Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Nada equates Language poetry with drugs, which is interesting because what kind of drugs? In an essay in Robert von Hallberg's book Politics & Poetic Value, Jed Rasula refers to the experience of the sublime in poetry as being like unto an opiate—what he calls "a venerated principle germane to the poetic tradition of the high sublime: the hypnotic reverie, the stupefied assent of the reader drugged with bewitching words" (320). So that would be bad, right? Language poetry would then presumably be more like LSD in its derangement of the senses. I guess my problem is that I'm rather addicted to the opiate of the high sublime and I don't want to cut off my longtime dealers of the stuff (Dickinson, Rilke, Crane, etc.) just so I can get hooked on hallucinogens instead. Maybe it should be heroin in the morning, LSD or mushrooms in the afternoon, and a little pot at night.

Hi, Uncle Sam! Can you say metaphor? I knew you could!

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