A Quietly Relentless Intelligence

Page 26 American Book Review Feast continued from previous page history swimming with music.” But this is exactly what Lamantia didn’t do. It was the anti-modernists, as we’ll see in (2) that claimed history was largely a textual (or aesthetic) apparatus. (2) The post-Communards have made a signal contribution to our way of viewing things by exposing unexpected imbrications of physical and linguistic reality. One avenue for the study of this imbrication, one Olson fully exploits, is micro-analysis of verbal textures. For instance, in “Moonlight in Mississippi,” near the beginning he writes, “There is a way to say twine that obtains significance by smearing the air with Mississippi.” Looked at offhandedly, this would seem nonsensical. How can you “smear the air with Mississippi”? But, he continues, “That is to say descriptions of Mississippi.” So, he is saying the first word, “twine,” gains significance when placed in a verbal context that evokes “Mississippi.” Although that seems simply innocuous, the underlying formulation is an important one. It reads: Everything we say can be ambiguously nuanced, so it’s unclear whether it points out into the world or in toward linguistic sequences. In other poems, Olson presents more penetrating and extended delvings into this topic, but as it is a subject that has been done to death by Susan Howe, Bernstein, and other Language poets, it would be more useful to highlight another, more atypical approach Olson makes to this theme. After warming the reader up with pages of literary conundrums, witty non-sequiturs, and lighthearted allusions, he suddenly begins to tell stories that, without losing their narrative pulse, employ the same battery of devices as his nonlinear prose poems. Not only are these pieces a great joy to read, but they further dismantle presuppositions about the divide between language and everyday life by showing that what at first (in the opening pages of the book) seemed esoteric wordplay can be fit seamlessly into the plots of science fiction or fantasy. In “The New Neighbors,” for instance, quirky aliens have moved upstairs from the narrator. Their odd home decorating makes for some fantastic scenes. “After a solid week or so of remodeling they invited us up for a look. Vast, engineered canals extended from their kitchen into the living room.” So does their physiology. One alien, “Chabouk had a way of opening his heart I found particularly ingratiating . By that I mean, he could do it literally, reach into his chest cavity and bring out his heart.” Even more deliciously wrought, “Monsieur Dupont,” describes a man who wants to be a poet, having chosen the profession because “Very little can go wrong. You cannot break the language.” Of course the job does have its drawbacks. There is no public urgency for poetry. Supply far exceeds demand. It has been remarked that the average cost of a piece of paper is five cents. Write a poem on it, and it is worth nothing. The rest of the piece is filled with equally mindexpanding , tart comments. Language poetry and prose are not for everyone nor, for that matter, is the post-Communard variant, but for anyone who has a hankering to ponder how language enters life in unlooked-for ways presented not as theory but in parable form, Olson’s text has a wealth to offer. Jim Feast is the author (with Ron Kolm) of the murder mystery Neo Phobe. His piece on “The Criminalization of Happiness” appears in the summer 2007 issue of the anarchist journal Fifth Estate. A QUieTly relenTless inTelligence Jeff Bursey everytHing Passes Gabriel Josipovici Carcanet Press http://www.carcanet.co.uk 60 pages; paper, £9.95 Like miracles, the last visions of those who die and come back to life are intense, personal events that are absolutely untranslatable: the images of a bright light, with perhaps a figure beckoning at the other end, are common enough, but they are visions which can’t be truly shared except with those who have descended the same set of chilly, slippery steps to the grave. What of those who, as one foot hovers above first contact with damp earth, see something else? They may have witnessed a less...