Continental Trance

by bpNichol

Genres: Poetry

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Barrie Phillip Nichol, known as bpNichol, was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor and grOnk/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work encompasses poetry, children's books, television scripts, novels, short fiction, computer texts, and sound poetry. His love of language and writing, evident in his many accomplishments, continues to be carried forward by many.

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We cannot retrace our steps, going
forward may be the same as going
backwards. We cannot retrace our
steps, retracing our steps. All my
long life, all my life, we do not
retrace our steps, all my long live,
but."
- Gertrude Stein, "The Mother Of Us All"

I read CONTINENTAL TRANCE without knowing that it belonged to a larger body of work. I'm familiar with bpNichol and his "Martyrology", but I had't read any of it (until now). In the afterward ("Some thots on THE MARTYROLOGY BOOK VI") bpNichol explains...

"CONTINENTAL TRANCE, the third text in Book VI, partakes of this interruption. It is, of course, absolutely governed by the narrative of the rail trip from Vancouver to Toronto, a journey that recurs again and again in THE MARTYROLOGY & even earlier in JOURNEYING & the returns. Chronologically however it falls between Hours 17 & 18 in THE BOOK OF HOURS..."

My impression, based on what I know of bpNichols, the MARTYOLOGY, and having read CONTINENTAL TRACE is that the overall body of work is one that focuses more on form than content. The content of CONTINENTAL TRACE suggests as much, and the afterward confirms it.

This is the first collection I've read by bpNichol, but I can see in it the influence of postmodernism. Like the postmodernists, bpNichol is preoccupied with the process of writing - many times he lapses into a sort of meditation or reflection on the poem he is writing...

"too much like a rock song"
- what i thot as i ended the previous poem

how come that voice keeps butting in?
(pg. 19)

"where is this poem going?"
"Toronto"
(pg. 32)

is this the poem i wanted to write?

it never is
(pg. 38)

I sometimes enjoy diversions of this kind, but in order for my... what's the word? "disbelief"? to be suspended, I require more from the writer in terms of form and content - that is, a play between form and content that explains why the author should diverge. Any text can stray from the narrative to update the reader on the writer's progress, but it is necessary for the writer to explain why the reader is being updated - otherwise the text is rendered playful (at best) or trivial (at worst).

bpNichol, as hinted by his name, is a poet who writes in the lower case - with the exception of cities (Toronto) and names (Homer). This is a common practice with an agreeable stylistic effect. Less common (and less agreeable) is the poet's abbreviation of certain words - among them: thought is "thot", rhyme is "rime", through is "thru", etc... I've encountered this style before in Jack Kerouac and other Beat writers. In the case of Jack Kerouac, the reader has the impression that the writer is writing in a notebooks - the style communicates the sense of urgency that accompanies limited time and resources. This is true of bpNichol, too, and finds contextual relevance in this collection, the narrative dealing directly with a trip from Vancouver to Toronto.

The poet's exploration of the trip in question, from Vancouver to Toronto by train, is well established by the Gertrude Stein quote (above). The idea of retracing steps, reflecting, or retracing steps already retraced, reflecting upon the act of reflecting. As suggested in the afterward, this collection is frequently referenced by the larger body of work - it recurs like a memory, with the same frequency and unpredictability.

I can't say that I enjoyed the collection overall. Perhaps I will read it in the context of the larger body of work, bpNichol's MARTYROLOGY. There are poems that redeem the collection, but removed from the larger context the collection is rendered absurd - perhaps it shouldn't have been published apart from the MARTYROLOGY. If I had known, I wouldn't have read it. I would have waited and read it along with the other texts that make up the MARTYROLOGY.

If the afterward had been a forward, I would have been spared the confusion of reading a text out of context. The least I can do is warn other readers with the hope of preventing them from doing the same.