How To Get Somewhere

1.  

7

Obsessed, bewildered

By the shipwreck

Of the singular

We have chosen the meaning

Of being numerous. 

2.

3.

4.

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1.  in a short book of poems, Of Being Numerous (1968), by George Oppen.  There is something to be said about Oppen's idea of clarity, but also about the differences he draws between seeing and knowing.  Between knowing and relating to other people.  Check back with me on this.

2. "Stone Animals," from Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link.  Kelly Link has something to tell us about the precision and economy of language.  Also of beauty.  Also of grief.

3.   from The Arrival, by Shaun Tan.  I spent an hour yesterday getting lost in these drawings.  How perfect that the book doesn't attempt the act of translation, but still articulates that there is no possible language for the act of immigration.

4.  from Matt Kish's project to illustrate Moby Dick: Page 46 : "...and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and earth..."

I'm fascinated with these illustration/collage projects.  And maybe more by the technical diagrams he keeps drawing over.