Ashley found a connection with Wallace Stevens's "The Beginning", a
place to look "if you don't know where you're going". Her connection reminded me
of a Cezanne quote that I taped to my computer for years working in the sciences.
The quote somewhat goes, "If you already know what you are going to do,
why bother doing it?" We talked in class of Wallace Stevens understanding of,
if it was prior knowledge, where he intended to go with his poesis; to
meander a while before returning to where he knew he would return, the
beginning.
This "poem as act", or intent with purpose, connected
with my interest in Dustin's insights in the dismissal of the intellect almost and
the "isms" of literature in process. I wonder if Cezanne's suggestion
to avoid acting on knowledge as an artist is in part inspired by the contemporary conversations about a dismissal of the intellect almost.
No comments:
Post a Comment