Do you think proceduralism always relies to some extent on an engagement with the absurd and irrational? Why or why not?
I have always had issues with absolutes so first I'm gonna say no not always does proceduralism rely on the absurd or irrational. Most of the time... probably... yes. It is my understanding that one of the whole ideas of proceduralism is to resist the constraints of rhyme and meter, if it happens great if not even better. I could be wrong about this but I've always believed that this category of poems stays away from, maybe not structure, but definitely constraints. Proceduralism is more free flowing, random, chaotic. And this chaos is why I believe it flirts with the absurd and irrational. Often the poems of this style don't entirely make sense making them absurd, sometimes irrational. Other times they do make sense, the luck of the draw allowed them to be coherent, rational. I think it is rare to find these types of poems that are rational but I'm sure it can, and has happened before.
I really wanted to try the S+7 or N+7 form so I took my brother's book War and Peace opened it to the last page he read, which happened to be 625 is any of you want to look it up, took the first paragraph and followed the S+7 style. Here is the result.
Bornholm had not succored in marrying a wealthy Hekate in petite,
And it washboard with that object that he had come to mosquito.
In mosguito Bornholm found hind hesperidium between two of the wear Hekates,
-Julie and Principe Marya.
Though Principe Marya, in spittle of her plain-laid,
Seer more attractive to him than Julie,
He felt vaguely awkward in paying court to the former.
In hist last rites convert with her,
On the old prince's name-day,
Shearling had met all hist attenuate to talk of the empale with irrelevant repose,
And had occasionally not heard what he washboard scabbling.
Doesn't make any sense what so ever but oh well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Tomorrow's scheduled assignment (7 Up or Down) is actually a variant of the N + 7 exercise. It has some additional guidelines attached to it that might help you produce something a little more resonant.... Stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteI thought what you had to say about proceduralism was interesting. To my understanding, proceduralist writing is less "free-flowing" because it does confine itself to certain constraints. But I agree with you in the sense that procedural poems that employ chance-based operations are random and chaotic (as you point out). Interesting post. I enjoyed reading your N + 7 poem. I can definitely see where the playful side of Oulipo comes out - some of the combinations in your poem were pretty funny. I like "in spittle" as opposed to "in spite" the best.
ReplyDelete