some recent work & a few notes on the thought processes behind it.
proposition: everything has its origin in a traumatic or violent event.
(from the individual human life (childbirth) to nations (exodus, revolution, war, genocide of indigenous inhabitants, etc.) to the universe itself (the big bang))
p. 5 , 11-13 & 15 of a 17-page sequence using two “frames” – sometimes overlapping & coinciding, sometimes opposed & contradictory.
fractured text unfolds across broken landscape – the interior landscape of the protagonist – in the wake of an apocalyptic act of violence – the traumatic event that originates the text.
this event acted as a kind of death, preceding rebirth in textual form (as in memoir, obituary or post-mortem). the text is the fragmentary remnant, a failed attempt at reconstruction – shards, ashes.
first page of an as-yet-unfinished sequence.
the fragmentary nature of the text produces a multiplicity of possible readings – overlapping, even contradictory narratives occupy the same space.
as if filmed in too-tight close-up, impressions are blurred – as though reality were pressing too close against the lens, the eye is overwhelmed & nothing can actually be seen clearly.
two pages from a five-page sequence (no fixed order).
focus on external sense impressions – the protagonist/voice is defined as much by its own absence, by its lack of definition as anything else. they become more of a framing device than a fully realised character*.
the fragmented subject. (dissolved or shattered).
particles & verbs unmoored from nouns – lacking a sense of self or ability to distinguish between entities – a state shared by small children.
shattered text shifts burden of organisation of narrative onto the reader. no definitive sequence of events.
repetition – something clearly of original importance but stuttering, almost meaningless. becoming lost in its own noise.
post-mortems performed by the victim. the inadequacy & meaninglessness of such an undertaking (the impossibility of reconstruction).
*see previous post on werckmeister harmonies
