burroughs-and-the-composite-text/">http://realitystudio.org/scholarship/cutting-up-the-archive-william-burroughs-and-the-composite-text/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hayles,
N Katherine<i>, How We Became Posthuman:
Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics</i>, University of
Chicago Press, (London 1999)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Olson,
Charles, “Projective Verse” in <i>Selected
Writings of Charles Olson</i>, eds Robert Creeley (1950, New York)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Paul,
Christiane, <i>Digital Art</i>, Thames &
Hudson World of Art. (London, 2003)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Slattery,
Diana Reed, <i>Alphaweb</i>, <a href="http://iat.ubalt.edu/guests/alphaweb/">http://iat.ubalt.edu/guests/alphaweb/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wark,
Mackenzie, <i>The Hacker Manifesto</i> <a href="http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html">http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/warktext.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-6639914033288242622013-07-26T14:11:00.001+01:002013-07-26T14:11:33.181+01:00If I was going to be Dr McKerrow, this is how I would have got it<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here is/was the PhD outline I submitted in 2008, when I thought that was what I was going to be doing. I'd be Dr McKerrow by now (maybe), but instead I'm a wannabe teen author. How did that happen?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, when I look at it now it seems limited in terms of artistic references - there are so many more people working around these subject now - but still, it's interesting, and may help those of you who actually ARE doing a PhD in a similar thoughtwave, or, if not - it still has a pretty interesting bibliography.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Avant-garde poets and live artists using spiritual practices
as processes / the relationship between spiritual and avant-garde
artistic/poetic discourses and practice</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jackson
MacLow: “Remember that the main motivation for using procedures of any kind is
the Buddhist one of loosening and lessening the domination - in effect, the
hegemony – of the artist’s ego,” – in <i>Digital
Poetics, the Making of E-Poetries</i>, Loss Pequeno Glazier, p49<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"...people
inhabiting all frequencies of the socioeconomic spectrum are intentionally
reaching for some of the oldest navigational tools known to humankind: sacred
ritual and metaphysical speculation, spiritual regimen and natural spell."
Erik Davis, <span class="CITE"><i>Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age
of Information</i></span>, (London: Serpent's Tail, 1999)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
am interested in avant-garde poets and artists using spiritual practice as
artistic processes, and the under-explored relationship between spiritual and
avant-garde artistic discourses, with additional reference to digital poetics
and cybertheory. I aim to structure the work chronologically from 1960 onwards.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
intend to highlight a similarity between the marginality of the avant-garde in
live art and poetry and the marginality of spirituality in the postmodern
society. I will suggest that both modes of attempting to access transcendence
via alternative methods are/have been marginalised in society but now may be
entering the mainstream, thus citing my study in a historical continuum of the
development of received modes of spirituality and artistic expression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chapter
Outlines:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clarification
of terms, outline of main questions to be addressed in the work<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What do the use of particular spiritual processes by artists
(meditation; ritual; clairvoyance; chanting; visualisation) lend to poetic
language and live art?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How do these processes transcend, or aim to transcend, the
ego of the artist/writer? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How does artistic/poetic practice correspond with magical
(i.e practical spiritual) practice?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How does the avant-garde engage with spirituality? What are
their dis/similar aims and values? E.g. the holistic versus the fragmented?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How are post-1950 avant-garde poetics informed by or have
reference to traditional (ie Judeao-Christian, Buddhist etc) or non-traditional
(mystical; qabalistic; angelic) spiritual discourses?<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Definition of terms – ritual, shamanism, meditation, Zen,
clairvoyance, divination, chanting, avant-garde, magical, astral, trance.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1960 to 1970 –
Shamanism and the Counterculture Appeal of Zen<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Joseph Beuys and shamanism – “the healing power of art and
the power of universal human creativity” - <i>How
to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare</i> and <i>Eurasia<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jerome Rothenberg and the retrieval of existing/historical
cultures’ shamanistic writing; interest in the power of religious/spiritual
writing as poetry in <i>Technicians of the
Sacred</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Structure of
the World Compared to a Bubble </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and<i>
Iovis</i> – Anne Waldman’s Buddhist poetry and the philosophy of the Buddhist
Naropa School of Disembodied Poetics; William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg; the
New York School’s relationship to Buddhism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Being<i> </i>in the
moment” – poetry trying to capture the Zen sense of presence – Leslie Scalapino,
Tim Atkins, Peter Jaeger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1970 to 1980 –
Ritualistic Personal Journeys and Experiences<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Growing popularity of Goddess spirituality inspired by works
such as Starhawk’s <i>The Spiral Dance </i>reflected
in live art using text and poetic work. Joan La Barbara and vocal modulation –
sound poems – speaking in tongues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Linda Montano – <i>Chakraphonics</i>,
<i>Seven Spiritual Lives of Linda Montano </i>and
<i>Mitchell’s Death </i>– use of sound,
colour, energy centres, ritual and a personal spiritual journey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Faith Wilding – <i>Imago
Femina - </i>spiritual qualities of female existence<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clairvoyance and the fragmentation of the “I” in poetic
language - Hannah Weiner’s <i>Astral
Visions, Clairvoyant Journal</i> and <i>The
Fast</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Susan Hiller and automatic writing<i> – Sisters of Menon</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Carolee Schneeman’s <i>Interior
Scroll – </i>Goddess worship, ritual, the unity of spirit and flesh.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1980 to 1990 –
Ritual and Transcendence; The Body and the Mind<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The rite of divination - Susan Hiller – <i>Belshazzar’s Feast</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ritualistic use of pain/meditation methods to transcend the
body - Marina Abramovic, Gina Pane<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Hermann Nitsch and the Orgies Mystery Theater – cathartic
Dionysian use of ritual; Diamanda Galas’ <i>Plague
Mass </i>as a reaction to AIDS and the function of language in ritualistic live
art; the function of language in magical ritual with reference to the qabalah.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1990 to
present – The Astral and Cyberspace; The Body and Energy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stelarc’s ideal cybernetic body versus the theory and
practice of a holistic energy body; explorations of dis/embodiment in
digital/page-based poetics and live art with reference to the work of Barbara
Brennan, Reiki and Energy Healing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 21.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The connections between the philosophy and practical
existence of cyberspace and the characteristics of the astral in spiritual
philosophy, and the practical experience of astral projection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Conclusion and
summary of research</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h1>
Basic bibliography</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Preciptations:
Contemporary American Poetry as Occult Practice</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Devin
Johnston<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Modernist
Alchemy: Poetry and the Occult</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Timothy Materer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Literary
Modernism and the Occult Tradition</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Surette and Tryphonopoulos<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Imaginary
Language</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
eds. Rasula and McCaffery<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Life Through
the Screen</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
Sherry Turkle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How We Became
Posthuman</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
N Katherine Hayles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Blood
and Beauty” in <i>But Is It Art?,</i>
Cynthia A Freeland<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Technicians of
the Sacred: A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Jerome
Rothenberg<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Concerning the
Spiritual in Art</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> – Wassily Kandinsky<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Celestial
Tradition: A Study of Ezra Pound’s The Cantos</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, Demetres P Tryphonopoulos<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Telling it
Slant: Avant-Garde Poetics of the 1990s<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Rethinking
Hierarchy: Buddhist Tenets in the Work of Anne Waldman” – Laura Bardwell<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Earth Air Fire
and Water, </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Coward-McCann;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rising Tides, </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Simon &
Schuster; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Joan
La Barbara – vocal artist<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Shaman Woman,
Mainline Lady, </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">William Morrow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Structure of
the World Compared to a Bubble</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> – Anne Waldman<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Erik
Davis, <span class="CITE">Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of
Information</span>, (London: Serpent's Tale, 1999)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Esotericism,
Art and Imagination - Edited by Arthur Versluis, Lee Irwin, John Richards, and
Melinda Weinstein - <a href="http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/Contents.html">http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/Contents.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Interactive
realism – the poetics of cyberspace – Daniel Downes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Parallels Almanac - <a href="http://www.parallelsalmanac.net/">www.parallelsalmanac.net</a>
– Nicholas Taylor: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-76705785839029262982013-07-12T16:17:00.001+01:002013-07-12T16:17:34.111+01:00Spoila Magazine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQM0l5T3atZ1W2wZO26rkBNp3400Emh7PdBqD_1bI1Yaksh13zVrGcxWYvUPpV_x9RD67EIDJL0uQtreiqPoPrIb9amact_drDw8gnkmLsgsDO2Eys_0ZpECJVi-ehyt9jnK90D0sT40c/s1600/spoila.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQM0l5T3atZ1W2wZO26rkBNp3400Emh7PdBqD_1bI1Yaksh13zVrGcxWYvUPpV_x9RD67EIDJL0uQtreiqPoPrIb9amact_drDw8gnkmLsgsDO2Eys_0ZpECJVi-ehyt9jnK90D0sT40c/s1600/spoila.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Serious treatments of the interactions between the arts and the occult / magic / spirituality are cropping up everywhere - once again, I'm ahead of the curve :). The second magazine of note is Jessa Crispin (of <a href="http://www.bookslut.com/">Bookslut</a>)'s <a href="http://www.spoliamag.com/">Spoila</a> Magazine. I've just purchased the PDF copy for $5, that is, about £3.50, which seems eminently affordable. I've ordered Issue 2: The Black Magic Issue (wooooohhh!) which I haven't read yet (glass of wine, bath, Kindle, LATER) but it looks great. Contents include an interview with poet <a href="http://www.webbish6.com/poetry/poetryindex.htm">Jeannine Hall Gailey</a>, who I haven't heard of, but whose work deals with fairy tale and mythology. A shame we're not still running <a href="http://www.newfairytales.co.uk/">New Fairy Tales</a> otherwise we could have nagged her to submit.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't know for sure, but I sense that the material in Spoila will be about magic as subject rather than spiritual practice - which isn't a bad thing, just a less unusual thing. There is, after all, a proliferation of artistic work about witches/fairies/wizards/magic/magick/gnomes/elves/mermaids etc etc. I'm glad there is, obviously (not least because I'm hoping my teen novel about witches will be successful with a publisher) - it's good for people to explore the hidden and mysterious, even just in fictive forms, even if they never progress past fantasy - I'm just more interested in artistic work that investigates spiritual <b>practices.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, I think Spoila is good because it has an intelligent editorial policy. The more intelligent attention magic and the occult gets, the better; it's as interesting at the level of literary and cultural criticism as it is for the spiritual wayfarer or mystic.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-54038044318620575772013-06-28T15:02:00.001+01:002013-06-28T15:02:54.190+01:00Abraxas Journal<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt;">You know
when you’re peripherally aware of something for ages, and then all of a sudden,
things make themselves known? I’ve had that kind of week with the discovery of
three websites/journals of brilliance that have crept into awareness. I only
have space to talk about one of them today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt;">The first
is <a href="http://abraxas-journal.com/">Abraxas</a>, a journal. Abraxas is run by Christina Oakley-Harrington, owner of
<a href="http://www.treadwells-london.com/">Treadwell’s bookshop</a>, who is, as well as bookshop owner and magic aficionado, is
also passionate about links between magic/the occult and art. Abraxas is a very
high spec journal that:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">.. </span></i></span><em><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">aims to represent the best of the international esoteric
scene in a high quality printed format. As a bi-annual journal, it seeks
to offer relevant and thought-provoking features: ranging from essays that are
scholarly and engaging, to images and sounds that challenge and inspire. Our
print run is limited, and every issue employs lavish colour and exotic papers – </span></em><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">providing
for the reader <span style="background: white;">a rare sensory sorcery. Indeed,
it is our intent that Abraxas should embody that magical, creative nexus which
feeds both mind and soul. <o:p></o:p></span></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Calibri; font-style: normal; padding: 0cm;">As
this suggests, the journal covers a variety of magic-type subjects and
articles, in a refreshingly academic context, but there is a strong involvement
in artistic practices too.</span></em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">The current issue 3 of
Abraxas has an amazing contributors list, which I am so excited about, I am
reproducing in full here:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Talon Abraxas</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was born in South London, England in 1980. A self-taught artist, he is
known for works that consist of a combination of traditional and digital
images, creating surreal landscapes that have a believable dream-like quality.
Inspiration is drawn from mystical artists and thinkers such as Austin Osman
Spare, Jean Delville, Hieronymus Bosch, HR Giger, Beksinski, and Aleister
Crowley. He considers himself a symbolist, painter, writer and occultist
committed to spiritual esotericism. His vision is of the artist as a
spontaneously developed initiate whose mission is to send light, spirituality
and mysticism into the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 14.65pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Marcelo Bordese</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His images explore themes
involving the flesh, sex, religion and despair. His style is reminscent of
Bosch and Breughel, but Marcelo paints with acrylic, which he affirms ‘…like
blood, dries quickly.’ He has exhibited extensively since 1996, most recently
at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Owners of the Crossroad:
Aesthetics of Exú and Pomba Gira in Rio de la Plata</span></em>, Buenos Aires,
2009 and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Grito Íntimo: con sexo,
corrupción y juegos</span></em>, Instituto Cervantes de Tokio, Tokyo, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 14.65pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.artebus.com.ar/bordese" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.artebus.com.ar/bordese</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 14.65pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">John Clowder</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is an artist working primarily in the collage medium. His history would
be familiar to anyone living in the average suburban town. Luckily, a devious
and unstructured childhood prompted him towards imaginative play, an activity
that brought experiments with artistic creativity. At a receptive age he
chanced upon Max Ernst’s oneiric collage novels and absorbed by their imagery,
sought to replicate their effect. He lives in the American Midwest, but
Surrealism is his chosen means of escape.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 14.65pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 14.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Ira Cohen (1935-2011)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was an American poet, publisher, photographer and filmmaker. He
travelled widely, most notably to Morocco where he published<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">GNAOUA</span></em>, a magazine devoted to
exorcism, and later to Kathmandu, where he founded his Bardo Matrix imprint,
issuing limited edition books printed on rice paper. His later years in NYC
consolidated his role as one of the most important voices of American
counter-culture. His contribution was unique and he will be greatly missed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.iracohen.org/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.iracohen.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was a British Surrealist painter and author. Her membership of the
O.T.O. in the early 1950s presaged involvements with numerous esoteric groups
throughout her life. A move to Cornwall inspired her book<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Living Stones: Cornwall</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1957), a pioneering study of
Earth-energies, although she is best remembered for her biography of MacGregor
Mathers,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Sword of Wisdom</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1975).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">T. Thorn Coyle</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"> </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is an internationally respected visionary and
teacher of the magical and esoteric arts. The author of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Kissing the Limitless</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2009) and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Evolutionary Witchcraft</span></em>(2004), she
is also featured in many anthologies, hosts the Elemental Castings podcast
series, writes a popular weblog,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Know Thyself</span></em>, and
has produced several CDs of sacred music. Pagan, mystic, and activist, she is
founder and head of Solar Cross Temple and Morningstar Mystery School and lives
by the glorious San Francisco Bay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.thorncoyle.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.thorncoyle.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Jon Crabb</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a young art historian and writer who developed a mild obsession with
the Beat writers in his teens, then graduated from the enthusiasm of Kerouac to
the cynicism of Burroughs in his twenties. Having heard that William Burroughs
once declared Brion Gysin ‘the only man I have ever respected,’ he was added to
the personal syllabus and quickly became a chief fascination. His background is
in 20th century art although his current research interests include book
design, illustration and the juncture of word and image. He is also interested
in the fin-de-siècle period, the cross-over between science and art, and the
larger influence of the occult on Western art as a whole.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Peter Dubé</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a novelist, short story writer, essayist and cultural critic. He is
the author of the chapbook<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Vortex Faction Manifesto</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2001), the novel<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Hovering World</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2002),<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">At the Bottom of the Sky</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2007) a collection of linked short
stories, and most recently, the novella <em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Subtle Bodies: a Fantasia on Voice, History
and René Crevel</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2010).
He is also the editor of the anthology<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Madder Love: Queer Men and The
Precincts of Surrealism</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2008).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.peterdube.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.peterdube.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Robert Fitzgerald</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a long-time practitioner of the angelic evocation of John Dee and
Edward Kelley, and is an initiate of Cultus Sabbati, a magical order of
traditional witchcraft in Britain and North America. His written contributions
have appeared in the British journal of folklore<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Cauldron</span></em>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Edward Gauntlett</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"> </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is lifelong student of magic, and holds an MA in
Literature, Religion and Philosophy. Currently he is working on a study of the
Secret Tradition in late 19th and early 20th century supernatural horror
fiction. He is editor of the Charles Williams Society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Christopher Greenchild</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a composer, musician, poet, writer, artist, designer and philosopher
from Seattle. He is presently preparing the first releases from his archives
and their parallel performance concepts. His music centres around an imaginal
consciousness of memory and mystery that incorporates field recordings and
electronic sound with classical, folk, alternative instrumentations, and vivid
rhapsodic lyrics. He is also at work completing a three-part book series on his
visionary account of dream awareness as a parallel mystical continuum in
humanity and nature. His contribution to this journal was written in the spring
of 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Allan Graubard</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"> </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">lives in New York, with previous lives in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, London, Washington DC, and other places lost to
time and water – turns in the dance that sustains him. Through it all, body to
body, shadow to shadow, he has sought and sometimes found the warm, transparent
breadth of living completely. Recent works include<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">ROMA AMOR</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2010),<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Revolting Women/Woman Bomb-Sade</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Theater Row, 42nd Street), and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">And tell, tulip, the summer</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(forthcoming). Happily, 2011 also saw
the publication of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Invisible Heads: Surrealists in
North America – An Untold Story</span></em>, which he edited with his friend,
Thom Burns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Amy Hale</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is an anthropologist and Chaote whose academic interests are primarily
focused on modern Cornwall and British esoteric culture. She is the co-editor
of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">New Directions in Celtic
Studies</span></em>,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Inside Merlin’s Cave: A Cornish
Arthurian Reader</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Journal of the Academic Study of Magic</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>5 in addition to over 30 articles
ranging from Druidry to Celtic cultural tourism. She is currently working on a
series of projects and publications concerning the British Surrealist and
occultist Ithell Colquhoun. She lives in San Francisco.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Dan Harms</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a librarian and author whose interests include Lovecraft, the Cthulhu
Mythos, grimoires, the history of magic, and rôleplaying games. His books
include<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Necronomicon Files</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1998, with John Wisdom Gonce III) and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2008). His articles have appeared in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Fortean Times, The Journal for the Academic
Study of Magic, The Journal of Scholarly Publishing, Paranoia, Imelod, Le
Bulletin de l’Université de Miskatonic, Worlds of Cthulhu, Cthuloide Welten</span></em>,
and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Unspeakable Oath</span></em>.
His work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. He is
currently preparing an annotated edition of The Long-Lost Friend for
publication. He lives in upstate New York with his ball python, Yig.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.danharms.wordpress.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.danharms.wordpress.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Desirée Isphording</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a 25 year old artist living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her work
has been featured in the magazines<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Pentacle</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">SageWoman</span></em>, and has
also graced the covers of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">If…A Journal of Spiritual
Exploration</span></em>,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">PaganNet News</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Harp, Pipe, and Symphony</span></em>(2006),
a book by Paul DiFilippo. In addition, she has material included in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Gothic Art Now</span></em>, a compilation of
darkly elegant artwork.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.desireeisphording.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.desireeisphording.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Grevel Lindop</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">lives in Manchester, where he was formerly a Professor of English at the
University and is now a freelance writer. He worked with the late Kathleen
Raine as deputy editor of the journal<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Temenos</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and now chairs the academic board of
the Temenos Academy. His edition of Robert Graves’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The White Goddess</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1997) is now the standard text. He
has published six collections of poems, most recently<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Playing With Fire</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2006), and <em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Selected Poems</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2001). His book exploring music and
dance in Latin America,<span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"> </span></i></span><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Travels on the Dance Floor</span></em>, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of
the Week and was short listed for Authors’ Club Dolman Best Travel Book, 2009.
He is currently working on the first full biography of the poet, novelist,
theologian and occultist Charles Williams. He teaches Buddhist meditation under
the auspices of the Samatha Trust, and has a wide range of esoteric interests.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.grevel.co.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.grevel.co.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Ian MacFadyen</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is an independent scholar and writer, based in London. He co-edited with
Oliver Harris the book<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">NakedLunch@50: Anniversary
Essays</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2009), to which
he contributed six Dossiers. His libretto<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Point of No Return</span></em>,
on the life and death of Joan Burroughs, was performed at the University of
London Institute in Paris in 2009 in collaboration with Radio Joy. His essay
‘Machine Dreams: Optical Toys and Mechanical Boys’ was published in the
collection<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Flickers of the Dreamachine</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1996) and his essay ‘Ira Cohen: A
Living Theatre’ appeared in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Licking the Skull</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2000, republished 2006). He has
written about the work of many writers and artists including Vladimir Nabokov,
Georges Perec, and Yoko Ono. His articles and fictions have appeared in a
number of journals and anthologies, including Shamanic Warriors Now Poets
(2003).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Malgorzata Maj (Sarachmet)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was born in 1980 and currently lives in Gliwice, Poland. In 2004 she
graduated from Warmia-Masuria University in Olsztyn with an MA, specializing in
traditional techniques including painting on silk. Since 2005 she has been an
illustrator and photographer who fell in love with 19th century painting
colours and themes, ghostly moods & dreamy visions. In March 2010 she
contributed to the exhibition ‘Phantasms’ at Cabinet des Curieux, Paris,
France.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.sarachmet.blogspot.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.sarachmet.blogspot.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Misior</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was born in 1976 in Poland and is a graphic designer, an illustrator and
a surrealist painter. He regards art as a unique tool of cognition, limited
neither by logic, nor the limits of consciousness. By sacralization of
eroticism, he tries to overcome the Western dichotomy of the spiritual and
corporeal nature of man. His artistic style has been influenced by the
Renaissance, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, symbolists such as Gustave Moreau
and Fernand Khnopff, Austin Spare, the surrealism of Max Ernst and Remedios
Varo, the colors of Balthus and Hopper, along with Moebius and Manary’s comic
strips. He also records music under the pseudonym of Kriccagiya.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Alan Moore</span></strong><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, writer, anarchist and
magician. Living legend.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dodgemlogic.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.dodgemlogic.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Shani Oates</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">lives in Derbyshire where she is a devoted practitioner of the true
esoteric art. A mystic and pilgrim, she finds expression through her writing,
visionary sketches, photography and therapeutic holism. Her essays and articles
are included within:<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Hecate: Her Sacred Fires</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2010) and various popular pagan,
folklore and occult publications such as<em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Cauldron, Pendragon, The White Dragon,
Pentacle, The Goddess, The Hedge Wytch</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Wytch’s Standard</span></em>. Her debut
book,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Tubelo’s Green Fire</span></em>,
was released in 2010 and two more titles are due for release in 2011. She is
current Maid of the people of Goda, of Clan of Tubal Cain.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Edwin Pouncey</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was born in Leeds in 1951 and now lives in south London. Under the nom
de plume ‘Savage Pencil’ his art has mauled and entertained a generation with a
‘stinking psychedelic cesspit of corpse cluttered comix.’ As a music
journalist, his writings and Trip Or Squeek cartoon strip are featured
regularly in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Wire</span></em>. He is
currently working on a series of paintings, performances and other artworks
with Chris Long (aka Eyeball) under the moniker Battle Of The Eyes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.savagepencil.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.savagepencil.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Peter Redgrove (1932-2003)</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was a prolific and widely respected British poet whose contribution
spanned more than 40 years. His interest in mysticism and magic led was further
inspired by a move to Cornwall towards the end of his life. His published work
includes<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Black Goddess and the Sixth
Sense</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(1987) and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Wise Wound</span></em>(1978), the first
dedicated exploration of the mysteries of menstration, co-written with his second
wife Penelope Shuttle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Residue</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was born in 1964 in Halifax. He lives out his magical existance in
Yorkshire. He is not part of any magical lineage, though is influenced by
Kenneth Grant, Austin Spare and philosophical writings of Deleuze. He often dwells
on magical mechanisms, machine.nature combinations, by creating magical si-fi
maps or rituals. He also often makes parodies of ‘awareness zones’ or develop
pastiches of the illusion of seperateness. These manifest through squiggles and
robotic images, fetish voodoo rituals, pods, gadgets and shrines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Jack Sargeant</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is the author of numerous books, essays and articles on underground
film, outsider art and the more unusual aspects of culture, his books include<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Deathtripping: The Extreme Underground</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2007) and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Naked Lens: Beat Cinema</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2009). He has contributed to numerous
collections of essays, most recently From<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The Arthouse To The Grindhouse</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2010) and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(2011). His writings have appeared in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Fortean Times, FilmInk, Real Time, The Wire</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and many others. Since 2008 he has
been the program director for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival.
In 2010 he co-curated the Sydney Biennale film program, presenting film and
video works themed around visionary magus Harry Smith, these included works
exploring indigenous Australian spiritual beliefs, outsider art and music, and
culminated in a performance by Noko.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.jacksargeant.blogspot.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.jacksargeant.blogspot.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Lauren Simonutti</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">lives in Baltimore. Her images are born entirely from traditional
photographic techniques. Her work is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, NYC and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. Since 1998, Lauren has
produced a series of books in very limited editions exploring specific themes
through her photographic work. She has exhibited extensively since 2001, and
her work has been featured in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Silvershotz, Catchlight
Magazine, Eyemazing, Descry Magazine, Soura</span></em>, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">La Négatif</span></em>. In early 2010 she had
a solo exhibition at the Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, who currently
represent her.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.edelmangallery.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.edelmangallery.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Mark Titchner</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was born in Luton in 1973. He graduated from Central Saint Martins
College of Art and Design, London, in 1995. In 2006 he was nominated for the
Turner Prize for a solo show at the Arnolfini, Bristol. In 2007 he was included
in the 52nd Venice Biennale, exhibiting in the Ukraine Pavilion. His work is
held in the permanent collections of the South London Gallery, the United
Kingdom Government Art Collection and the Tate. He is represented by the Vilma
Gold Gallery, London.<a href="http://www.marktitchnerstudio.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.marktitchnerstudio.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Heather Tracy</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">has been an actor and singer for twenty-seven years, working across a
diverse range of genres and media from unrehearsed Shakespeare to comedy
cabaret. She has had a long association with the Lions part, an eclectic
company of professional performers who collaborate to create seasonal festivals
incorporating stories, playtexts, music and folklore. She is currently forging
a deeper understanding of theatre’s ritual and shamanic legacy through
experiential exploration of paradox, humour, neurological shock and the
emotional interplay between voice, word and flesh. This work also informs her
solitary magical practice and writing.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.heathertracy.co.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.heathertracy.co.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Arktau Eos</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a sentient frame capable of capturing fleeting moments of oneiric
activity, where essential gnosis manifests itself in blazing hieroglyphs… It is
a ghastly and wondrous parade of cryptic images and sounds, which a given
recording is a reflection of, thus becoming a new gateway for the perceptive
listener. Equal parts stellar and serene, subterranean and disturbing, ARKTAU
EOS remains in constant evolution, paying attention only to the cues of the
spirits and maintaining the integrity of the dream-continuum of which our
‘consciousness’ is but a mere drop in the ocean.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.myspace.com/arktaueos" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">myspace.com/arktaueos</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">John Contreras</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is an American cellist, best known for his work with Current 93 and Baby
Dee. He has also performed with Marc Almond, Fovea Hex and Nurse With Wound. In
addition to the cello, he also performs with the Buchla 200e. His work is
released on the Durtro label.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.johncontreras.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">johncontreras.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Cyclobe</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">are a music duo based in London, formed by Stephen Thrower and Ossian
Brown. They make hallucinatory electronic soundscapes by mixing sampled and
heavily synthesized sounds with acoustic arrangements for strings and woodwind.
Their approach draws upon diverse forms, including acousmatic, drone music,
dark ambient, noise and sound collage. Thrower is also a film journalist and
author of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Beyond Terror: The Films of
Lucio Fulci</span></em>. Ossian Brown worked with Coil from 1999 until the
band’s cessation on the death of John Balance in 2004.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.cyclobe.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">cyclobe.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">English Heretic</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">seek ostensibly to maintain, nurture and care for the psychohistorical
environment of England. Availed of the services of some of the country’s very
finest occult archaeologists, astral geographers and mystical toponymists, we
aim to help people decode and realise the alchemical ciphers and conspiratorial
interplay of the buildings and landscapes around them.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.english-heretic.org.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">english-heretic.org.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">High Mountain Tempel</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">consists of Eric Nielsen (of both Maquiladora and Buzz or Howl) and
Keith Boyd. Eric has played with members of such highly respected avant garde
groups as Acid Mothers Temple, High Rise, White Heaven, Mainliner, Mus, The
Black Heart Procession, etc. Creating dense soundscapes and sonic stories,
their music touches on elements of Krautrock and such musicians as Lustmord,
Harry Partch, Coil and Zombi. Along with these spacier elements, there is a
free-form and hybrid spirituality to this music that is of a particular West
Coast and Pacific variety.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.highmountaintempel.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">highmountaintempel.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Kallee</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a musickal lunar sound project founded in 15.05.10 e.v. Tantrick and
magick transformation for musickal paintings…<a href="http://www.myspace.com/7kallee" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">myspace.com/7kallee</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Philip Legard</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">has travelled to various locations throughout Britain to record his
music, letting himself be inspired by the spirit of the surroundings. Phil also
releases most of his own music through his label Larkfall. A new edition of his
esteemed<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Psychogeographia Ruralis</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is due for release in 2011.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.larkfall.co.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">www.larkfall.co.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is a prolific visual and sonic artist who finds drawing, painting,
sculpture, theatre, photography, animation, verse, video, violin and voice
effective ways of earthing magickal currents. His recent book<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><em style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Coagula</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(Fulgur, 2011) is the latest in his
Tela Quadrivium series.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.crossroads.wild.net.au/156.htm" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">crossroads.wild.net.au/156.htm</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Noko: Order 41</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">is Barry Hale, Scott Barnes and Michael Strumm, a performance
collaborative. Re-presenting various lines of esoteric research, NOKO erupt
into the traditional fine arts arena, merging magical ritual work with
contemporary experimental sound and visual forms, producing highly original
assemblages in a live multi-media format.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.myspace.com/noko2012" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">myspace.com/noko2012</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Okok Research Bureau</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">are sometimes described as a “transgressional freethinking experiment,”
or “an interdimensional action theatre whose players juggled a curious amalgam
of art and magic.” Mark Reeve and Liam Olan are the movers behind this, and ORB
Editions.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.okok.org.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">okok.org.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">The Psychogeographical Commission</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">was formed at the start of 2008 to explore the many interfaces between
the built environment and the people who inhabit it through dérive, magick and
sonic experimentation.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.psychetecture.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">psychetecture.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Raagnagrok</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">sound like a free-psych gnosis-musick invoking previous transmissions
from satellite residents Cluster, Heldon, Jan Hammer, Popol Vuh, Tangerine
Dream and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. After over forty live performances in
basements, galleries, bunkers, pubs, theatres and more ordinary music venues
around Europe Raagnagrok plan to release an album in the near future; just
don’t ask whose future…<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.raagnagrok.co.uk/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">raagnagrok.co.uk</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">T.A.G.C.</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">are a side project of Clock DVA. Formed in the early 1980s by Adi Newton
(although the idea existed as early as 1978), T.A.G.C. (originally The
Anti-Group) was conceived as an open-membership experimental multimedia
collective, focused on audio, visual, and textual research and production, as
well as performance art and installations.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.anteriorresearch.com/" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; outline: 0px;" target="_blank"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">anteriorresearch.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-19670780694535437282013-06-22T13:37:00.000+01:002013-06-22T13:38:22.650+01:00Regressive Poetics<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am excited to report that my fourth book of poetry, Regressive Poetics, will be published by the <a href="http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/">Knives, Forks and Spoons Press</a> this year. Hopefully in a few months' time. This is the introduction to the book to give an idea of what it's about. RP is a continuation of my interest in the intersection between spiritual practices and language.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I became aware of the
concept of reincarnation at a young age, being presented with the idea that our
souls use the earth as a vast schoolroom, returning to it to learn new lessons
over many lives, as a completely logical concept by my mother. I continue to
view it as entirely likely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When I was older I
discovered that my grandmother had for many years been secretary and editor to
A J Stewart, author of <i>Falcon: The
Autobiography of His Grace James IV, King of Scots</i>. Ms Stewart’s fascinating
book was the account of her past life as James IV, and she was completely
convinced of the veracity of her story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The guiding ethos of this
work is my interest in the correlations between artistic and spiritual
practices, and the strong place of language within practices such as
meditation, magic, divination etc. After producing a process-based poetic work
on the tarot I wondered whether past life recall stories would be an
interesting medium for a similar processual approach. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am interested in the way
that a past life “memory”, or story, is accessed via a hypnotic state, and
relayed to the hypnotist or therapist in a state very much like a waking dream.
We have all had the experience of language in dreams, where the words that seem
so profound in the dream are nonsense when awake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There is also an element
of translation or decryption present in past life tales, in the sense that they
are usually relayed back in a somewhat fragmentary way from the border of the
unconscious. In mediumship this is a common problem, because communicating with
the spirit world is described as talking with someone very far away, or
operating on a very different frequency of sound. Discrepancies occur.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I see now how we can wander and get lost in the
memories of the automatist when we so-called dead try to communicate. This kind
of mutual selection is bound to be what my friend Gerald calls a “mixed grill”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">– Received from Winifred
Coombe Tennant by Geraldine Cummins in <i>Swan
on a Black Sea: A Study in Automatic Writing </i>eds Signe Toksvig, 1971.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I wanted to push this
derangement of language another step further, this “mixed grill” of language
from one side, death, being translated through to the other side, life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I worked with a digital
dictation app into which I read published accounts of past lives from a variety
of sources. This produced its own version of the text, complete with
interesting inaccuracies and juxtapositions and a surprising amount of digital
and online-speak, which can only reflect the programming of the app to be
sensitive to current technological jargon. In the way that the app “made sense”
of what I gave it, we too tend to interpret accounts such as past life
“memories” through the veils of historical fact, bias, scientific rationale,
physics theory or personal prejudice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With past life regression
hypnotic work there is also the possible issue of suggestion on the part of the
hypnotist/therapist, again echoing the possible adjustment of the text. This
mediation is also common in mediumship, as mentioned above. In <i>Swan on a Black Sea</i>, the spirit of the very
politically liberal Mrs Coombe-Tennant sometimes “transmitted” far more
conservative political opinions, which was deemed to be the bias of the medium
Miss Cummins’ own beliefs on the original message.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Each poem in this
collection is based on one particular past life story and is the result of
translation and rewriting from the original text (the original experience) to a
doubly mediated text – a version of the original mediated first by technology
and second by the writer (me). Some pieces were recorded by the app direct from
online videos rather than being read aloud by me. The poems are therefore
subject to technological, programmed language bias and personal bias/artistic
style on my part. This is an integral part of their being. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I found that this method
gave me some linguistically interesting pieces which still managed to keep a
sense of dreamlike mystery as well as highlighting the strange hyperreality of
“remembering” a past life in such apparent detail. In these poems, the stories
are trying to “get through”, but there is an imperfect medium (me) using a
flawed machinery. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-11725503384526016812013-06-14T16:08:00.000+01:002013-06-14T16:08:44.998+01:00Interesting magical stuff<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A quick roundup of some brilliant articles and things to enjoy I've been looking at recently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Tomorrow I am excited to be going on a Summer Tree Walk on Hampstead Heath (ahhh, Hampstead. My spiritual home... apart from Glastonbury and Cornwall, that is...okay, and Haight Ashbury) faciliatated by my friend and occasional creative collaborator, crimson-haired Aries beauty Laura Daligan, and Zoe Hind - who I haven't met before, but I read her excellent astrology blog <a href="http://www.astrozo.com/">here</a>. To get an idea, here's a video of the last one they did. Basically we will be wandering around the Heath and learning about the magical properties of trees; the Ogham system, how to recognise certain trees, and learning about the mythology behind those trees. Awesome. And also RESEARCH. For something yet to be conceptualised. Probably.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Next, a fabulous <a href="http://www.believermag.com/issues/201306/?read=interview_moore">article in The Believer </a>with favourite initial-sharer Alan Moore. On his book, Jerusalem, currently in the writing:</span><br />
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" What I was trying for here is something which is quite a long way away from conventional narrative. I think it’s very readable, but the structure, the story, and the subject matter, all of these things make it very difficult to define. Parts of the books are frankly brutal social realism set in a wholly underprivileged neighborhood, and there are also chapters of outrageous fantasy dealing with ghosts, fairies, angels, and all sorts of other phantasmagoric creatures. And yet this is in a context of, largely, a social realist novel which is looking at this impoverished neighborhood and the people who pass through it over the years. So it’s a strange beast. I’ve been thinking of calling it “scientific fiction,” but that is largely out of perversity, mainly to annoy people who have a too-rigid definition of what science fiction should be.</div>
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Pretty much all of the book is predicated upon the assumption, which seems to be implicit in the work of most modern physicists since Einstein, that we inhabit a universe that has at least four spatial dimensions. There are the three dimensions that we are conventionally aware of, and there is the fourth dimension, which is also a spatial dimension, but we don’t perceive it as that. We perceive the distances of the fourth dimension as the passage of time. If I understand it correctly, I believe our entire continuum is at least a four-dimensional solid in which time is not passing, where every moment that ever existed or will exist is suspended, forever unchanging, from within this immense solid of space-time. And therefore the passage of time is an illusion that is only apparent to us as we move through this huge solid along what we perceive as the time axis.</div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><br />.... which sounds pretty awesome. HIs interviewer, Peter Berbegal, is apparently author of Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock ’n’ Roll, out soon. Brilliant title anyway.<br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Last, I've just got the agenda and abstracts through for the Great Writing conference at Imperial College at the end of this month, and am excited by:</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><b>Amy Lee Wai Sum, Hong Kong Baptist University - How do I qualify to be a witch? A personal reflection on Salem, the Trials, and the Fictions</b><br /><br />For a couple of years now, I have put “witchcraft”, “fictional witch stories” as my research interest in documents submitted to the university for my annual review exercise. I was first attracted to the study of witch trials by the postcolonial rewriting of Tituba in Maryse Conde’s postcolonial fiction, I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1986), and later became more interested in the trials and subsequently the fictional outputs using the historical event and the personalities.<br /><br />The fact that the Salem Witch Trials and the people involved directly and indirectly are still very much current in the popular fictional outputs seems to me that there is something in the event that we find difficult to let go. Therefore apart from reading the continuous publications of popular fiction that advertise a link with the centuries old Witch Trials, I went to Salem the town and stayed for two weeks last summer to see for myself some remnants of the historical event and how present day Salem fashions itself for the world.<br /><br />The presentation is a personal remembrance of a two-week stay at the historical witch town, and a creative reflection on the changing meaning of witchery and how it impacts on real life practices in a generally secular modern community.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I will report back.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-27309922969042222262013-04-24T11:42:00.003+01:002013-04-24T11:42:44.986+01:00Mike Kelley at Tate Modern<br />
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I had a wonderful day out yesterday with my wonderful husband on a wonderful sunny day, and whilst pottering around the Tate saw Mike Kelley's installation Channel One, Channel Two and Channel Three, which reminded me of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/8311816/Susan-Hiller-at-Tate-Britain-hidden-voices-lost-worlds.html">Susan Hiller's</a> <a href="http://www.susanhiller.org/installations/belshazzars_feast.html">Belshazzar's Feast</a>, which is a video installation featuring footage of a fire on a TV with accompanying singing and whispered stories. It's the same concept of trying to induce a state of trance in the audience / viewer, or at least providing the intended conditions to do so - there's a limit to how effective this can be in an art gallery setting.</div>
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<em style="background-color: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/artworks/belshazzars-feast-writing-on-your-wall" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 174, 211); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #0090b5; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Belshazzar’s Feast, the Writing on Your Wall</a> </em><span style="background-color: white;">1983–4 is intended as a vehicle for reverie. The work was prompted by newspaper reports of apparitions appearing on television screens right after broadcasting ended around midnight, before 24 hour transmission. Suggested causes at the time ranged from electrical interference to outer space projections and evidence of ghosts. Hiller’s work confronts this denial of the human imagination and invites the evocation of fantasy through the hypnotic effect of flickering flames. The soundtrack of the artist’s improvised singing is interspersed with whispered phrases based on the newspaper stories and her young son’s descriptions of the Biblical story of Belshazzar’s Feast and Rembrandt’s painting of the event at the National Gallery, London. </span></div>
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Here's the info Tate give to accompany the Channel piece:</div>
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In <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Channel One</i>, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Channel Two</i> and <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Channel Three</i>, Mike Kelley brings together the rational forms of minimalist sculpture with a more mystical psychedelic sensibility.</div>
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Viewers are encouraged to kneel at the intersection of three long plywood structures and peer through the lenses at the ends of each box. The interiors glimpsed within are made of simple tin foil saturated with light in the primary colours of yellow, blue and red, a reference to colour principles developed by the painter and writer Hans Hofmann. Meanwhile, a grating noise emanates from an adjacent boom box.</div>
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This combination of elements, intended to simulate a trance-like state, appears alternately informal yet unsettling, mundane yet mesmerising. It reflects Kelley’s interest in folk myths and the collective unconscious by hinting at possible relationships between Ufology, psychedelia and spiritualism. It can also be seen as parodying minimalism, turning its primary structures into makeshift mind-altering tools.</div>
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The soundtrack recalls Kelley’s interest in the experimental performances of Futurism and Dada, as well as his own background as a noise rock musician. There are also suggestions of the alleged recordings of ‘spirit voices’ on tape known as electronic voice phenomena.</div>
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This work is accompanied by photographs of Kelley’s early performance pieces using sculpture-props, including <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Perspectaphone</i>, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Spirit Voices</i>, <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tower of Babel</i>,<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Oracle at Delphi</i> and <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Indianana</i> (all 1978).</div>
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<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mike Kelley was born in 1954 in Detroit, Michigan. He moved to California in 1976 to study at CalArts. He lived and worked in the Los Angeles area until his premature death on 31 January 2012.</i></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-66055163637718099332013-03-20T16:48:00.001+00:002013-03-20T16:49:40.757+00:00Interviewing Laura Daligan<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This week's brief questionnaire is from new age artist Laura Daligan, who (among much other great work) painted the cover of my third book of poetry, </span><a href="http://www.knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk/spectralemphatic.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Spectral Emphatic</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Check out Laura's other marvellous creations - paintings, prints jewellery and more - on </span><a href="http://www.lauradaligan-art.com/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">http://www.lauradaligan-art.com/</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>How long have you been an Artist?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Since I was old enough to pick up some coloured pencils. I was always drawing animals and magical creatures as a child, so not much has changed there! Though I hope my technique has improved! :)<br /><br /><strong>Where is your favourite place to create?</strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My little desk studio space, or when possible out in nature on locatio</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">n - beaches and stone circles.<br /><br /><strong>What piece of art are you most proud of?</strong></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Hmm I don't know! Each piece is something special to me. But I'm proud of commissions I do for others as it's lovely to see my art making others happy.<br /><br /><strong>Where do you get your ideas from? </strong></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Otherworld. Nature. The Muse who sometimes comes to visit.<br /><br /><strong>What makes you different from all other artists?</strong></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Being me :) I love what all my artist friends do, we all inspire each other. I have my own way of telling my story and I hope that shows.<br /><br /><strong>What is your favourite piece of art by someone else?</strong></span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Too many to choose! I'll take one from Edvard Munch, one from J W Waterhouse, and one from Brian Froud. ♥</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-17682704504434770632013-03-05T14:51:00.000+00:002013-03-05T14:51:00.984+00:00Interviewing the artists and writers I know, No. 1: Sarah Hymas<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is a new part of the blog - every now and then I'll post up a proforma questionnaire with answers from one of the may super talented friends and contacts I am lucky enought to know. Today, the inaugural post, is from poet Sarah Hymas. I reviewed her wonderful book of poetry <a href="http://www.waterloopresshove.co.uk/#/sarah-hymas/4548291598"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Host</i> </a>a while back, and she reviewed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://sarahhymas.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/taropoetics.html">Taropoetics</a></i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Name:</strong> Sarah Hymas<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Website / blog:</strong> <a href="http://sarahhymas.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">sarahhymas.blogspot.co.uk</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Tell me about your life as a poet<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br />It's quiet. I live in the middle of nowhere. I have a desk that is beneath a window overlooking <st1:placename w:st="on">Morecambe</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bay</st1:placetype>, in Lancashire <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>, which I look out of a lot. I sometimes write, but more often these days I cross things out. I had a book published, <i>Host (</i>Waterloo Press), just over two years ago (featured here by Anna back then!) and am coming close to having my second manuscript ready. It's about the sea and called <i>We Buried the Whale at Night</i>.<br /><br /><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362494581135_2194">One of the poems from it I recently made into a wee pamphlet/art booklet (see illustration). <i>Lune </i>is the name of the estuary at whose mouth I live. It's a long poem shifting around the coastline, saltmarsh, history and its people.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span><br /></span><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362494581135_2195">I'm also working on a performance project based </span>on some of the <span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362494581135_2207">poems in this collection, called<i> Sealegs</i>, with musician Steve Lewis, which is great fun and also a </span><span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362494581135_2197">playful way of work</span>ing on some hard core editing.<br /><br />I also write a blog, wh<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362494581135_2201">ich is a kind of public creative journal in which I </span>t<span id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362494581135_2204">est run ideas around poems, or explore my thinking around art </span>and books, or write about the Bay and living next to it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>How long have you been a writer? </strong><br />wellllll, if we include those hideously embarrasing (yet earnest) first attempts, for 30 odd years. But I think I came of age far more recently<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Where is your favourite place to write? </strong><br />my desk - for the reasons given above<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>What piece of writing are you most proud of? </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Initially it's always the thing I've just finished. Then that usually wears off :) <br />But perhaps <i>Lune</i> because it took a while (and perseverance) to say what I wanted to say and although it's not as I imagined, I like how it works together<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Where do you get your ideas from?<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What I see, hear and experience, mixed with imagination, a wider history and personal regret or longing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>What makes you different from all other writers?<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br />I don't know of another poet whose obsession with the sea is coupled with the knowledge of sailing it. If there is one I'd love to be introduced! <br /> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>What is your favourite creative work by someone else? </strong><br />Any improvised piece by Keith Jarrett uplifts me; I'm gutted to have missed tickets for his forthcoming <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city> gig. Kandinsky's abstract paintings are SO energetic! Suzanne Batty's The Barking Thing (Bloodaxe) is the most exrtraordinary poetry collection I've read for a long time. The Lives of Others has one of the most perfect endings to a film I've seen...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-4088103731491025432013-02-17T21:39:00.004+00:002013-02-17T21:43:44.356+00:00Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy and the Arts in the modern world<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Interested to learn about a <a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/amsterdam-theosophy-conference/synopsis.htm">conference</a> this year, and one focusing on theosophy/mysticism and literature/text in 2015 in New York, based on links between Theosophy and the arts. The research project is being run in collaboration with the Universities of York and Amsterdam, and the University of Amsterdam houses the department investigating <a href="http://www.amsterdamhermetica.nl/#p/individual-projects.html">Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents</a>. Amazing. The list of current other research projects currently happening is fascinating. The only UK equivalent academic work I'm aware of is <a href="http://www.heythrop.ac.uk/prospective-students/postgraduate-study/ma-philosophy-and-religion.html">Heythrop College</a>, part of the University of London, but even there I don't think there is nearly the same amount of engagement in overt mysticism, hermetic philosophy and the occult.</span><br />
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'Music of Gounod - a Thought Form', from Annie Besant and
Charles Leadbeater, <em>Thought Forms</em> (1901).</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Blurb as follows:</span><br />
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<td><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Founded in 1875 in New York, the Theosophical Society quickly went global,
attracting a cosmopolitan community of adherents worldwide. Often treated as a
footnote in modern cultural history, there has been very little research about
why this esoteric organisation was so popular with artists, musicians and
writers in this period and, furthermore, what impact it had on their artistic
endeavours. The <em>Enchanted Modernities</em> International Network will bring
together scholars who are experts in the visual arts, music and sound, and
literature from all over the world to explore what the visual, material and
performing arts can tell us about the relationships between theosophy, modernity
and mysticism c. 1875-1960. The research carried out by the Network’s partners
will examine where and how artists, writers and performers came into contact
with theosophy and other mystical practices, and how theosophical ideas,
especially those of key figures in the society in this period – such as Helena
Blavatsky and Annie Besant – were given material, visual and audible form and
shape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As well as a series of academic conferences and workshops in Amsterdam and
New York, the Network’s research will be made available to international
audiences through two exhibitions, a series of musical performances and a
website.</span><br />
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<tr><td colspan="4"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One of the exhibitions will use the incredibly rich collections of the Nora
Eccles Harrison Museum which is based at Utah State University, a partner
institution in this Network, to explore the impact of theosophy on modern art
from the West Coast of the United States. </span></td></tr>
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<td><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">A primary aim of the Network is to make academic research on theosophy and
mysticism more publicly available and we will also be displaying our research at
the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York using the papers
of two prominent theosophists in Britain, the composer John Foulds, and his
wife, the violinist and writer, Maud MacCarthy, who were both interested in
Indian music. Foulds composed a <em>World Requiem</em> after the First World War
to honour the dead of all nations and the display at the Borthwick (opening in
February 2014) will look at theosophy, internationalism and the arts in the
early twentieth century. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Fry Street Quartet, based at Utah State University, will travel to
partner institutions in the Network, including Nottingham, Cardiff, Columbia
(New York) and York, to perform a recital of theosophically-inspired music,
including works by Foulds. Other activities include a visit for the Network’s
partners to the important Library at the Theosophical Society’s International
Headquarters in Adyar (Chennai) in India where we plan to hold a public seminar
about the Network’s research and a final conference at Columbia University New
York. The Trust’s funding will allow us to explore the international reach of
theosophical ideas across various disciplines and media.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">-----------------</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Should you fancy an incredibly dense and long winded read, Madame Blavatsky's Theosophist classic text The Secret Doctrine can be found <a href="http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd-hp.htm">here</a>. For more info on Helena Blavatsky and her seminal texts, good old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_Blavatsky">Wikipedia</a> has a good intro.</span></td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-68392029966837108692012-11-13T14:23:00.001+00:002012-11-13T14:23:45.219+00:00Alan Moore - Artist, writer and magician<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There are lots of interesting people making artistic crossovers between magic and art. And when I say magic, I do actually mean real magical and/or spiritual practice – not writing books about dragon slaying wizards (although, of course, that’s all totally cool. I am a swords and sorcery fan myself, and poster girl for all that is nerdy). It’s no more the province of bad pagan poetry – I<em> love the trees/they speak to me/I am a faery in a wood/this poetry is no good</em> or weirdos with dubious personal hygiene. If you’re interested to learn more about modern magical practice, you could do worse than read a few books from the <a href="http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/">Avalonia press</a>, browse at <a href="http://www.treadwells-london.com/">Treadwell’s </a>or, better, attend some of their brilliant and often academic-oriented events.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As far as practitioners go, lets look at Alan Moore, graphic artist and ceremonial magician. No-one can doubt his artistic credentials. Here he is talking about his engagement with magic and the relationship it has with his artistic practice:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“I believe that magic is art, and that art, whether that be music, writing, sculpture, or any other form, is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images, to achieve changes in consciousness… Indeed to cast a spell is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness, and this is why I believe that an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world to a shaman.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia;">Christine Hoff Kramer’s academic paper </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Alan Moore’s <i>Promethea</i>: Comics as Neo-Pagan Primer and Missionary Tool</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> was presented at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Harvard</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>’s 2007 <a href="http://cora.ucc.ie/bitstream/10468/268/1/Charming_and_Crafty_pdf.pdf">Charming and Crafty conference</a></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and detailed the way that the graphic novel could in fact induce a state of magical awareness in the reader, and perhaps trigger spiritual experiences. Her abstract was as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Alan Moore's series <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Promethea</i> is a both a sophisticated reworking of the superhero genre and a primer on contemporary Paganism and ceremonial magic. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Moore</st1:city></st1:place> creates a strong female lead in Sophie, a college student who learns to channel the demigoddess Promethea and bring a utopian apocalypse of the imagination to the world. In the course of the story, the reader is extensively introduced to the elemental system used in contemporary Pagan ritual, as well as the occult kabbalah. <br /><br />In this paper, I will argue that the graphic novel medium is an ideal form for this combination of story and spiritual instruction. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Moore</st1:city></st1:place>'s writing, combined with J.H. Williams' art and layouts, creates a highly immersive reading experience that may potentially trigger spiritual experiences in the reader. As he told <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Comic Book Artist</i>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Moore</st1:city></st1:place> wrote the kabbalistic issues a state of ritual meditation. In order to describe each of the states of consciousness that Sophie would explore, he sought to achieve them, and to produce art as expressions of those states. "What you were seeing in the comic is not the report of the magical experience," he told CBA. "It <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> the magical experience." From this perspective, the comic itself becomes a tool to help create the positive shift in consciousness portrayed in its conclusion. The reader is not just presented with occult techniques for consciousness change, although <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Moore</st1:city></st1:place> clearly does seek to educate and inform. For some readers, the comic also holds out the experience of consciousness change itself.<br /><br />In a culture where the distinction between low art and high art still persists and "low art" works are often dismissed as cheap and mindless entertainment, the notion that a comic could effectively serve as a trigger for meditative or other spiritual states in its readers may seem absurd. Art historian David Freedberg's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Power of Images,</i> however, explores the history of response to images in Western culture and charts the persistence of viewers' intense emotional, spiritual, and sometimes physical responses to both popular and fine art. If anything, Freedberg asserts, it is more acceptable to have strong and varied responses to popular art forms, under which he includes everything from personal religious images sold for home altars to erotic photography. Freedberg presents convincing evidence for the persistent belief in images' power to affect viewers psychologically and spiritually, as well as to move them to action. <br /><br /><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Moore</st1:city></st1:place> uses comics' unique blend of word and image to communicate his personal religious vision to the reader with unusual power. As a spiritual tool and missionary text, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Promethea</i> may be properly considered an heir to the sequential religious art used to stir and educate medieval worshippers.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">However, Christopher Loring Knowles makes a good point in his essay <a href="http://secretsun3.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/show-me-magic-pop-culture-and-occulture.html">“Show me the Magic: Pop Culture and Occulture”</a> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– that as far as art and entertainment is concerned, he, as the reader, wants to be entertained rather than lectured. As Kramer’s paper outlind, “<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As a spiritual tool and missionary text, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Promethea</i> may be properly considered an heir to the sequential religious art used to stir and educate medieval worshippers.” – and perhaps here the operative words are <strong>educate </strong>and <strong>missionary</strong>. It can be hard when using magic in writing or art not to evangelise, and bore. Ultimately your work is a novel/poem/painting, rather than an educational treatise on achieving nirvana.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“I don’t want to read comics <i>about</i> magic (I’d rather watch spaghetti boil) I want to read comics that <i>are</i> magic.<br /><br />I’m not talking the soapy, sentimental “magic” of our idealized memories of comics gone by, I am talking about comics that do what magic is supposed to do- take you out of the everyday world and put you somewhere else. Comics that offer what life supplied to us when we were young-- new experience. Rejuvenation. A sense of real wonder.<br /><br />Too many comics suffer from what every other pop culture media is presently suffering from. Too much emphasis on technique, too many gee-whiz digital pyrotechnics, too much sweat, too many committee-driven decisions, too little magic. And I’m here to tell you that comics is the last citadel for magic. There’s too much money at stake with every other form of mass entertainment for magic to thrive.<br /><br />And the kind of magic I believe comics needs is not the charts-and-graphs magic of Alan Moore, nor the make-it-up-as-you-go-along magic of Grant Morrison, it needs a more primal magic. The magic of the shaman, of the seer. The magic of the prophet, of the holy man. This is the magic that I bank on. This is the magic that you can do more than read about.<br /><br />It is the magic of an inspired creator, who throws him or herself into the primordial ooze of the imagination. Who ventures forth into those places in the Collective Unconscious where the gods dwell, speaks to them and then brings back their secrets to us. It is a true form of magic to make a bunch of random squiggles and symbols coalesce on a page and give the reader a true, immersive experience. Not just a momentary diversion, not simply a riveting entertainment but the kind of experience that pulls one out of their everyday experience and then takes them somewhere so radically new that the journey changes the reader forever.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And I think this is the point – as part of one’s own spiritual development, whether as creator or consumer, it’s the transcendent ability of art that’s important, rather than its detailing of ritual and technique – which, after all, is only one of many roads to the same destination. Perhaps from this point of view the more immediate and visceral nature of visual art has a stronger relationship to altered spiritual states than writing. Perhaps. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-47317894742709452322012-05-23T11:01:00.000+01:002012-05-23T11:01:13.100+01:00Children’s Literature and the Inner World – 2nd NCRCL ConferenceMy notes from a very interesting day's conference at Roehampton a week and a half ago.<br />
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<b>Magdalena Sikorska (Kazmierz Wielki University, Poland) <br />
</b>Graphic emotions: affective visual language in contemporary picturebooks<br />
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Looking at picturebooks that portray difficult-to-depict emotions and culturally sensitive issues. Picturebooks that challenge the emotional stability of the adult world. Encoding and decoding emotions.<br />
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DH Lawrence: <i>We devalue the inner life and overemphasise the intellectual </i>(paraphrased).<br />
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Books:<br />
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Katarzyna Kotowska The Hedgehog – adoption <br />
Anthony Browne – My Dad – emotional distance / coldness between father and daughter <br />
Shaun Tan – The Lost Thing - oppression <br />
Benjamin Lacombe – L’enfant silence – Being lost, mute, not being able to communicate <br />
Iwona Chmielewska – a book about menstruation (I didn’t get the title, sorry) <br />
Stian Hole – Garmann’s Street - bullying <br />
Svein Nyhus – Wlosy Mamy – maternal depression <br />
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<b>Erica Gillingham (Independent Researcher) <br />
</b>When love takes over: falling in love and coming out in young adult fiction<br />
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Looking at modern explorations of LGBT relationships and the coming out narrative in YA books – how modern novels have moved on from a) only considering “coming out” and b) this being a negative experience, ending in death/suicide/depression/being ostracised.<br />
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In 1969 the first YA novel with a gay character was published – I’ll get there, it better be worth the trip by John Donovan. Since then over 300 YA novels have been published featuring LGBT characters in some way.<br />
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In the 70s-90s a gay/queer narrative was only contained in a “problem” novel. When characters came out it ended in disaster – and there were no profound experiences of love, passion or a gay relationship. More recently there have been a range of genres and styles of YA writing – fantasy, magical realism.<br />
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Queer YA can be categorised in three areas (with many novels containing more than one of these themes)<br />
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a) Homosexual visibility – the coming out narrative<br />
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b) Gay assimilation – Stories in which character/s happen to be gay, but the story doesn’t have sexuality as its main focus<br />
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c) Queer community/Queer consciousness – Shows characters within the context of their families and a gay community<br />
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<b>Book list:<br />
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Malinda Lo – Ash, Huntress<br />
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Jane England – Wildthorn <br />
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Joanne Horniman – About a Girl<br />
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Alex Sanchez – The Rainbow Boys<br />
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Martin Wilson – What They Always Tell Us<br />
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Paula Boock - Dare Truth or Promise<br />
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Julia Anne Peters – Keeping you a secret<br />
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David Levithan - Boy Meets Boy<br />
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Emily M Danforth - The Miseducation of Cameron Post<br />
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Brent Hartinger - Geography Club<br />
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Julie Anne Peters - RAGE: A love story<br />
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Sara Ryan - Empress of the World<br />
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Laura Goode – Sister Mischief<br />
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Books by Dan Savage and Terry Miller.<br />
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<b>Considering the Anthropomorphism Paradox<br />
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Anthropomorphism gets a bad press. Why?<br />
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Reasons against:<br />
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a)It’s inherently demeaning to animals<br />
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i.e. why is a wolf dressed in a scarf to hunt pigs? Does it make him an inadequate human being, and ridiculous? It eliminates the dignity of the animal.<br />
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b) Cuteness<br />
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Using humanised/talking animals is just a way to make books look cuter and sell more books<br />
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c) Dumbing down a narrative<br />
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That is, anth. could be seen as asking us to forget what we know about the real world and accept the fictional as real.<br />
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d)Disappointment for children<br />
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When they realise/learn wild animals aren’t friendly/can talk etc.<br />
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e)Affecting life decisions as an adult<br />
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The idea that what we read about animals as children can affect the decisions we make in relation to them in adult life – i.e. whether to remove them from gardens or urban areas; eat them etc.<br />
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Criticising the criticisms<br />
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· The criticisms do not consider why anth. exists in the first place or why it is so popular – thinking about how we relate to the environment<br />
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· There is a difference between identifying with an animal character and feeling empathy for an animal character who is exploring human emotions/situation <br />
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· We are just one species amongst many – it’s not what separates us nut what we have in common with the animal.<br />
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· Animals in books remind adults of our “animal urges” and children identify with the animalistic life needs of eating, sleeping, defecating.<br />
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Anth. forces us to take sides with/against animals, e.g. wolves = bad, mice = good?<br />
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Ursula Le Guin – <i>Cheek by Jowl </i>– book about anthropomorphism, children’s literature and sci-fi – our innate connection to animals.<br />
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<b>Farah Mendlesohn <br />
What is This Child You Speak of?<br />
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Readers under 12 are referred to as the blanket term of “child”, unlike adult readers who are split into a variety of classifications: female reader, gay reader, black reader etc.<br />
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Recommended reads: Delusions of Gender – Cordelia Fine, Watching Kids – Leila Berg and Holly Blandford – Why Literature Matters to Girls.<br />
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Jacqueline Rose – “the child cannot exist in literature created by adults other than a figure of fantasy or desire which society needs to believe”<br />
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Rose believed that children did not choose books, but they are not just dumb recipients of books as gifts – “pester power”, word of mouth and scrounging and bartering. Reading books they find at friends’ houses etc.<br />
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Writers have frequently not experienced what they write about. But all adults have been children. Do we act as though we were never children? We don’t all have the same memory of it.<br />
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In terms of research: humanities researchers are generally unaware of what constitutes the “average child” – talked about the statistical differences found when considering mean, median, mode and range. We can know everything about the child – race, sex, religion, parents’ occupation – but know nothing about their inner lives.<br />
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The books above explore the processes of people watching children and trying to understand the inner life of children.<br />
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The word “child” erases differences between children.<br />
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Why are we so determined to construct the inner life of the child, when we recognise that knowing the inner life of “the adult” is impossible?<br />
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IS there an “essential child” or does the definition change with time? <br />
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Conclusion: we should accept that we can never know someone else’s inner self, but acknowledge that as humans we always want to find it.<br />
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<b>Philip Gross <br />
Outside In – on creative work with young people<br />
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Borders, edges and margins produce stories. Borderlines are creative places.<br />
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If there is a border, there is an edge, and therefore conflict and uncertainty, and chances of invasions and evasions. Lawlessness on the border = STORY!<br />
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Creative = stepping over a border between real and made up.<br />
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“Re-composing the world around you in a different order that increases the available options for ways of being or responding”<br />
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If a border = risk, there are options there for harm as well as inspiration.<br />
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In an age when young people are skilled at performing themselves for others – ie YouTube – is there an urge to speak up for an inner space where you can hold the world at a distance? That isn’t the only place we can be cerative, but it shouldn’t be lost. Long, boring spaces of inwardness – the bookish child – have they been lost with today’s higher levels of stimulation, socialising and networking?<br />
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The Moomins – “a bible of healthy introversion”<br />
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All characters have intense inner lives that we don’t necessarily know about, but we know they have them.<br />
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Borders are places of risk. As a parent, nervous of a child’s inner space, because when they go there, you don’t know where they are. His daughter’s anorexia, as explored in his book The Wasting Game. Is an illness like anorexia a way that creativity is lost – because obsession offers no options?<br />
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PG often plays a writing game with children – describing boxes. One person describes the exterior of an imaginary box to another, and the second person then describes what is inside the box. Children find this interesting because of a concern with interiors and exteriors, and the dissonance they can contain. Children spend a lot of time second-guessing the internal state of adults, and are very upset with “two-facedness”.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-57548746177269325262012-05-04T14:10:00.002+01:002012-05-04T14:14:54.882+01:00Anais Nin - The House of Incest, original recording by Louis and Bebe BarronI am priveliged to have in the CD player in my car (the only place I get any peace to listen to anything) the orginal audio recording of Anais Nin reading her symbolist prose poem The House of Incest. I came to get it from my dad who has just finished his BA dissertation on <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/bebe-barron-cocomposer-of-the-first-electronic-film-score-for-forbidden-planet-822755.html">Louis and Bebe Barron</a>, the sound artists who created the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet. This recording is one of a number of recordings of artists reading their own work that the Barrons recorded in 1949.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu2fcdxNy_Ec79rHnUp1zx94xAgZJMPfxpGLrVzBkVT5LZoAL9fOd7qPjKOQVoO9Drcv5fHZgoFPMGsVgbPq6Vun6PYu6ZG7IeXfBTgYg7BgGA2e-RgRimRSt24cDN8A_xUjyyt7ab2Ko/s1600/anais.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="320" width="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu2fcdxNy_Ec79rHnUp1zx94xAgZJMPfxpGLrVzBkVT5LZoAL9fOd7qPjKOQVoO9Drcv5fHZgoFPMGsVgbPq6Vun6PYu6ZG7IeXfBTgYg7BgGA2e-RgRimRSt24cDN8A_xUjyyt7ab2Ko/s320/anais.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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The House of Incest is a surrealistic look within the narrator's subconscious mind as she attempts to escape from a dream in which she is trapped, or in Nin's words, as she attempts to escape from "the woman's season in hell." So says Wikipedia. <br />
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Nin's usage of the word incest in this case is metaphorical, not literal. In other words, in this book the word "incest" describes a selfish love where one can appreciate in another only that which is similar to oneself. One is then only loving oneself, shunning all differences. At first, such a self-love can seem ideal because it is without fear and without risk. But eventually it becomes a sterile nightmare. Toward the end of the book, the character called "the modern Christ" puts Nin’s use of the word into context: “If only we could all escape from this house of incest, where we only love ourselves in the other."<br />
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Nin was under the analysis of Otto Rank during the period of writing House of Incest. Rank was an early disciple of Freud, serving as the secretary and youngest member of his Vienna group, but had long since dissented from Freudian orthodoxy and developed his own theoretical school. Incest: From a Journal of Love"—The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin (1932–1934) reveals that the two were also having an affair.<br />
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Rank helped Anaïs edit House of Incest. He had experience with this topic, as Otto Rank's most famous book is The Trauma of Birth. House of Incest is largely an attempt by the narrator to cope with the shock of the trauma of birth. Anaïs Nin describes the process as akin to being "[e]jected from a paradise of soundlessness.... thrown up on a rock, the skeleton of a ship choked in its own sails."<br />
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In Anaïs Nin: An Introduction, authors Duane Schneider and Benjamin Franklin V both argue that the basic theme of House of Incest is that ultimately life in the real world, which contains both pleasure and pain, is preferable to any self-created world that attempts to include only pleasure [1]. Franklin and Schneider argue that a world consisting only of pleasure is ultimately a sterile world where intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth is not possible, and what results is stunted people. In this, they offer the passage from House of Incest wherein Anaïs Nin writes, "Worlds self made are so full of monsters and demons."<br />
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The prose of House of Incest is considered by many to be one of the major challenges of the work. The prose and tone of the work is not linear and does not utilize everyday language. Rather, the book is written in prose that is often described as either surrealist or symbolist.<br />
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<i>"My first vision of earth was water veiled. I am of the race of men and women who see all things through this curtain of sea and my eyes are the color of water. I looked with chameleon eyes upon the changing face of the world, looked with anonymous vision upon my uncompleted self." </i>(Page 15) <br />
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It's a really beautiful piece, and Nin's voice, off-key intonation and accent gives it an otherwordliness and exoticism.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-85060649493023694552012-03-24T14:21:00.004+00:002012-03-24T14:36:19.347+00:00Hexen 2, Suzanne Treister, Tarot and Game ArtThis interview is part of GameScenes' ongoing series on the pioneers of Game Art and the early days of the GameArt World. The conversation between Suzanne Treister and Mathias Jansson took place in August 2010 via email. I am reproducing it here with gratitude for such an interesting interview, having just received my copy of Treister's HEXEN II art book, which is truly spectacular.<br /><br />The book starts with an excellent essay contextualising the work and explaining its rationale, essentially (I think) using the tarot with its rhizomatic associative nature to represent the linkages between hippy counterculture, history, philosophy, cybernetics, developments in theories of human nature and the mind as well as the cold war and government. The images themselves are beautiful : a whole set of tarot cards (you can order the cards from Amazon - mine not arrived yet) depicting concepts and key players from all of these disciplines - Ada Lovelace as the Queen of Cups, Timothy Leary as the King of Wands. The book / exhibition (currently at the Science Museum) starts with several maps linking all of these disparate, or not-so-disparate, entities together, showing lineages from William Blake to Leary to the CIA, ARPANET and the Macy Conferences of WW2.<br /><br />Basically, a must have, must-see.<br /><br />The original article that follows can be found <a href="http://www.gamescenes.org/2010/08/interview-suzanne-treister.html">here.</a> having written my MA dissertation on poetry in virtual environments (and produced the book and CD of the text "Ceres Chrzan is Typing/Already a Memory, Already a Soft Song") and being married to an ardent gamer, this is of particular interest, and even more evidence that Suzanne Treister is probably my new hero.....<br /><br />"Suzanne Treister (b.1958 London UK) studied at St Martin's School of Art, London (1978-1981) and Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (1981-1982), is now based in London having lived in Australia, New York and Berlin. Primarily a painter through the 1980s, Treister was a pioneer in the digital/new media/web based field from the beginning of the 1990s, developing fictional worlds and international collaborative organisations.<br /><br />Treister's practice deals with notions of identity, history, power and the hallucinatory. Her investigations into the life and research of the fictional character Rosalind Brodsky, most recently explored in the multi-venue project, HEXEN 2039, were described by Art in America as 'One of the most sustained fantasy trips of contemporary art', which belies a deeper mission: to explore how we make sense of history and the politics of war." (source)<br /><br />GameScenes: Suzanne, you're considered one of the first artists who fully embraced gaming as a form of artistic expression. How and when did you begin to explore this medium for means different from pure entertainment? And what did you find fascinating about videogames?<br /><br />Suzanne Treister: From the mid to late 1980s I spent several nights a week hanging out in amusement arcades in London's Soho with my boyfriend who was hooked on videogames. Over time, waiting around for him to finish so we could go and eat or see a film, I started to think about the games, their structures, their objectives, their themes, their addictiveness. I started to consider their cultural subtexts, antecedents, the effect they may have on society and how they might develop and connect to other mechanisms, developments and fantasies or projections of the future. At first I wasn’t so crazy about playing the games myself, until I got addicted to Tetris, and then when I got my Amiga computer in 1991 I started playing some of the platform games, similar to the ones in the arcades, which had come free with the games magazines I was buying for research. In 1995 when I visited Los Angeles for the first time, staying with friends for a week, I barely left the house. I spent almost the whole time killing and escaping from the Nazis and their dogs in the videogame Castle Wolfenstein, which my hosts were also hooked on.<br /><br /> <br />Suzanne Treister, 1989 - "Picassoids Video Game", oil on canvas 213 x 153 cms (image source)<br /><br />GameScenes: Did you create your first game-inspired paintings back in the '80s? Why did you decide to transfer digital interactions on a canvas? What games did you find most inspiring?<br /><br />Suzanne Treister: Yes, just to backtrack a moment, in the 80s, before I became interested in videogames, I made paintings using appropriated imagery from history and popular culture to describe hypothetical narratives, or possible ways of reading the world. An early series had used themes and imagery relating to the USSR/Russia whilst other works referenced literature, art history, war and religion in the mapping of imaginary scenarios. I saw them as a form of contemporary history painting. On one level much of this work originated from a desire to negotiate my family history, specifically the issues and historical events surrounding the relocation of my father from Poland/France to the UK during WWII which in turn inevitably produced a fascination with the Cold War and the Eastern Bloc. By the end of 1987 my paintings had begun to develop a more repetitive visual structure, images such as books spines, candles, metal bolts and flourescent lights were repeated in rows, blocks or mazes, housing other images or scenes. These works sometimes referenced ludic structures as ways of mapping space and encouraging the viewer’s interaction in a psychological sense.<br /><br />In 1988 I made the first videogame paintings, substituting the characters or forms found in arcade games for historical characters or living persons and everyday objects.<br /><br /> <br />Suzanne Treister, 1989 - "Koons-Kiefer Video Game No. 1", oil on canvas 122 x 107 cms (image source)<br /><br />For example, 'Koons Kiefer Videogame' made in 1989 represented the US artist Jeff Koons as a kitsch toy horse about to enter the space of German artist Anselm Kiefer, depicted as a virtual forest of birch trees made up of end to end painted book spines. The inclusion of ‘Videogame’ in the title aimed to provoke an anticipation of a goal oriented narrative at play, and in the case of the painting, and other related works to come, the development and outcome of this narrative was to be projected by the viewer.<br /><br /> <br />Suzanne Treister, 1989 - "Video Game for Primo Levi", oil on canvas 213 x 153 cms (image source)<br /><br />The second painting in the series was titled, 'Videogame for Primo Levi'. Levi was an author I admired, writing about his survival of the Holocaust. I set up the structure of the painting/game as a maze of bolts and hinges through which clusters of green light bulbs had to make their way. The painting was stylistically overtly kitsch, but monumental in scale and reference, highlighting the problematics of artistic representations of history in relation to the corresponding horrific actuality of events, and in turn commenting on the anaesthetising effect of the video game narratives, which were based for the most part on the idea of continuous killing or destruction in the pursuit of an ultimate and singular goal.<br /><br />GameScenes: Were there other artists around at that time also interested in creating art inspired by videogames? Or did you feel that you were somehow alone in your exploration?<br /><br />Suzanne Treister: In the 80s there were no artists I knew of who were interested in making work about videogames and curators who visited my studio didn’t even know what they were. Nor did there seem to be any interest in the subject from within academia, although this changed abruptly a few years later with the expansion of the cultural studies industry.<br /><br />Also at the time of making my first digital works I felt quite alone. In 1991 when artist friends came to my studio and I showed them for the first time my Amiga computer humming on the paint stained workbench they would ask worriedly, ‘Of course you’ll only be using it to work out your paintings, won’t you?’ I was severely warned of the dangers of being ‘taken over by the machine’. There seemed to be a misconception that the computer actually made the work, rather than the artist, and one could partly blame this on the term ‘computer generated’ which seemed to have mysteriously entered the language.<br /><br />I wasn’t seduced as such by video games or computers but I felt I had to deal with them as they were not going to go away. I had been however, since childhood, seduced by science fiction, from the British TV series ‘Doctor Who’, ‘The Tomorrow People’, ‘Adam Adamant Lives’, to the writing of George Orwell, H. G. Wells and J. G. Ballard. These, along with writers who interested me several years later, for example Bulgakov, Bassani, Umberto Eco, Borges, Bruno Schulz and William Gibson, plus my interest in psychoanalytic theory and obsession with the Holocaust and Eastern Europe, all these I would say in one way or another, however oblique, contributed to my move into the new media world, and within that, more explicitly, to a belief in the idea that narrativity and ‘reality’ was becoming fluid and mutable within these new technologies, and to a suspicion that somehow the ‘interactive’ video game was an early embodiment of a whole new paradigm which needed to be observed and interrogated.<br /><br /> <br />Suzanne Treister, 1991-1992 - "Examine the Evidence", videogame still (image source)<br /><br />GameScenes: Between 1991-92, you created a series of fictional videogame stills using Amiga’s Deluxe Paint II, and, between 1993-94, you produced "Software", a series of 36 imaginary software packages. What was the idea behind these fictional games?<br /><br />Suzanne Treister: The works I made on the Amiga computer were similar to the recent paintings but now incorporated digital effects, text and inevitably resembled far more closely the games themselves. The titles of the works echoed the game titles on the screen. Eg. Are you Dreaming?, Dream Monster, Easyworld 5, Examine the Evidence, Have you been sentenced to a fate worse than death? You have reached the Gates of Wisdom - Tell us what you have seen, Incidents reported, Do you know? Lost in Space, Blinded by the Text, Monster Visions/Song Titles, Identify the Murder Weapon, Mutant Territories-Grand Prix, Quiz 2, No Quiz, Quiz - 10 Questions.<br /><br />In Mutant Territories-Grand Prix the screen showed an ariel view of a racetrack made of jewles and the instructions on the screen read, ‘Drive around the map until you run out of petrol’, rather than the usual goal oriented challenge of regular games.<br /><br />Text was able to enter the works in an organic sense, in that the computer screen was a natural site of text; word processing, text messages, programming. All these manifest text on the screen and I could play on this directly in the works whilst intimating broader subtextual narratives and readings.<br /><br />Easyworld 5 contained only text instructions. In front of a royal blue curtain appeared the words: Determine your position on the screen and proceed at an even pace. So long as you know where you are you will be ok. Wait until you have decided where you want to go first. When you have made your decision move player 1 into a vacant box. Then the curtain will open slowly to reveal the object of your dreams. Wait for a few seconds and then press "EXIT". You will have arrived at the scene of a crime. Welcome to Easyworld 5.<br /><br />Rather than depict the usual suspects from actual games, or versions thereof, in many cases the scenarios were abstracted so that the viewer would have to insert their own hypothetical narrative and become themselves the protagonist, i.e. they would have to imagine their own persona rather than being given the role of a fighter or comic character.<br /><br />I photographed these early Amiga works straight from the screen. The photographs perfectly reproduced the highly pixilated, raised needlepoint effect of the Amiga screen image. Conceptually this means of presentation was appropriate in that it made it seem like I had gone into a videogame arcade and photographed the games there, lending authenticity to the fictions.<br /><br />In 1992 I worked on a new Amiga based series which presented stills from a single imaginary videogame. This piece played on the phenomenon of computer system messages counterpoised with the cultural fear/fantasy of a technological future paradise. Individual screen texts read in sequential order: Would you recognise a Virtual Paradise?, Not enough Memory for operation, Presume Virtual Breakdown, You have entered a Virtual Wilderness, Software Failure..., Error finding Question, No Message – Proceed.<br /><br /><br /><br />Suzanne Treister, SOFTWARE: Would you recognise a Virtual Paradise 1993-4 oil paint &/or mixed media on cardboard boxes and floppy disks dimensions of each diptych: 22.5 x 16 x 4 cm (x 2) (image source)<br /><br />Between 1993-94 I made a series of fictional software boxes, each cardboard box and floppy disc label painted to describe an imaginary game or piece of software where various things may happen, where a whole range of virtual experiences could be possible, from pornography to perpetual paranoia, from ethical hallucinations to torture. (http://ensemble.va.com.au/Treister/Software/Software.html)<br /><br />GameScenes: Have you ever felt the desire to join the game industry or create art games? Can you share something about Rosalind Brodsky, a virtual persona that is responsible for a remarkable amount of your artistic production? What's the story behind her conception? How is Rosalind connected to gaming?<br /><br />Suzanne Treister: No, I never had the ambition to join the gaming industry but I did make a game. From 1997-99 I developed, in line with the developing games industry an interactive cd rom, ‘No Other Symptoms – Time Travelling with Rosalind Brodsky’, which in many ways echoed the structure of quest games such as Myst. I invented Rosalind Brodsky as an alter ego in 1995 and firstly I made her a set of time travelling costumes. The original biography of Brodsky went like this: ‘Rosalind Brodsky, with whom I share Anglo/Eastern European/Jewish roots, was born in London in 1970 and survived until 2058. Her first ‘delusional’ experience of time travel supposedly occurred while she was in the middle of a session with the pyschoanalyst Julia Kristeva in Paris, at the moment she noticed the similarity of Kristeva’s face to the photographic portrait of her Polish-Jewish grandmother who had been murdered in the Holocaust. By 1995 Brodsky is a delusional time traveller who believes herself to be working in London at the Institute of Militronics and Advanced Time Interventionality (IMATI) in the 21st century. IMATI is a controversial government funded organisation which develops equipment and carries out time travel research projects whose results are for use primarily by the military and other government research organisations. Established in 2004 its mission is to carry out interventional historical, anthropological and scientific research through means of time travel. Working with virtual technologies which render the users’ bodies invisible in their own time and space the Institute develops virtual simulations of key moments in history. Researchers at the Institute then carry out simulated interventions/experiments within these virtual times/worlds. In academic circles there is controversy as to the validity of this form of ‘anthropological’ research, but there are many who suspect that IMATI has actually found the secret of authentic time travel.’<br /><br />The cd rom journey takes the form of a tour organised by IMATI in memory of Brodsky's contribution to time travel research. In the introductory scene there is an announcement that a demonstration of armed academics is taking place outside the institute, threatening the building, staff and visitors within. You, the player, now risk remaining in suspended time travel for the rest of your life. The aim is to survive by navigating the space of Rosalind Brodsky, with escape eventually only possible via her satellite spy probe from where a shuttle will transport you back to earth to an underground home in the mining town of Coober Pedy, South Australia, in the present day.<br /><br />The tour uncovers biographical and historical data focussing on much of her life, work and personal interests. During her lifetime Brodsky carried out major research in areas of film, TV, music, architecture, genetics, the history of Eastern Europe, the Holocaust, the 1960s and the Russian Revolution as well as contributing to the research and design of a range of time travel equipment. From Brodsky's study, concealed behind a memorial wall, you are able to travel to her home in Bavaria, journey from there to her Satellite in outer space (constructed from Christo’s wrapped Reichstag, teleported by IMATI from Berlin in 1995), access her electronic time travelling diary, her feature vibrators and discover the time travelling costumes and attaché cases in her wardrobe. The wardrobe conceals the entrance to a lift which takes you down to the Clinics. The Clinics is an underground laboratory where, for analysis, due to the decline of psychoanalysis in the twenty first century, stressed time travellers must travel back in time to the homes of Freud, Jung, Klein, Lacan and Kristeva. Brodsky’s case histories with these analysts are documented as are recordings of her time travelling cookery TV show and the music videos of her band who were popular in Eastern Europe in the 2030s.<br /><br />The cd rom was completed and published with a book in 1999.<br /><br />Since then I have not made any games based works except for the inclusion of three video ‘training demos’ in the 2009 project ‘MTB [Military Training Base]’ which used footage of actual geographical sites; Donald Judd’s ex-military base/art foundation in Marfa, Texas; the ruins of the Palace of the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopia and the Unabomber's cabin in Montana.<br /><br />Since 2001 I have made works developing from the Brodsky project; documenting and displaying, in installation, web and dvd form, the IMATI Time Travel Research Projects which had supposedly been carried out at IMATI. These include: Golem/Loew - Artificial Life, Operation Swanlake and HEXEN 2039. I am currently working on the sequel, HEXEN II.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150940414901008837.post-17529623044580999882012-01-28T15:06:00.003+00:002012-01-28T15:18:29.111+00:00More fortune telling in literatureTwo other books helped inspire Taropoetics, my experimental poetry project. They were Margaret Atwood's novel <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lady-Oracle-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0860683036">Lady Oracle</a> - an interesting essay about it <a href="http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/SCL/bin/get.cgi?directory=vol3_2/&filename=Davidson.htm">here</a> - and Philip K Dick's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle">The Man in the High Castle</a>. The former uses the idea of automatic writing to create poetry, and the latter uses the I Ching as a storytelling device in a story-within-a-story:<br /><br />Dick used the philosophic I Ching (Book of Changes) to determine the plot particulars of The Man in the High Castle, explaining:<br /> <br /><br />"I started with nothing but the name, Mister Tagomi, written on a scrap of paper, no other notes. I had been reading a lot of Oriental philosophy, reading a lot of Zen Buddhism, reading the I Ching. That was the Marin County zeitgeist, at that point; Zen Buddhism and the I Ching. I just started right out and kept on trucking."[4] In the event, he blamed the I Ching for plot incidents he disliked: "When it came to close down the novel, the I Ching had no more to say. So, there's no real ending on it. I like to regard it as an open ending".<br /> <br />The I Ching is prominent in The Man in the High Castle; having diffused it as part of their cultural hegemony overlordship of the Pacific Coast U.S., the Japanese — and some American — characters consult it, and then act per its replies to their queries. Specifically, "The Man in the High Castle", Hawthorne Abendsen, himself, used it to write The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, and, at story's end, in his presence, Juliana Frink, queries the I Ching: "Why did it write The Grasshopper Lies Heavy?" and "What is the reader to learn from the novel?" The I Ching replies with Hexagram 61 ([中孚] zhōng fú) Chung Fu, "Inner Truth", describing the true state of the world—every character in The Man in the High Castle is living a false reality.<br /><br />I wondered whether Atwood's reference to automatic writing, albeit in a slightly comedic novel, pointed to Hannah Weiner's <a href="http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/weiner/cj/index.html">Clairvoyant Journal</a>. This is an avant-garde text which the writer "received" over a number of months. (Another very interesting essay on Weiner available as a PDF <a href="http://www.nonsitecollective.org/system/files/The+%22Case%22+of+Hannah+Weiner.pdf">here</a>).<br /><br />In the early 1970s, Weiner began writing a series of journals that were partly the result of her experiments with automatic writing and partly a result of her schizophrenia. She influenced a number of the language poets and was included in the In the American Tree anthology of Language poetry (edited by Ron Silliman). Beginning with Little Books/Indians (1980) and Spoke (1984) Weiner's work engaged with Native American politics, particularly the American Indian Movement and the case of imprisoned activist Leonard Peltier.[4][5]<br /> <br />Interest in Weiner continues into the 21st century with the recent publication of Hannah Weiner’s Open House (2007), "a representative selection spanning her decades of poetic output" [6] This volume was edited by Patrick F. Durgin, who provides an overview of Weiner's art:<br /> <br /><br /><br />“<br /> <br />Hannah Weiner’s influence extends from the sixties New York avant-garde, where she was part of an unprecedented confluence of poets, performance and visual artists including Phillip Glass, Andy Warhol, Carolee Schneemann, John Perrault, David Antin, and Bernadette Mayer. Like fellow-traveler Jackson Mac Low, she became an important part of the Language poetry of the 70s and 80s, and her influence can be seen today in the so-called "New Narrative" work stemming from the San Francisco Bay Area. With other posthumous publications of late, her work is being discussed by scholars in feminist studies, poetics, and disability studies. But there does not yet exist a representative selection spanning her decades of poetic output. Hannah Weiner’s Open House aims to remedy this with previously uncollected (and mostly never-published) work, including performance texts, early New York School influenced lyric poems, odes and remembrances to / of Mac Low and Ted Berrigan, and later “clair-style” works.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0