Logoclasody

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LOGOCLASODY

[ody / ode / aeidein, to sing]

Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino

logoclastics / the poem is / as a matter [matter] of interlocking, or, rather,

interlocuting (loqui, to speak, inter, between), syntactical elements. A syntactical

element “is equal to” a single word, a clause, a sentence, a suspension. . . . (How

much thought [matter / what is the matter?] is represented by a suspension! How

much grammatical function is represented by a suspension (a suspension is at once

a break, and a connection, a nexus for the radiance that is logos — and thereby,

discourse!).)

poetry as discourse / the poem as revealer.

communication, a passage from the creative intuition [of the poet] to the receptive

intuition [of the reader [a redding] / this requires a sort of previous, tentative

consent — to the poem and to the intentions of the poet—without which we

cannot be taken into the confidence of the poem].

Thomas Aquinas’ “id quod visum placet,” or, [the beautiful is] that which, being

seen, pleases. [the body — the bloc? — of words / text]

integrity

proportion (consonance) / ratio [e / ratio — postmodern “proportion”?]

radiance / clarity [causes intelligence to see] [logos / in itself]

if the poets cannot act authentically in the way of logos . . . who, then? Who,

then?

The Latin, vates, was both a poet and a diviner, a bard and a seer.

Abstract Poetry?

if nouns are as “concrete word pictures”

[Think: The meanings of those nouns, the meanings which are shared by all those

things collected beneath the noun. E.g., the noun “chair.” All chairs share similar

characteristics. These “similar characteristcs” are the structures underlying the

noun “chair.”]

[This is, in effect, a reverse Nominalism: Whereas the Nominalist says “only

names exist,” think: “only meanings exist.”]

if the meanings are as “abstract word pictures”

from Russell [and then the early Wittgenstein]: Russell’s philosophy of Logical

Atomism, here is where the “atoms of meaning” come from. These “atoms of

meaning” are in essence the similar characteristics, or grammatical structures,

underlying the nouns (the names of things). Each part of a proposition, say of the

proposition “chair,” is an atom of meaning. If the atom of meaning “seat” is

absent, then the proposition is false, because a chair must have a seat to be a chair.

And so on. Each atom can be split into more atoms. . . . So, again, it’s a matter

of the leap of analogy: If the nouns are “concrete word pictures,” then, by

analogy, the meanings are “abstract word pictures.”

what is the eidos, or form, of a noun? is a noun not a picture? do we not “see”

nouns?

concrete is to the senses as abstract is to the mind.

concrete is to what shows as abstract is to what tells.

[an analogue clock will show you the time / a digital clock will tell you the time.]

* * *

the mind knows the word in the figure of its substance.

or, what is a crash course in eidetic poetry.

* * *

Interlocation:

as mental interlocation / logical space

collocation / a speaking together [a choros]

interlocution / interlocation / topology (topology: this is time,

the simultaneity / knowing present, to past, present and past knowing / how

memory (by definition of the past) exists concurrently!).

In this interlocking / interlocution (inter / ruption, dis / location) we discern the

discourse, the logos.

* * *

A reference to topology (which is the study of surface, or location, or situation,

but never, however, of place), and indeed to Jacques Lacan’s non-seminar, “Time

and Topology.” My “space” is the space of topology (which is used by Lacan as a

metaphor for the mind: is this a more sophisticated “logical space”?). Space is

nothing but a want of intervening points. The space / time of topology begins

when we position a point on a surface, or find a location. (Only once a point is

positioned does any sort of “time” come to mean anything, and this time spreads

with space, it is contiguous with it and cannot exist without it.) Now consider the

“point” to be a proposition. It is a unit of logic, or discourse, or knowledge.

Lacan calls these units of knowledge, or learning, “mathemes.”

* * *

The logos, what was up to this time hidden (in poetry, in discourse)!

The Latin, vates, was both a poet and a diviner, a bard and a seer.

logoclastics

“The break in discourse.”

Break:

to lay open / to make a disclosure of / to break the news

to come into being / a beginning to appear / to dawn (it dawns upon me, it occurs

to me) / the break of day

to come into evidence

eVIDEnce

no wonder we say “seeing is believing.” this is the “eye-evidentiary.”

to break out

the suspension / suspension points.

Indeterminacy:

not to be construed as the absence of intentionality.

eratio

ratio —

(to think it, the inward thought, the name of it)

o-ratio —

(to speak it, the flatus vocis)

e-ratio —

(to show it, to write it, to make it visible:

the complemental pointing finger!)

iteration

it / eratio / n

iteration as a strategy: the frequentative: anaphora in oratory (oratio, to speak)

Fractal [from the Latin, frango, frangere, “to break, fracture, fraction”

The equations of fractal geometry are nonlinear, meaning that they do not have

definite solutions but are recursive, iterating themselves fractionally, producing

endless approximations with a difference of scale.

fractal [self-similarity]

Suspension:

a nonappearance.

Habits are transparent.

Logoclasody is everywhere. . . .

Pannarrativity

Pannarrativity:

narratives (bits and pieces of narrative) removed from their original context and

placed into a new context take on new meanings (while retaining something of

their original intention). Narrative — the word / logos — is everywhere. The

world is a narrative. The world “writ large.” Pan-narrativity.

The “pannarrative text.” A “text-collage” composed of bits and pieces (words,

sentences, verses, various elements) of narrative (narrative as found /

appropriation) “stitched” together.

The pannarrative poem begins by seeing all the world as one great narration, a

narrative that is known in proportion to the degree of the relation of its parts.

The pannarrative poem, then, is constituted of fragments of narrative (which in

their dislocative state are potentially plurisignificative) and uses juxtaposition

as a principle of composition. (And like the metaphor, produces semantic

changes, and thereby increases language.)

Pannarrativity and Anonymity

The problem of pannarrativity and anonymity.

anonymous writing. one does not belong to what one has written.

signature / voice / sensibilities

logoclasody

for Desiderius

That when we read, we read words in succession, is analogous (in the sense of:

ana-logos, or, back to / the beginning, balance, equal or according to proportion /

ratio) to when we “read” a painting — we read the parts in succession, but the

parts are present simultaneously (so is memory, remembrance), notwithstanding

the fact that when we “read” a painting we think we are taking it in in toto with

one all-encompassing look.

We are still joining the parts, albeit these parts are in touch with one another,

they are “in continuous flow.”

Albeit the parts are still in touch, cubism breaks or dislocates the continuous

flow into geometrical structures, thus the appearance of disjointed fragments,

fragments which are still in touch.

[Analogy: geometric structure / grammatical structure.]

In this continuous flow of geometrical structures, the disjointed fragments

appear unmeaningful. It is in the redding [to put into order / conscious

intellection] of the parts that meaning occurs, that discourse occurs (discourse

follows / flows from a source).

And in this “indeterminacy” we find an openness, a freedom — for the

discourse [the logos] is in our action, in our participation [receptive intuition / in

the radiance], it is of our interlocation, it is of our interlunations. The poet must

make room for being among that-which-is. And if not the poet . . . who, then?

Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino has a degree in philosophy from Fordham University. He is a poet and theorist living in New York City where he edits the online journal eratio postmodern poetry. His poetry and prose have appeared in print in The Germ, Barrow Street, Washington Review, jubilat, Xcp: Cross-Culrural Poetics and online at xStream, Nthposition, Rattapallax--Fusebox, Cordite Poetry Review, Samsära, Softblow, Aught, Malleable Jangle, In Posse Review and at Xcp: Streetnotes. His e-books include Stephen’s Lake, a novel in parts (xPress (ed) 2004) and Go (xPress (ed).

2003).

Quotations from unknown sources:

“Style is the dress of thoughts.”

“A picture is made up of constituents none of which is a picture!”