9/13

So, I've had terrible luck trying to get a hold of my readings since class started. I haven't had any money since my financial aid still hasn't gone through, and any of the times I might have been able to make it over to Woodland Pattern and get the books (or just sit and read the assignments), it's been closed (today, in other words). But I haven't gotten any of my books for any of my classes yet, so don't feel like I'm neglecting this one just because it has more books than the others.

However, I did go through the things that were linked to on D2L -- the "Slap in the Face of Public Taste" and Khlebnikov's poems. Since that's the best I can do for now, those will be what I'm referring to.

As for the former, I like the way that this one is written more than the other readings we've had so far. Not only is it pretty in sticking to the a fairly "poetic" style (appropriate for what the avante-gardes stand for), it's also easy for me to understand, and I can't say as much for the previous pieces. I also think that the way the poet's rights are worded sounds better than in the Manifestos, though they are still whiny. Just slightly less negative sounding. To "enlarge the scope of the poet’s vocabulary with arbitrary and derivative words (Word-novelty)," but at the same time feel an "insurmountable hatred" for the language existing before their time -- I like that. What I take from that is, continue to make up new words/a new style of speech and writing, and do away with the lingo of the previous era. Although I've never had any difficulty understanding the language that was used in previous times (like Modern language, for example, or anything before it), I think it sounds incredibly stupid, so for once, I can get behind that. I also like the idea of the "rock of the word 'we' amidst the sea of boos and outrage" -- very inspirational.

As for the Khlebnikov poems, I REALLY liked the tiny one:

"I don’t need so much!

A cup of milk,

And a slice of bread,

And that sky above,

And clouds overhead."

I think that, provided this was translated correctly (considering some of his other poems had multiple translations), Khlebnikov was making a point that is still being touted by contemporary forward-thinkers. In general, his poems also seemed much less negative and scornful than, for example, Marinetti's writings (yeah, I'm still ragging on him). Khlebnikov's work was very pretty, while still seeming to make his avante-gardist points (and I may have just made that word up, whatever). I may have just loved his work because I'm kind of a nerd and I like poetry a lot, whereas a lot of people seem to miss the point of it, but I think this guy had REALLY good images and that just makes me excited. It's good to go from Marinetti's stuff to this, because I was really worried that all the works we're looking at would be that way.

Were I able to understand Russian, I might like these poems even more. I'm assuming that the statements made are even more bold, and straightforward, in their original language.