If anyone asks me what kind of writer Ben Marcus is, I will use this single quote from "Against Attachment", part of chapter 5 in "Leaving the Sea" to explain.
"Graves were called homes, and apologies known as writing were carved in their surface. Rotten bags were called people."
Maybe one more, from "First Love."
"The shovels we use to cleave the air in two - and possibly reveal a person we might fail against - were once abbreviated as hands. [...] When we faced off with a person, the sound of our four shovels colliding produced a shield of silent, wind-free air known as home. This was when there were only two choices how to behave, on or off. We would apparently put some objects into our mistake tunnel, which was still the main opening in the face, and the tunnel was able to convulse around them and propel them deep into the body's grave, which was then called, I think, a belly."
Showing posts with label ben marcus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ben marcus. Show all posts
3.26.2014
2.18.2014
The Meaning of Leaving the Sea
I am sitting down to read "Leaving the Sea" -- the short piece of writing for which this book is titled. It is basically a six-page sentence. Today is Tuesday, Feb. 18th. It's 11am. It's starting to snow and I could use another cup of coffee. The commute tonight promises to be several hours.
11:06am - Halfway done.
11:14am - OK, that was great.
"...before our house started leaning, started hissing when the wind came up after sunset, a house no different from a gut-shot animal listing into the woods, a woods no different from a spray of wire bursting through the earth, an earth no different from a leaking sack of water, soft in the middle and made of mush..."
Leaving the Sea (the title of the book, and this story specifically) is (I think) about a loss of innocence and a step into constant struggle.
"...so that they could jump on me and ride on me and kick into the place where I would have gills if I were something better that had never tried to leave the sea..."
The sea is our ultimate home. When we left the sea to walk the earth we chose endless struggle over endless gliding and beauty. Oh well.
11:06am - Halfway done.
11:14am - OK, that was great.
"...before our house started leaning, started hissing when the wind came up after sunset, a house no different from a gut-shot animal listing into the woods, a woods no different from a spray of wire bursting through the earth, an earth no different from a leaking sack of water, soft in the middle and made of mush..."
Leaving the Sea (the title of the book, and this story specifically) is (I think) about a loss of innocence and a step into constant struggle.
"...so that they could jump on me and ride on me and kick into the place where I would have gills if I were something better that had never tried to leave the sea..."
The sea is our ultimate home. When we left the sea to walk the earth we chose endless struggle over endless gliding and beauty. Oh well.
2.11.2014
Poor Sad Fathers
Ben Marcus has said that his parents were normal and loving, but his treatment of father/son characters is profoundly sad.
"He had a large, sad face and he was bald. These men were everywhere. The cattle in our lives we hardly even see."
His stories usually focus on family units or small groups. The father figure is always oppressed. The first 4 stories in Leaving The Sea follow roughly the same pattern.
What Have You Done: A troubled son, newly a father, returns home but cannot love his family. His family doesn't trust him or believe anything he says based on an unsubscribed incident in his past.
I Can Say Many Nice Things: A hapless professor is teaching a course on a cruise ship. His wife doesn't love him, his class doesn't respect him, and he is harried by an unbalanced, young, female student.
The Dark Arts: A young man is mysteriously sick. His girlfriend doesn't love him and his father is a weak and feeble man unable to help.
Rollingwood: A father is asked, unexpectedly, to care for his young son. The son's mother doesn't love him, disappears for days, and the father is forced to juggle work and son without appreciation or love.
Marcus beats on the fathers in his other books too. Notable American Women features a helpless father trapped in a hole, The Flame Alphabet features a father crushed under the weight of mysterious illness, a dying wife, a poison daughter, kidnapping, forced labor, etc. etc. Needless to say, there are a lot of fathers crawling around, hiding in holes, accepting emasculation, failing.
"He had a large, sad face and he was bald. These men were everywhere. The cattle in our lives we hardly even see."
His stories usually focus on family units or small groups. The father figure is always oppressed. The first 4 stories in Leaving The Sea follow roughly the same pattern.
What Have You Done: A troubled son, newly a father, returns home but cannot love his family. His family doesn't trust him or believe anything he says based on an unsubscribed incident in his past.
I Can Say Many Nice Things: A hapless professor is teaching a course on a cruise ship. His wife doesn't love him, his class doesn't respect him, and he is harried by an unbalanced, young, female student.
The Dark Arts: A young man is mysteriously sick. His girlfriend doesn't love him and his father is a weak and feeble man unable to help.
Rollingwood: A father is asked, unexpectedly, to care for his young son. The son's mother doesn't love him, disappears for days, and the father is forced to juggle work and son without appreciation or love.
Marcus beats on the fathers in his other books too. Notable American Women features a helpless father trapped in a hole, The Flame Alphabet features a father crushed under the weight of mysterious illness, a dying wife, a poison daughter, kidnapping, forced labor, etc. etc. Needless to say, there are a lot of fathers crawling around, hiding in holes, accepting emasculation, failing.
1.30.2014
Selection for Feb/March 2014
Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus
We tried "Sea of Hooks" and it didn't work out. So now we'll try "Leaving the Sea" by Ben Marcus. Marcus is my hero and this is his new book of stories. "Sea of Hooks" was bad, so now we're "Leaving the Sea"...get it??
12.20.2012
12.12.2012
Who & What is Thompson: An Investigation
Introduction
The figure of Thompson permeates all of Ben Marcus' work, but nowhere as forcefully or mysteriously as in The Age of Wire and String.In all cases, Thompson is a benevolent figure working toward human survival in the face of existential threats. Thompson is sometimes portrayed as a human and sometimes portrayed as godlike. Sometimes there are multiple Thompsons. Sometimes there are varying levels of Thompson in everyone.
In The Age of Wire and String, Thompson is described as a controlling spirit or force with a body (Perkins), though not dependent on the body. Thompson seems to have worked out the rules for survival in The Age of Wire and String. These are based on a Thompsonian system of silence, blindness, stillness.
Thompson is not an all-knowing figure but seems to have developed various survival systems over time. Thompson's approach is always based on cataloging, defining, and rule-making.
Stith Thompson and the Motif-Index of Folk Literature
Stith Thompson (1885-1976) was an American scholar of folklore. He is the developer, along with Antti Arne, of the Aarne-Thompson classification system, which gave rise to Thompson's massive Motif-Index of Folk Literature: a work of six volumes which is considered the international key to recurring motifs in traditional material.Ben Marcus has explicitly stated that the work of Stith Thompson has been influential on his, Marcus', writing. It's easy to see why. A search for "wind" in the motif-index returns results such as:
- A1122.1: Hole of winds: stopper destroyed. The hole is stopped with a wooden stopper, which is destroyed. The country dries up.
- A1122.2: Wind a bird dwelling in mountain-hole.
- A1122.3: Lost wind found in hollow tree: has been banished and is needed by men.
Resources
- Motif-Index of Folk-Literature Online
- Motif-Index of Folk Literature Search Engine made available by the Center for Symbolic Studies
- The Aarne-Thompson Classification System
References to Thompson in The Age of Wire and String
From The Death of Water. pg 11.
"...Death was realized in 1807 in the water as a new erosion by Carolina and by England and Thompson; it was named for the hills and swells in Deerborne, which had been killed only two years earlier.
From Terms. pg 24.
"TREASURE OF POSSIBLE ENUNCIATIONS: Catalog of first, last, and indeterminate lexia. It includes all possible words and their unutterable opposites. Other than Thompson's Bank of Communicable Desire, no other such comprehensive system exists."
From Terms. pg 24.
"GOD CHARGE: Amount or degree of Thompson occurring in a person or shelter."
From Terms. pg 25.
"THE FIEND: [...] Any aspect of Thompson which Thompson cannot control.
From Terms. pg 25.
"GOD-BURNING SYSTEM: Method of Thompsonian self-immolation. For each Thompson, there exist flammable outcrops or limbs which rub onto the larger body of Thompson (Perkins) rendering morning fires and emberage that lights the sky and advances the time of a given society or culture."
From Terms. pg 26.
"PERKINS: 1. Term given to the body of Thompson in order that his physical form never desecrate his own name. 2. The god of territory."
From Terms. pg 27.
"LEGAL PRAYER: [...] Let a justifiable message be herewith registered in regard to desires and thoughts appertaining to what will be unnamed divinities, be they bird forms or other atmo bestial manifestations of the CONTROLLING THOMPSON, or instead unseen and personless concoctions of local clans, groups, or teams."
From The Religion. pg 92.
" ...You can operate in a campaign mode where your man lives in a pack and tries to become the "thompson" or supreme leader, while grappling with everyday survival. [...]
From Terms. pp. 94-95
"SCHEDULES AND DISPENSING RULES OF SEASONS: System of legal disbursement in relation to seasons and temperature. Thompson embodies the assembly, the constituency, the audience, the retractors, the Thompson and non-Thompson in any weather-viewing scheme."
From Terms. pg 95.
"HUMAN WEATHER: [...] The only feasible solution, outside of large-scale stifling or combustion of physical forms, is to pursue the system of rotational silence proposed by Thompson, a member of ideal physical deportment - his tongue removed, his skin muffled with glues, his eyes shielded under with pictures of the final scenery."
From Terms. pg 96.
"UNIVERSAL STORM CALENDAR: 1. Thompsoned system of air influence. Inexplicable. [...]"
From Terms. pp 122-123.
"WEATHER KILLER, THE: Person, persons, or team who perform actual and pronounced killings of the air. [...] Their works were first uncovered at the wind farm. They exist as items which are counter-Thompson, given that they kill what he has made."
From Terms. pg 135.
"BEHAVIOR FARM: Location of deep grass structures in which the seventeen primary actions, as prescribed by Thompson, designer of movement, are fueled, harnessed, or sparked by the seven partial viscous liquid emotions that pour in from the river. [...]"
From Terms. pp 137-138.
"MESSONISM: Religious system of the society consisting of the following principles: [...] The practice of sacrificing houses in autumn. It is an offering to Perkins, or the Thompson that controls it. [...] The practice of abstaining from any act or locution that might indicate that one knows, knew, or has known any final detail or attribute of the true Thompson. [...] The notion that no text shall fix the principles. [...]"
Incomplete Index of References to Thompson in other Ben Marcus works
Notable American Women: Number of references: 14+
"Thompson Food Scheme"
"Thompson Water"
"Thompson Stick"
"Thompson Box"
"Ice Thompson"
"Female Thompson"
The Flame Alphabet: Number of References: Many
Thompson takes the form of a mysterious character named "Rabbi Thompson." Rabbi Thompson is the source of a clandestine / underground broadcast that contains survival instructions for those who know how to locate the signal. It is intimated that the Thompson Broadcast is a false, meaningless cover signal for a deeper, better hidden, more authentic signal. This is never explicitly proven and a second signal is never located. References include "Thompson Broadcast" and "Thompson Sermon."
11.26.2012
Quotes - or - Any aspect of Thompson which Thompson cannot control
from The Death of Water
When heated, it burns with a brilliant flame to form a river that exhibits fishes and stones and is used in shuttling the seven primary, liquid emotions to THE BEHAVIOR FARM. The steam is used as a core for the carbon arteries of OHIO.
WIND BOWL: Pocket of curved, unsteady space formed between speaking persons. They may discuss the house, its grass, some foods, the father inside. The wind bowl will tilt and push across their faces, that they might appear leaning back, arching away from each other, grasping at the ground behind them as if sleeping.
from The Golden Monica
...this knife is curved, fluent in the obstacles of bone and cloth.
When heated, it burns with a brilliant flame to form a river that exhibits fishes and stones and is used in shuttling the seven primary, liquid emotions to THE BEHAVIOR FARM. The steam is used as a core for the carbon arteries of OHIO.
WIND BOWL: Pocket of curved, unsteady space formed between speaking persons. They may discuss the house, its grass, some foods, the father inside. The wind bowl will tilt and push across their faces, that they might appear leaning back, arching away from each other, grasping at the ground behind them as if sleeping.
from The Golden Monica
...this knife is curved, fluent in the obstacles of bone and cloth.
11.19.2012
What is this book?
I feel compelled to try to define this book, which is weird because it is a book of definitions. This is also a sneaky way to get you guys to use our research databases. Finally, this is a chance for me to use proper MLA citation which is so much fun.
In short this is a book that blocks interpretation by a constant series of definitions that are then constantly redefined.
The Age of Wire and String was, and remains, an appallingly original book. It seems to present an entirely alienated, yet entirely credible, vision of the nuclear family. The book proceeds not by plot but through a series of definitions. To read it is to encounter a cultural primer that seems midway through a nervous breakdown.
Literature Resource Center is a wonderful database that all Massachusetts residents can use FOR FREE (You're welcome).
In short this is a book that blocks interpretation by a constant series of definitions that are then constantly redefined.
- Vernon, Peter. "Ben Marcus, The Age of Wire and String." Yearbook of English Studies (2001): 118. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Nov. 2012.
The Age of Wire and String was, and remains, an appallingly original book. It seems to present an entirely alienated, yet entirely credible, vision of the nuclear family. The book proceeds not by plot but through a series of definitions. To read it is to encounter a cultural primer that seems midway through a nervous breakdown.
- Litt, Toby. "In the name of the father." New Statesman (1996) 4 June 2012: 48. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Nov. 2012.
Literature Resource Center is a wonderful database that all Massachusetts residents can use FOR FREE (You're welcome).
11.08.2012
The Age of Wire and String: A Primer
"This book is a catalog of the life project as prosecuted in the Age of Wire and String..."
"There is no larger task than that of cataloging a culture..."
Marcus' book sets out to literally define. It explains phrases and provides definitions of terms. It is a technical manual / field guide to life in the Age of Wire and String.
"There is no larger task than that of cataloging a culture..."
Marcus' book sets out to literally define. It explains phrases and provides definitions of terms. It is a technical manual / field guide to life in the Age of Wire and String.
RAIN: Hard, shiny silver object, divided into knives and used for cutting procedures. Most rain dissolves within the member and applies a slow cutting program over a period of years. This is why when one dies, the rain is seen slicing upward from its body. When death is converted into language, it reads: "to empty the body of knives."
10.31.2012
Selection for November & December
Happy Halloween! Tomorrow is November 1st and so we'll be starting a new book. Goodbye American Gods (goodbye goodbye) and hello The Age of Wire and String by Ben Marcus.
It's time for you all to be brave. Come on let's try it.
From Wikipedia: The Age of Wire and String is Ben Marcus's first book, published in 1995. The book is composed of 8 sections, divided into 41 short experimental fictions (ed. note: uh oh), which combine technical language with lyrical imagery to form a sort of Postmodern catalog by turns surreal, fantastic, and self-referential.
From Kirkus: A rare, genius-struck achievement intended to warn readers into looking at the truth anew; not easy, but filled always with great beauties, high themes, enormous sorrows. By turns futuristic (``after the second appearance of 1983''), mock- historic (``One system of dating places their arrival...as early as the wakeful period of 1979''), surrealistic (``often each leg was clothed in a contrasting food style''), lyrically pathetic (``Your man can run, walk, sleep, drink, eat, and, of course, weep and die''), and simultaneously philosophic (``Certain weather is not recognized by the land it is practiced on'') and satiric (``Every year a day was set aside for discussion'').
I've read 2 other Marcus books - Notable American Women and The Flame Alphabet and both were great. Both of those books grew out of his earlier work in The Age of Wire and String so I'm excited to read it.
It's time for you all to be brave. Come on let's try it.
From Wikipedia: The Age of Wire and String is Ben Marcus's first book, published in 1995. The book is composed of 8 sections, divided into 41 short experimental fictions (ed. note: uh oh), which combine technical language with lyrical imagery to form a sort of Postmodern catalog by turns surreal, fantastic, and self-referential.
From Kirkus: A rare, genius-struck achievement intended to warn readers into looking at the truth anew; not easy, but filled always with great beauties, high themes, enormous sorrows. By turns futuristic (``after the second appearance of 1983''), mock- historic (``One system of dating places their arrival...as early as the wakeful period of 1979''), surrealistic (``often each leg was clothed in a contrasting food style''), lyrically pathetic (``Your man can run, walk, sleep, drink, eat, and, of course, weep and die''), and simultaneously philosophic (``Certain weather is not recognized by the land it is practiced on'') and satiric (``Every year a day was set aside for discussion'').
I've read 2 other Marcus books - Notable American Women and The Flame Alphabet and both were great. Both of those books grew out of his earlier work in The Age of Wire and String so I'm excited to read it.
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