In conversation during a cigarette break
Learnt that a classmate of mine was dropping Paul Hoover's Individual Vision class (yay, spot for me). Asked why, she replied she didn't like mathematics and propositional logic (as you may remember, it's the class on OuLiPo and flarf).
"What's wrong with mathematics and propositional logic?"
"Well, I don't maths. It seems that to do well in this class, you have to learn things outside of poetry. It reminds me too much of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry." (well, that was the gist of it)
"What's wrong with language poetry?"
"Well, you have to read so much (i.e., Wittgenstein and Derrida) in order to get it. It seems too complicated. Too academic."
"That's the thing! It's not complicated and they were probably the least academic poets around and even though it's based on a lot of philosophical assumption, you don't need to have read Wittgenstein or Derrida to have fun reading it!"
"I prefer narrative ..."
Somehow, the old misconceptions about language poetry remain.
"What's wrong with mathematics and propositional logic?"
"Well, I don't maths. It seems that to do well in this class, you have to learn things outside of poetry. It reminds me too much of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry." (well, that was the gist of it)
"What's wrong with language poetry?"
"Well, you have to read so much (i.e., Wittgenstein and Derrida) in order to get it. It seems too complicated. Too academic."
"That's the thing! It's not complicated and they were probably the least academic poets around and even though it's based on a lot of philosophical assumption, you don't need to have read Wittgenstein or Derrida to have fun reading it!"
"I prefer narrative ..."
Somehow, the old misconceptions about language poetry remain.
Comments
Anyway, I should've known you were at SFSU (doing a MFA I presume). Awesome!
bjr: i thought i had told you about sfsu. i guess i didn't. but yeah, i'm doing my mfa there.