Methods is a think king

Methods is a thing king (thinking)

I promised Dr. Sexson the reading citation where I found Wallace Stevens credited as a major influence for the American Modernist poet.

Modernisms' Genetic Code: James Joyce, Wallace Stevens and Pablo Picasso

My long interest in Pablo Picasso's external spirit is merging with my interest in Wallace Stevens's internal spirit. What began with my finding Wallace Stevens referenced as spoken by Samuel Beckett -- "idea of the thing itself and not the idea of the thing"-- in a fictional play with Einstein (Schlossberg), because of Jennifer of Deep Water's interest in Stevens's connections with Beckett, is now transformed in a three-way interest in the cultural configuration of modernism. Daniel R. Schwarz (179-200) searches for Modernism's genetic code, looking at the cultural configuration in readings of Stevens, James Joyce, and Pablo Picasso. Schwarz (201-222) digs deep into Steven's reading of modern painting to illustrate spiritually inquisitive images.

Daniel R. Schwarz (179) states outright that Wallace Stevens is a great Modernist figure; the American poet who best captured the American sensibility in the twentieth century. Stevens, Joyce, and Picasso were all affected, according to Schwarz (180), "by the crisis of belief, the explorations of modern science and technology, and the changing perceptions of reality."

More than any other Modernists, Picasso, Stevens, and Joyce invented forms, techniques, and modes of perception that became part of the cultural genetic code. Yet each of these three figures revitalized the forms in which he worked and became a paradigm for successors.

Yet Schwarz eludes that all three "knew they were auditioning for the role of major artist, the successor to the giants who preceded them." For Stevens, who "saw himself as the heir to Emerson and the English romantics," Schwarz identifies a haunting by personal and cultural memory--the democratic and transcendental traditions of the American mind.

Daniel R. Schwarz argues that Stevens was consciously creating a modern tradition by reinterpreting the tradition that precedes him, Emerson, Whitman, Keats, and Shelley. Schwarz sums up that Joyce, Stevens, and Picasso are "seeking [to create modern symbols] archetypes as the common denominators of human experience," that each wished to "balance romanticism with classicism."

Methods (things) common to Stevens, Joyce, and Picasso; according to Schwarz:

1.  role-playing = experimenting with diverse styles while rapidly changing styles and voices--an essential part of Modernism.

2.   multiple ways of seeing = aesthetic and a value

3.   the specific underlies the universal

4.   employs an element of magical realism to intensify and give mystery - and comedy - to the world he observes.

5.   exorcism of his feelings

6.  metaphors in biography

7.   fascinated by the role of mirrors and glass "I was the world in which I walked." (Stevens 51)

8.   compositions "of variations on motifs, probes, qualifications, and even riffs that do not hold together organically" (184)

9.  dialogically enacts multiple points of view (the metamorphosis of Modernism)

10.   works reference other Modernist thing kings (thinkers): poets, writers, and painters

Schwarz compares works by Joyce, Stevens, and Picasso to argue the common methods employed. 

Tonight my method is role-playing as I walk in the thinking sand by the sea to engage with a new siren, a new mythology of Wallace Stevens (Sexson) and a 1955 American Adam (Lewis).

Works Cited:

Lewis, R. W. B.  The American Adam. Innocence, Tragedy and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century. Chicago:The University of Chicago P. 1955. Print.

Schlossberg, Edwin. Einstein and Beckett. A Record of an Imaginary Discussion with Albert Einstein and Samuel Beckett. New York: 1973. Print.

Schwarz, Daniel R. Reconfiguring Modernism. Explorations in the Relationship between Modern Art and Modern Literature. New York: St. Martin P, 1997. Print.

Sexson, Michael. The New Mythology of Wallace Stevens. Rocky Mountain Review. 34:1 (Winter) 1980.

 

Stevens, Wallace. Collected Poetry and Prose. New York: The Library of America. 1997. Print.