love this post. this reminds me of reading "how fiction works" by james woods. his theory that successful literature creates its own world, its own axioms, its own logic--and the language plays by the "rules" created in that space. virginia woolfe's line "the day waves yellow with all its crops."
Literary language is a separate thing from the common language of every day situations. Your students were fortunate To have an English teacher who opened their eyes and ears to that. Some of us are simply more attuned to the irrational and the poetic, and we can read Lorca and Rimbaud with the same ease as a simple description or a Cartesian narrative. In fact, for some of us, Rimbaud, or even Bob Dylan’s mind bending “Tarantula “, will always be clearer than an article in People magazine on say, the Kardashians 😎
But most of us need to have our minds blown in High School by a teacher who sets our souls ablaze…and who can use logic to help the more recalcitrant among us enter the kingdom of the poetic imagination. Once you’re in, life becomes exponentially more fascinating:)
I love this post, especially this: "The poem/story also asks us to envision the impossible, to find a way in our mind’s eye to see a house behave like a horse—and notice how those two words 'house,' 'horse' are even very nearly the same (but for one letter), so the poem/story is also reminding us that this is all playful, that his invention which we work to find a way to imagine is finally just a jumble of words, black and white marks on a page…. " So often, I talk about the limitations of language, but it's language we use to express those limitations, which are then reimagined as possibilities, as you've shown here. I can't wait to read your book when it's finished.
Thanks! I’ll have to definitely heck that out—sounds exactly like what I’m going for.
love this post. this reminds me of reading "how fiction works" by james woods. his theory that successful literature creates its own world, its own axioms, its own logic--and the language plays by the "rules" created in that space. virginia woolfe's line "the day waves yellow with all its crops."
A few quick thoughts here:
Literary language is a separate thing from the common language of every day situations. Your students were fortunate To have an English teacher who opened their eyes and ears to that. Some of us are simply more attuned to the irrational and the poetic, and we can read Lorca and Rimbaud with the same ease as a simple description or a Cartesian narrative. In fact, for some of us, Rimbaud, or even Bob Dylan’s mind bending “Tarantula “, will always be clearer than an article in People magazine on say, the Kardashians 😎
But most of us need to have our minds blown in High School by a teacher who sets our souls ablaze…and who can use logic to help the more recalcitrant among us enter the kingdom of the poetic imagination. Once you’re in, life becomes exponentially more fascinating:)
A house is a horse, of course of course…
Keep at it, Arnie 👏
Thanks, Marc, and I would read your Dylan, Rimbaud Substack!
I love this post, especially this: "The poem/story also asks us to envision the impossible, to find a way in our mind’s eye to see a house behave like a horse—and notice how those two words 'house,' 'horse' are even very nearly the same (but for one letter), so the poem/story is also reminding us that this is all playful, that his invention which we work to find a way to imagine is finally just a jumble of words, black and white marks on a page…. " So often, I talk about the limitations of language, but it's language we use to express those limitations, which are then reimagined as possibilities, as you've shown here. I can't wait to read your book when it's finished.
Thanks, Tricia!