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The Book of Landings brings together the second and third parts of Mark McMorris's visionary trilogy "Auditions for Utopia,"—initiated in Entrepôt—and marks two stages in the evolution of the poet's conception of space. The first stage of the collection is the entrepôt, a space where disparate vectors of identity congregate, come into conflict, and finally merge into hybrid forms. The poetry follows a trajectory of diaspora, or exile, instigated by conquest, colonialism, wars, and political defeat in the search for Utopia. In The Book of Landings the promised dwelling has been removed from the realm of physical geography, and there is only transition—fragmentary episodes of arrival and departure, in transit from one entrepôt to another. These episodes of transit do not only compose a linear sequence only. Instead, they define a space or surface marked by repeated traversals over time—tracings and, importantly, re-tracings, by explorers, conquerors, migrants, merchants, slaves, refugees, and exiles—a city of palimpsests. An online reader's companion will be available at markmcmorris.site.wesleyan.edu.

Table of Contents

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright
  2. pp. i-vi
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. ix-x
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  1. The Fragility of Writing: Notes on a Trilogy
  2. pp. xi-xviii
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  1. Fragments from a Time before This
  2. pp. 1-2
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  1. I
  1. 12 Rectangles
  2. pp. 5-24
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  1. Line Drawings
  2. pp. 25-62
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  1. The Book of Landing
  2. pp. 63-80
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  1. II
  1. Pidgin Geometry
  2. pp. 83-102
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  1. III
  1. While We’re Waiting
  2. pp. 105-112
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  1. City of Palimpsests
  2. pp. 113-114
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  1. I. PLANTATION
  1. Gun Carriage at Old Fort
  2. pp. 117-118
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  1. The Great House in Various Light
  2. pp. 119-137
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  1. Birds as More Than Metaphor
  2. pp. 138-139
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  1. Letters to Michael
  2. p. 140
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  1. Artifact of Beginnings
  2. p. 141
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  1. Practical Green Table
  2. p. 142
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  1. Worksong
  2. p. 143
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  1. Paradise and Plantation
  2. p. 144
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  1. Untitled One
  2. p. 145
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  1. Untitled Two
  2. p. 146
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  1. And this shall seldom chance
  2. pp. 147-148
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  1. Letters to Michael
  2. pp. 149-150
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  1. II. MARRAKECH
  1. The Drums of Marrakech
  2. pp. 153-168
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  1. Letters to Michael
  2. pp. 169-170
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  1. Records
  2. pp. 171-172
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  1. III. BARCELONA
  1. Barcelona Series
  2. pp. 175-194
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  1. IV. LAST LETTERS
  1. Letters to Michael
  2. pp. 197-199
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  1. The Last City
  2. pp. 200-204
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  1. About the Author
  2. pp. 205-206
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