Friday, December 4, 2009

Farrah Field (and me) on Claire Hero

Farrah Field (and me) on Claire Hero here.

I think that, when Farrah says "She's attune to animal-ness, the meat of it all, the violence of being so bodily body--the sexuality therein, caregiving, killing, the fluids of all that", there is an Artaudian cruelty at work - similar to what Jared White says in the comment stream over there about the Fantastic Mister Fox:
"the way the claymation animals would be so polite and articulate and humanist until a plate of food was put in front of them, at which point they would suddenly tear it to shreds in an orgy of messy teeth and ferocious claws and unchewed swallowing."
This says more (through the anthropomorphism, which, as a porous semantic membrane, allows travel both ways) about the human than the animal - as does Dahl's book, in which the dichotomy of Human/Animal (and all the implications: Good/Evil, Civilised/Barbaric, etc) are turned on their heads - though Hero's work is more subtle than this, exploding the possibility of the binary, as everything infects everything else, and Crackbone, the carnivorous Hunter, is an animalistic force of nature, rather than a site of agency and conciousness.

13 comments:

Rachel Fenton said...

This is fascinating stuff - humans are too domesticated by the very term "human nature" because, is it our nature to be human(which leads to humane)....what is our nature? Isn't it to be that very indecipherable meld of animal? Rambling...sorry..

Ross Brighton said...

I'm pretty good at rambling myself, so rambel away!

Andrea said...

I've been reading Sing, Mongrel quite a bit lately. It really is a great book and one of a lot of contrasts too - I like the bit in that last poem where she is in the stitching room and the stable and at some point might need to make a choice.

It's definitely another of these poetry books that will reward reading and reading again.

Ross Brighton said...

I haven't got Sing, Mongrel yet - I really need to get a copy. I'm trying to get myself sorted for doing my Honours in Auckland next year, so finances are a bit tight - I'm not reading much that's not review copies, online, or from the library at the moment!

Andrea said...

It's very good - twas part of my first overseas book order. Well the library is great - I'm always getting this and that out from there.

You'll get some interesting things through your new editing job, which will be cool.

Are you looking forward to Auckland? It's not a city I've ever visited but may do for a holiday sometime.

I think if I had to choose another NZ city to live in it would be Wellington, but I'm not sure what I'll end up doing next year really.

Ross Brighton said...

I'm looking forward to Auckland - I've got a lot of writing contacts up there, adn the Uni seems like the best in NZ for my kind of thing. I was considering Wellyington for a bit - I got offered a place in the IIML for next year, bbut after a long chat to Chris Price, who runs the poetry there, decided Auckland would be best for me. It'll be a change, but I think it's going to be good.

If you're ever up, let me know!

Farrah Field said...

Claire is just perfect in every way. At our reading she read a response to a piece of art that our art presenter sent to her. She had buzzards in her poem. We were breathless.

Andrea said...

All the best with it! and yes, definitely - would be cool to catch up there :)

Ross Brighton said...

Farrah -
I just got an email from Claire saying she had an amazing time, and that you and Jared are some of the most wonderful people she has met. She also recomended I come out for AWP - I'll have to see about fulbrights and Creative NZ funding, but if I can get something like that it'd be amazing.

Andrea - Most definately - or anywhere. I'm going to do my best to get to the John Wiese show on thurs, are you going? He also played with Bruce in Lyttleton on saturday, which unfortunately I missed.

Andrea said...

Yeah, sounds like it will be a good gig, tho transports a bit of an issue with the late fin.

Ross Brighton said...

I know - though the Grouper gig was alright that way - I managed to catch all of it, then get a bus. So I'll try for that.

Andrea said...

I was at Grouper - it was a really cool gig. I think there need to be more daytime gigs in a way - though perhaps they wouldn't get enough people. Unfortunately, the friend who comes to these kinds of things with me and drives is out of town and I'm still a learner driver!

Ross Brighton said...

I don't drive at all (though I should probably change that) and my driver-friend has lost his licence. But we'll see what happens. It's billed to start at 8:00, so it could be alright.