Week 9 - lecture excercise

This object is a card advertising a play at the university, Alice - Based on the stories of Lewis Carroll. I had very little loyalty to it anyway - I only took it out of politeness and remembering that last summer I had a similar job of confronting people in public and trying to gain their interest. Anyway, the card. ALICE in big capital letters, I've seen it all around campus. I first think of the Tom Waits album of the same name. Is Tom in the play? What would he make of it? Not much I reckon. There's an advertisement in the bottom-right corner, purple, for a lettings agent. I have zero interest in this. I have zero interest in the play. I forgot that it was in my bag anyway until performing this task. This has reminded me to chuck it in a bin, as I planned to the moment I was handed it but didn't want to do so in front of them. Usually I walk around the corner and dispose of it, but not this time, for whatever reason. Maybe I did want to go see it. Or perhaps not. On the reverse side is more detail about the play, ending with the words 'Follow the White Rabbit', which reminds me of Jefferson Airplane, and in particular, a German friend of mine who likes them. I know that my friend wouldn't have even taken the card in the first place. Maybe it's an English thing, or maybe it's just me. When I consider what the object might feel about me disposing it, I suddenly feel a touch sad. But there's hundreds of identical cards. There's nothing unique or destinctive about it.

Respect for one’s elders

Back in my day, everyone had respect for one’s elders.

– The Prime Minister was Sir Anthony Eden, and everyone respected him, for he was Prime Minister. Mr Eden was fond of walking the streets of Westminster among the proletariat, all of whom would part humbly as he strode through. On occasion he would seek out a young, brazenly-attired member of the crowd and whack him across the forehead with a great stick, drawing blood, and the recipient was left grateful just to have been acknowledged by the man.

– Before 1922 the Prime Minister was a hereditary title held by whoever was the oldest man in Britain at the time. In 1901 alone there were over 200 Prime Ministers.

– A young lad would ask permission from his parents to breathe. If permission was given, the boy would inhale as deeply as possible, so grateful was he to be granted the privilege of his elders’ oxygen. A maximum quota of 50 breaths per request was established by law in 1823, due to the inordinate number of casualties. Children who died from lack of oxygen were often denied a formal burial, such was the shame their physical inadequacies brought on the mother and father. Such children were labelled “Frederick Mudmunssons” after the eponymous victim of the first recorded case of asphyxiation in AD 890. Doubts have recently emerged over the verity of Mudmunsson’s claim, as archaeological evidence suggests that he in fact died of a severe axe blow to the head from his father, the Norwegian nobleman Arnold Mudmusson, after the child had the temerity to request more than one breath.

– A man’s height was the primary means of identifying his age. Heels were lengthened half an inch at intervals of five years. Pensioners walked around on veritable stilts.

– Shopkeepers clipped children around the ear at their own volition. The ferocity of the clip was governed by the gap in age between the shopkeeper and the child.

– At school, every pupil was required to buy a bottle of gin for their teacher each month, as a gesture of gratitude for such a rich and varied syllabus. Pupils often submitted themselves to being drunkenly slapped around by their teachers, so grateful were they to feel the cold hand of knowledge across their unenlightened cheeks.

– In Gateshead, boys aged 5-10 were routinely dispatched to the coal pit at the behest of their elders. So grateful were these lads to receive apprenticeships in the mining industry that many flung themselves into the open pit through sheer irrepressible ecstasy. Some victims are believed to have died before hitting the bottom of the shaft due to oxygen deprivation. Those that survived were ordered to mine for the town elders’ favourite food, calamari. Between 1947 and 1953, the area was perpetually mined for the rare material, until it was brought to the attention of the local council that calamari was the Italian term for fried squid, and that re-locating the children to the North Sea would favour them better.

– Senior historians have traced Britain’s decline on the world stage to the gradual abolition of such practices.

Inspired by 'The Dream of India' by Eliot Weinberger

Week 3

Exercise 1

Frank Sinatra Has A Cold

Frank room attractive nothing knew

Sinatra industry national airline taking reacting alcohol

Hate alert seconds

Anger

Closest others loyal drinks

http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ1003-OCT_SINATRA_rev_

Exercise 2

A visit to the ruins of Wembley stadium; an encyclopedia entry for Georg Hegel; Orlando by Virginia Woolf

T'was a bright still day on 27 Feb 2002, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. He--for there could be no doubt of his when I made what was possibly my last 1831, is one of the greatest systematic sex, though the fashion of the time did ever see the old stadium. As the thinkers in the history of Western had something to disguise it--was the rusty tube which approached Wembley Park philosophy? In addition to epitomizing the slicing at the head of a Moor which there she was, a gallant and remarkable German idealist philosophy, Hegel swung from the rafters. It was the colour silhouette on the horizon, the towers and boldly claimed his own system of an old football, and more or less the floodlights untouched, the Wembley philosophy represented an historical shape of one, save for the sunken cheeks that Walk a desolation row. What a culmination of all previous philosophical and a strand or two of coarse, dry hair, a gladiatorial sight! It’s a bit of a miserable thought. Hegel’s overall encyclopedic like the hair on a cocoanut. Orlando's wasteland now that the Twin Towers system is divided into the science of father, or perhaps his grandfather, had have been abandoned for well over a Logic, the philosophy of Nature, and struck it from the shoulders of a vast year, and it seems the whole area has philosophy of Spirit. Of most enduring Pagan who had started up under been run down for some time.

Original:

T'was a bright still day on 27 Feb 2002, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770- He--for there could be no doubt of his when I made what was possibly my last 1831) is one of the greatest systematic sex, though the fashion of the time did ever trip to see the old stadium. As the thinkers in the history of Western something to disguise it--was in the act rusty tube approached Wembley Park, philosophy. In addition to epitomizing of slicing at the head of a Moor which there she was, a gallant and remarkable German idealist philosophy, Hegel swung from the rafters. It was the colour silhouette on the horizon, the towers and boldly claimed that his own system of of an old football, and more or less the floodlights untouched, the Wembley philosophy represented an historical shape of one, save for the sunken cheeks Walk a desolation row. What a culmination of all previous philosophical and a strand or two of coarse, dry hair, gladiatorial sight! It’s a bit of a miserable thought. Hegel’s overall encyclopedic like the hair on a cocoanut. Orlando's wasteland now that the Twin Towers system is divided into the science of father, or perhaps his grandfather, had have been abandoned for well over a Logic, the philosophy of Nature, and the struck it from the shoulders of a vast year, and it seems the whole area has philosophy of Spirit. Of most enduring Pagan who had started up under the been run down for some time.

Week 2

1. Homolinguistic Translation: Take a poem and translate it “English to English” by substituting word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line, or “free” translation as response to each phrase or sentence.

“Out, Out –” by Robert Frost

The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside them in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

‘In, In -’ by Richard Yates

The wasp-knife growled and shook in the garden

And caused mud and threw fire-long blocks of bark,

Foul-smelling things when the wind swept through it.

And to here those who fell faces couldn’t number

Ten hills one before another

Above the sunrise far into California.

And the knife growled and shook, growled and shook,

As it strode dark, and had to drop a load.

And everything began: day was all but ahead.

Say morning, he hopes I should have called

To relieve the girl by denying her the thirty minutes

Which a girl numbers so little when trapped in play.

Her brother knelt behind us in his night dress

To tell us “Breakfast.” At a sentence, the knife,

If only to disprove knives knew where breakfast was,

Hopped in from the girl’s foot, and seemed not to hop—

She can’t have taken the foot. Although it wasn’t,

Either accepted the departure. But the foot!

The girl’s last thought was a joyous cry,

As she slid away from us grasping the foot

All in protest, and nothing if only to claim

The death from leaking. Then the girl heard nothing—

After she was too young to forget, small girl

Refusing a woman’s play, though an adult in mind—

She heard nothing ruined. “Let her stick my foot on—

The nurse, if she arrives. Let her, brother!”

No. And the foot was not yet attached.

The nurse put her out, the light of electricity.

She stood and sucked her mouth in with her breath.

But then—the listener at her beat left calm.

We all doubted. We watched at her head.

Nothing—more—lots! —and that started it.

Much more to develop here. And we, since we

Were not the ones alive, could not turn.

Problems: you can’t reverse some words as it pollutes all meaning; you have to be flexible (assuming you value something ‘making sense’ as important.) Like much of free writing, some parts work surprisingly (almost accidentally) well, and others not at all.

87. Use the "Meaning Eater" engine to deform the text of a poem.

“Who, Met –” do Traces Tapes

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Floyd ere gasser ned loom Players.

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Nu al lin study, at rip by task i soya.

Hun lustful goodness: god tab mao fog lame.

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On parses may ire my single hog gig bull muff

Lima a soy hawker em list risc rocks exec bags.

Jet raiser befog locust gil ha pet gourd

By lute leak "Clarke." Hi sub hail, van elm,

Ha be up clink hi sexed flam levi mend bakers embed,

Coolie apt so paz bar'i cost, ed lumped oz sack—

Po pact ride scoff tex oboe. Joining up tim,

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Pane up lagoon, rot hill at be at poll

Men eris soul accepted. Hard pad sap sum mad—

Mayer us bye ram smyrna so bart, uzi tin

Reeds i nil'a like, loaves a crabs oz smell—

En rub arm art slewing. "Odd'i toy nip now my orly ivy—

Abo bummed, saps oh sixty. Dug'i age two, slowed!"

Ed. Uri orly toy navy chewers.

Kin ordeal pet bar oh age jill ox tuber.

Io lay lin bathed gab yawn cot nary doc idiots.

Pea klux - zan handily in tea goofy dons i orient.

To win insanity. Wipe consumed po toy emacs.

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Flux sit boy doe slap, clasps ah truce easiest.