CoPo

“Social net (working?)”

sites/sights are multiplying
and being taken up

by an i n c r e a s i n g l y w i d e s p e c t r u m

(society.)

But who needs 100, or 1,000, friends?
What is the boundary?
Should we treat this desire?
f
o
r
(community) !

as a sign of
selfish individualism?

‘friends’ –
another 21st-century status symbol?

________________________________________________________
this is from an email I received from the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Follow the url here.

Original post by intertextuality

Busboys and Poets! Go there, BE square!

Original post by intertextuality

(photo thanks to http://quartzo-feldspato-mica.blogspot.c…)

Okay, so I was heartsick that we did not get to any of Adrienne Rich’s poems in yesterday’s class. She is a tour de force for women, for poetry, if ever there was one. And one of my heroines. Because of what she stands for, and because of the intimate and careful way in which she explores her craft. And, in my humble opinion, “21 Love Poems” are some of the most beautiful, complex, even periodically ambivalent or troubled, poems celebrating love (whether it be heterosexual or homosexual) of the recent past. That being said, I have a sort of emotional gushing of personal response to these poems, which I haven’t simmered down enough to put into words just yet. In the meantime, I recorded myself reading the first three ghost-sonnets of the cycle. I hope you enjoy them!

I am having some technical difficulties, as Wordpress will not allow me to imbed Imeem.com mp3 files. Therefore, I have linked here to my personal blog where you can listen to the poems. Sorry for the inconvenience! I will figure out this problem…

Click here to hear the recording of Adrienne Rich’s 21 Love Poems!

Original post by intertextuality

Original post by intertextuality

These are a few photos I took of Plath’s home while studying abroad in London last semester. They were previously published to the wonderful Amanda Rutstein’s blog for her Plath independent study last semester!

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Original post by intertextuality

Since I did my group presentation on the Beat poets I was able to research and get more background and information about Ginsberg, his life, and possible reasoning for “Howl’s” intensity and tone. Ginsberg’s life was a constant roller coaster, in and out of mental hospitals, by looking at numerous pictures and even some journal entries by him it is obvious that this was a man who had many personal and mental issues. “Howl” is meant to be spoken outloud I don’t believe by just reading it to yourself a reader can give the justice the piece deserves. When we read sections out loud Ginsberg’s voice and emotions were visiable. That’s why I love the Beat’s poetry because it is not anything like the standard poetry. It is filled with mass emotion and the poets are not trying to conform to society’s wants and say what they want to say instead.

Original post by sfinn2id

As I mentioned in class, there is a German silent film from 1927 called Metropolis, which prominently features the demon Moloch as a metaphor for the evils of capitalism. I found a clip on YouTube from the film, and am posting it here so everyone can see it.

this is Oscar Wilde’s tomb in Pere-Lachaise cemetery in Paris. There is a plaque out front that warns people not to deface the tomb, but lovers of Wilde persist. The smudges are lipstick prints. (And yes, I laid a smacker on him too, right after taking my nerdy tourist picture…)

The tomb reads:

“and alien tears will fill for him
pity’s long broken urn
for his mourners will be outcast men
and outcasts always mourn…”

Original post by intertextuality

Original post by Caitlin H.

First, I must say that I LOVED the Levertov essay, “Some Notes on Organic Form.” And she mentioned the etymology of two words at the top of 1083 that I just wanted to mention here:

“To contemplate comes from ‘templum, temple, a place, a space for observation, marked out by the augur.’ It means, not simply to observe, to regard, but to do these things in the presence of a god. And to meditate is ‘to keep the mind in a state of contemplation’; its synonym is ‘to muse,’ and to muse comes from a word meaning ‘to stand with open mouth’– not so comical if we think of ‘inspiration’–to breathe in.”

For Levertov, the writing process verges on spiritual. She concludes the essay:

A religious devotion to the truth, to the splendor of the authentic, involves the writer in a process rewarding in itself: but when that devotion brings us to undreamed abysses and we find ourselves sailing slowly over them and landing on the other side–that’s ecstasy.

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Original post by intertextuality