Word Play

Infinite

Roundness in hopeful plenty

prettiness of the interplay
forward -
i notice in retrospect a dizzying appeal
from the motion
from the notion of space
infinately of hope.

i approve. it sounds nice. it makes the right pictures.

Trashing Harold Bloom

Everyone knows Harold Bloom; everyone has probably at one time or another had to read or buy some anthology or another 'edited' by him. For all you ppl who took oac music, our books were edited by Bloom.

For a guy who makes a bazillion dollars off the veneration of other people's genius I was torn as to if he was the big bad wolf knocking down anything that didn't fit into his exacting idea of 'good' work OR if he was someone who just geniunely loved within specific boundaries. Still, after reading Edward Said's new book, I laughed out loud when I read a thorough thumping of Bloom:

"This catholicity of vision is not at all what we have been getting from Harold Bloom, who has become the popular spokesman of the most extreme kind of dismissive aestheticism calling itself canonical humanism."

"In his incessant, grab-bag evocations of what he dismissively calls the school of resentment, Bloom includes everything said or written by the non-European, non-male, non-Anglo educated upstarts who don't happen to agree with his tiresome vatic trumpetings."

"Bloom's opinions about the humanistic canon show an absence rather than an invigorating presence of mind: he nearly always refuses to answer questions at public lectures, he refuses to engage with other arguments, he simply asseverates, affirms, intones. This is self-puffery, not humanism, and certainly not enlightened criticism" (27).

hahahahaha - i'm a fan. And read it aloud...it just flows off the tongue.

From "Sacrificing Extremity" by Bronfen

Woman is bitter as gall
(said Prosper Merimee in his novella 'Carmen'; picture above)

suggest woman to be venomous, peevish, bitter; a source of vexation, irritation and exasperation; gall also denotes a plant tumour caused by parasites and suggests woman as parasitic, cancerous and generally a 'danger to the healthy and normal order of the community (as a body); connected to the humours, woman is also melancholy and anger this is the C19th women in the mainstream discourse.

it's so textually and metaphorically alive and yet so deadening and hopeless, cutting half the population to the quick with one poisonous stab.

i read on....

I'm curious and I want to know

Let's do an experiment... It's the "What I'm reading and Why" game.

In the following format,

What: Humanism and Democratic Criticism by Edward Said
Why: For my critical lit theory class and because it's one of those pivotal texts need to be read. (Loving it.)

What: Life is a Sine Wave - Richard's blog
Why: Because I am addicted to other people's lives ... and their presentation of their lives.


make a list of things that you are currently reading. Newspapers, magazines, websites... whatever you've been reading this week.

Some commentators cite as proof of Sappho's hetersexuality the fact that she was married and had a daughter. Curiously her husband is cited as Kerkylas from Andros. The name Kerkylas was based on the word for "penis." Andros comes from the word for "men." If we translate then, we find that the most famous lesbian of all was married to Penis from the City of Men.

(from "Sappho" on the GLBTQ Victorian Lit Website)

I enjoyed this beyond measure. Nothing is ever simple... if you find yourself justifying a simplistic reading remember Sappho! hahaha - gotta love that.

Books on My Desk

Not exactly procrastination, this post isn't exactly what I'm supposed to be doing either. We could view it as just another thing on my 'to-do' list. So really, I'm being productive here.

With school and other commitments I have found writing and reading, other than for school, have been relegated to the very very bottom of an ever increasing priorities list. My joys are being shafted. But one fantabulous thing that has come from being in English is that I get the opportunity (excuse?) to read many books in every vein of bookdom. I've been thinking lately, if happiness can be measured in the sheer number (let alone quality) of books one person has read, that the number of books and authors go past my desk and my eyes in even one month makes me a happy girl - a lucky girl.

Anyways, coursewear material aside, here's a list of the books sitting on my desk currently in some stage of being processed.

Monday in the Promised Land - Novel by Gish Jen (1997)
Bone - Novel by Fae NG (1993)
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Novel by Oscar Wilde (1891)
Hawthorne's View of the Artist - Critical essays by Millicent Bell (1962)
House of Seven Gables - Novel by N. Hawthorne (1851) *A very pretty edition by Riverside Press Cambridge from 1900
Selected Tales and Sketches - Short stories by N. Hawthorne (1837) *An awesome collection (Kara - very Poe-esque)
The Blithedale Romance - Novel by N. Hawthorne (1852) *I liked this one alot.. a bridging book if you read in the Romantic tradition OR you're familiar with Victorian british lit
Long Ago - Poetry by Michael Fields
The Dream Class Anthology - Short stories by selected Toronto highschoolers in the 80's
Fireworks - A collection of essays on Women in Writing
Wordscapes - An collection of work by B.C youth
But where are you really from - Anthology by Hazelle Palmer (1997) *An exacting and needed text
Celebrating Canadian Women - Prose and Poetry *Published in 1989 this book is actly why Hazelle Palmer's book is necessary. Good writing; definately blinded
Pens of Many Colours - An anthology of Canadian writing ** Why is this on my desk??
Successful Marriage - essays by 20 doctors on the best way to date, marry, have children and generally be successful. written in the late 1940s this book scare me. bought it for 3 dollars at the YMCA. Awesome find
Humanism and Democratic Criticism - Edward Said ** I fear that I will become a Said follower... everyone should read this book READ IT
To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life - Hervie Guibert *who's interested in AIDS lit? this book looks great...
Autobiography of Red - A Modern Greek tale in poetry by Anne Carson *made me a fan
Masculine Migrations - Essays by Daniel Coleman *the new vein of feminist thinking... men are different says Coleman *Good book!
Dictee - Indescribable mind-blowing text by Teresa Cha
Canadians are Not Americans: Myths and Literary Traditions - By Morrison
...

Ack. That was less than half. But the list has served to help me remember that I actually have to do something with those books - instead of just interacting with them at my leisure. So I'm off.

Anyone read those books or are interested in reading them? I have a whole library card thing worked out for my books ;).

Request

Eileen, would you post about your book club meetings? (If you're not too busy that is.) I'm interested in what comes out of them, especially on the next book. If there are lots of things to be said about that book, I want to hear too! :) Curious minds just want to know.