Saturday, August 12, 2006
One new journal that has started up this summer that promises to make a significant contribution to American poetics is Celery Flute: The Kenneth Patchen Newsletter, edited by Douglas Manson out of
Mason, in his introduction, calls the journal
the beginning of a critical reassessment of a poetic career that stands out in twentieth-century American literature for its ability to astonish, arrest, and reveal, for its unique historical and cultural importance, and as an example of the ongoing suppression of a popular, radical avant-garde practice of innovation in poetic form.
In addition to an this editor’s note, the first issue contains a piece by Michael Basinski, who discusses Patchen’s correspondence with Jonathan Williams & contemplates ways in which to historically place this unique working class radical poet/painter, given that the categories still widely available (New American, etc.) still fail to address what was happening in poetry prior to 1950 – it was not simply New Critical/Fugitive, Objectivist, Pound-Williams, etc. – there was more (and different) that has yet to be understood.
Manson attempts to accomplish much the same thing in a long piece – it’s really the great find of the first issue – that uses the concept of prepoetics to compare & contrast the careers of Patchen & the likeminded (tho historically later) Canadian poet bp Nichol.
This is followed with two pieces relating to another early radical poet associated with Patchen & the evolution of the literary scene in the Village, Holly Beye (a deep neglectorino). First is a review of Beye’s journals,
At 34 pages, the first issue has been heavily seeded by Manson doing triple (maybe quadruple) duty, editing, writing three pieces & publishing the journal. Hopefully, Celery Flute will resonate with a readership & generate more work from a broader range of participants. There’s a lot here, for example, that I could stand to learn, all of it worth the effort.
My only complaint is that the journal needs to have a web site, especially so that it can post out-of-print past issues to the web and ease the process of acquisition. The first issue costs $7 and a four issue subscription is $20 for individuals, $35 for institutions, check or money order payable to Douglas Manson & sent to Celery Flute,
Labels: Journals
Also, hope you don't mind, but I'd like to let people know where they can buy the Holly Beye book: http://members.aol.com/Lsmithdog/bottomdog
you left out celery flute's apt #.
However, I appreciate them whenever I see them. They demonstrate an obsessive love for writing that should be more common. A
There haven't been too many fanzines about poets, that come to my mind at least.
H.P Lovecraft and Kerouac have had a few each over the years, and of course James Joyce and I think Pound have had (still have?)more academic-style fanzines.
Still, I appreciate these fanzines whenever I see them. They signal a deep love of writing I wish were more common.
Not too many poets have inspired fanzines. Collections of writings about poets seem to end up as one-shot special issues of magazines. Perhaps that's more realistic.
Among non-poets, I know that Lovecraft and Kerouac have inspired a few zines over the years, and Joyce and Pound have (used to have?) more academic style journals.
Thank you for the kind words and useful comments. Obviously, the next step is to create a weblog, which I envision to be similar to the OlsonNow website edited by Kelleher and Alcalay, though I am committed to making the print publication as fine as I can. I am very interested in discussion of Patchen's work, especially in relation to his contemporary poets--temporally, aestheticaly, geographically, and in prevailing concerns. An essay on recent Jazz recordings using his writing is slated for the next issue (by Barrett Gordon). Responses have been, as yet, very favorable and articulate. As for Patchen's strongest works, I recommend, with _Albion Moonlight_, the original editions of _Dark Kingdom_, _Orchards, Thrones, and Caravans_, _First Will and Testament_, as well as the antinovel _Sleepers Awake_ and his picture poems. These works are unnecessarily scarce, and the hope is to produce a truly complete and scholarly edition of these books of poetry as they originally appeared.
I am at the moment in the Bay area, looking for _Bay Poetics_, and having a wonderful time.
Doug Manson
Jonathan also took dictation for one of those New Directions titles... can't remember which one now. Story is that Patchen was bedridden at the time and Jonathan would sit nearby and write these brilliant story poems that came out of Patchen.
Ron why is Patchen a NEGLECTORINO though? Is it because of the difficulty in placing him? Is that the basis for putting him there? Patchen hardly seems forgotten, or ignored.
CAConrad
Philly's finest vegetarian SIN eater
I kind of warmed up to poetry through a second-hand copy of his New Direction's collected.
Congrats, Doug.
Here:
http://matthewchambers.blogspot.com/2006/08/celery-flute-kenneth-patchen.html
re patchen as neglectorino, certainly the continued availability of the new directions collected has kept patchen "around," but hardly read or discussed very much it seems to me. and relative to say the 1950s when i get the sense he was very much a player and contender, someone who was required reading for emerging leftist-avant writers of the time. as opposed to today when if he's read at all it's for historic-nostalgic purposes. (this is of course all my own experience...)
plus, the ND collected sanitizes patchen in a way, omitting a lot of his more stridently and overtly political work (as i understand it from cary nelson's book i think tho i don't know the details) and rendering his verbovisual work completed ignored.
congrats to mr. manson for launching this recovery effort!
t.
Patchen's faux primitive art is interesting as a superior example of self-collaborative process. The portfolios, such as Glory Never Guesses, are worth tens of thousands of dollars now on the antiquarian market. Each set is unique because he hand-painted them, a little differently each time. Usually the sets are broken up and sold separately by galleries. Successful art-poem collaborations are difficult to do well: It shouldn't be true, but often is, that crude and haphazard productions often work better than carefully worked out ones--something about the extemporaneous interactive quality....
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