The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book

by Bruce Andrews (Editor), Charles Bernstein (Editor)

“Ok murky in alter all end, unpredictable day, with rainshine any degree night, the sun kin warm and hot. Enough stone or other jugs lineup of whatever is In Through Out That’s light as much as known Differences evanesce Like, where and/or what on the equator might be french or spanish Longitude and latitude, yep yep sure Americana.”—Larry Eigner, commentary on a selection from Ger­trude Stein’s Tender Buttons

 

This selection of essays and poetry from the first three volumes of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine dis­cusses a “spectrum of writing that places its attention primarily on language and ways of making meaning, that takes for granted neither vocabulary, grammar, process, shape, syntax, program, nor sub­ject matter.” (Bernstein and Andrews) The various writers shun labels, slogans, or catch-phrases; their exploration of the ways that meanings and values are re­vealed through the written word is in­tended to open the field of poetic activity, not close it.

 

The common thread of these essays is the multitude and scope of words’ refer­ential powers—denotative, connotative, and associational; and studying these powers is ultimately a social and political activity as well as an aesthetic one.

Genres: Poetry, Essays, Language, Theory, Nonfiction

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Bruce Andrews is an experimental poet, performance artist, literary theorist & recently retired (after 38 years) left-wing professor of political science. As Musical Director for Sally Silvers & Dancers, he has created sound designs and, in performance, live mixes of music & text for over two decades of performances.Most recent of a dozen or so big books is last year’s "You Can’t Have Everything… Where Would You Put It!", followed by a chapbook, "Yessified (Sally’s Edit)" celebrating the Andrews Symposium and its expanded archive, online at www.fordhamenglish.com/bruce-andrews, with links to interviews, performance texts, poetry, collaborations, and critical essays on his work. Another online archive (and interactive project) materialized on April 1, 2014 as a curated 25 hour ‘twitter sculpture’ [Twitter.com @BruceAndrews25h], a 300 poem sequence.

Reviews

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the 2nd or 3rd bk I was published in so, of course, I was thrilled. The bk contains a review by Bruce Andrews of my 1st bk [see GoodReads reviews of my 1st bk here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25...] & my response to Andrews' review. When my letter was originally published in L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E it was retyped by Andrews & completely botched as a result. Therefore, it was a relief when Bernstein consulted me before this bk came out so that I cd correct Andrews' mistakes.

Despite the personal problems that I had w/ L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, I'll always have great affection & enthusiasm for this bk. Anyone who's ever been involved in the early days of a movement can identify w/ the exhilaration of witnessing formative ideas flying fast & furious.

For me, 'language writing' was a way of approaching language that rendered difficult the reader's non-critical reading of the text. Given that I'm also a film & vaudeo maker, I found this akin to the 'Structuralist' (&, as I later found out, Materialist) project of calling attn to the materials used. As such, 'Structuralist' filmmakers were a bit theoretically ahead of the 'language writers' unless one counts Gertrude Stein & Jackson Mac Low as 'language writers' instead of as proto-'language writers'.

At any rate, the initial 'language writing' was anti-transparency & there was a political subtext of encouraging more participatory media. If one's to read, one shd also write what one is reading.. somehow. & be conscious of it. Such ideas seemed to get progressively more muddied as 'language writing' became more & more of an academic bandwagon.

Whatever. The bk's divided into 3 main sections: "POETICS AND LANGUAGE", "WRITING AND POLITICS", & "READINGS". There's such an impressive selection of writers here that no matter what the theory this makes a fascinating read.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is sort of like a "best of" the 13 L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E journal issues.

I've not read this book, but the actual full issues (pdf image versions) of the originals at the Eclipse website. It is an awesome site. english.utah.edu/eclipse A brief description of the site, taken from their homepage: "Eclipse is a free on-line archive focusing on digital facsimiles of the most radical small-press writing from the last quarter century. Eclipse also publishes carefully selected new works of book-length conceptual unity."

This journal has been very important in twentieth and twenty first century poetics. I may be a fictioneer and not a poet but I find the journal intellectually exciting, and just generally fun.

[Patricia Killelea · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm giving this 3 stars because i appreciate the way it troubles my thinking. ron silliman's essay "Disappearance of the Word/Appearance of the World" (1977) is seminal but (to my mind) grounded in false oppositional frameworks, often employing oversimplified analyses of jerome rothenberg's flawed "translations" of indigenous poems/songs. how can an essay, supposedly grounded in historical materialism, decontextualize and distort indigenous cultural productions for the sake of proving its own hypothesis? find out here.

[Jordan Lee-Tung · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to love this book so much. In theory, I think it's such an interesting concept-- to remove syntax from writing to give it different meaning, to break boundaries, etc. Also came in being a big fan of the poem Dear Mr. Fanelli, and ended up being disappointed by the text. Maybe I came in with too high of expectations. But I found a lot of the poems being fun, strange and goofy-- not a bad thing. But then they are paired with copious essays explaining how they are of such high political importance. Felt like an overreach and ultimately left me cold.