Points of Praxis

My Blog Reflects on Visual Rhetorical Theory and Disability Rhetoric and their Connections to Classical and Contemporary Rhetorical Theory

I was looking around Dr. Grigar's motime and Nouspace this morning and came across a reponse posted in motime by Dr. Grigar to the students of a previous e-lit class.  It seems students were discussing their dislike of poetry to which Dr. Grigar responded by posting a list of reasons why she disagrees with their sentiment.  I found this list to be very interesting in light of my "readings" this week of Stephanie Strickland's, Deena Larsen's, and Jennifer Ley's works.  Two points she made that were of particular interest to me were that 1) poetry is the first literary genre and forms the basis of all other genres in Western Literature and 2) poetry is an activity of the body, mind and spirit. 

In regard to her first point, Dr. Grigar explains that by understanding poetry, we can understand all other forms of literature--since all other genres were derived from some type of poetic expression.  I find this point particularly interesting in light of the current literary genres we're studying in e-lit.  Specifically, looking at Deena Larsen's "Spiritual Comfort," I understand how to read the work based on my experiences with other literary pieces.  I recognize it, initially, as a poem because of the short lines of text, despite their position on the page, and I know that words will reflect much more elaborate ideas.  I understand this work because of my experiences with other pieces of poetry (albeit they were much more conventional).  However, Larsen's work takes those genre expectations and uses the medium to subvert its delivery.  In other words, readers can't read the poem like they would one printed in a book.  Individual lines and words are presented horizonally and vertically, with no apparent order or direction. 

Whereas we would naturally expect to read the lines from left-to-right, that is not the case in this work.  Lines run horizonally, vertically, and diagonally.  They intersect with each other and some are presented separately from the others.  That is not even mentioning the fact that each word or line represents a hyperlink that projects new texts onto the page.  It seems that this work forces the readers out of their comfort zones because they must look at the work first as a piece of text--orientate themselves with it and figure out how to navigate through the page--before they can "read" the work as a literary text.  And, to be honest, I'm going to have to go back to it several more times before I can really get a sense of what the poem is "about."  However, it is because of my experiences with traditional works of poetry that I understand how to interpret this "new" genre or subgenre of poetry.

Dr. Grigar also noted that poetry is an activity of the body, mind, and spirit.  While those poets, like T.S. Eliot, John Barryman, and William Wordsworth, those considered to publish in more "conventional" means, would agree with this statement, it seems that statement is also supported by examining Ley's work, for example.   Ley's "The Amniotic Meander" and "Catch the Landmine!!" seem to infuse the texts of the work with a passion that only a social commentary could.  For instance, in "Catch the Landmine!!" Ley uses the commonly-seen Pop-Up ad in which users, for example, are asked to "catch" the dancing monkey.  However, Ley changes the monkey to a landmine and when viewers fail, they are linked to pages that comment sarcastically on the users' new prothetic limbs.  Ley uses contemporary experiences with hypertext to present (almost subversively) her message on the inhumanity of landmines.  I say "almost subversively" because readers are probably accustomed to the pop-up ads that the cartoonish landmines seem both fitting but in poor-taste.  Perhaps, that is just as much the social commentary as the use of landmines are:  that we're living in a time when "hitting the landmine" is hardly irreverent or shocking at first glance.  Ley infuses her work with contemporary references and makes it thought-provoking.  Her passion is, thus, reflected in the piece.

Deena Larsen, "Spirtual Comfort," http://www.pifmagazine.com/vol32/hypertext/index.html

Jennifer Ley, "The Amniotic Meander" http://www.heelstone.com/amniotic/first.html

Jennifer Ley, "Catch the Landmine" http://www.heelstone.com/amniotic/first.html

Stephanie Strickland, "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot," http://www.wordcircuits.com/gallery/sandsoot/frame.html

posted by: rgregory at 15:41 | link | comments (4) |

Comments:

#1  27 September 2005 - 22:57

 

What interests me most about poetry like Larsen's is that, to do analysis, a person is almost required to spend a great deal of time actually describing it. We have to "verbalize" what we see for our analysis to make sense. At first, I resented that. But, then, I realized how much more I begin to understand the poetry as I describe what "happens" in the encounter. Each encounter with New Media art seems to be an event to me--a one time occurence. It is much more apparent that each "reading" (or whatever you want to call it) is something new and unique, a perception I don't think is as apparent when reading static poetry/novels.--Cheri

crenshaw

#2  28 September 2005 - 03:55

 

Absolutely. I completely understand what you mean, especially since I tend to discover my ideas in the process of actually writing. While writing this piece, I thought of several aspects of Ley's poem that I didn't initally "see" when viewing it. I tend to have those "lightbulb moments" when I'm writing. And, I can see how the medium would really facilitate that kind of dynamic, on-going understanding.

Thanks for your comment.

rgregory

#3  07 December 2005 - 22:43

 

Thanks for bringing up my points about poetry. I am always so offended by my students in literary analysis class when they complain about the poetry section. Actually they complain *before* they enter the section. So they set themselves up for loss by not giving poetry a chance.

Ironically many of these students are some of the very ones who boast about their spiritual lives. Yet rejecting poetry seems to undercut that view of themselves for me.

Talk about a genre that requires close reading––that is poetry! And herein lies the problem. People have lost the art of listening, and specifically listening to themselves. Plugged into their iPods, with their cell phones literally popping out of their ears, they do not give themselves the silence they need to hear themselves think. The noise is as immense as it is intense. Poetry takes a silent mind. How does one teach this lost art?

I plan to try a bit of yoga and meditation the next time around.

--Dene

Dene

#4  25 December 2007 - 17:28

 

I'm Jennifer Ley -- I found your comments today about the Land Mine piece and as I've been sharing that url lately with more people: women who are setting up a fair trade relationship with land mine victims in Cambodia and my kiva.org loan page where I've given out small loans to independent entrepreneurs there - it was really gratifying to read your comments and to learn that the work resonated for you exactly as I'd hoped it would.
I love how the web lets us bread crumb our way through years of associations -- it's 7 years since I went to Cambodia, 2 since your read my piece. Happy 2008 - hope your life is going well !!

Mo'nonymous

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