The LBruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein "Ok murky in alter all end, unpredictable day, with rainshine any degree night, the sun kin warm and hot. Enough stone or other jugs lineup of whatever is In Through Out That's light as much as known Differences evanesce Like, where and/or what on the equator might be french or spanish Longitude and latitude, yep yep sure Americana."--Larry Eigner, commentary on a selection from Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons This selection of essays and poetry from the first three volumes of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine discusses a "spectrum of writing that places its attention primarily on language and ways of making meaning, that takes for granted neither vocabulary, grammar, process, shape, syntax, program, nor subject matter." (Bernstein and Andrews) The various writers shun labels, slogans, or catch-phrases; their exploration of the ways that meanings and values are revealed through the written word is intended to open the field of poetic activity, not close it. The common thread of these essays is the multitude and scope of words' referential powers--denotative, connotative, and associational; and studying these powers is ultimately a social and political activity as well as an aesthetic one. |
Contents
Approaching thingsLarry Eigner | 11 |
Tying and UntyingRay DiPalma | 17 |
SpokenTed Greenwald | 23 |
If Written Is WritingLyn Hejinian | 46 |
Code WordsBruce Andrews | 66 |
Writing and ExperiencingNick Piombino | 80 |
Big Jewish BookJerome Rothenberg | 92 |
Disappearance of the Word Appearance of the World | 121 |
Michael Andre ed The Poets EncyclopediaRon | 207 |
Clark Coolidge WeathersDavid Bromige | 214 |
Tim Dlugos Je Suis Ein AmericanoSteve Hamilton | 221 |
Eigner Lined Up Bulk SensesAbigail Child | 227 |
Robert Grenier SentencesBarrett Watten | 235 |
Doug Lang Magic Fire ChevroletP Inman | 243 |
Nice on David MelnickRon Silliman | 250 |
A Language of LanguageSteve McCaffery | 257 |
The Politics of Poetry | 133 |
Dollar Value of PoetryCharles Bernstein 138 Writing | 145 |
WritingJohn Leo 156 Learning Reading as | 170 |
Official Poetry Conformist EntertainmentEric Mottram | 178 |
A Job DescriptionPeter Schjeldahl | 184 |
The Outrage Against WordsBernard Noël | 190 |
Marshall Reese WritingJohanna Drucker | 263 |
Ron Silliman Mohawk and KetjakBarrett Watten | 270 |
Rosmarie Waldrop The Road | 277 |
Hannah Weiner The Clairvoyant | 284 |
Louis ZukofskyRon Silliman | 290 |