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Nirvana


While making my daily commute, Smells Like Teen Spirit came on the radio and I began thinking about those days when it first came out.

I hung out with skaters and punk fans, so I wasn’t unaware, by any means, of the music that lay beyond and beneath the songs playing on the radio – Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Circle Jerks, Black Flag – but none of us were too jaded to be struck by that song and by the Nirvana in general.

Maybe it was like the first time someone heard MC5, the Sex Pistols or the Clash. I don’t know. But certainly, Smells Like Teen Spirit was of that moment.

It was representative of the break from postmodernism and the rejection of a postmodern irony that evolved into kitsch. There is, yes, irony, in the title, but mostly the song seems to rage against disaffected irony.

Un cri de coeur. Whatever. We liked it. I affected us.

But what perhaps I didn’t fully appreciate as a 16 year old in suburban Florida was the quality of the songwriting.

I can’t sing, I can’t play, so I am just talking about the lyrics. But this is a rare song that, I would argue, actually works on the page, as well (only Leonard Cohen consistently writes songs that could also be good poems).

To me that is the real test of a poem, and perhaps at the root of my discomfort with the slam culture. When you take away the performance, what value (or is value the wrong word? should we assign something as capitalist and market oriented as ‘value’ to poetry and art?) remains in the words themselves?

Listening to the (granted, sometimes mostly unintelligible) lyrics, I could see them put down on the page and having value (that word again) as poem, stripped of the music and stripped of the connotations now associated with it and with singer/songwriter Kurt Kobain’s death/suicide/martyrdom (I use the word ‘martyrdom’ not to make any sort of judgement either way on his suicide nor on what ‘killed him’ but as a statement on its meaning for us – he was a sort of liberator and the early death of a liberator is always a sort of martyrdom).

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Jeb Bush and Republican Presidential Primary


Jeb recently said he liked Paul Ryan as a potential presidential candidate. I said that was just so much horse hooey.

But I am curious as to what he’ll do over the coming months.

I suspect he’ll keep on doing things to muddy the waters – which is what the whole Ryan thing was all about.

Rick Perry jumps into the race, threatens to turn things into a simple, two man affair (Perry v Mitt) that could resolve itself not long after South Carolina with a de facto nominee in hand.

So what does Jeb do? Why he muddies the waters, of course. Uses his big name clout in Republican circles to suggest that no one currently running is really the right man for the job, neither politically nor ideologically. And he tosses out the name of another savior. If Ryan had jumped into the race, I have no doubt that Jeb would have been touting New Jersey Chris Christie as the kind of candidate the GOP needs. And if Christie were in the race he’d say… well, you get my point.

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Ezra Pound: Canto LIII


The Fifty-Third Canto might be the longest yet (twelve pages) and, at first glance, appears almost like an academic chapter, filled with Chinese characters, references to figures from the history of China.

Woven within a sort of history of Chinese rulers (and other figures, as well, but it is hardly post-colonial historiography that Pound practices), is another tale, that of the development of accounting techniques (like using knotted rope to record figures) and early money (metal disks, pierced in the middle so that they can be strung onto a string). Within also are admonishments to rulers on how govern effectively and justly.

And MOU-OUANG said:
                 ‘ as a tiger against me,
                          a man of thin ice in thaw
aid me in the darkness of rule’ 

While I won’t pretend to offer a definitive meaning (particularly since it is a fragment taken out of a much larger whole), I simply want to draw attention to that Asian style of writing – which, as I have noted before, should perhaps be better described as ‘style of English translations of Asian literature.’

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Ezra Pound: Canto LII


As noted earlier, this begins a new section of The Cantos, though I can’t say whether this was a determination made by Pound or by the publishers at New Directions. Judging by the notes (warning?) that open this new section, we are entering into some Cantos heavy on the poet’s Chinese phase.

Know then:
             Toward summer when the sun is in Hyades
Sovran is Lord of the Fire
                  to this month are birds.
with bitter smell and with the odour of burning
To the hearth god, lungs of the victim
              The green frog lifts up his voice
                  and the white latex is in the flower

It goes on for some time in such a fashion. I would rather think of this passage, and similar transcendent and lyrical passages throughout, than on the most explicitly anti-semitic line yet, which occurs early in the Fifitieth Canto and which I don’t intend to repeat here.

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Is Postmodernism Finally Dead?


That’s what this article says.

And an exhibition in the Victoria & Albert Museum on postmodernism does sound like it has been relegated to history.

But if so, will I miss it a little?

Yes, I suppose. I was certainly born and raised during its apogee. Whatever follows or is already following will be something intrinsically more foreign to me than postmodernism was, even if postmodernism was itself intrinsically inexplicable.

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Jeb Bush Pushing Ryan To Run For President


Apparently, Jeb is advocating on behalf of Congressman Paul “Let’s Privatize Medicare” Ryan (R-Privatizing Medicare) as a 2012 candidate for President.

That can mean only one thing: Paul Ryan would have no chance against Barack Obama. None at all.

‘Cause if you think that Jeb would, this early in the game (eventually, he’ll have to offer support to the nominee), actually support the candidacy of someone he thinks could win in 2012 – thereby making it nearly impossible for Jeb himself to run in 2016 – well, then you’re just plain crazy.

No, I take that back. You’re not crazy. You’re a genius. I think you’re so smart, that you are one of the few people who could appreciate this unique opportunity to make millions helping the deposed Prince of Nigeria move his fortune in oil money to America…

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Library Book Sale


While wandering Eastern Market with my father on Saturday, I saw a sign taped to a trash can that spoke of a book sale at the Southeast Library, just across Pennsylvania Avenue.

When I was twelve years old, my mother took me to a sale at the Dunedin Library where we found a lovely three volume history of mathematics. It was actually a huge collection of essays by various folks, rather than a chronological history by a single author. Unfortunately, every other sale at that particular library was nothing but disappointing.

Fortunately, this one did not disappoint.

For the low, low price of four dollars, I picked up copies of the following:

Hestia, by C.J. Cherryh
Childhood’s End, by Arthur C. Clarke
Possession, by A.S. Byatt
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Triton, by Samuel R. Delany
Spy in the House of Love, by Anais Nin

Middlemarch, in particular, excited me. For some reason, I had lately been struck by the desire to read it. Many years ago, I went through a nineteenth century novel phase, but someone, George Eliot’s oeuvre had escaped my attention (partly because I was a boy, so was much attracted to Dumas’ tales of derring do and partly because I was a moody boy, so also much attracted to Dostoyevsky’s architectural novels of philosophy leavened with hearty helpings of despair and Christian proto-existentialism).

And a funny little story about Anais Nin. My first introduction to her actual writing (I knew of her as person because of her association with Henry Miller) was from MTV. Yes. MTV.

In the early nineties, they used have actors and actresses read brief segments of famous novels and very alluring literary environments. Sherilyn Fenn read a brief segment from Nin’s Delta of Venus and I also remember Aidan Quinn reading from The Metamorphosis. Back when it seemed like MTV might actually be something cool and occasionally constructive. Sigh. Not anymore. Or maybe I’m just growing old.

 

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Why Isn’t Hasner Doing Better?


The last poll I saw had Adam Hasner polling at only 6% – half of what George LeMieux was pulling and behind a couple of candidates who might be charitably described as ‘some dudes.’ Granted, the election is a long ways away, we are seeing huge undecideds, and it seems unlikely to me that the folks with a real chance to win the nomination come next year will include ‘some dudes.’ Another caveat, however, would be that ‘some dude’ could transform into a serious challenger with a well-funded, professionally run campaign.

Hasner’s camp tried to spin his falling behind (ret.) Col. Mike McCallister as having been beaten to the punch in terms of attending some Tea Party meetings, but that is pure b.s.

Their campaign just isn’t gaining traction and I suspect that is almost as much a mystery to them as it is to me.

When Mike Haridopolos dropped out, this left a huge opening for, well, everyone else.

I thought that LeMieux would benefit from being able to secure many of Haridopolos’ donors (especially since Haridopolos clearly hates Hasner and could probably be convinced to work his rolodex a little on behalf of someone he thought could beat him) and from not having to share with Haridopolos that percentage of the primary electorate who are not hard care Tea Partiers.

But it also gave Hasner a chance to really establish himself as the conservative, Tea Party, anti-establishment candidate in the race. It didn’t matter that none of it was true. It wasn’t true when Marco Rubio said it either and he still won, despite having been more old school, back slapping, favor trading establishment that Hasner ever was in his wildest dreams.

However, while LeMieux has done a half decent job of getting himself positioned, Hasner, after an initial media bump, is getting close to looking like he’s flailing a little.

If he can’t put together a big showing in an upcoming campaign finance report, when do we start asking if he’s just not going to make it?

Leaving aside what I personally think of Hasner (which is very, very little) – why do you think it hasn’t happened for him?

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Ezra Pound: Canto LI


Finished the Fifty-First Canto and yet not even a quarter of the way finished!

This one is equal parts glorious and frustrating. It opens thusly:

Shines
in the mind of heaven   God
who made it
more than the sun
in our eye.
Fifth element; mud; said Napoleon 

The rare, explicitly religious reference (though the Cantos have been chock full of references to popes and priests, they appear more in their temporal capacity than spiritual) then almost immediately knocked down by the ‘mud’ and ‘Napoleon’ line.

Almost immediately following, he goes on a tirade about usury or ‘usura’ (he wields the latter almost as if it were the name of some Greek deity. as when he writes I am Geryon twin with usura). Throughout though, he uses strongly archaic language – like a pre-Raphaelity poem – and some hints of a back to the land aesthetic. Much of it is beautiful. Like some other sections, I am reminded of nineteenth century translations of classical Greek and Roman poets.

He ends with a disconcerting switch to what we might call ‘Pound’s Chinese style.’ The next to last line reads very much like a line from one of Pound’s translations from the Chinese: in the eel-fishers basket

Then, he ends the Canto – and also this section of Cantos, for a new one, LII-LXXI, begins after this – with the (I assume) Chinese character shown in the photograph. Any one understand its meaning or provenance?

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Freddy Adu Not Going To Chivas


The Philadelphia Union have reached an agreement with the playmaker. I’m not sure how well that will go. Carlos Ruiz is no longer with the team and he was the kind of predatory striker who might have fed well on having a possession oriented #10 behind him. And Adu will be reunited with coach Piotr Nowak.

He was the young man’s coach with DC United, as well, but their relationship was famously contentious and you never felt like Nowak thought much of Adu. If that hasn’t changed, something’s going to break up in the city of brotherly love.