Friday, January 15, 2010

My Leafe Press henchman John Bloomberg-Rissman has just completed 'Flux, Clot & Froth' (FCF) part 2 of his on-going project, of which 'No Sounds of my Own Making' was part one. FCF, published on John's blog, would run to around 800 pages in book form. The work is an exercise in sampling, that is, borrowing text from other writers - or people in general - to make a kind of boundless poetry that interfaces with all aspects of contemporary life, via the texts that document it. It's an epic project - just check out the list of names he's borrowed from - but it's at the same time a light-hearted (and affectionate) spoof of the epic works of High Modernism. The whole project is called Zeitgeist Spam. Long may it contiinue!

5 comments:

John B-R said...

Light-hearted spoof? Spoof? No, Alan, no. FCF is the TRIUMPH of high modernism! And postmodernism. And posthumanism. And of quietude and the avant-garde and the post-avant. And, well, it's the only creation that can rival god's. ... If it lighthearted it's because my despair is so heavy it fell thru the center of the earth with such velocity it popped out the other side! As Patrick Kavanagh used to say, tragedy is failed comedy. Oh, yes.

John B-R said...

Silence is assent. Ergo: Everyone agrees with me.

Guess I'll sell a million copies, then.

Alan Baker said...

My experience being a 'poet' is that silence is a stock response. Sadly, it doesn't translate into sales.

John B-R said...

Rain on my parade, why don't you?

richard lopez said...

silence? didn't cage make that part of his aesthetic as well? sometimes tragedy is funny too, john, witness the birth of the horror comedy of the past 20 years or so.

i gather you're project john is whitmanian in scope. you can't help containing multitudes.

i can't wait for the book!

viva post-post-post the works!