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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 22, 1976
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Description
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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
Show moreTape 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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Date
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1976-10-22
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Title
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Robin Blaser: Sacred Geography Series, Simon Fraser University, Oct. 22, 1976
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Description
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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
Show moreNOTE: 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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Date
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1976-10-22
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Title
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Robin Blaser reading at Capilano College, North Vancouver, B.C., November 13, 1975 add note: introduced by Pierre Coupey
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Description
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Introduction by Pierre Coupey Prefatory Remarks Windows Revision of Windows It, It, It Holy Forest Section: Translation Winter Words The Story In The Dark The Prince Love The Private Eye Song First Tale, Over Second Tale, Return At Last Aphrodite of the Leaves The City Translator - A Tale Gran A Gift - Homage To Creeley Bottom's Dream The Finder
Show moreIntroduction by Pierre Coupey Prefatory Remarks Windows Revision of Windows It, It, It Holy Forest Section: Translation Winter Words The Story In The Dark The Prince Love The Private Eye Song First Tale, Over Second Tale, Return At Last Aphrodite of the Leaves The City Translator - A Tale Gran A Gift - Homage To Creeley Bottom's Dream The Finder Merlin The Cry of Merlin A Lion continued on next page
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Date
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1975-11-13
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