kevin nolan capital calves

[Benny Bunter]

In that respect, Prynne has been very wise in almost never doing interviews or explaining his poems.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Just like he hardly ever does readings, cos he's against the idea of putting obstacles in the way of a reader inventing his own interpretation of the poem. If people hear the poet himself performing his own stuff, they can never unhear it, and that supposedly 'authentic' voice in their memory colours their reading of the text forevermore. Prynne hates the idea of that.

 

[Benny Bunter]

I'd imagine he'd be very pleased with things like this Kevin Nolan essay, or that nutter on Tumblr or substack or whatever it is.

 

[luka]

I'd imagine he'd be very pleased with things like this Kevin Nolan essay, or that nutter on Tumblr or substack or whatever it is.

the nutter i met and he claimed prynne was like hmm yes, but have you thought of this?

 

[Benny Bunter]

Just like he hardly ever does readings, cos he's against the idea of putting obstacles in the way of a reader inventing his own interpretation of the poem. If people hear the poet himself performing his own stuff, they can never unhear it, and that supposedly 'authentic' voice in their memory colours their reading of the text forevermore. Prynne hates the idea of that.

He talks about it in the introduction to this rare reading.

 

[Benny Bunter]

the nutter i met and he claimed prynne was like hmm yes, but have you thought of this?

You met the nutter? What was he like?

 

[Benny Bunter]

On the rare occasions he does give you a bit of info it's interesting, but it doesn't really make much difference. You're still left wondering wtf?

 

[version]

Just read this again seeing as I've been getting back into Prynne again after a long time off - probably the best overview of his work there is.

Robert Potts · Smirk Host Panegyric: J.H. Prynne

www.lrb.co.uk

Out of context, his epigraphs can seem like sly jokes and maybe some are... ‘The volatility smile is not symmetrical’ (the epigraph to Red D Gypsum from 1998), which sounds like straightforward Surrealism, is from a hedge-fund expert...​

​

I like the way he does this. Reminds me of a Rene Hell album I'm into called Vanilla Call Option where, iirc, he said he came across the phrase reading about the stock market and it just had something about it. Sometimes these things just get in your head. I read something earlier which used the term 'viral economy' and it's still going round and round, the sound of it, the way it looks written down.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Out of context, his epigraphs can seem like sly jokes and maybe some are... ‘The volatility smile is not symmetrical’ (the epigraph to Red D Gypsum from 1998), which sounds like straightforward Surrealism, is from a hedge-fund expert...​

​

I like the way he does this sort of thing. Reminds me of a Rene Hell album I like called Vanilla Call Option where, iirc, he said he came across the phrase reading about the stock market and it just had something about it. I was reading something earlier which used the phrase 'viral economy' and it's still going round in my head.

The epigraphs to his books are brilliant and often you're left wondering whether they have anything to do with what follows, or if they're just there to fuck with you. It's impossible to tell.

 

[luka]

You met the nutter? What was he like?

not nutty. he came to my book lainch

 

[Benny Bunter]

 

[version]

The epigraphs to his books are brilliant and often you're left wondering whether they have anything to do with what follows, or if they're just there to fuck with you. It's impossible to tell.

There's that one about reading something because you feel there must be something there... A similar sentiment came up in an LRB piece I read recently,

Dissemination and hermeneutics need not be contrasted so extremely. They are more plausibly seen not as irreconcilable theories of meaning, but as practical interpretive strategies, as facets of any good reading. So regarded, disseminative practice ensures that the text’s complexity is not underestimated, while the hermeneutical sense-making activity keeps the dissemination from wandering off infinitely. The search for sense in the text will not bring the reading to a premature halt, for complexity and sense are rarely in equipoise. The reflective equilibrium aimed at in one reading is likely to become unbalanced in the next, and re-established only by other means. What would stop the will to read, especially in the case of philosophy, is the discovery of the text’s final undecidability or unintelligibility. If I understand Hartman correctly, he is right to think that reading will continue only so long as it trusts that the failure to make sense is its own and not the text’s.​

 

[Benny Bunter]

There's that one about reading something because you feel there must be something there... A similar sentiment came up in an LRB piece I read recently,

Dissemination and hermeneutics need not be contrasted so extremely. They are more plausibly seen not as irreconcilable theories of meaning, but as practical interpretive strategies, as facets of any good reading. So regarded, disseminative practice ensures that the text’s complexity is not underestimated, while the hermeneutical sense-making activity keeps the dissemination from wandering off infinitely. The search for sense in the text will not bring the reading to a premature halt, for complexity and sense are rarely in equipoise. The reflective equilibrium aimed at in one reading is likely to become unbalanced in the next, and re-established only by other means. What would stop the will to read, especially in the case of philosophy, is the discovery of the text’s final undecidability or unintelligibility. If I understand Hartman correctly, he is right to think that reading will continue only so long as it trusts that the failure to make sense is its own and not the text’s.​

 

[version]

Yeah, that's the one. The fact it's from a book called Practical Crystal-Gazing is the cherry on top.

 

[Benny Bunter]

You have to suspend your disbelief up to a point in order to enter into the spirit of the thing, but that's not the same as treating it as pure fantasy. There is something in it, otherwise you wouldn't bother engaging with it at all.

 

[Benny Bunter]

If you don't believe in what you're reading, it's a waste of time. It's a question of having trust in the writer, and be willing to follow them wherever they may go, but it's a tricky issue cos if you trust in everything they do you can lose your own value judgement.

 

[luka]

a randomly generated string of words cant hold the attentiom

 

[Benny Bunter]

not nutty. he came to my book lainch

He's brilliant, just been reading his analysis of Orchard. Did you tell him about what you discovered in Prune?

Made a fair bit of progress on Mulberry last night from the same book, but I didn't write any of it down. I'll go back to it later this weekend and post up my findings in the other thread.

 

[sus]

I want to finish this this week. It's been gnawing at me

 

[sus]

Just like he hardly ever does readings, cos he's against the idea of putting obstacles in the way of a reader inventing his own interpretation of the poem. If people hear the poet himself performing his own stuff, they can never unhear it, and that supposedly 'authentic' voice in their memory colours their reading of the text forevermore. Prynne hates the idea of that.

I guess I don't have a problem with any individual poet doing this, not reading their poems, that is, treating poetry primarily as a textual rather than oral tradition

But it does feel like this has become the default the last 50ish years. Maybe LANGPO partly responsible. I don't know the history too well. But nowadays poets dont have any oral/aural component. It's all text.

They still read but it's a zombie tradition a cargocult. They read in stilted bored voices like theyve never seen the poem before like they have no idea what word came last or next. It is uninspired very sad affair.

When I heard Pound read Vanity all is vanity it changed my life. I had forgotten that poetry was an oral tradition first. The link was severed and Pound refused it and my writing practice has never been the same, it felt like I was healed or rehabilitated, it felt like I was half a writer and it made me whole