V Samuel R. Delany understands more of the myth in his novel The Einsten Intersection (1968), where Billy the Kid appears as a redheaded boy with gold lashes and transparent skin whose eyes ‘had no whites, only glittering gold and brown … dog’s eyes in a human face: “My mother called me Bonny William,” the Kid announces. “Now they all call me Kid Death.” ‘66 Asked why he kills, … Read more Eric Mottram on Triggernometry (5)
IV The reality and fantasy of Billy the Kid contain the social issues. Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) needed Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson to attract a public, and in 1974 Dirty Little Billy, starring the radically unheroic Michael J. Pollard, was advertized at the Hiram College, Ohio, cinema Under the rubric: ‘Billy the Kid was a Punk.’ But by this time Hollywood had made … Read more Eric Mottram on Triggernometry (4)
III Walter Prescott Webb’s The Great Plains described the development of the cattle kingdoms of the American West and of the cowboy who worked the ranches and ranges. The Homestead Law of 1862, the invention of barbed wire in 1874, and the advent of the windmill, the railway, artificial irrigation systems, and the automobile combined to shape – and ultimately displace – the West: ‘The life of one man … Read more Eric Mottram on Triggernometry (3)
II The technological morality of gangster and police movies provides a full iconography from the Thirties onwards. The obvious symbolism of black and white shirts is there in cowboy films, of course, together with other ancient characterizations: blonde and brunette, fair and darker skins. But clothing and other ‘extensions of man’ furnish gangster films with their own mythical technology. Large hats and heavy coats signify police in Thirties gangsterdom. … Read more Eric Mottram on Triggernometry (2)
We are pleased to present the following conference, alongside an exhibition of manuscripts, books and digital material relating to Eric Mottram. Sponsored by the Archives Department at King’s College London. Date: Monday 23 April 2018 Duration: 10.00 to 17.30 Location: Council Room, 2nd floor, Strand Building, King’s College London, WC2R 2LS Master of Ceremonies: Clive Bush PROGRAMME: This event will be filmed by Colin Still from Optic Nerve (www.opticnerve.co.uk). … Read more Eric Mottram Remembered: poet, professor and cultural firebrand
Wish I could be at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro NC, for editor Jeffery Beams, and contributors Alex Albright, Thorns Craven, Neal Hutcheson, & Tom Patterson’ presentation of their excellent book Jonathan Williams: Lord of the Orchards on Thursday, March 15, 7pm. JW is one of the great neglectorino poets of the 2nd part of the 20C. One of the best ears & finest eye I know of. If you can’t be there get the … Read more “Jonathan Williams: Lord of the Orchards”
A most useful & thoughtful book, just out! (& James has a special offer which allows you to get the ebook for $15: use code PB2S17). Here is how the author describes his writing-through of Machiaveli’s classic: “This book uses the structure of Machiavelli’s The Prince to show how governance has changed over the last 500 years. If Machiavelli focuses on power concentrated in the hands of the republic or principalities, … Read more James Sherry’s Princely Oligarch
An interesting review of Leonard Schwartz’s book by Kathleen Eamon just appeared on the talisman website. Here the opening paragraphs, link to the full article below: Leonard Schwartz’s The New Babel: Toward a Poetics of the Mid-East Crises (The University of Arkansas Press 2016) is a timely book, emerging at a historical moment that its own capacious political vision lets us find internally related to the crises in question. Much of it was written in the context … Read more Leonard Schwartz’s “The New Babel: Toward a Poetics of the Mid-East Crises”
Excellent essay on Lee Harwood at Intercapillary Space. Here’s the opening section: Six notes about Lee Harwood (while reading Penguin Modern Poets 19) by Michael Peverett 1. The English Channel Paul Nash, painting of Dymchurch sea-wall [Image source: from Cathy Lomax’s pretty wonderful blog: http://cathylomax.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/paul-nash-and-dymchurch.html] Lee’s poems had about them a remarkable tone. They were ‘quiet’ compared to the work of the Americans I was reading, but they were … Read more Michael Peverett on Lee Harwood
Reading, thinking and writing about Ingeborg Bachmann right now, while also thinking about the victims of terror and the misuse they are put to, here in this country and in France as well. So this morning I came across a posthumous prose fragment of Bachmann’s which I’d read in the 4-volume collected but now met again, insistently, in Françoise Rétif’s lovely, excellent, challenging book-length essay on I.B. (Ingeborg Bachmann, Editions … Read more Ingeborg Bachmann: Nobody has the Right to Appeal to the Victim