It is better to destroy than to create what is meaningless

Williams opens the last section of Book III of Paterson with the following passage -

It is dangerous to leave written that which is badly written. A chance word, upon paper, may destroy the world. Watch carefully and erase, while the power is still yours, I say to myself, for all that is put down, once it escapes, may rot its way into a thousand minds.

The passage is reminiscent of a killer line in a song called "Immigration is the Sincerest form of Battery" by the band Every Time I Die: "It is better to destroy than to create what is meaningless."



Williams warns us to destroy all sub-standard work - erase it while you can still control it - before it does any damage. The song makes a similar point.

The song itself, I think, is a reference to a great film called 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini. The film is about a young director struggling to make a film that never gets made. It's basically a film about a film that can't be filmed. Guido, the filmmaker says: "It's better to destroy than create what's unnecessary."

Paterson came first, in 1958. 8 1/2 was made in 1963, and the song was recorded in the 2000s.

It's heady stuff:
The artist as perfectionist / struggling with lack of control
Bad ideas as dangerous / poisonous
The responsibilities of creators
Creator's shame of juvenilia

William Carlos Williams on Nothingness

Book 2, part 3 begins with this short poem:


Look for the nul
defeats it all

the N of all
equations

that rock, the blank
that holds them up

which pulled away -
the rock's

their fall. Look
for that nul

that's past all
seeing

the death of all
that's past

all being.



Try reading it this way:

Look / for that nul / that's past all / seeing
The death of all / that's past / all being


The "nul" (Null = nothingness) is the "Blank that holds them up" The null "which pulled away (causes) the rock's their fall" The Null underlies and holds up everything. Nothingness is the foundation of being. The fact that there is anything is dependent on the fact that there could be nothing.

Look for it!

The Structure of Paterson (so far)

I'm just starting to get into Paterson now, but I'm picking up on the pattern. Williams is braiding 3 or 4 separate story lines together so that they all interrupt each other. We have a straightforward historical narrative, items from local newspapers, a meandering free verse poem that follows his walking around town, and mixed up scraps of correspondence.

The river and the falls feature prominently in the book with lots of references to water:

with the roar of the river / forever in our ears ...
challenging our waking

the pouring waters of their hair ...
the gathered spray

Paterson: An Introduction

William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford (Northeast NJ, across the river from New York City.) Rutherford itself is just south of Paterson, which is NJs 3rd largest city, behind Newark and Jersey City. Williams epic poem "Paterson" is a monument to, and personification of, the city.

Paterson is a hilly, industrial town whose borders are partially defined by the Passaic River.

Paterson, within Passaic County, within New Jersey

The Great Falls of the Passaic River

Paterson, defined by the Passaic

Selection for June/July