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Robin Blaser Readings
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 22, 1976
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Tape begins with Blaser discussing the need to find a vocabulary fitting for investigation of 'the primary world'.
Homer & Hesiod & the defense of divinity in the social world. Hesiod as a progression over Homer, Hesiod touted as the more abstract of the two writers. Blaser agrees but with distinct reservations, which he explains.
Structure of the Illiad. Its narrative, its core story & its engaging formula. Pound & Olson are mentioned as inheritors of the Illiad's formula, it's a literary tradition utilized to maintain that which the culture must remember "in order to continue".
Preface to Plato by Havelock & the attempt to defeat poetry. Blaser utilizes Havelock's book to examine the didactic nature of Homer & Hesiod in the transmission of social knowledge, publi usage & private habit.
Havelock's outline of the Illiad.
Student presentation dealing with descriptive & connective phrasing, as well as the meter of the Illiad.
Outline of the Illiad again, with scant commentary of Blaser's part.
Poetry as the transmission of social knowledge. Meaning & the interplay with the existing social structure. Plato wanted to remove the poet for such a powerful position in society & place the philosopher in such a role.
Examination of the work of Hesiod, specifically the first 13C lines, Hymns to the Muses. Here we find, for the first time in the history of the West, the poet's view of himself, his profession & what it means. Blaser feels that Hesiod's Hymns teach History & Prophecy, they also teach morality & philosophy. This is the poet's vital social role.
The creation of a realm of belief. How such a realm came to be is a major element of .Hesiod's work. This is the creation of a mythology.
The mythology of the ancient world, that of Olympia, & its central link to poetry.
Hesiod's "rationalization of world history", the nation is explored by the seminar.
Side one ends, unfortunately cutting Blaser off in mid-sent.
Tape cuts in, picking up where Side one left off. Continuatio of investigation of the poetic process with supplementation froir Havelock text.
Hesiod's description of the Muses.
Havelock & Hesiod's catalogue of the nine Muses. This discussion moves into the area of the segmentized educational system perfected by the 5th century B.C. Greeks & still haunting us to this very day.
A look at the principles of the poetic which exists in our modern lives. Definitions of "reason" & "subject" which themat-ically structure contemporary perspectives. Marcuses Reason & Revolution, especially the Preface, is utilized at this point.
The rejection of the contradiction in the search for synthesi which results in a return to the subject, Blaser views this as an enormous distortion of the real. Marcuse desires a system of thought by negation.
Negation as a positive act, it comes far closer to a reality than the world of figures & facts ever could. Obviously Blaser elaboratesiion this notion.
The "experience" of poetry. Also a reference to Spicer & his use of the "primary".
The poet who stresses the "primary" battles against the ideology of factual language, out of logical & into experiential form.
The search for an authentic language, a common element. Robert Duncan's objections to this are mentioned & briefly addressed. Blaser stresses that "ideas" are not being disregarde rather they are being re-positioned.
Charles Olson's letter to Elaine Finstein (May 1959). Blaser gives background information & then goes on to read the letter. The letter is a response to general questions on poetics & more specific queries on the use of the image. Blaser peppers his reading of the letter with extremely relevant commentary.
Olson letter continues, as does Blaser's commentary.
The peripheral role given to poetry in the modern world is a victory of the logical. Blaser, quite rightly, feels that the logical must be resisted & poetry returned to its central social role.
Side two ends.
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 22, 1976
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NOTE: At a specific point in the tape the speed changes, hence the counter numbers alter. The new counter numbers are indicated in brackets for awhile and then they take the place of the previous counter numbers. Technology has nasty habits also.
Tape breaks in on Blaser's voice reading an article/selection on the nature of contemporary poetry with vague references to deep-seated "truth";"that the life that one lives is practically the condition of poetry...rather than the poetic life being a thing unto itself".
"And knowing", Confucius says, "brings one to the goal." Again from the same article, stressing a specific ideological view. Spicer and Olson are mentioned in the context of poetic construction.
Blaser, after some exceedingly relevant introductory remarks,
reads one of Charles Olson's Maximus poems, a later one.
"The sea was born of the earth without sweet union of love..."
Reference is made to Forgotten Religions, edited by V. Ferm, specifically the essay on Old Norse religion by M. Fowler. Blaser speaks of the disorder and order of the myths, "the primary tension and condition to which the poetic experience speaks".
Blaser turns his attention to dealing with the "vocabulary" of the works, hoping to draw out some fundamental links and distinctions in "poetic thinking". He details a school of thought; he views "great art" as working within the context of "an exhibition of world" - the elements in "dynamic relation - earth, sky, gods and mortals/man". The "world" is to be found in the region of the gods, yet it is still in "direct relation" with the earth. The "disclosure" of the "world" is the how of meaning, the development of mythology.
"Poetry is very political if anyone ever understood poetry."
Importance of the "disclosure" as an act of "revelation between intellect and object". Blaser seemingly wants to preserve both the mystical and the intellectual, he appears to view them as naturally complimenting to each and in many cases as the same.
The factor of "dread" - "made up of the absence and the presence of the object and the subject and, as a consequence, is a dynamic aspect of being alive...not to be reduced to the psyche".
Conversation has turned to the dynamic between Life and Death; Death being "the call that is not one's self". Lecture then moves onto the relationship between "Death and Time".
"In a universe without Death, we would be mere solipsists, one would never really believe in the world outside".
Blaser soothes his students, realizing that the discussion of self is getting a bit abstract. He says "Just ride with this, don't get panicked get worse".
Further discussion on the self, time and death. Future, Past, Present and the ecstasy of time.
Man and the illumination of being. Blaser states "Man is the guardian of the appearance of being". The discussion rotates around the notion of "being" as a shared thing between man and the cosmos as a whole.
Now the topic has turned to the issue of Truthness and Correctness. Blaser quotes from the text, "Human thought is not simply human, it belongs to the world". Life as a gradual construction of the concealed to the disclosed, referred to as an assembling.
Side One ends.
Tape cuts in on Blaser discussing Logos as a term. He notes that while it came to mean "reason" originally the term meant "sane". Logos as that "which precedes logic". Blaser speaks of the potentiality of thinking, to "step behind logic" as he puts it. The continual creation of thinking.
"Things are not prior to words and words are not labels added to already existing things". Blaser repeats this for greater emphasis and then adds "Logos itself has to be thought of as the voiceless words of being".
Construction of language, Blaser brings all the material to a head. Quote from the text says it all "When we go through the forest we go through the word forest".
"A language, when it is a true language, belongs to the world of being and not to us". Blaser continues to read from the text and comments on the notions raised by the text.
Blaser turns again to Time - the ecstasy of past, present and future - and the issue of "strife" between Heaven and Earth. The creation, the assembling of things upon themselves, that comes out of chaos. A brief discussion on Greek (Ancient Greek that is) perspective on the deities within man and the power of the gods in relation to language.
Artemis, sister of Apollo, is discussed as Blaser's closing remarks. He talks about,H.D.'s fascination with Artemis, found throughout H.D.'s poetry.
Seminar breaks up for the day.
Side Two ends.
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Robin Blaser reading at Vancouver Art Gallery, 1982
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Robin Blaser reads his paper, "The Violets: Charles Olson and ' Alfred North Whitehead (a cosmological reading of a
cosmology)" Note: A version of this essay can be found
in the journal Line, number two, fall 1983
Blaser introduces "The Violets"; the translation of
Whitehead into poetry Preface to the paper: a "collage" of quotations Quotation from John RusseVs The Meanings of Modern Art . ("Art is there to make sense of the World...") 7 Quotation from Philip Rief.f from Triumph of the Therapeutic Blaser reads an entry from his journal
Reads W.C. Williams' "St. Francis Einstein of the Daffodils" The specialized meanings of some terms used by Whitehead:
"prehension", "subjective aim", "actual entities",
"eternal object", "feeling", "God" Begins to read "The Violets"
"The American poet who has made the most profound use of
Whitehead's thought is Charles Olson..." (Lines, p.61) "The reality of Marxism remains, as it began, The other
face of Hegel..." (p.62) "What I have noticed in the poetry and poetics of the most
important poets is that they are arguing, weaving, and
composing a cosmology and an epistemological practice" (p.63) "I have arranged my essay to include copious quotation" (p.64) "In a letter of 1916, before the essay was printed in 1919,
Pound states his interest" (p.65) "This wonderful voice, guiding science and, as we shall see,
entering into poetry, draws attention to what is mostv
to be attended to in art..." "Among Olson's books, now collected in The Charles Olson
Archives..." (p.67) "This lecture was "preceded and followed" by study sessions
on Process and Reality" (p.68) "This well-judged summary brings us a long way into a sense of
Olson's response to the philosopher..." (p.69) "A fresh world-view, their indebted to science by way of
Einstein and Whitehead..." (p.70) Side one ends in the middle of a quotation from W.C. Williams
"Paul Christensen describes the look and feel of the poems in just such terms..." (p.70) .
"Olson's direct use of Whitehead's thought by way of reference, borrowing, and quotation can be traced to Process and Reality and to Adventures in Ideas" (p.71) "This move away from a systematic relationship to Whitehead's
' philosophy of organism should be noted..." (p.72)
"This lecture is marked by its introductory character from
the initial statement on coming to know Whitehead's
thought..." (p.73) "From the passages quoted by Olson, Whitehead turns to a further consideration of the 'second stage of feeling'..." (p.74)
"It is at such.a point as this that we may begin to understand'
what I have called Olson's translation of Whitehead" (p.75) "Olson consistently translates Whitehead's philosophy-of
organism and its magnificent 'vision' of process back
into his own acts as a poet of perception and
intelligence" (p.76) "Olson terms the condition a 'return to object1 and he returns
art to the 'contest'" (p.77) "The sudden appearance of 'one's self in this context may
seem abrupt." (p.78) "With many a quotation, I have endeavoured to dramatize the
two languages of these men..." (p.79) "Two epigraphs open the argument..." (p.80) "Olson is proposing to date the loss of the sense of reality
as a process at that point" (p.81) "Olson draws a line from the underlined word 'multiplicity'
to the bottom of the page..." (p.82) "This 'WILL' includes an obedience within the process..."^(p.83)
"Interpretation, with its lingering positivism and its
confused urge towards materialism, too often ignores the
fundamental religious temper of poetic thought" (p.85). "This is an important moment of preparation in von Hallberg's • argument..." (p.86)
"From the underlined word 'objects', Olson draws a line to the bottom of the page..." (p.87) - side two ends here
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 1, 1976
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Blaser discussing the notion of duality in Egyptian cosmology as found in The Book of the Dead. He then goes on to speculate on the alterations in the relationships between the Egyptian gods. Further speculation is given to the results of Set; homosexual tendencies.
Notion of duality. Blaser draws interesting assumption as he displays that Oasis is death from which life arises and Set is life from which death arises. As the relationship between the two gods deteriorates, Death becomes a visible, semi-separate entity unto itself.
The shift in emphasis on the worship of Set by the Egyptians.
Blaser describes the ideas, mainly the "layers of the world" concept, that he wants the students to keep in mind as they read and re-read the text(s).
Discussion turns to the "central issues", relating from two particular texts, they being Causual Mythology and Poetry and Truth. Some of these "issues" include the notions of narrative and vocabulary.
Beginning of a discussion on the narrative as having two particular facets, that of speech and that of speaking. Blaser goes on to say "...narrative is made up of events, not facts." He stresses the ability of the narrative to pull the reader into the work.
Investigation into what Blaser calls "the means whereby we wish to speak of the active mode...". Topics such as sense, nonsense and a "pure" language are to be raised.
Reiteration of the active role the reader must play in the events of the narrative. "Presense" in the work of Jack Spicer, who most of the preceding discussion dealt with. Also, introduction of
Surrealistic concepts into the discourse, specifically "the
violent displacement of language that is then intended to control the marvelous".
Suggestion to read specific letters of Arthur Rimbaud. The letters announce the psychological notion of "otherness".
Blaser lays great emphasis, perhaps even the major emphasis of the entire course, on the "constant operation of the language". Elaboration follows.
Foucuat, French poet, and his analysis of the evolution of the modern mind is stressed. It too utilized the concept of "otherness" in a slightly economic sense.
Tape ends, cutting Blaser off in a discussion of scientific principles.
Tape cuts in on some humorous interplay between Blaser and his students.
Discussion moves back to the multi-textured issue of language. Language, it is stressed, by its very nature involves a sense of "otherness". "I'm not paying any attention, at this point, to God and all that stuff" says Blaser; he is dealing with direct experience.
The consciousness of modern language and its restructuring. Blaser reads from an essay by Zollah, the title of the essay is unintelligible- that stresses social oneness. Linguistic origins and the developments of Indo-European tongue are brought to the discussion, especially the connection between myth, symbols and the resulting language in the construction of the self. Question of a point of detail from a member of the seminar. Blaser responds by reading from the text and repeating some of what he said previously. He uses the question as the link to "the consistent movement inside language".
Blaser turns to a book by Western Labarr called Ghostdance for which he expresses particular distain for its overly simplistic and naturalistic approach to the subject of religion.
Question from a seminar member concerning Spicer. Blaser feels the student has misunderstood his position and goes to reexplain that "the consistent efforts of all these texts is to speak to its own historical past", adding further examples to strengthen his position. The student seems satisfied with the response, as do others in the seminar.
Turn to Causual Mythology as reading for next seminar is assigned.
Class breaks up with Blaser commenting on how much he appreciates question and dissent in his classes.
Sound ends.
Side Two over.
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