29 Ways of Looking at the Oblique in A/r/tography

1

the typographical oblique marks a/r/tography as generative, creative, productive, and critical, in love with language, a vital and vibrant inquiry that pulses with life

2

like music notation the oblique reminds us how a/r/tography sings in ecotones, tunes and turns our hearing to tensionality and intentionality

3

by using the oblique a/r/tography opens up possibilities for interrogating language poetically, transporting translations with the associative and substitutive energies of metaphor and metonymy

4

the oblique designates measures, ratios, fractions, dates, and addresses, and lines of poetry that run in linear exuberance, and phonemic transcriptions of pronunciations so we can see the beat of the feet

5

a/r/tography always winks obliquely, laughs with the interrogative spirit of Hermes, full of play

6

the oblique in a/r/tography hints at more, what is not said

7

with oblique sutures, a/r/tography interconnects, interacts, interviews, interweaves

8

the oblique separates alternatives with a light touch that opens up spaces for denotation and connotation

9

some probably think the obliques in a/r/tography are hard on the eyes, ungrammatical, interloping marks like boot prints on a pristine marble floor

10

the oblique in a/r/tography connects, relates, joins, unites like a dovetail joint

11

some might think the obliques in a/r/tography are pretentious postmodern posturing like gaudy tattoos for scholars who eschew clarity, coherence, and convention

12

the oblique in a/r/tography bends and blends, zigs and zags, leans over the verge, diverges and converges with the verb’s verve

13

a/r/tography dwells in oblique liminal spaces where the littoral calls attention to the literal as literally littered with possibilities for literate and elliptical engagement

14

the oblique in a/r/tography remembers and reminds and reverberates, again and again, gaining momentum in moments of momentous meaning-making

15

like a/r/tography, the oblique is always leaning into the wind, falling forward, eager to become, hopeful for what is not yet known

16

the oblique is neither perpendicular nor parallel, inclined to slant, bent upward, declining erect and right angles, even the proud phallic symbols of patriarchy

17

with the oblique, a/r/tography figures, configures, and transfigures with a wild dancer’s interpretive instinct and intuition

18

in a/r/tography the oblique punctuates, interrupts, intersperses like a little rod or a little road that points to somewhere else

19

there is no sin in synonyms: oblique/slash/virgule/diagonal/solidus/separatrix/slant/stroke

20

in a/r/tography the oblique calls attention, calls the other to attention, with flamboyant flourish and flare

21

the oblique carries a heavy denotative baggage, reverberates with an excess of meanings, all loudly resonant with a reputation for moral, ethical, mental, psychological, political wrong-doing: askew, aslant, atilt, awry, cock-a-hoop, cockeyed, crooked, crazy, devious, disingenuous, indirect, listing, lopsided, obscure, off-kilter, perverse, pitched, sinister, skewed, slantwise, tilted, tipping, uneven, underhanded

22

a/r/tography leans into the oblique, enamored with prepositions and all the places that haven’t been mapped and colonized and named and claimed

23

the oblique opens up identity, pluralizes subjectivity, refuses containment

24

without the oblique, is artography underdressed, less eager to be addressed?

25

the oblique invites abbreviations, even deviations, perhaps divinations, always offered with care, in its hailing you and me, c/o the art, the writing, the hope for communication

26

if the oblique was erased, how would artography look with dotted lines or vertical lines or hyphens or backslashes?

27

the oblique dwells in the spaces between and and or and but with Aokian wonder, aching for conjunctive openings

28

because a/r/tography is always evolving and emerging with oblique liveliness, it is never simply a method like a screwdriver with a dozen bits in the handle

29

the oblique renders abundant combinations amidst contiguous borders, porous and permeable, just like a/r/tography