Patrick Kanouse's Blog, page 62

Silences Mean What? Lessons from Sibelius and Stevens?

For the last 30 years of his life, Jean Sibelius produced no major work of music. In fact, he produced next to nothing at all. Rumors of an eighth symphony swirled around, but no surviving version (if one ever existed) survives. Wallace Stevens during the infancy of his daughter and for several years thereafter fell into silence, though how much is uncertain.

These two creative silences intrigue me because they seem so foreign to me. Whether that is good or bad is not for me to decide. While I...

The Anthologist

I recently finished Nicholson Baker's The Anthologist: A Novel . Hard to believe that a novelist decided to write an entire book from the perspective of a poet, Paul Chowder, who is trying to write the introduction for an anthology of rhyming poems. Baker, however, has written a compelling novel for us poets (for others?). I think it is helped by the fact that it is a novel, which means Baker need not worry about potential blowback. Here's a quote:

Let's have a look at this poem [in The New...

Gordon Wood's "Empire of Liberty"

I just recently finished Gordon Wood's Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 , by Oxford University Press. This is volume 2 in the Oxford History of the United States, of which I have read already The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, which was an excellent book. Wood's books is also excellent.

I have seen some reviews by readers that fault the book for is focus on leaders and a few historically remembered people and not for dealing enough with more fac...

Ambition

Donald Hall, whose poetry I find mediocre, has written well about poetry quite often. In this article, he discusses ambition in poetry, and I think he hits the mark frequently. I agree with the credo in his point 1: "I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems."

Ezra Pound and the Past and Future of Poetry

Here is an interesting article from Lapham's Quarterly about Ezra Pound. Perhaps more interesting than the assessment of Pound is the discussion about the role and value of poetry in modern America.

Alex Chilton and Big Star

I learned yesterday of the death of Alex Chilton. Many do not know the name of this singer/songwriter who with Chris Bell formed the amazing early 1970s bad Big Star. Big Star failed commercially, but more importantly succeeded artistically if nothing else because of influence. The first two of three records, #1 Record and Radio City, are astonishing accomplishments. Clearly of the 1970s but having a staying power few bands can hope to achieve beyond the nostalgia factor of adults for teenage...

Heidegger in Action

I have been listening to Dr. Bert Dreyfus's Fall 2007 lectures of his Philosophy 185: Heidegger class at UC Berkeley. (The iTunes U feature of iTunes is one of my favorite things about iTunes...philosophy, art, etc., tons of classes and lectures.) Anyways, I have not read Heidegger, but I've been aware that Heidegger's Being and Time was an immensely complex work. Given my lack of philosophy reading, I wanted to dip my toes into this work by listening to these lectures, reading an introductio...