Emptied Out

Hi all,

Well, I am going away for a few days (far, far away…okay, just to the Big Island) so here are some preliminary thoughts/questions about Linh Dinh’s All Around What Empties Out. In relation to the book’s design, which I’m hoping we’ll get some back story on in class, am I reading into it too much to think that, maybe, the fields of dots somehow symbolize the societally/politically imposed mores, laws, language/grammar rules and the like that concern Dinh, over which art--such as poetry--can be layered in order to disrupt their power/inequalities? Or maybe not, it’s just a thought that came from the end pages with more dots and instructions to “Use this space for your notes” and “Use this space for your drawings.” I must admit, I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so entertained by a poetry book’s cover in my life. I mean, how great is it that there now exists in the world a book with a (empty yet full!) toilet seat and font based on “left behind” body parts on its cover? It seems to really pertain to Dinh’s poetry on many levels, from his concern with the body (and the bodily) (Did this remind anyone of Cha? Maybe this is related to their mutual concern with identity? Also through poems related to language such as “Lang Mastery” and “Scansion.”?) to his interest in the surreal. You know, back covers are great when they actually help you get more out of the book’s contents, as the quotation from Ron Silliman did for me in calling it “a walking example of the role of the real at the heart of the surreal.” My understanding is that surrealism began in reaction to the horror of WW I with the idea of working against the bourgeois values that led to it, thus the shocking, dream-like, illogical, and seemingly unrelated stuff. Thus, it seems like a style that would suit Dinh’s interest in Vietnam, war, and a lot of other modern experiences (especially the things we do to each other) that seem rather horrifying and senseless. Humor can play an important role in this style and Dinh’s spin on it as well. For example, two of my many favorite poems “Sleeping Beauty” and “Dip, Plunge, Sink” deal with (at least in part) the ridiculousness of revenge through a surreal image [“Revenge in a bearded figure in a shaven dream”] and through humor [“You are and instance of fucking (of a specified competence). / I will lavish you with extraordinary malice. / I will whittle away my time (I will mess you up).”]. Nice. Anyway, that’s enough rambling for now. I’m all emptied out (sorry).
Thanks,
Eve