Isolation Discipline
The following challenge is intended as an artistic experiment to recreate a "desert island" factor in the composition of poetry or poetic language. It is part of a bid to test a writer's intentions in writing, and was assembled as a consequence of a question:
If I was stranded with no company, no contact, and no hope of rescue - in short, no audience - would I still write?
If the answer is no, my conscience tells me I should stop writing immediately and altogether. But if the answer is yes, what kind of things would I write? It is difficult to imagine, hence the Isolation Discipline:
1. Eliminate the reader. There should be absolutely no consideration for any reaction, disposition or comprehension on behalf of an outsider. If at any point during genesis the poet becomes aware that he/she is addressing someone, however indirectly or anonymously, the poem should be halted and/or abandoned.
2. Eliminate meaning. The poem should not aim to be didactic or "profound". If the poet observes such characteristics emerging incidentally, they may be ignored but by no means nurtured. Remember: a message cannot be delivered to a non-existent recipient.
3. Eliminate convention. There should be no regard for established form, as there can be no possible recourse to any school, mode or movement in this scenario. Also, as far as the poet is concerned, each new poem is his/her first and last, and thus the only poem in existence.
Admittedly, it is a flawed manifesto: the parameters are fairly arbitrary, and the quality and sincerity of a written piece will be hard to judge; proclamations of "success" will be a matter for the writer's integrity. There is also a fundamental contradiction to working in a self-imposed vacuum for the sake of appearing to have fulfilled a set of rules. However, this is only an experiment, and the results should be at least interesting. I invite all to participate and to share the products.
H. Astley
June 2007
The following challenge is intended as an artistic experiment to recreate a "desert island" factor in the composition of poetry or poetic language. It is part of a bid to test a writer's intentions in writing, and was assembled as a consequence of a question:
If I was stranded with no company, no contact, and no hope of rescue - in short, no audience - would I still write?
If the answer is no, my conscience tells me I should stop writing immediately and altogether. But if the answer is yes, what kind of things would I write? It is difficult to imagine, hence the Isolation Discipline:
1. Eliminate the reader. There should be absolutely no consideration for any reaction, disposition or comprehension on behalf of an outsider. If at any point during genesis the poet becomes aware that he/she is addressing someone, however indirectly or anonymously, the poem should be halted and/or abandoned.
2. Eliminate meaning. The poem should not aim to be didactic or "profound". If the poet observes such characteristics emerging incidentally, they may be ignored but by no means nurtured. Remember: a message cannot be delivered to a non-existent recipient.
3. Eliminate convention. There should be no regard for established form, as there can be no possible recourse to any school, mode or movement in this scenario. Also, as far as the poet is concerned, each new poem is his/her first and last, and thus the only poem in existence.
Admittedly, it is a flawed manifesto: the parameters are fairly arbitrary, and the quality and sincerity of a written piece will be hard to judge; proclamations of "success" will be a matter for the writer's integrity. There is also a fundamental contradiction to working in a self-imposed vacuum for the sake of appearing to have fulfilled a set of rules. However, this is only an experiment, and the results should be at least interesting. I invite all to participate and to share the products.
H. Astley
June 2007
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
They call it artist block but, more often than not,
it is not just the artist who is blocked,
it is the person. Person block, this is how it should be called.
Since the true artist always lives the contradiction
of feeling detached from the others
and yet creating something that will probably somehow reach the others,
it is difficult to remember that the others should indeed not matter
in the process of creation.
When someone else starts watching and, god forbid, commenting,
the process of creation stops and fails.
This is true even if the watcher is just in the artist's head.
Regarding the lyrics, the first are from Wolf Like Me by TV on the Radio, the second from Like Eating Glass by Bloc Party. To be honest, I'm glad you asked. I usually quote with titles, but for some reason it didn't feel appropriate this time. I'm not sure why.
The Twelve Step program is pretty firmly based on the Jesus (or, if you prefer God) thing. But it sneaks up on you. They save him (or her if you're that way inclined) for the third step, so you're already well on your way before you realise what's going on. For the record, they go:
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol_that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
But yeah, what does Jesus know 'bout drinking? I wonder if that water trick he does works with vodka also?