lyric and gap
"You must go on as if I was an open door. Go right on through me I can't answer all your questions."
- Susan Howe, from Frame Structures
I've been thinking a lot about the lyric lately. And looking back at very old lyrics.
As though language began with the wind and the body song.
Then was a time when 'self' was getting its edge (if I read Anne Carson correctly). We now mostly see the gaps in the ancient lyrics that have survived rather than the songs that they were. The gaps are part of our knowledge of ancients works by, say, Sappho. The gaps are how we negotiate these works and, in some ways, are now the most important parts of these works. What selves are in the gaps?
I also wonder about the changes in 'self'. And about the one and the many. How 'virtual realities' and speed of contact may have effects.
I can't answer these questions.
There are always gaps.
- Susan Howe, from Frame Structures
I've been thinking a lot about the lyric lately. And looking back at very old lyrics.
As though language began with the wind and the body song.
Then was a time when 'self' was getting its edge (if I read Anne Carson correctly). We now mostly see the gaps in the ancient lyrics that have survived rather than the songs that they were. The gaps are part of our knowledge of ancients works by, say, Sappho. The gaps are how we negotiate these works and, in some ways, are now the most important parts of these works. What selves are in the gaps?
I also wonder about the changes in 'self'. And about the one and the many. How 'virtual realities' and speed of contact may have effects.
I can't answer these questions.
There are always gaps.
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