{"id":432,"date":"2020-09-14T10:21:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T08:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=432"},"modified":"2020-09-14T10:21:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-14T08:21:13","slug":"an-enthusiasm-for-dada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"An Enthusiasm for Dada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rami is Marianne\u2019s replacement on the committee, but she is not like Marianne \u2013 temperamentally, intellectually, or chronologically.<\/p>\n

Where Marianne was forthright, Rami is circumspect (though it\u2019s early days, of course). Whereas Marianne is a specialist in the poetry of post-war Europe, Rami studies the literature of colonialism \u2013 some of the villains of her intellectual universe are Marianne\u2019s literary lions.<\/p>\n

And Rami is twenty years younger than Marianne, which means she is even more years younger than the remaining members of the committee, so \u2013 clearly \u2013 Rami represents an invigorating generational change.<\/p>\n

Our next issue has a segment on Dadaism. Patrice had spoken at some length about how the enfantes terribles<\/em> of 1920s Paris and Brussels and Berlin were keen in the matter of epater les bourgeois<\/em>, but didn\u2019t really concern themselves with broader issues of social injustice.<\/p>\n

\u2018If I might interject . . .\u2019 Rami said. She was speaking from Banjul but her internet connection was better than Patrice\u2019s in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

We were discussing Kurt Schwitters’ An Anna Blume<\/em>, specifically the line that goes Du tr\u00e4gst den Hut auf Deinen F\u00fc\u00dfen und wanderst auf die H\u00e4nde, <\/em>which Dimitri helpfully suggested was an allusion to the wisdom of the irrational, the poem\u2019s subject electing to have a hat on her feet and to move on her hands.<\/p>\n

\u2018The technical execution is . . . primitive,\u2019 Rami said<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s supposed to be primitive,\u2019 Kim said. \u2018Undermining the form supports the overall objective of undermining the social and political constructions it describes.\u2019<\/p>\n

Rami nodded enthusiastically (enthusiasm is very much part of her persona). \u2018I understand that it\u2019s intentional, but it is problematic nonetheless. It\u2019s like removing the trigger from your revolver before you go into a gunfight.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018An excellent point!\u2019 Patrice said, picking up some of Rami\u2019s enthusiasm (and responding with appreciation, of course, to an apt and colourful metaphor).<\/p>\n

\u2018Yet the Dadaists, the surrealists, the pataphysicists and so on \u2013 all had an enormous influence,\u2019 Kim persisted.<\/p>\n

\u2018The pataphysicists?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018Ubu Roi,\u2019 Dimitri said. \u2018Paris in the 1890s, Alfred Jarry and the proto-surrealists.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018But their range was limited,\u2019 Rami continued (and I detected a touch of metal beneath the velvet). \u2018They were writing in the high noon of empire, yet their rebellion was against the shopkeeper at the bottom of the road \u2013 not because he stocked spices produced by the labour of children in another continent, but because he wore an old-fashioned tie and didn\u2019t like jazz. They were as complicit in \u2013 or, at least, as complacent about \u2013 the evils that surrounded them as the people they claimed to despise.\u2019<\/p>\n

Patrice \u2013 his audio sticking repetitively and rather distractingly \u2013 asked, \u2018Is there any art of the period that isn\u2019t influenced by prevailing cultural assumptions?\u2019<\/p>\n

There was a bit of a hiatus. \u2018Patrice, I can\u2019t see you,\u2019 Kim said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Better that way,\u2019 Dimitri quipped.<\/p>\n

\u2018For authentic liberation from immediate social influence, perhaps \u2013 in this period \u2013 we might usefully turn to someone like Rilke,\u2019 Rami said.<\/p>\n

By now, I had recognised the kind of magisterial diffidence that used to be deployed with considerable skill by Marianne.<\/p>\n

\u2018. . . und da triffst du deinen Blick im geelen,\u2019 <\/em>Rami continued,
\n\u2018Amber ihrer runden Augensteine
\nunerwartet wieder: eingeschlossen
\nwie ein ausgestorbenes Insekt.<\/em>\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Nicely done!\u2019 Dimitri commented, with an enthusiasm that appeared to be catching. \u2018From Rilke\u2019s meditation on . . . a cat . . . and how we can see ourselves in other creatures . . . how we are reflected . . . like an ancient, like a prehistoric flying thing, an insect!\u2019<\/p>\n

Patrice had gone offline by then.<\/p>\n

\u2018I see your point, Rami,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018though Rilke\u2019s political leanings, when he indulged them, tended to veer excessively from left to right.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018A product of his place and time then, after all,\u2019 Rami acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u2018For whom verse was a refuge. Dada and the Refuge of Art<\/em> \u2013 there\u2019s a title for the segment!\u2019 Kim said, suddenly enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

The others had gone by the time Patrice came back online.<\/p>\n

\u2018What do you think?\u2019 he asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was a bracing discussion. It bodes well for the future.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I entirely agree!\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine. Rami is Marianne\u2019s replacement on the committee, but she is not like Marianne \u2013 temperamentally, intellectually, or chronologically. Where Marianne was forthright, Rami is circumspect (though it\u2019s early days, of course). Whereas Marianne is a specialist in the poetry of post-war Europe, Rami studies the literature of colonialism \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[95,92,90,91,93,96,94],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/cropped-banner-K1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}