I really enjoyed reading this, thank you for sharing it. I found it fascinating what you said about 'the insufficiency of language', as this has been a preoccupation of mine as well. I've grown to disagree in its hopelessness and inaccuracy, however, and find that the Modernist preoccupation with this to be itself a trope, disguising its own obsession with the tradition and thus their own belatedness (though that's not to say they're wrong for this obsession). The dichotomy to this stance (in keeping with H.D.) is an achievement of language wherein 'the art itself is Nature'. The best poets transcend their own traditions and times, and I agree with you that H.D. does this. She invents a language entirely her own, the more pure for its persecution. ~Joseph
That's a great observation actually. Perhaps I'm under the effect of (re)discovering lots of modernist literature this year (my previous essay in Portuguese discusses the linguistic effect of silences in Joyce's 'The Sisters') which explains my current obsession with the insufficiency of language. I agree that the modernists' 'modernity' can come across as an obsession with what they were negating (tradition) and therefore is not very effective. Thanks for reading it! :)
Lovely Julia.
I really enjoyed reading this, thank you for sharing it. I found it fascinating what you said about 'the insufficiency of language', as this has been a preoccupation of mine as well. I've grown to disagree in its hopelessness and inaccuracy, however, and find that the Modernist preoccupation with this to be itself a trope, disguising its own obsession with the tradition and thus their own belatedness (though that's not to say they're wrong for this obsession). The dichotomy to this stance (in keeping with H.D.) is an achievement of language wherein 'the art itself is Nature'. The best poets transcend their own traditions and times, and I agree with you that H.D. does this. She invents a language entirely her own, the more pure for its persecution. ~Joseph
That's a great observation actually. Perhaps I'm under the effect of (re)discovering lots of modernist literature this year (my previous essay in Portuguese discusses the linguistic effect of silences in Joyce's 'The Sisters') which explains my current obsession with the insufficiency of language. I agree that the modernists' 'modernity' can come across as an obsession with what they were negating (tradition) and therefore is not very effective. Thanks for reading it! :)