Responses to Week 5 Readings

Please post your comments in reaction to the readings by Puckett, Oppen, Roethke, and Conte here. I know it's a busy reading week, but don't worry, we'll get back to writing next week. Thanks to Crystal for posting Etude 4!

Article about Carla Harryman

Hi all. Just wondering if anyone would be interested in writing an article about Harryman's upcoming reading for the Collegian. We are planning to publish the story in next Tuesday's issue to let students know that she's coming and a little about who she is. You would get paid for about two hours work. And I'm pretty sure Dr. Jenkins would cooperate and give you quotes. :) Let me know...maybe someone would give you extra credit, too!!! AND it would make you more prepared for her visit so you can ask intelligent questions and prevent awkward silences during class.

-Danielle

P.S. Let me extend this to say that anyone who wants to write for the Collegian is SO WELCOME. Contact me in particular if you are interested in writing for the Variety Section. I can get you free tickets to things (not a bribe...).

Etude 4

This one's a team effort, so you have two options here.

a. Grab some old class notes, if you still have them, from a class you either really liked or really hated, and make some found poetry out of those. Do you actually remember anything you learned? Fill in the gaps if you can, without consulting any references. The stuff you make up will probably be better than the actual class material anyway. (Loosely, this could be like an extension of Etude 1, where you had to think about subjects/vocabularies you liked and hated.)

b. Take your notebook and sit in a coffee shop or other public place (ACAC? park bench? whatever). Write down scraps of conversation that you overhear. Not necessarily the interesting scraps, either--try being as continuous as possible for awhile. Then make some found poetry out of the notes you've taken.

Will Alexander to Visit Tulsa, Feb 16 & 17

All, unexpectedly, Will Alexander will be here a week from today, so I have revised the syllabus to reflect that change. So please prepare to read Exobiology as Goddess for next week. You are also invited to my Monday night seminar on Af Am lit in Zink 354 where Will will be discussing his work. His reading will be Tues, Feb 17, 7PM.

Poetry Reading Postponed

I've pushed our first poetry reading back to March 25, the Thursday after Spring Break. I'll announce the venue soon, but it will be at 8pm.

Etude 4?

I think it's a good precedent that we take turns coming up with the etudes. Since Russ came up with Etude 3, who wants to do Etude 4? Although it's not due for 2 weeks, the volunteer should just post the exercise as a new posting so everyone can see it easily. I've put a link to Charles Bernstein and Bernadette Mayer's list of experiments that you can use as inspiration (or steal outright) for your etude.

Renata on Heidegger

Dear class, Renata wanted me to post her thoughts about the readings until she's blog-savvy:

About Heidegger, I would like to know more about 'Emergence:' As I read Heidegger, I see the emergence of truth (beauty?) from the work of art as the inherent quality that conceals and reveals itself, which is beyond usefulness, that reveals itself in poetry, for example, as the unsayable, that which cannot be said, a slippery notion . The poetic reveals itself through words. The other arts have their own language which also conceals and reveals truth (beauty?) of the work created. 'Emergence' therefore is a process, an unstable relationship that cam be apprehended but not possessed. Emergence occurs because the artist was able, consciously or unconsciously, to create over and beyond the work itself. This makes me think of Bachelard or, to refer to the experimental writers of the packet you distributed in class, to Blake's notion of the 'contraries.'