fragilekeys

A diatribe against the “state of things” is inevitably misplaced and misdirected: its audience is never where you want them to be. And so I don’t feel too foolish condemning vitally important thoughts to a blog entry–  diatribing against nothing and no one in particular. How important can all this really be, anyway? “Not very!” This is how we view all these statuses and “likes” and comments and moments of sharing on the internet: superfluous mostly, perks, add-ons, where everything is virtually optional. Is it that way, or do we let it be that way? What are we afraid of? I tend to think that we aren’t demanding enough of ourselves. Or rather, we are afraid of exposing ourselves, afraid of extending our hand, revealing the precariousness of our positions and the vulnerability of our existence. But structurally, we don’t and can’t know what “exposing ourselves” entails. Moreover, we don’t even know if we are technically capable of it– that is, if there is a technique or any one technique capable of handling this abrupt exposure of “man to man himself.” We don’t know if this has anything at all to do with intention, or if it hasn’t already run infinitely far ahead of us… Continue reading →

To theorize is only one way to respond to the call to exist. In this post, I’ll contrast it with what I’m calling “poetry.” I’m going to explore what I see as the limit of theory’s usefulness by contrasting it with a poetic-resonant view of words and the world.

To begin with, both theory and poetry are written down in some way. What for? Let’s set aside the idea that the very activity of writing is what generates this diversity or division between theory and poetry, and instead focus on what theory and poetry mean to achieve by being written and shared. I realize that many will object that I am painting with strokes too broad, but so be it. I mean to draw a contrast between ends.

A theory is written down so as to be transmitted in some way. We can say the same of poetry, though elsewhere I would complicate this idea of “transmission.” However, accepting that both aim to be transmitted, let us draw this distinction: where a theory is transmitted on its own terms, poetry is transmitted on yours. What do we mean by this? Let us begin with what is required for theory to be transmitted on its own terms; then perhaps we can ask what is meant by this: poetry is transmitted to you on your own terms.  Continue reading →