Seneca: Moral Epistles on Friendship

Epistle 3: On True and False Friendship

You have sent a letter to me through the hand of a "friend" of yours, as you call him. And in your very next sentence you warn me not to discuss with him all the matters that concern you, saying that even you yourself are not accustomed to do this; in other words, you have in the same letter affirmed and denied that he is your friend. Now is you used this word of ours in the popular sense, and called him "friend" in the same way in which we speak of all candidates for election as "honourble gentlemen," and as we greet all men whom we meet casually, if their names slip us for the moment, with the salutation "my dear sir,"-so be it. But if you consider any ma a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken and you d not sufficiently understand what true friendship means...

Epistle 9: Philosophy and Friendship

You desire to know whether Epicurus is right when, in one of his letters, he rebukes those who hold that the wise man is self-sufficient and for that reason does not stand in need of friendships. This is the objection raised by Epicurus against Stilbo and those who believe that the Supreme Good is a soul which is insensible to feeling. We are bound to meet with a double meaning if we try to express the Greek term "lack of feeling" summarily, in a single word, rendering it by the Latin word impatientia...

Epistle 35: On the Friendship of Kindred Minds

When I urge you so strongly to your studies, it is my own interest which I am consulting; I want your friendship, and it cannot fall to my lot unless you proceed, as you have begun, with the task of developing yourself. For now, although you love me, you are not yet my friend. "But," you reply, "are these words of different meaning?" Nay, more, they are totally unlike in meaning. A friend loves you, of course; but one who loves you is not in every case your friend. Friendship, accordingly, is always helpful, but love sometimes even does harm, Try to perfect yourself, if for no other reason, in order that you may learn how to love....

Click on the links to read the entire writing translated by Richard M. Gummere.

Marriage & Relationships from a 20-Something's Perspective

“Some truth: a marriage is a story that is told by two people and teamwork isn’t exactly a natural thing for many of us. I do believe in marriage and I do believe in love, but I also believe that it is unwise to expect anything from anybody. Expiration dates are not only inherent but also necessary borders between life and death.”

Excerpt from Marriage & Relationships from a 20-Something's Perspective, written by Caitlin Stewart Truman.

Poetry with a square: Eclat, by Caroline Bergvall

I got this reading in my contemporary poetry class, and I realized that it all somehow ends up dealing a square. We had discussed writing about squares in relation to one of Bernadette Mayer's writing exercises. In this case, the poetry takes place inside and outside of the square, sometimes breaking the boundaries or interrupting them. Each image changes the mood of the page.

It seems to be about inside vs. outside and fear of transitional spaces?

Eclat, by Caroline Bergvall

Also,

I have been nerding out on Gertrude Stein lately for my thesis, here is one reason why:

To finish a thing, that is to keep on finishing a thing, that is to be one going on finishing so that something is a thing that any one can see is a finished thing is something. To finish a thing so that any one can know that that thing is a finished thing is something.

To make a pretty thing so that any one can feel that the thing is a pretty thing is something.

To begin a thing that any one can see is begun is something. To begin a pretty thing so that any one can see that a pretty thing has been begun is something.

p. 73-74 Lectures in America, Gertrude Stein

SL

If you are interested in Sol Lewitt, here is a great interview:

http://bombsite.com/issues/85/articles/2583

Brilliant

http://www.carolinebergvall.com/projects-sound.php

Listen to 'Ride', OH MY HEAVENS IT IS AMAZING.

Jessica Lott on Sophie Calle

http://www.frieze.com/writersprize/category/wp_2009/

Not sure if Phoebe already posted this or not, but AMAZING

http://www.luhringaugustine.com/artists/glenn-ligon#/images/11/

Maria Fusco talks about artists' books

This is a great article about the artist book and its many contemporary permutations. Maria Fusco, the author, and incidentally a great writing artist (well worth looking up), mentions a project called Slimvolume, which is organized by Andrew Hunt, a really innovative and simple publishing project for artist's work. Check it out!

http://www.a-n.co.uk/publications/shortcut/article/256653

Hesitation

Hi! I wanted to share a poem I wrote a little while ago. There was one sentence in a novel that really stood out to me, so I used only the words in that sentence. Each sentence in a novel goes by so quickly, so I wanted to pause to explore one. I also made an illustration for it. Let me know what this poem makes you think of or anything. The sentence comes from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother.







Hesitation


She didn’t even give a sign of hesitation,
a sign when they asked her
her free, true, and definitive will
found, herself once more,
didn’t even give a sign.

She (when they asked her),
free, true, and definitive.
Since her birth she didn’t even give
a sign of hesitation,
her true will since her birth,
her definitive will.

We Are Grammar

A show at Pratt Manhattan Gallery for any of you who are going to NYC soon. It looks interesting!

http://www.pratt.edu/about_pratt/visiting_pratt/exhibitions/

One Star Press - Ryan Gander

http://www.onestarpress.com/Loose-Associations-and-other

I was trying to imagine a good writing exercise involving fiction writing that follows someone else's logic. Then I thought of Ryan Gander's 'Loose Associations' Lecture series. Well worth looking at. My suggestion for a writing exercise is to try and see if you can incorporate all of the elements he draws together into a story. He is an interesting artist, who often plays with elements of fiction, and well worth checking out.

spoken word

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eIvmIoPDTg

An Open Letter To My Only One-Night Stand

“There is a certain state of mind one develops when going to foreign countries too. Since you’re forced so utterly out of your comfort zone, you’re more apt to try and experience new foods, new friends and new men. It’s like that stupid saying “When in Rome…” is on constant repeat in your mind. Eating this random European delicacy that looks like vomit? When in Rome! Befriending a 50-year-old Spanish barfly? When in Rome! Spending al your money on a train ticket with no money for a return? When in Rome! You were so “When in Rome.”

Excerpt from An Open Letter to My One-Night Stand, by Ryan O’Connell. O’Connell is one of my favorite writers on Thought Catalogue, composed of a collection of writers who together create exactly what the name stands for.

Susan Anderson: a desperate secret agent

http://img13.imageshack.us/i/braintraining.png/

I received this email from a Susan Anderson. I can't say I know her or her work at Braintrainers, but I like the way she writes. Susan is convinced, and attempts to convince me that we know each other. The sheer range of the approaches she uses to invoke familiarity ends up blowing her cover; we have clearly never met. Regardless of whether she is a disembodied spam email or not, she is all the more mysterious. What could her incentive be for this flailing attempt at contact? I want to know more.

Oh man, I love all the stuff that has been posted lately!

Ha, I love Ursonate, so great.

Here is something I have been thinking about lately, a performance from Womanhouse:

Waiting

A Poem by Faith Wilding

Waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting . . .

Waiting for someone to come in
Waiting for someone to hold me
Waiting for someone to feed me
Waiting for someone to change my diaper
Waiting . . .

Waiting to scrawl, to walk, waiting to talk
Waiting to be cuddled
Waiting for someone to take me outside
Waiting for someone to play with me
Waiting for someone to take me outside
Waiting for someone to read to me, dress me, tie my shoes
Waiting for Mommy to brush my hair
Waiting for her to curl my hair
Waiting to wear my frilly dress
Waiting to be a pretty girl
Waiting to grow up
Waiting . . .

Waiting for my breasts to develop
Waiting to wear a bra
Waiting to menstruate
Waiting to read forbidden books
Waiting to stop being clumsy
Waiting to have a good figure
Waiting for my first date
Waiting to have a boyfriend
Waiting to go to a party, to be asked to dance, to dance close
Waiting to be beautiful
Waiting for the secret
Waiting for life to begin
Waiting . . .

Waiting to be somebody
Waiting to wear makeup
Waiting for my pimples to go away
Waiting to wear lipstick, to wear high heels and stockings
Waiting to get dressed up, to shave my legs
Waiting to be pretty
Waiting . . .

Waiting for him to notice me, to call me
Waiting for him to ask me out
Waiting for him to pay attention to me
Waiting for him to fall in love with me
Waiting for him to kiss me, touch me, touch my breasts
Waiting for him to pass my house
Waiting for him to tell me I’m beautiful
Waiting for him to ask me to go steady
Waiting to neck, to make out, waiting to go all the way
Waiting to smoke, to drink, to stay out late
Waiting to be a woman
Waiting . . .

Waiting for my great love
Waiting for the perfect man
Waiting for Mr. Right
Waiting . . .

Waiting to get married
Waiting for my wedding day
Waiting for my wedding night
Waiting for sex
Waiting for him to make the first move
Waiting for him to excite me
Waiting for him to give me pleasure
Waiting for him to give me an orgasm
Waiting . . .

Waiting for him to come home, to fill my time
Waiting . . .

Waiting for my baby to come
Waiting for my belly to swell
Waiting for my breasts to fill with milk
Waiting to feel my baby move
Waiting for my legs to stop swelling
Waiting for the first contractions
Waiting for the contractions to end
Waiting for the head to emerge
Waiting for the first scream, the afterbirth
Waiting to hold my baby
Waiting for my baby to suck my milk
Waiting for my baby to stop crying
Waiting for my baby to sleep through the night
Waiting for my breasts to dry up
Waiting to get my figure back, for the stretch marks to go away
Waiting for some time to myself
Waiting to be beautiful again
Waiting for my child to go to school
Waiting for life to begin again
Waiting . . .

Waiting for my children to come home from school
Waiting for them to grow up, to leave home
Waiting to be myself
Waiting for excitement
Waiting for him to tell me something interesting, to ask me how I feel
Waiting for him to stop being crabby, reach for my hand, kiss me good morning
Waiting for fulfillment
Waiting for the children to marry
Waiting for something to happen
Waiting . . .

Waiting to lose weight
Waiting for the first gray hair
Waiting for menopause
Waiting to grow wise
Waiting . . .

Waiting for my body to break down, to get ugly
Waiting for my flesh to sag
Waiting for my breasts to shrivel up
Waiting for a visit from my children, for letters
Waiting for my friends to die
Waiting for my husband to die
Waiting . . .

Waiting to get sick
Waiting for things to get better
Waiting for winter to end
Waiting for the mirror to tell me that I’m old
Waiting for a good bowel movement
Waiting for the pain to go away
Waiting for the struggle to end
Waiting for release
Waiting for morning
Waiting for the end of the day
Waiting for sleep
Waiting . .

frida kahlo

Frida Kahlo: In the saliva

In the saliva

In the paper

in the eclipse

In all the lines

in all the colors

in all the clay jars

in my breast

outside inside-

in the inkwell- in the difficulties of writing

in the wonder of my eyes- in the ultimate

limits of the sun (the sun has no limits) in

everything. To speak it all is imbecile, magnificent

DIEGO in my urine- DIEGO in my mouth- in my

heart. In my madness. in my dream- in

the blotter- in the point of my pen-

in the pencils- in the landscapes- in the

food- in the metal- in imagination

in the sickness- in the glass cupboards-

in his lapels- in his eyes- DIEGO-

in his mouth- DIEGO- in his lies.

"Ursonography" by Jaap Blonk

This is a recording of a performance by Jaap Blonk pronouncing sounds of the German language. The combination of image, text, and sound is absolutely hypnotizing. The text attempts to imitate the sound we hear through movement, while our eyes are fixed on the oral gestures Blonk produces while speaking.

Cheap Thrills

Easy as pie it is to photograph pie.

Easy as pie it is to indulge in photographs of pie.

Photos of donuts, and pastries, and tarts.

Photos of creams, and treats, and other sweets.

Oh, it is just so easy to see!

(how easy it really is beyond me)

Oh, how easy it is to feast my eyes.

My eyes easily feast on these visual decadences.

My eyes crave these 'cheap thrills,'

as photographer Jo Ann Callis chooses to call them.

Still Life with Oysters & Lemon

"But then why resist intimacy, why seem to flee it? A powerful countercurrent pulls against our drive toward connection; we also desire individuation, separateness, freedom. On one side of the balance is the need for home, for the deep solid roots of place and belonging; on the other is the desire for travel and motion, for the single separate spark of the self freely moving forward, out into time, into the great absorbing stream of the world.

A fierce internal debate, between staying moored and drifting away, between holding on and letting go. Perhaps wisdom lies in our ability to negotiate between these two poles. Necessary to us, both of them--but how to live in connection without feeling suffocated, compromised, erased? We long to connect; we fear that if we do, our freedom and individuality will disappear."

Excerpt from "Still Life with Oysters & Lemon," by Mark Doty

F.R.David

I just found this incredible Journal. Check it out in the Journals link to the right.

http://www.oogaboogastore.com/shop/books/detail/FRDavid.html

A Sylvia Plath poem..

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Wuthering Heights

The horizons ring me like faggots,
Tilted and disparate, and always unstable.
Touched by a match, they might warm me,
And their fine lines singe
The air to orange
Before the distances they pin evaporate,
Weighting the pale sky with a soldier color.
But they only dissolve and dissolve
Like a series of promises, as I step forward.

There is no life higher than the grasstops
Or the hearts of sheep, and the wind
Pours by like destiny, bending
Everything in one direction.
I can feel it trying
To funnel my heat away.
If I pay the roots of the heather
Too close attention, they will invite me
To whiten my bones among them.

The sheep know where they are,
Browsing in their dirty wool-clouds,
Grey as the weather.
The black slots of their pupils take me in.
It is like being mailed into space,
A thin, silly message.
They stand about in grandmotherly disguise,
All wig curls and yellow teeth
And hard, marbly baas.

I come to wheel ruts, and water
Limpid as the solitudes
That flee through my fingers.
Hollow doorsteps go from grass to grass;
Lintel and sill have unhinged themselves.
Of people the air only
Remembers a few odd syllables.
It rehearses them moaningly:
Black stone, black stone.

The sky leans on me, me, the one upright
Among the horizontals.
The grass is beating its head distractedly.
It is too delicate
For a life in such company;
Darkness terrifies it.
Now, in valleys narrow
And black as purses, the house lights.

I'm always interested in how writers and artists reference one another - what they choose to take from other works.
Gleam like small change.

Drawing for writers!

Not strictly related to artists' writing, but perhaps the reverse? The doodles of famous writers!

http://flavorwire.com/147177/idle-doodles-by-famous-authors

conversations between eliasson and irwin

You definitely don't need to read this whole thing but I think it's interesting...

http://www.olafureliasson.net/publications/download_texts/Take_your_time.pdf

Fia Blackstrom interview/piece?

Flash Art n.264 January – February 09

LINES IN THE SAND

Fia sent Anthony a recycled text, he then filled in the questions. The text went back and forth and each fiddled with the other’s questions and answers.

This made me think of the possibilities of the first exercise we gave you, of cutting up someone else's words to make them your own. What I find interesting here is that it potentially becomes an art work. It is worth thinking about it as an intervention, as well as a fascinating text piece, in the context of a magazine about art, both in print, and online.

Interesting ideas for books

Featherproof takes the concept of book a little further. Check out "Daddy's" and "Storigami". It is great to see different ways to present writing.

Also worth looking at is the most recent edition of "McSweeney's". The link is under the Journals section of this blog. The latest one arrived in a box that looked like a head the reader must open and sift through.

Favorite Passage

From Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being:

Tereza keeps appearing before my eyes. I see her sitting on the stump petting Karenin's head and ruminating on mankind's debacles. Another image also comes to mind: Nietzsche leaving his hotel in Turin. Seeing a horse and a coachman beating it with a whip, Nietzsche went up to the horse and, before the coachman's very eyes, put his arms around the horse's neck and burst into tears.

That took place in 1889, when Nietzsche, too, had removed himself from the world of people. In order words, it was at the time when his mental illness had just erupted. But for that very reason I feel his gesture had broad implications: Nietzsche was trying to apologize to the horse for Descartes. His lunacy (that is, his final break with mankind) began at the very moment he burst into tears over the horse.

And that is the Nietzsche I love, just as I love Tereza with the mortally ill dog resting his head in her lap. I see them one next to the other: both stepping down from the road along which mankind, "the master and proprietor of nature," marches onward.

Frank-Film by Frank Mouris

Here's an animation where the narrative is very mundane but hard to understand because of a second layer of speech. I think I read something in Everything Falls Apart, by Jonathan Safran Foer where he said that writing is too distinct/clear to represent life. What are some different ways to make writing or speech blurry? I thought of this when we talked about writing in other languages and how that can affect the flow of the piece.

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen, a poet and songwriter has been influencing me since I was a child. If you haven't heard the song Avalanche yet try reading the lyrics and thinking about them for a little bit. Then go back and listen to the song and be prepared for his brutal beauty!

Avalanche:

Well I stepped into an avalanche,
it covered up my soul;
when I am not this hunchback that you see,
I sleep beneath the golden hill.
You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn, learn to serve me well.
You strike my side by accident
as you go down for your gold.
The cripple here that you clothe and feed
is neither starved nor cold;
he does not ask for your company,
not at the centre, the centre of the world.

When I am on a pedestal,
you did not raise me there.
Your laws do not compel me
to kneel grotesque and bare.
I myself am the pedestal
for this ugly hump at which you stare.

You who wish to conquer pain,
you must learn what makes me kind;
the crumbs of love that you offer me,
they're the crumbs I've left behind.
Your pain is no credential here,
it's just the shadow, shadow of my wound.

I have begun to long for you,
I who have no greed;
I have begun to ask for you,
I who have no need.
You say you've gone away from me,
but I can feel you when you breathe.

Do not dress in those rags for me,
I know you are not poor;
you don't love me quite so fiercely now
when you know that you are not sure,
it is your turn, beloved,
it is your flesh that I wear.

We Feel Fine, by Jonathan Harris

Hi everyone, this is the "We Feel Fine" work that I had mentioned this week. It works by compiling any kind of statements with the word "feel" from posts on the internet. I think the way it is displayed creates a really strong atmosphere of pulling real people out of thin air and kind of connecting with them. It turns out quite poetic because it centers around one word that shapes the sentence.

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

Christian Bok - Eunoia

http://archives.chbooks.com/online_books/eunoia/details.html

Invented languages, online books and more. His work is worth having a look at.

and/or

and/or, a print journal for creative experimental writing and/or innovative graphic art, seeks submissions from writers and/or other sorts of artists whose work openly challenges the boundaries (mimetic, aesthetic, symbolic, cultural, political, philosophical, economic, spiritual, etc.) of literary and/or artistic expression. Please visit our submissions page for details. Deadline for consideration for Volume 2, March 1, 2011.

Ummm, Noise

This is a project by recent RISD graphic design graduate Megan Feehan. It creates written word that more closely follows the way we speak, "ums", "ers" and all.

Call for submissions!

Dear Friends,

Last year I curated and constructed a collaborative, hand-sewn, one-of-a-kind book for Bernadette Mayer, with submissions from artists/writers around the country. This project led me, as Drunken Boat's fiction editor, to conceptualize a larger folio of work. The folio will be published in Drunken Boat's Issue 14 (summer 2011), and below is the call for submissions (drafted with Bernadette Mayer):

Call for Submissions: The Bernadette Mayer Folio: Bernadette Mayer's writing experiments, from the 1970s to the present, challenge artists to change the world. We are looking for art and writing that responds to this notion and/or to Bernadette Mayer. Your response can be written, performance-based, filmed, recorded, visual. We seek responses through any medium, and encourage media projects. Consider ways in which your response might operate at the intersection of conceptual art, performance and experimental work. Deadline 15 April, 2011.

Please pass along to writers and artists who might be interested in submitting/creating something for this folio. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best wishes,
Deborah Poe
http://www.deborahpoe.com/
www.drunkenboat.com

Click here to see Jason Huff's project "Autosummarize". You can download the PDF from his website. Another project of his to check out is "The Road Not Taken". Jason's work often deals with technology, and its relationship to language.

This article made me wonder whether it would be possible to turn our procrastination into writing? Maybe that's a way to start?

A heartbreaking and wonderful piece for anyone who has not already seen it:

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in-his-own-words

Richard Serra

Hello! Here is something I mentioned last week, Richard Serra's verb list, I totally love this piece:

http://clichesite.com/alpha_list.asp?which=lett+1

Clichesite.com an alphabetical list of cliches!

TV writers rolling out the cliches....

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2010/03/office-delivery-nbc-human-target-fox-burn-notice-usa.html

"Recipe Art" by Mira Schor

Recipe Art

Mira Schor

p. 230-231 A Decade of Negative Thinking by Mira Schor

Embodied in the high-concept, one- or two-sentence description, the recipe ingredients usually include something from the real cleverly juxtaposed with something else from the real, or something made with a material from the real not ordinarily an art material; something that references the real; something made from something else (e.g., a minimalist sculpture made of chocolate, a similarly monumental cube made of millions of wooden toothpicks, Richard Serra—leaning-plates made of red lipstick, etc.). Recipe: something from popular culture + something from art history + something appropriated + something weird or expressive = useful promotional sound bite. The work is selected for review because it can be written about efficiently. It is not necessary to see the piece.

Welcome to MTWW

Welcome to Making the Written Word workshops!

Please feel free to post any writing related things you come across here. We hope you will use this space. We've suggested some links and books that are worth checking out. There are also some articles to read and some more loosely writing-related sites.

We're looking forward to meeting you soon,

Mimi + Phoebe