The Education of J.H.S.

For a few months now, I've made the habit of visiting Ron Silliman's blog (www.ronsilliman.blogspot.com). These days, the blog is mostly a list of links, but its earliest postings were actually thoughts written by Silliman, who has gained a reputation of good taste when it comes to poetry. He's associated with L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry, and people send him literally hundreds of books a year to review.

Looking through the archives I came upon this post:

http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2002...-them-kit.html

Silliman does a close reading of a text to show that L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry isn't just "word salad". The poem, "Moon I" is from Bruce Andrews' Lip Service, a book and poet I know nothing about. It supposedly takes Dante's Paradiso and somehow uses it as inspiration. Reading the dissection of the text by Silliman doesn't really help me at all. I can't even understand his explanation! He even says in one paragraph that all these observations should be apparent to the most "casual" reader, and that, "Any college senior, regardless of major, who can’t pick up 80 percent of it just by reading the passage above ought to demand a refund of his or her tuition...."

Of course, I've not read Dante. Which, I suppose, I should have done. As well as all these other works. That I have little to no interest in. But maybe that's because I'm illiterate?

In a lot of the more experimental work I read, I can derive some pleasure by my limited understanding. If I didn't, I wouldn't keep reading. I've been reading this stuff for a few months now, and I don't think I really understand it any more than I did a year ago. Or anymore than I would have understood it in fifth grade. They say reading is the only way to become a better reader, but I can't find any growth. If anything, I'm a worse reader now than I've ever been. And thinking in lines has somehow made it hard for me to read prose.

I think to most people I seem smart. I've always seemed that way. In my writing group, I told one of the writer's I'm closest to that I had no idea what I was doing after she asked if I wanted to get together and go over our poems seperately from the group. She insisted that I did, and said that it must be because I've "read widely". Ha!

Anyway, my brain is on fire.

Just thought of another thing. When I read Silliman's Blog, I realize I don't know what's going on in the play, because I don't know a lot of the players. I haven't read much poetry, especially the stuff that influenced the experimental writing of today. Bah!