Blog Archive

Monday, November 15, 2021

Bernadette Mayer

 


Bernadette Mayer


Experiments

  • Systematically derange the language, for example, write a work consisting only of prepositional phrases, or, add a gerundive to every line of an already existing piece of prose or poetry, etc. 
  • Get a group of words (make a list or select at random); then form these words (only) into a piece of writing—whatever the words allow. Let them demand their own form, and/or: Use certain words in a set way, like, the same word in every line, or in a certain place in every paragraph, etc. Design words.
  • Write what cannot be written, for example, compose an index. (Read an index as a poem). 
  • Attempt writing in a state of mind that seems least congenial. 
  • Consider word & letter as forms—the concretistic distortion of a text, for example, too many o's or a multiplicity of thin letters (illftiii, etc.) 
  • Attempt to eliminate all connotation from a piece of writing & vice versa. 
  • Work your ass off to change the language & don't ever get famous. 

  • No comments:

    Post a Comment

      The poet Susan Howe, 77, at right, and her daughter, the painter R. H. Quaytman, 53, in Quaytman’s house, designed by the American sculpto...