[New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought

[Skip Fox]

I don't know (that I know) of any tv show writers. 

Let me expand a bit. My take on Goldsmith is much the same as yours. I'm
glad someone has done this, not that I need study it deeply. But I reached
out to see it (I think all of his Coach House works are available on the
web) and made some interesting discoveries. When Christian Bok came this
spring, he spoke to a class on mine about other discoveries: levels of
self-reflexivity in _Day_, etc. I'm glad someone like Bok has read him
closely and reports on it (I also found much of this on the web).

I recently dove into a Jim Leftwich book which at first appeared rich
nonsense. I wondered how anyone could keep going at such writing for long,
so I decided to read 50 pages. I found out the text I was reading was only
interspersed with the apparent dadist soup of words (and I'm not convinced
they are, or at least at times I have more than a moderate sense of sensible
groupings) are long passages of quotation and disquisition, always
orchestrated. 

Leftwich has a ready payoff. Goldsmith doesn't have enough to warrant a
thorough investigation, but I'm glad he did what he did, am willing to
attend to it moderately, and hope he keeps doing work in the future which is
surprising, provoking, funny, heartfelt, etc. 

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Crisman Cooley
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 8:31 PM
To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
Subject: Re: RE: [New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought 

My sentiments too.  When I first started reading new-po I wondered  
"Where is the true Dadaist?  Where is the silent piece?  Where is the  
readymade?"  Then I read about Goldsmith's _Day_, and as you report,  
the more interesting _Fidget_ and I felt at ease.  No surprise that  
Goldsmith (I believe) started as a visual artist well schooled in  
Duchampianism.  It is telling in the conceptual nature of his work  
that I haven't actually sought out the text of _Fidget_.  Simply   
accepted the necessity of the gesture and felt relief that I didn't  
have to make it.

Skip, pardon me, I think many of your posts are interesting and  
thought provoking-- I couldn't help being very surprised that you  
were lauding a television show screen writer (at least I think you  
were-- don't have the post at hand).  Can you explain?  I live in the  
media shadow.  We get one station here-- badly-- and it's Mexican tv.

Cris


> Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 14:56:59 -0500
> From: "Skip Fox" <skip at louisiana.edu>
> Subject: RE: [New-Poetry] Academy-Award Winnning Sad Thought
>
> Nice. But I'd argue that _Fidget_ is worth a look. He tries to  
> capture every
> movement of his body that he can (aware there's always selection, a  
> fiction
> of sorts) for a 18 hour period (or 16?). A book without a head.  
> During the
> book he masturbates, has a strongly anxious reaction to his own  
> recording,
> takes a walk, and gets drunk. (The last chapter is a letter-reversed
> word-by-word "copy" of the first, which he has trained himself to  
> read . . .
> it's on ubu.com).You're right, a conceptual artist, in words, yet  
> one who is
> pushing some conditions in interesting ways. I'm glad he's doing it.
>
>

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