March 17, 2006
You don't need anything else to understand Caro (bear with me, it all comes together)
Head drawn up early today to peel the potatoes before the bus ride outta town. Drawing it down again to the damp, starchy blade above the cutting board your hair will frame your face and you'll find Nightshade, member of Solanum; it doesn't mean obscured light, but destruction, Germanic root, tuber growth first thing in the morning. The potato, eggplant, and tomato are all Solanum plants. Solanum (some of its flowers resemble the rays from the sun. Strange: Solanum, the nightshade family, meaning destruction, and also: shapes the sun makes, connecting life giver to destructive properties) contains harmful alkaloids, which can be toxic, even in small quantities. Cocaine contains tropane alkaloids (tropane, belladonna genus, named after the Greek Fate, cutter of the thread of life. A characteristic toxicity); nicotine is itself an alkaloid, one of the most common, famous. Hot sauce (the chile pepper is a capsule that grows from a Solanaceous plant) is Capsaicin and works on the mucus and tissue of mammals that can sense heat (Thomas Mann relating mucus to emotional pain to illustrate the detachment of his protagonist. Detachment: not wanting to sense heat); it’s another type of alkaloid, though it’s not structurally related to the alkaloid nicotine or the tropane found in coke. Is it all coming together for you? And by it I of course mean me. A little of my morning research. Looking after myself, I referred to chemistry last night, thought I'd keep it up. When passed to you over the pharmacy counter, tropanes are used to inhibit neurological signals, can poison in larger doses, causing dry mouth, hallucinations, loss of body movement control--coordination (ataxia, which, strangely enough, looks and sounds a lot like ataraxia, meaning: peace of mind, serene calm), increased body temperature, dilated pupils or, you know: death, among other things (NB, Death Among Other Things will make a good title for me in the future. Put the comma in, take the comma out). This is making me feel like William Burroughs so, onwards, you're my disco, playing on the radio--CITIES OF THE RED NIGHT NAKED LUNCH, spatial disconnection--
When I say the meaning of love I'm saying the meaning of potatoes:
Seamus Heaney, From "Clearances", In Memoriam M.K.H (1911-1984)
When all the others were away at Mass
I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.
They broke the silence, let fall one by one
Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:
Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.
And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes
From each other's work would bring us to our senses.
So while the parish priest at her bedside
Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying
And some were responding and some crying
I remember her head bent towards my head,
Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives ---
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.
It's definitely Huysmans time for Bob. Huysmans like you wouldn't believe.
And guess what I bought at the grocery store today? Potatoes, Eggplant, and Tomato. I guess the ol' self-destructive qualities are still there, under the surface.
Love Heaney.
Love the title of the future.
Love vodka in plastic bottles.
Do you remember Seamus Heaney reading in Poetry class long, long ago?
I've been thinking of Burroughs lately, and of commas, from reading Junky and, of all things, Great Expectations virtually back-to-back. Comma usage has changed.
Posted by: Chris at March 17, 2006 3:03 PMhttp://books.guardian.co.uk/poetry/features/0,,1733381,00.html
Posted by: Edmorus at March 19, 2006 6:39 AMEd,
the phrase It's definitely Huysmans time for Bob, merits the textures of the world many times over---hahah! I think you're right. I've looked him up, looked his text up, but it has thus far only been located in French, which is a bother because I can only read/make out half of any given sentence. Against Nature! To note the French penchant for ironies. Brilliant, I long to explore. The used bookstore is next in the search.
"The title of the future" seems like a title in and of itself. Very Borges, no? hahah!
Yeats via Heaney (he read in one of my classes a couple of years back--wow)! thank you, thank you! I will read it when I get home tonight. Glad you sent it post the 17th, it's better this way. ;)
Chris,
yes, of course I remember. HOW COULD I FORGET THOSE PRECIOUS MOMENTS? It was all very surreal.
Commas are my God. Please tell me what you have noted, specifically about the change in comma usage. I gather it has something to do with the length, trajectory and placement of clauses? I've read Junky and Great Expectations, but that was at least six years ago and neither text is in front of me now to compare. Burroughs was one tough writer, in the structural sense. The toughness of dreams, not the whimsy sort. Anyway: please do outline, if you care to/have the time. I’m rather interested because I’m a biiigggggg nerd.
That warms my heart. Junky has pretty normal commas - I just happened to read it recently. I like Burroughs' sense of the word "habit", and how he calls pot smokers tea-heads and makes them out to be mildly annoying. In the main I dig old, founders' terminology for stuff. And he does a wonderful job of describing junky hangouts and skullduggery and personality quirks (not to mention spelling it J-U-N-K-Y). And a particular, characteristic gleam of the eye.
Great Expectations fascinated me because of the bloody long sentences. Apparently, commas were to be used, liberally, for phrasing, and phrasing only, as in, this sentence. Dickens' phrasing itself does a lot of work in the imitation of naturalistic, emotional dialogue; and for articulating very complex ideas in a way which maintains their clarity. But if Dickens ever lists a lot of objects people goings-on boats bridges in London or the like, he doesn't separate items on the list with commas as we do now. I was also surprised to see as many frags as I did, though they were good frags and not lame ones. Which is to say I subjectively judged them to be pleasing and useful. If I still had the book, please assume I would gladly elaborate further.
Posted by: Chris at March 21, 2006 4:01 PM