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Robin Blaser Readings
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Fred Wah and Robin Blaser in Vancouver, circa late 1960s
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Fred Wah introduces and gives a background to "Mountain".
"Mountain".
End of "Mountain".
Some questions are asked concerning the poem's imagery by Blaser, Warren Tallman, Ralph Maud, and Pauline Wah.
R. Blaser begins to read "Particles", a prose piece.
Blaser points to two scholars upon whom he is dependent as masters in his life and thought: Ernst Kantorowicz, and Hannah Arenat.
Blaser now discusses Hugh Ford's A Poet's War (1965) and Ernst Fischer's The Necessity of Art, a Marxist view of art, and dismisses them.
Blaser now looks to John Harrison's The Reactionaries: a study of the anti-democratic intelligentsia (1967).
Blaser now comes to his own argument regarding the importance of poetry in the world of politics --he starts by relating a couple of stories.
The second story Blaser relates involves the
Spanish Civil War/and the conduct of Miguel de Unamuno.
Blaser reminds us that the American government was founded by revolution — the only revolution in modern times which founded a government on the basis of freedom. This government was intended to be public.
Blaser now examines the concept of "freedom" in detail.
"The political world of the U.S. once reflected a shared public activity", says Blaser, "but it has removed itself further and further from us, in part due to our lack of knowledge about the tendency of representative institutions to act only in terms of generalizations, and in response to those invisibilities: power groups".
Tape ends in mid-sentence.
Continues with a discussion of "society" and "the will of the people".
"Art, literature, and religion are none of them expressions of either society or of the self", asserts Blaser, "they are activities of content, passion, and thought, the relation of the man to the world as the world calls to him".
Blaser touches upon the action of the Mayor against The Georgia Straight.
"Abundance and consumption dominate politics in the U • S • • « •
Blaser quotes from Thoreau's essay Civil Disobedience.
On the irrelevancy of art.
End of Blaser's lecture; discussion follows, and a general hub-bub of conversation.
Fred Wah begins to read, again with "Mountain".
End of "Mountain".
End of recording.
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 29, 1976
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Tape begins with Blaser mid-sentence discussing the cosmology of the poetic "Edda" [1200-800 A.D.] and the prose "edda". The topic is then further expanded into that of Norse religion and the old Norse world view. Blaser elaborates and explains the myths with references to Indo-European cultures.
Blaser discusses the family of languages. He refers to Webster's International Dictionary. He draws together various pieces of cultural evidence to construct the characteristics of "Indo-European speech and culture".
Blaser looks at "The Volaspa" for its Norse creation story. Discusses the generative act where we have a mutual attraction and opposition of cold and heat. The singular origin and identity is not the same as the Platonic one; this is a flow.
Everything, in this cosmology, returns to matter. Matter and spirit are not split as in our tradition. This difference is discussed.
Blaser discusses the lack of creator in the Norse mythology. Creation is assumed to be spontaneous as a product of two opposed forces (heat and cold).
Blaser refers to Hinduism: he discusses the shape of the cosmos (shaped around the "eternal conflict which is life.") The cosmos develops in one of a fragile "order" of time and temporal relations with the "threat of disorder" always looming. Blaser discusses the structure of the Norse cosmos in some detail.
The connection between the world of gods and the world of men, the ash tree, Yggdrasil. Blaser postulates that the world tree, any mythological world tree is the "latent invisible fire in the living wood which is the perfect symbol of eternal spirit trapped in matter." Dionysus is an anthropomorphized version of this vision.
A thorough examination of the Norse world-tree ensues.
End of lecture.
Tape begins with an announcement of a poetry reading. Blaser begins his lecture by introducing Charles Olson's "The Horses of the Sea" [to be found in "Sparrow 43", Black Sparrow Press].
A very lengthy discussion of sources in Olson's work ensues.
Blaser introduces a passage from Fowler's book on Norse religions and presents some propositions that he has been building that are meant to allow us to speak to the nature of the "real".
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 29, 1976
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COMMENTS
ith Blaser's voice in mid-sentence. References to Olson + nature of the follow.
:ask of the poet, the greater context. Once this has been understood one ;ciate texts that stand outside their mere contemporary context, the a poetic text.
y "consciousness of language", Blaser agrees that the Romantics started rds the notion of language but he thinks it was individuals such as jan to comprehend and appreciate the polar relationships of poetry with s of the nature of language.
investigation into divine poetic nature Blaser examines texts that detail between the Ancient (Homeric?) Greeks and their gods.
heaven and earth ("earth and sky") and the emerging notion of "the
destiny of the Greeks is neither a justification nor disruption or
he natural course of the world. It si this natural course of the world
iderstanding of the foundation of this world view, Blaser explains that Greeks the world was not an observable, examinable place but a ever unobjective to which we are subordinate as long as the paths of 1, of blessing and curse, hold us thrust into being where the essential listory befall us and which are taken over and abandoned, tid again sought by us. There world's the world. Prof. Blaser is ? his material from Victor Vycinas' The Earth and Gods: an introduction ty of Martin Heidegger.
izer of the lucidity of the world.
he does on other tapes in the series, argues that, as part of human ^ruth is to be found only in "unreason". Truth as emerging from the a "that which is." The strife between the world and the earth can ruth when it takes a stand within the realm of openness obtained by it. rid" can only be actualized as an Artwork.
hat he is, as an example of a deity. The various roles and responsibili-ire listed and detailed; an attempt is made by Blaser to limit the god's a conceptual whole.
The discussion on the many traits of Hermes continues.
Blaser turns onto Zeus "The worldness of a world is Zeus." Zeus as a god of light, which innately infers that Zeus is a god of revealing, "of disclosing ... by reflecting the truth of the god, These forms are true. They are the logos of this god. Zeus, then, is the logos par excellence."
The nature of Truth. "Truth as Reason, becomes in the poetic argument simply our Reason. And this confronts what Olsen calls the "demonic nature of experience". The link is made easily between this notion and the notion of the polarity, the "tension" of experience in mythology. Reference is made to Charles Olson's Poetry and Truth (The Beloit Lectures and Poems), . In the existence that lies behind poetry, more than the language we speak.
Return of topic to the "tension of existence". Blaser notes the interdependence to the "other". Olson's so-called attack on Einstein in Poetry and Truth is brought up to display the content of the concept; Einstein's relativity is viewed as another one of the modes of reason. Olson harkens to the dynamicaly-relational. A Maurice Merleon-Ponty essay to be found in Sense-non-Sense, is cited by Blaser as summing up the issue at immediate hand here.
The disclosure of the world the way it appears to the I. Again Olson's Poetry and Truth is mentioned. One point of particular noteworthiness is that the "I" is to be found "among" not isolated in any manner. Notion of disclosure and concealment; the "active" agent of the unknown.
Speech as a stance of language, revealing the relationship(s) between intellect and objects. Language and freedom. Freedom as possessing the individual (not visa versa), Spicer and Olson cited. Human referring as a result of the outward mode, Logos, in this primary sense, "is our assembling of otherness to ourselves."
Classroom confusion results in Blaser repeating his previous statements to clarify their meaning.
Martin Heidegger is cited once again, a quotation "Our thinking is giving thanks". Further quotations are given and explored, all searching for the language behind language.
Olson's notion that "to say" (speech) is "to bring into appearance". Such a notion should not be confused with the "creation" of appearance; words do not follow things." Olson calls this "Mythologos", words bringing things from their position of concealment.
Side One ends.
Blaser's voice emerges in mid-sentence, discussing such topics as "truth" and "freedom" The movement toward "the future" and its being is discussed. Vyainds' is quoted and references to Olson and Spicer are made.
The "future " as "improvised ... in Utopias"; With the absence of a tradition, human beings "therefore ... constantly break the ties of tradition by revolts." While the concept seemingly contradicts itself, Blaser proves the opposite to in fact be the case.
Contemporary human beings standing between philosophy and the upcoming of a greater thought, the thought of being itself." Blaser, utilizing Heidegger directly, states that thinking of the future assembles the language/being of the future, thinking as no longer philosophy but now mythology.
Operative and Representational language,; Representational language represent the "red" of the world. Operative language presents - discloses -what was previously covered. The language is interactive when in its operative sense.
Structural elements of the world: Earth, Sky,. Mortals and Gods. Together they make up the "action of the world ... its light." concealment and Revealement arc explored once again; Earth as having a "tendency to concealment, the World to revealment. Art, the Truth, emerges from the strife between the Earth and the World.
Chaos as "the holiness itself: (L.Heidegger), it stands as the ultimate course of all. The Realm of Destiny, binding everything. Blaser embellishes this fully, conjuring up Heroditas, Spicer and Olson.
The song of the poet being the place where ghouls, human beings and holiness can all appear. "All true poetry has its beginning in an encounter with the divine."
Discussion moves onto earth - centered religions; the cathonoing society in which the dead are real and powerful in that they go to the earth. Blaser notes that Spiker refused to separate the dead and the living, and in fact gave the dead a prominence over the living.
Olympian religion gains prominence over the Cathonain religion, death is shunned. Numerous references made to Homer's place in this.
The reversal of Logos, the reversal of light. Characteristics of Olympian and Cathonain religion are explored in contrast.
Earth, Sky, Gods, Mortal men - "all of them are in strife, as parts of the world". Art as creating a world, creating a hold on the "earth in the world". The guarding of the earth and the world in their strife is the fundamental feature of Art work. Letting the Truth take place in the struggle between the worldness of the world and earth.
Blaser draws a transition connecting concepts of the ancient world with the contemporary interest in "open form". Charles Olson is cited as using such "open form" as projective and as field; Jack Spicer is also cited for his "serial poems" a constant opening of time itself.
Blaser vocalizes his view that he feels the "openform" vs. "closed form" debate is little more than an intellectual "hang-up".
The nature of "open form"; openness as it is "attached to a primary condition". - the narrative as a new stance, a new content. Blaser quotes.
Closing remarks. Blaser answers a class question. Blaser reading (his own work?) Side Two ends.
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 1, 1976
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Blaser's voice is heard in mid-sentance.
Discussion of the text, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Blaser will be relying on.
Apparent continuation of discussion on the Divine Falcon. A part of.enactment mythology 6 an enactment ritual in Egyptian myth Osiris, etc.
"The cosmology'is still not entirely understood" Set & Isis are cited.
Importance of Horus Igod/god-like figure in the text) not the poet. • • . . '
Movement towards Death in Egyptian mythology; Principle of passage.
Osiris arising to serve the order of the world. Rites of Osiris.
Blaser's theory that the priests of the temples kept certain . aspects of the rituals a mystery as a representation of the aspects of the god that were indeed a mystery, lie rejects the contemporary notion that it was done as a form of social control on the part of the priests . Rituals serving as an enactment of metaphysical concepts. '•
For example, The Book of the Dead: its use of Time s Space Blaser*s main point being that of of duel nature of God/Godhead.
Double.in nature, but transcendent. Theory of the emergant s the transcendent.
Doctrine of Osiris resurrection as found in1the Pyramid tepts. The Doctrine is contrasted & compared with the Legend of the Holy Grail . Heriodious* work is utilized, at this point, for its «
significant references to Mystery Cults/'Religions . Passage dealing with the Osiris cult & its rituals as found'in The Book of the Dead. Discussion follows dealing with the innate significance of the passage . "The Ancients thought of death as the essential prelude to life. A polarity existing in all of nature. Further definition, especially of the concept of the "underworld" is given . Genenology of Osiris & his fellow gods, also the concept of
his Kingship is explained . Primeval time to be considered as the time before duelity . Lecture broken off in mid-sentence as tape ends .
Blaser's voice in mid-sentence. He is explaining, moreSO
outlining, the concept of the original duelity of male s female. It is a complimentary notion that is, unfortunately, altered with the birth of Set.- Sot represents elorannts of confusion/cliaon, Blaser notes the lack of love between Set and his mother. He • comments, In words to the effect of, that this is a strange twist on a rather common theme, that of Mother fixation in no way does this even begin to imply that Set is in any way a child god.
Set as existing "outside" the community of the gods.
The birth of Horus, the undefinable conflict that arises between Horus and Set [in the tangible forms of a homosexual element that seems to be mostly implied in The Book of the Dead and a physical fight that is much more than merely impliedJ.
The importance of• the eyes of a being. Special reference is given to what the eyes reveal after one engages in considerable sexual activity. Even the godrf of The Book of the Dead, according to Blaser, feel this is important.
The poison semen that Horus receives; the warning given Horus.
The sexual element between Horus and Set, noted also is the role Isis plays. As the conflict intensifies the seed of Horus is spread on the vegetables growing in Set's garden.
The pregnancy o.f Set; the battle for the disc; the notion that the eye of Horus comes from the forehead of Set; the birth of Wroth.
Origin of the creation of the moon [i.e. the eye of Horus] myth. Explanation on the religious symbol that the moon becomes. Blaser goes on to define a 'symbol' as a sign that conveys an image, that in our reality gives expression to a reality of a different order.
The 'sound eye1 the eye that has been healed. Blaser utilizes mathematical concepts to further develop his position. The 'sound eye' serves as a notion of soundness and reality, via integrated contrasts. The newborn and Wroth has constructed the 'eye in such a way that it presents a 'new image of reality' (being and non-being).
Blaser comments on what he feels is the greatest wonder of Egyptian mythology, the notion of the journey to the underworld as an experience of complete totality.
Egyptian concept of, the essential duality that always exists, a series of contrasts and comparisons. Blaser calls them 'polarities'.
The element of metamorphosis; Light and Sexualtiy become the
focal points for the ensuing discussion. Side Two ends.
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