Adjacent Possible

Post by **ludovica64** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 5:55 pm

Well I dunno about you people, but I love this. Poetry has always been my "Thing" and there is so little good contemporary poetry to be honest. My own slides inevitably into hopeless self-indulgence and whining.
This doesn't. This is like Steve himself (unsurprisingly) humorous, intelligent, acutely observing, patient, irrepressibly inquisitive and unafraid.
I cried buckets reading this. I miss him. I like him more than anyone else I ever randomly met in a provincial shopping mall and no mistake.

His rhythmic structure is understandably powerful, but entertainingly offbeat (again, just as I would expect) and his metaphors are expansive as if he observes the world from a safe distance. This stuff is BIG
Does anyone else know what I am on about?

Ena..?

Post by **albinodwarf27** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:57 pm

I got a kick out of your description of Steve in an earlier post, Louise - the "walking enigma." Well said! I find that instead of answering my questions, the book leaves me wanting to know more. As it should.

Love the footnotes - "while crossing the Sahara Desert on a camel truck..." or "while studying with master drummer Isah Hamani in Niamey, Niger..." or "while living in Ghana..." He's led a fascinating life.

Post by **Eithne** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:28 am

ludovica64 @ November 11, 2008 08:55 am wrote: His rhythmic structure is understandably powerful, but entertainingly offbeat (again, just as I would expect) and his metaphors are expansive as if he observes the world from a safe distance. This stuff is BIG
Does anyone else know what I am on about?

Ena..?

I know what you're talking about but - how to put it into words. It's like something day-to-day and something universal can be addressed in the same way - like a loaf of bread and physics are on the same plane.

I'm still absorbing this book -- savouring it

it'll take me some time (that and I 'might' be a slow reader, lol) I love the footnotes - his insights into what the lyrics are referring to... or where he was when he wrote them. It's incredible to see work spanning so many years all in one volume. I love it

I love his sense of humour of course - for "People Will Be Tired" the Ghanaian Proverbs: "Sea Never Dry: Above a truck windshield" ... "Original Sea Never Dry: Another truck windshield, not to be confused with imitators."

The format is great too -- it's like we're reading a writer's journal

Post by **ludovica64** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 2:00 am

Eithne @ November 11, 2008 10:28 pm wrote: I know what you're talking about but - how to put it into words. It's like something day-to-day and something universal can be addressed in the same way - like a loaf of bread and physics are on the same plane.

I'm still absorbing this book -- savouring it it'll take me some time (that and I 'might' be a slow reader, lol) I love the footnotes - his insights into what the lyrics are referring to... or where he was when he wrote them. It's incredible to see work spanning so many years all in one volume. I love it

I love his sense of humour of course - for "People Will Be Tired" the Ghanaian Proverbs: "Sea Never Dry: Above a truck windshield" ... "Original Sea Never Dry: Another truck windshield, not to be confused with imitators."

The format is great too -- it's like we're reading a writer's journal

But thats the point. Microcosm and macrocosm... Heaven in a wild flower. Mandelbrot sets and stuff like that. That was the whole premise of the Quark and the Jaguar .. that something on an infinitesimally small scale would resonate and amplify throughout the universe and the one would exactly mirror the other in all but scale. A loaf of bread is physics, a broken string is physics, the ripple becomes a wave, the wave a mere ripple to something outside our consciousness. It all depends where you are viewing from.. and Steve likes an oblique angle LOL

Post by **Eithne** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 2:26 am

I haven't read The Quark and the Jaguar but I did get to read the first 3rd of Reinventing the Sacred. Would you see influences from both books in his work or more one than another?

Post by **ludovica64** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 5:42 am

Eithne @ November 12, 2008 12:26 am wrote: I haven't read The Quark and the Jaguar but I did get to read the first 3rd of Reinventing the Sacred. Would you see influences from both books in his work or more one than another?

Err oops I didnt finish Reinventing the Sacred

as it was a library book and there was a queue to read it (why?) There was an influence from both really but the two books werent really at all the same were they? The Kaufmann book was much more to do with the spiritual dimension and philosophy and the Gell-Mann was very scientific, mathematical.. would you agree?

Id say a lyric like Running Thru the Forest displays this well in the angst and disillusion about spiritual quest coupled with the imagery from the natural world and talk of an "un-deity" where the resolution was found in the last verse with "bursting through the branches with my llamas and alpacas and their fleas. Sometimes they can be so hard to handle, but they're never hard to please". If you have read Voltaire's "Candide" you would equate this with "going to tend the garden" ie... sometime things just *are* and the hoops you put yourself through are actually meaningless

OOps rereading I see you didnt tackle the Gell-Mann at all.. really take it from me, you'd learn more from listening to a few motets, a Bulgarian Choir and some Steve Jay albums LOL

DonnaNoble · Post by **DonnaNoble** » Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:45 am

Wow! this book sounds really really good!!!!!

Steve seems like SUCH an interesting person!!!!!

ONce I get any amount of money at ALL I will most defiantly get myself a copy of this!!!

Post by **ludovica64** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 10:45 pm

DonnaNoble @ November 12, 2008 05:45 am wrote: Wow! this book sounds really really good!!!!!

Steve seems like SUCH an interesting person!!!!!

ONce I get any amount of money at ALL I will most defiantly get myself a copy of this!!!

Steve really is a totally fascinating person, you got that right

This book is, I think, going to be different things to different people and I think everyone will experience it in a different way. I can't guarantee that everyone would enjoy this as I have. I'm a bit of a poetry nerd so it shouts at me. I love it!

polkarama27 · Post by **polkarama27** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:11 am

Wow! This book sounds really good!
Hey, if it's alright with the rules and such, do you think you could post one of the poems? I doubt I'll be buying this anytime soon and I'm really curious

Post by **ludovica64** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:29 am

polkarama27 @ November 14, 2008 11:11 pm wrote: Wow! This book sounds really good!
Hey, if it's alright with the rules and such, do you think you could post one of the poems? I doubt I'll be buying this anytime soon and I'm really curious

Nope sorry.. cant do that without asking. That wouldnt be right. I guess excerpts are ok in context of a discussion though