My Way_ Speeches and Poems - Charles Bernstein

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POE TIC S 0 F THE AM E RIC A s 135 No more a poet of the Americas than Bunting or MacDiarmid, lavant Biarujia, an Australian poet, has embarked on the most systematically and literally idiolectical poetry of which I am aware. Over the past 25 years, since he was a teenager, Biarujia has been working with an invented language that he calls Taneraic; he also edits an (in effect) poetry magazine, taboo jadoo, dedicated to flthe discussion and expression of private language (langue dose)", which is in the process of publishing an extensive Taneraic English dictionary: MEPA. 1. present (n.). 2. being in the process of. 3. in (often with gerund). A mepa xirardi celini armin. A is wearing a beautiful shirt. Vadas ibescya mepa avi bouain. I failed in my attempt. Anqaudi rasra Hir mepa virda. There's no point [in] waiting. mepaceti. nowadays mepadesqesati. this morning mepadesqovati. this evening; tonight mepadesusati. this afternoon mepaiveti. today mepajabeti. up-to-date; modem mepanintati. for the night; tonight mepa yu. whereas mepeili. in every place: everywhere MEPIR. imagination. mepirdi. imagine. mepiri. imaginary. mepirocya. imagination; fantasy; hallucination. mepirsya. fancy ... mepir rin. delusion. das mepir rindi. delude mepir tane. vision. mepir troutou. fancy. mepir uza. vision, foresight. das mepir uzadi. envision; visualize, envisage MEQ. sexual prowess or potency.26 This is from a dream recorded in Biarujia's diary: Mepadesqesati, vamahusatta ye trahemoqa e Abdeleslam ... Ayoi vasyenda, tusqeriaru yole bayada e tusqer yoca, busai go ayoi vajesda vaireubda yole ayoi qussada. Vasezoqda gon ... Oubqendiyo. Amahusatta, busai sezoqiaru duvondi aiban desqes.27 As dialect becomes vernacular, as the demotic is traded for ideolect, we may hear a complication or evasion or erasure of identity more than a celebration of it: an exploration of the space between identities more than 26. Javant Biarujia, Nainougacyou Tanerai Sasescya Sepou E-Na, Taneraic-English Dictionary E-Na, in taboojadoo, no. 6 (summer 1992-93): 94. 27. Biarujia provides the text and translation in an offprint identified as from Vehicle, no. 3 (1992): "This morning [ awoke from a nightmare about Abdeleslam ... [ ran to him, moving in slow motion, and when [ reached him [ cried out that [loved him. [ cried ... [ kissed him. [ woke up, and spent breakfast in tears." [n a letter (May 23, 1995) responding to a draft of this essay, and correcting a few typos [ had made in his Taneraic, Biarujia says he has translated the word ideolectical into a Taneraic paraphrase: "aspelasi remou abaq sancyab e sava mamale (lit., nonfigurative thought-basis-way and personal-speech)".
t 36 POE TIC S 0 F THE AM E RIC A S the establishment of a primary identity. Then again, perhaps what we hear is a writing that moves beyond the present definitions and inscriptions of collective and individual identifications and toward a virtual or coming identity about which these confusions and comminglings, call them confabulations, hint; as if such writing leaves room for readers' multi foliate projections. I am conscious that an ideolectical poetry, insofar as it may dismantle whatever self or group identities we may have already developed, risks making us more atomized and so more passive. In this state of "postmodern" paranoia, all collective formations-real or imagined-are ironized or aestheticized, that is, debunked as arbitrary codes, with fashion and market ascendant as the arbiters of value. If social identities are to be made problematic as part of the poetic process, this may be in order to forge new collective identities that will enable a more resourceful resistance to rigidly territorializing clannishness and paralyzingly depoliticizing codicity. The problem is how to be resistant to the reductive ness of all forms of positivism without succumbing to the relativistic erosions of market value that transform poetry from an arena for social exploration or expression to an empty marker of "subjectivity" in designated Free Trade Zones (to which both poet and reader are subject). That is, to presume a realm of social truths against the one truth of technorationality and its schizoid doubles, triumphalist capitalism and religious fundamentalism. Blake remains the greatest emblem of this "Mental Fight" in the English poetry traditions and Blake's active, oppositional Imagination "Image Nations"-is a vital source for a poetics of the Americas. The point is not to display imagination but to mobilize imaginations. But how can we mobilize imaginations, those imaginary nations, when, for the most part, "imagination" and "subjectivity" have become house pets of the personal lifestyle industry, cousins to a "creativity" that seems to apply more to earrings than to hearing? This is no doubt Adorno's fear in questioning the historical role of lyric poetry in the wake of a systematic extermination process that seems to show up all our means of representation as thin, palely inadequate to the realities at hand. For most conventional verse practices, like many other forms of cultural production, are more the products of an ideological system than of any putative author. As a result, they can be read as cultural"symptoms" rather than as the inspired and original works of an autonomous author. However, the current movement of "cultural studies" risks levelling all art to the status of symptom. For poetry can, even if it often doesn't, resist absorption into the zeitgeist. No artist can remain entirely free from "collaboration" with the society in which she or he works, history is too con-
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Speeches and Poems [~aTles hmstein
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for Felix
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[ontents Hi Preface A Defense of Po
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hef ace I'm incorrect: the learned
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~ ~efence of ~oetr~ for Brian McHal
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l~e ~euenge of t~e ~oet-[ritic. or
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 5 often
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 7 its pa
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 9 invest
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 11 inter
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 13 The q
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 15 on po
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REVENGE OF THE POET-CRITIC 17 Dista
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THELONIOUS MONK 19 Nonetheless, I'v
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THELONIOUS MONK 21 To perform a poe
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THE LON IOU 5 M 0 N K 23 acting, wh
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~n Interuiellllllit~ manuel ~rito M
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AN INTERVIEW WITH MANUEL BRITO 27 w
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A N IN T E RV lEW WIT H MAN U E L B
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AN INTERVIEW WITH MANUEL BRITO 31 a
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~oli~arit~ Is t~e ~ame me ~iue to m
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SOL I DAR I T Y 1ST HEN A M E 35 po
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WHAT'S ART GOT TO DO WITH IT? 37 co
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WHAT'S ART GOT TO DO WITH IT? 39 nu
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WHAT'S ART GOT TO DO WITH IT? 41 si
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WHAT'S ART GOT TO DOW I T HIT? 43 t
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W HAT' 5 ART GOT TO DOW I T HIT? 45
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WHAT'S ART GOT TO DO WITH IT? 47 jo
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W HAT'S ART GOT TO DOW I T HIT? 49
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WHAT'S ART GOT TO DO WITH IT? 51 en
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How about strain, does it mean a se
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A TEST OF POETRY 55 the echoes of M
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THE BOO K A S ARC HIT E C T U R E 5
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all those express trains hurtling t
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that, but philosophyhave you read m
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~n InteruielU lUit~ ~anna~ moc~el-~
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A N I N T E R V lEW WIT H HAN N A H
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AN INTERVIEW WITH HANNAH MOCKEl-RIE
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I ~on't la~e ~oi[e mail The Object
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I DON'T TAKE VOICE MAll 75 often di
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I DON'T TAKE VOICE MAIL 77 systems
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I DON'T TAKE VOICE MAIL 79 screen o
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Every day. Day by day. The hours ha
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[laiTe-jn-t~e- ~ui l~ing There is n
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Page 100 and 101: AGAIN EIGNER 87 that is not dissimi
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Page 104 and 105: FRAME LOCK 91 ory, prophylactically
Page 106 and 107: FRAME LOCK 93 compelling, while the
Page 108 and 109: F RAM E L 0 C K 95 ence is not sati
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Page 112 and 113: FRAME LOCK 99 Is criticism condemne
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Page 116 and 117: "PASSED BY EXAMINATION" 103 Here is
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Page 124 and 125: INTROJECTIVE VERSE 111 one the poem
Page 126 and 127: oetics of t~e ~meTicas Speaking in
Page 128 and 129: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 115 zines p
Page 130 and 131: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 117 cupied
Page 132 and 133: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 119 defines
Page 134 and 135: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 121 and dia
Page 136 and 137: POE TIC S OFT H E AM E RIC A S 123
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Page 140 and 141: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 127 and McK
Page 144 and 145: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 131 grow ti
Page 146 and 147: POETICS OF THE AMERICAS 133 also th
Page 152 and 153: UN ZIP B LEE D 139 texture of truth
Page 154 and 155: ~tein' s Identit~ What is identity
Page 156 and 157: STEIN'S IDENTITY 143 Of course anyo
Page 158 and 159: ~rouisionallnstitutions Alternative
Page 160 and 161: PROVISIONAL INSTITUTIONS 147 At the
Page 162 and 163: PRO V I S ION A LIN S TI T U TI 0 N
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Page 166 and 167: PROVISIONAL INSTITUTIONS 153 articu
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Page 170 and 171: P 0 U N DAN D THE POE TRY 0 F T 0 D
Page 174 and 175: POUND AND THE POETRY OF TODAY 161 t
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Page 180 and 181: INAPPROPRIATE TOUCHING 167 as eyeli
Page 182 and 183: ROBIN ON HIS OWN 169 'mother may It
Page 184 and 185: ROB I NON HIS 0 W N 171 to mean in
Page 186 and 187: ROB I NON HIS 0 W N 173 poetic comp
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Page 190 and 191: WATER IMAGES OF THE NEW YORKER 177
Page 192 and 193: THE RESPONSE AS SUCH 179 way of say
Page 194 and 195: THE RESPONSE AS SUCH 181 tribution
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THE RES P 0 N SEA S S U C H t 85 au
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FRO MAN 0 N G 0 I N G I NT E R V lE
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FRO MAN 0 N G 0 I N G I NT E R V lE
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fHplicit ~ersion ~umber ~equired Ye
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HINGE PICTURE 193 Which is to say t
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Generations to a Sunday that holds
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~e2ni~off S ~earness 1. Charles Rez
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 199 "the pithy
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 201 reviewed b
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R E Z N I K 0 F F' S N EAR N E S S
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R E Z N I K 0 F F 's N EAR N E S S
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R E Z N I K 0 F F 's N EAR N E S S
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R E Z N I K 0 FF '5 N EAR N E 5 5 2
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 211 and unassu
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 213 everywhere
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 215 23. Hanukk
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 217 tributed t
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 219 34. It's a
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R E Z N I K 0 F F 's N EAR N E S s
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REZNIKOFF'S NEARNESS 223 themes in
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R E Z N I K OFF' 5 N EAR N E 5 5 22
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R E Z N I K 0 F F' S N EAR N E S S
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~n ~uto~iograp~icallnteruieUJ Loss
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW 231 t
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW 233 p
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW 235 f
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW 237 e
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A N AUT 0 B lOG RAP H I CAL I NT E
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A N AUT a B lOG RAP H I CAL I N T E
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A N AUT 0 B lOG RAP H I CAL I N T E
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A N AUT 0 B I 0 C RAP HIe A LIN T E
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW 247 s
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A N AUT 0 B lOG RAP H I CAL I NT E
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AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW 251 o
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~e~on~ fmaciation Hemmed in by ocea
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~idin~' s ~eason That He another da
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RID I N G 's REA SON 257 she lived,
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RIDING'S REASON 259 truthfulness /
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RIDING'S REASON 261 the concept of
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RID I N G 's REA SON 263 configurat
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RID I N G 's REA SON 265 More natur
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RID I N G '5 REA SON 267 important
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WHO S E H E KID DIN G 269 water in
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UNREPRESENTATIVE VERSE 271 only in
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~oetr~ and lffiale11 ~eH I don't kn
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POETRY AND [MALE?] SEX 275 forms of
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POE TRY AND [M ALE? 1 SEX 277 post
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~lose listening Poetry and the Perf
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C LOS ELI S TEN I N G 281 Goffman's
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C LOS EllS TEN I N G 283 Gospel cal
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C LOS EllS TEN I N G 285 mensurate.
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C LOS ELI S TEN I N G 287 reading.
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C LOS ELI S TEN I N G 289 What is t
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CLOSE LISTENING 291 to Giorgio Agam
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C LOS ELlS TEN I N G 293 slippage a
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C LOS ELI S TEN I N G 295 around th
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C LOS ELI S TEN I N G 297 speaks; h
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C LOS EllS TEN I N G 299 bases of r
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CLOSE LISTENING 301 country, and in
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TAP S [I N M EM 0 R I A MER I C MOT
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WAR N I N G - POE TRY ARE A 305 not
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WAR N I N G - POE TRY ARE A 307 whe
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WAR N I N G - POE TRY ARE A 309 lin
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WARNING-POETRY AREA 311 of technolo
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THE REPUBLIC OF REALITY 313 of a de
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THE REPUBLIC OF REALITY 315 to be p
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~otes and ~dnoUJledgments First pub
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Claire-in-the-Building. Mirage #4/P
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NOT E SAN D A C K NOW LED G MEN T S
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My Way_ Speeches and Poems - Charles Bernstein

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