10-26!

I'm intrigued by what everyone (or I guess, the two other people who have posted) has said about the Museum of Eterna's Novel, but nobody else has mentioned Huidobro's "Creationism" bit and I find it to be really interesting, if not a little confusing, just like I did with his readings from last week.

Huidobro says something a few pages into "Creationism" that caught my eye. "A poet must say those things which without him would never be said." I think this is a really good way of simplifying the work of a creative writer (which poets are, obviously). The idea of "Creationism" in poetry was a little weird for me at first, because obviously the word Creationism already has certain religious connotations that my mind immediately wants to jump to - which makes me wonder if that's because of this time period, or if the word still had those connotations back in 1912 and '13 when he was speaking and writing on the topic. If so, that makes me wonder how well his ideas were received, because my understanding is that (for the most part) people were much more religious in times gone by, and I would think that the idea of poets as being Creators would be quite controversial. I'm just assuming that he did this on purpose, since we are looking at this as an avant-garde concept.

I think it's common knowledge, now, that poetry is very much open for interpretation, and that there's different types that poets can write in... it seems odd to me that there was a time when poetry and writing had to be structured in a very specific way in order to be recognized. At the same time, I feel kind of hypocritical for saying that, since I'm so against the Dada-type writings.

Also, while I'm reading these pieces - and not just this week but consistently throughout class - I've noticed parallels to what I'm learning in other classes right now, although I am taking almost all language-arts related classes. The four guidelines that Huidobro insists Creationist poetry must do are pretty much the guidelines we're given in my creative writing class, but in so many less words. It's kind of funny how concepts that, less than a century ago, were seen as different and avant-garde and just... not the norm, are now being taught as a standard for aspiring writers.