Up today is an interview with Chris Tysh, who is doing intertextual work with 3 French writers. I'm fascinated by her idea of "transcreation" and find myself in an ongoing personal debate about this whole intertextual and "shared language" thing most of the time. How does one sufficiently credit to avoid plagiarism, etc. I have always been troubled when writers take "Steal from the great" too literally....
This ties in with my own "false translation" of Paul Celan, discussed here in my blog, and might further inspire you re: the Misreading call for submissions at THIS magazine!
Anyhoo, many thanks to Escape Into Life and Eric Jacobson for Crashing the Pier, above, and A Lonely Hose, below.
More great Chicago scenes here.
'Crashing the Pier' is a wonderful shot.
ReplyDeleteInteresting interview with Chris Tysh.
Thanks, Maureen. It reminds me of a whole vocabulary...I don't speak. But I could understand it!
ReplyDeleteBeckett and Genet are 2 of my favorite writers, esp Beckett. I'm very keen to the difficulty, as a writer, of overcoming Beckett's immense power, and I'm also someone who does not care for cut-and-paste literary techniques. In short, I'm all about writers finding their own voice and would hate an imitation or a watered down version of someone like Beckett. Imagine my surprise then when I came across Tysh's 'Molly, the Flip Side'. She had somehow gotten inside that book and without imitating Beckett had somehow reimagined it. I considered that miraculous, and on top of that the poem (the piece of it you see at Escape into Life) is so strong and beautiful. Being in the position of sharing it at Escape was a bigger thrill than I can describe. I was literally walking around on a natural high for a week. The closest I can come to describing it is to say that I felt that I was in communication with a poet on the level of Anne Carson.
ReplyDeleteBut what I really wanted to know from the interview is when we can expect to see the book published.
Excellent question, Mark! I should have asked it! (Some delicacy there, I suppose, as we writers are often sending out our manuscripts with fond hopes and waiting, waiting...!) But perhaps you've asked it in the comment section at EIL, and perhaps Chris will answer! I'm hoping other questions will arise there, too, and maybe a discussion will ensue.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for posting Chris Tysh's original Beckett piece, and for commenting here! I'm glad to hear about your exhilaration at that time!!
Also, Mark, and Chris, too, might indeed want to read the call for submissions from THIS! All kinds of wonderful possibilities there, and they are looking for all genres.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see translation, mistranslation, loose translation, and transcreation discussed in an essay!
Like the rolled firehose. brain tired tonigh.
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