Unlike “M,” it was difficult for me to disregard the second OE definition of “precious.” When Annette articulated our signment in class, the combination of the words “precious” and “paper” immediately led my mind to money. The U.S. dollar is … Continue reading
There is little in this world more precious to me than my wife and my son. As such, I accumulate sentimental pieces of writing that pertain directly to them. These include things like notes, cards, letters, and so on. With … Continue reading
When I started thinking about what surfaces are precious my first thoughts were: notes or objects from family and friends. I ruled out family because I was not going to write on my grandfather’s family tree or letters either of … Continue reading
“Inscription is a form of intervention…” ~ Gitelman I borrowed the tea (in my case coffee) ring idea from the poet Susan Tichy, whose tea poems (visual poems with tea rings) chronicled her morning tea drinking. The ephemera of it. … Continue reading
Definition 1a of the Oxford English Dictionary holds “Precious” as something “Of great moral, spiritual, or other non-material value; beloved, held in high esteem.” The emphasis on non-material is obviously my own, though my personal choice of precious surface reflects … Continue reading
Inscription is a form of intervention, into which new machinery continues to interpose. Ink is imposed on paper, while pens and keyboards intrude into the posture of hands. Grooves are incised into phonograph records, while sound echoes in our ears. … Continue reading
Here’s my cryptic addition to this week’s signment re: gilt edge, etc. A riddle to what my material for the writing will be: “What has a spine, a face, a back, and thoughts; has tremendous weight, yet when dropped, isn’t … Continue reading
Here’s something Foucault wrote (or said and then edited): Even when an individual has been accepted as an author, we must still ask whether everything that he wrote, said, or left behind is part of his work. The problem is … Continue reading
What are our materials of reading, and what difference does it make? “People forget that a book or codex is a technology,” reminded ambient lit artist Tan Lin in a 2012 interview in the new media art publication Rhizome (so named after Deleuze and … Continue reading
To get to my materials of writing, I have to draw a distinction in my writing itself. This distinction is crude, but it is honest. I distinguish between writing that matters and writing that doesn’t matter. (I didn’t necessarily know … Continue reading