CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
5355
Partner Institution:
Simon Fraser University
Source Collection Label:
Reading in BC Collection
Sub Series:
Reading in BC Collection
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
Clayton Eshleman reading at the Kootenay School of Writing on February 29, 1992 #746
Title Source:
cassette and j-card
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Reading: Poetry
Identifiers:
[]
Rights
Rights:
Copyright Not Evaluated (CNE)
CREATORS
Name:
Eshleman, Clayton
Dates:
1935-
Role:
"Reader",
"Speaker"
CONTRIBUTORS
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Image:
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Cassette
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/8 inch
Track Configuration:
2 track
Playback Mode:
Stereo
Sound Quality:
Good
Physical Condition:
Good
Other Physical Description:
Black and white clear jewel case with J-card
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
Channel Field:
Stereo
Sample Rate:
44.1 kHz
Duration:
T00:46:36
Size:
44.1 MB
Bitrate:
32 bit
Encoding:
WAV for master files and .MP3 for online files
Channel Field:
Stereo
Sample Rate:
44.1 kHz
Duration:
T00:46:27
Size:
44.0 MB
Bitrate:
32 bit
Encoding:
WAV for master files and .MP3 for online files
Dates
Date:
1992-02-29
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
J-card
LOCATION
Address:
112 West Hastings, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Venue:
Kootenay School of Writing
Latitude:
49.28097
Longitude:
-122.99535
CONTENT
Contents:
Side Track No. Comments
One 006 Eshleman is introduced
035 Eshleman suggests outlining of three programs of his work for discussion purposes in lieu of any planned program for the evening, “The seeds of Narrative in Upper Paleolithic Art” talk and slide presentation based on fifteen years of visiting ice-age caves in southern France and Northern Spain; 2) Trilce, Cesar Villejo’s second book (1922) and the poetry written in Europe (1923-1928) (“The Human Poems” original title) which Eshleman is currently translating
122 Rimbaud translations requested
132 Eshleman begins reading Rimbaud’s “Drunken Boat”
256 End of poem
275 Eshleman – We live in the age of the loss of eternity and the repercussions of this are so devastating for society. Works done in the past are based on the assumption that sky, ocean and earth were eternal presences, and therefore our own impermanence was based on this foundation that something would continue
309 Rimbaud never saw the ocean when he wrote “The Drunken Boat”. Eshleman discusses Rimbaud’s poetry pre-Verlaine at 17 years old
320 Poem is in quatrains in French and they rhyme. Eshleman has rhymed about a third of them. Discusses translations of “The Drunken Boat”
330 The most embarrassing translation was done by Robert Lowell who dropped out ten of the twenty-five stanzas
354 Eshleman responds to inaudible question about the loss of eternity being equated with the loss of God. The ontological significance of pollution. He suggests that in psyche, the polluted world means – that all our lives, theories, etc. are based upon is now transient
399 Eshleman asks, what happens to the elegy? The elegy in poetry almost always has to do with accommodating a death in a larger frame
413 Audience member questions Eshleman’s idea of the loss of a larger framework. We grew up with the loss of God, the loss of nature being more recent. Neither of these, however, mean the loss of a larger framework. Discussions ensue
418 Suggestion that the loss is a gradual loss of hierarchical power structures which is wonderful
428 Loss of transcendence throws responsibility back on living communities
433 Eshleman argues that nature is all of this and, unlike a corrupt political system, if this goes, it’s not something you can have a revolution over
452 Eshleman reads from Trilce, a cycle of 77 roman-numeralled poems without tiles
481 End of Trilce LIII
483 Reading begins, Trilce XLIX
500 End of XLIX
502 Reading from Trilce LVII
518 End of LVII
523 Reading from Trilce LXXV
552 End of LXXV
554 Epilogue to this poem. Villejo had left northern Peru and moved to Lima in late teens (1900). Made several trips back to where he was born, but increasingly found life in Trujillo boring. LXXV a response to this life
577 No manuscript to Trilce. Discussion of this
585 Eshleman recommends a Spanish text of Vallejo’s work, published by UNESCO, Collecion Archivo, complete works of Vallejo
590 Side One Ends
Two 004 Side Two begins mid-sentence with Eshleman discussing juxtaposition of Vallejo’s style
019 Begins reading III, Trilce
063 III ends
064 IV begins (Trilce)
103 IV ends
111 XXV begins (Trilce)
142 XXV ends. Eshleman notes that there seems to be a very coherent argument set forth, but he doesn’t know what poem is about 111)
158 “The Power Room” (about Les Eyzies, a village in southern France which used to dub itself the Prehistoric Capital of the World, epicentre of all ice age caves and shelters. A museum houses what Eshleman calls “The Power Room” due to the slabs which have the first image-making on them, dated at 35-30,000 BC representing the point at which something we can begin to work with as image comes into active consciousness)
179 Reading of “The Power Room” begins
234 “The Power Room” ends
238 “The Chaos of the Wise”
323 End of poem
326 Eshleman is interested in 1945-48 period when Artaud, who had been in asylums for nearly 9 years begins to speak, correspond, be human again in the asylum of Rodez. For the next three years he writes and draws at white heat, comparable, says Eshleman to Dickinson’s 1862 or Van Gogh
345 Artaud is in electric shock & his last experience is a turning point. He began to write, chant his favourite writings, dictate to a secretary
357 Piece written in 1946, “Artaud the Yo-yo,” translated by Eshleman, title is explained. Section I of the poem to be read is “The return of Artaud the yo-yo”
369 Artaud began to invent words in his asylum cell. Rage and irrationality find escape valves in his poetry through such word sounds, as Artaud travels between worlds of madness and rationality, finding an expression for his madness
478 End of poem
482 Artaud from Conductors of the Pit, published by Paragon House in New York City, 1988
496 Eshleman describes content of his translations in Conductors of the Pit
516 Eshleman responds to a question (inaudible) about sound variations in the translations of Vallejo’s neologisms
524 Question about the shape of the movement in Trilce
527 Eshleman discusses Vallejo’s poems about his mother in terms of their spacing and rhythm in Trilce. He rejects the darkness of Trilce
553 Inaudible question to which Eshleman responds on James Wright’s poetry, Peter Redgrove and Spicer
593 Tape ends in the middle of barely audible discussion about Eshleman’s dream of the ghost of Spicer and James Wright’s corpse
Notes:
SFU BC Readings formatting
NOTES
Type:
General
Note:
Clayton Eshleman at the Kootenay School of Writing
Feb 29, 1992
#746
RELATED WORKS