Comments on: Break Every Rule, Part 1

By: Break Every Rule, Part 3 « BIG OTHER

Break Every Rule, Part 3 « BIG OTHER — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:56:24 +0000

[...] Break Every Rule, Part 1 Break Every Rule, Part 2 Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Weddings 101: Break these rules – part 2Break your investing rules? The market can break you [...]

By: Break Every Rule, Part 2 « BIG OTHER

Break Every Rule, Part 2 « BIG OTHER — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:10:50 +0000

[...] by John Madera Whereas the first chapter of Carole Maso’s Break Every Rule (I wrote about it HERE) is a kind of travelogue where cities or towns in Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, and [...]

By: John Madera

John Madera — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:55:42 +0000

Beautiful quote. I like that image of falling into the text like plopping or nestling into furniture, and of rearranging them, wearing them out. How about reupholstering that loveseat, that armchair, or better yet, putting all of it onto a bonfire?

By: Lily Hoang

Lily Hoang — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:38:44 +0000

Adorno says: In his text, the writer sets up house. Just as he trundles papers, books, pencils, documents untidily from room to room, he creates the same disorder in his thoughts. They become pieces of furniture that he sinks into, content or irritable. He strokes them affectionately, wears them out, mixes them up, re-arranges, ruins them. For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live.

By: John Madera

John Madera — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:25:10 +0000

Hey Chris,

Sounds like an echo of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti:
“There is no longer beauty except in the struggle. No more masterpieces without an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault against the unknown forces in order to overcome them and prostrate them before men.”
–The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, Figaro (Paris, Feb. 20, 1909)

So, hyperbole aside, what is it about language, that inspires aggressive offense/defense? Does language oppress? territorialize? terrorize?

By: John Madera

John Madera — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:50:33 +0000

Oh wow, what an incredible dream, Lily. Did you ever get a chance to share it with her? I wish I could dream so lucidly. Actually, I wish I could remember my dreams at all.

By: Christopher Higgs

Christopher Higgs — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:22:53 +0000

Love this book. Love Maso’s work in general. Love Lutz’s “sentence is a lonely place” essay. Love Gass’s work.

Home, for me, is the feeling I get when I am with my wife.

Language, for me, is the chief enemy of existence. Words, for me, are the soldiers in language’s army. Sentences are brigades. Paragraphs are divisions. Pages are battalions. And I am the enemy combatant.

By: Lily Hoang

Lily Hoang — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:25:55 +0000

lovely post, john. if i could, i would make carole’s sentences my home. i would put up little paintings in her vowels, twist myself comfortable in her punctuation.

this is an old story, but carole blurbed my first book. one night, i dreamt i got a box of books, her blurb stretched in 36 point font across the back, the only words there: no other blurbs, no author info, nothing, just carole’s words. it was many weeks before i got the real thing from her, during those weeks, i kept imagining the back cover of my book: “i finished this book.” –carole maso.

her real words were much more elegant and generous.