Amazon’s business model is trying driving publishers out of business.
Sunday Book Review – Poets In Eden
Prynne
Jeremy Halvard (better known at J.H.) Prynne is an English poet whose name seemed to keep appearing in articles and interviews. He wasn’t widely published, but he seemed almost to be the unwilling leader of a cult built around himself or perhaps a shibboleth for the kinds of readers looking for someone to continue to work begun by Paul Celan.
My understanding is that he has primarily been published in small locally published (he lives in Cambridge and was an instructor and librarian one of the university’s colleges) slim volumes and chapbooks that didn’t stray too far from the region or a small coterie of readers. Basically, the only thing really available in America (and it wasn’t easy to get mind you) is a collected works simply entitled Poems. Nonetheless, he has inspired a pretty darn impressive volume of secondary literature.
The influence of Celan is pretty obvious, the discursive, recursive, elliptically revolving ‘subject.’ But whereas so much Celan’s work revolved around a single, terrible historical event, Prynne is much wider ranging, covering the geographical and philosophical history of the British isles. At least, I think it does. I won’t lie – I can’t be entirely sure.
You see, I can’t be sure, most of the time, what he’s talking about. He quite consciously resists easy meaning.
Which makes it hard to explain why I like it, but damn do I like it. I can see why folks would seek him out as an act of pilgrimage. He’s building something, he holds the key to something. I don’t necessarily know what, but I can see its beauty – and it’s terror (in the Aristotleian sense).
Weekend Reading – The Bonds Of Poetry
Thursday Morning Staff Meeting – Which Larkin Should You Buy?
The First Democratic Candidate For Florida Governor
Democratic State Senator Nan Rich just announced that she would be running for governor in 2014.
This is a good thing.
I am not saying that I support her or that she’ll be a good candidate, but it could help galvanize the Democratic bench of candidates who believe they might be suited for running for statewide office.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Rod Smith has never ruled himself out as a candidate for governor in 2014. This should help force him to, once the 2012 elections are over, either admit he is interested in running (in which case, he would have to resign as chair) or firmly say that he will not be running for governor (though I always thought he’d be a better candidate for attorney general or ag commissioner).
Alex Sink has dropped clear hints that she might run again. While she certainly won’t announce this year, Rich’s announcement could push Sink to begin building a team and developing a clear message of what she stands for how and how that stand distinguishes her from Florida’s grifter-in-chief, Rick Scott.
Likewise, if Crist intends to make a go of it as a Democrat, this will push him to speed the pubic acknowledgement of his party affiliation – publicly saying that the more moderate Democratic party better represents where he stands than the far right machines of mindless ideology and shameless person profit that is the Florida GOP.
And folks like Dan Gelber, Loranne Ausley, Pam Iorio, and others (I left out Dave Aronberg because he is running for Palm Beach County State Attorney right now) will face similar pressure.
All in all, that’s a good thing. And if the nominee should finally be Nan Rich, she’ll have my blessing and a contribution.
Write Like Gertrude Stein
When I was living in Paris (this was almost twenty years ago), a friend suggested to me that if I picked up a book of Henry James and removed two out of every three sentence ending punctuation marks and replaced them with “and,” you would get a pretty good facsimile of Gertrude Stein. I can’t say he was entirely wrong.
Midweek Staff Meeting – English Poetry In French
Transformations
the coffee philosopher 