Gertrude Stein doesn't hold a photon next to my actual obsessions.
> how I think the writing process works » it's missing several arrows
Elaborate?
> i wish the interplay of form/content was as simple as more or less of the other, but i think it isn't
1) I don't think I'm talking just about form, if what you mean by form is line breaks / punctuation / structure. I'm talking about form and diction and style (basically everything that would normally be subsumed under "a poet's technique").
2) I'm curious what your take is if you're willing to share?
form and diction and style » i do consider all of this as form. as in, the entirety of a piece of writing is composed as its form and content (or, if you will, its syntax and semantics). i think it's not about the relative amounts of [experimentation with / unusualness of] form and content, although that does [to a first approximation] work, but it's about whether they like, "integrate" with each other
there's some ideas that want to be expressed in certain ways, i guess. i was talking to wu about this re: his last blog post. consider these three paragraphs
> I wake up and walk to Harvard or MIT, Hepburn or Denk in my ear. I sneeze, a lot. I practice piano, anywhere between three to five hours. I might or might not eat a meal. I play for Espen, or Lily, or Maria, or Holden.
>
> I walk back to Boston, and I joke to myself the real moon river is when I cross the Charles under the light of the moon. I think about Irena, or look at the pictures I took at dawn, or transcribe dialogue from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I conclude that Henry Mancini was correct: Hepburn sings Moon River best. I write program notes. I fall asleep.
>
> I wake up, walk, listen to Hepburn or Denk. I sneeze. I practice. I eat, or not. I mock-perform. I walk back. I repeat my shitty joke. I think, study, analyze, write. I sleep.
this is an idea—that of repetition, routine, settling into something, having it take over your life—that, to me, wants to be expressed in form as repetition. form-wise, consider how the sentences here are all "I [verb], I [verb], I [verb]". consider how the sentence lengths get, on average, shorter, which contributes to the feeling of rhythm slash speed slash whatever. and again, we can think of this as "relatively experimental form, relatively mundane content", which is true, and is probably a Real Correlation, but it's like… not really a frame that i use to write, i guess???
what is with this obsession about gertrude stein. stein is a fine poet. i don't love stein but i don't love any poets either
how I think the writing process works » it's missing several arrows
i wish the interplay of form/content was as simple as more or less of the other, but i think it isn't
> obsession
Gertrude Stein doesn't hold a photon next to my actual obsessions.
> how I think the writing process works » it's missing several arrows
Elaborate?
> i wish the interplay of form/content was as simple as more or less of the other, but i think it isn't
1) I don't think I'm talking just about form, if what you mean by form is line breaks / punctuation / structure. I'm talking about form and diction and style (basically everything that would normally be subsumed under "a poet's technique").
2) I'm curious what your take is if you're willing to share?
Elaborate? » i refuse
form and diction and style » i do consider all of this as form. as in, the entirety of a piece of writing is composed as its form and content (or, if you will, its syntax and semantics). i think it's not about the relative amounts of [experimentation with / unusualness of] form and content, although that does [to a first approximation] work, but it's about whether they like, "integrate" with each other
there's some ideas that want to be expressed in certain ways, i guess. i was talking to wu about this re: his last blog post. consider these three paragraphs
> I wake up and walk to Harvard or MIT, Hepburn or Denk in my ear. I sneeze, a lot. I practice piano, anywhere between three to five hours. I might or might not eat a meal. I play for Espen, or Lily, or Maria, or Holden.
>
> I walk back to Boston, and I joke to myself the real moon river is when I cross the Charles under the light of the moon. I think about Irena, or look at the pictures I took at dawn, or transcribe dialogue from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I conclude that Henry Mancini was correct: Hepburn sings Moon River best. I write program notes. I fall asleep.
>
> I wake up, walk, listen to Hepburn or Denk. I sneeze. I practice. I eat, or not. I mock-perform. I walk back. I repeat my shitty joke. I think, study, analyze, write. I sleep.
this is an idea—that of repetition, routine, settling into something, having it take over your life—that, to me, wants to be expressed in form as repetition. form-wise, consider how the sentences here are all "I [verb], I [verb], I [verb]". consider how the sentence lengths get, on average, shorter, which contributes to the feeling of rhythm slash speed slash whatever. and again, we can think of this as "relatively experimental form, relatively mundane content", which is true, and is probably a Real Correlation, but it's like… not really a frame that i use to write, i guess???