"Grammar of the Present"

I'm very intrigued by the combination of readings this week, mostly because of my personal reactions to each one. In general, I react more to the historical-type kind of texts (like Futurism and the Soviet State from last week) than the avant-garde works themselves, I think mostly because the history behind these futurist works is so (or was, I should say) hotly debatable. There were so many people going back and forth, having fits at the government and at the past and at their present times, and then being rude or taking stabs at other people who, for all intents and purposes, had the same idea in a different context -- the "different futurisms."

But back on topic. Gertrude Stein's work shocked me, initially -- I began reading the poems under the links on D2L, under "objects," and my first thoughts were that her writing sounded an awful lot like something you'd find on Engrish.com (for anyone who doesn't know, it's a site that the Icanhazcheezburger people made, making fun of improper English translations; it's hilarious). Me being me, however, I read it through again and continued onto the "food" area of the site, and whether it was the patience I allowed it or the different topics I do not know, but I started liking her work. Then, I started sounding out the words in my head, rather than just reading them. As someone else said, it's like her take on zaum in English. I really get the impression that Stein's work isn't meant to be understood, it's meant to be heard, and if you sit back and give it a listen rather than a look, it even starts to make sense. It seemed like she did have some coherent thoughts - "It certainly showed no obligation and perhaps if borrowing is not natural there is some use in giving" - but mostly, I got the feel of images from her poems. Image is a big thing in creative writing, and it's not specific in the sense that, for example, these blog posts are; but it is in the sense that, again for example, while I was reading her work I got a very strong sense of place/things happening/smells, whereas someone else reading the same poem would also get very strong sensual reactions but not the same ones that I did. Besides, as an aspiring creative writer myself, I can appreciate beautiful word choice and excellent rhymes: "they do not eat who mention silver and sweet."

On the other hand, I have no patience whatsoever for MacLow's cubist poems. I read some of them to my boyfriend out loud in the hopes that I would have a moment of "ohhh" like I did with Stein's work, but he summed it up for me -- "That was a poem? Are you sure that wasn't just words?" (we are both in creative writing classes, and his centers around poetry, so it's not like he's got no reason to comment). I always give writing a second chance, because I like to dig and I like to understand and I like to change my mind, but his "poems" sound like a load of rubbish to me.

On that note, I do want to point out that I find it quite funny that dadaism keeps coming up, as well as cubism, although cubism is considered an avant-garde movement. I, personally, am NOT a fan of dada; I think the whole idea sounds like an excuse, and that's how his poems feel to me. I understand that poetry is difficult to understand and that it has to be looked at from quite a lot of different angles sometimes -- I write poetry, after all (sometimes) -- but these just sound like nonsense. They don't even feel okay when you read them out loud, and that, if nothing else, is a redeeming quality a nonsensical poem ought to have, in my humble opinion.