Think About It 032: ABE OSHEROFF

Authenticity is incredibly important.  To me, authenticity comes when your thoughts, your words, and your deeds have some relation to each other.  It comes when there’s a real organic relationship between the way you think, the way you talk, and the way you act.  You have to fight for authenticity all the time in this world, and if you don’t fight for it you will get derailed… 
      Some people are afraid to think, because thinking can present problems.  When you have thoughts, you have to decide what to do with them.  We can save them and take them to a therapist, or we can go to a bar and drink them away, or we can talk about them.  But immediately we have to deal with self-censorship.  Talking honestly can have consequences.  Take an easy example.  If you’re involved in a relationship and there’s something bothering you about the relationship, and you tell the other person your thoughts, that may be the end of the relationship.  You’re in a funny bind because if you talk about it you may risk the relationship, but if you don’t talk about it you know that down the road the same problem will be there.  What do you do?  Authenticity is about making that decision.
      Then once you’ve said something, the question is, ‘What are you going to do about it?’  A lot of people don’t do anything.  Trying to be authentic is another way of saying you are struggling to let out the best part of who you are, the part that will act and take risks.  We all have a choice:  we can choose to be made by history, or we can choose to participate in making history.

Abe Osheroff: On The Joys and Risks of Living Authentically in the Empire (Robert Jensen, 2005)


 

Use the link below to read the full June 2005 interview with North American dissident and social activist ABE OSHEROFF:

 

https://robertwjensen.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Abe-Osheroff-interview-by-Robert-Jensen.pdf

 

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Think About It 022: CHRISTOPHER LASCH

 
Think About It 019: JOHN PILGER

 
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Poet of the Month 044: ANTONIN ARTAUD

ANTONIN ARTAUD
c 1925

 

LOVE WITHOUT RESPITE

 

 

This triangle of thirsty water

this road without signposts

Madame, and the sight of your masts

on this sea where I drown

 

The messages of your hair

the broadsides from your lips

this storm which carries me away

in the wake of your eyes.

 

This final shadow, on the shore

Where life takes respite, and the wind,

And the horrible standing about

of the crowd on my route.

 

When I lift my eyes toward you

one could say that the earth trembles,

and the fires of love come to resemble

the caresses of your spouse. 

 

   

 

 

 

 

The Umbilicus of Limbo

 

1925

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Translated (with difficulty) by  

 

BR

 

 

 

 

see end of post for original French text

 

 

 

 

Use the links below to read about the life and work of French dramatist, actor, poet and theatrical theorist ANTONIN ARTAUD (1896–1948) and more of his poems (in French) on the free poetry site Un Jour Un Poème:

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.unjourunpoeme.fr/auteurs/artaud-antonin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Use this link to hear the song Antonin Artaud by 1980s UK goth-rock pioneers BAUHAUS.  The lyrics (by DAVID J) are highly reminiscent of the poet's own work and are certainly worth reading for that reason alone:

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd5wHey8gDI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Poet of the Month 023: VICTOR HUGO

 

 

 

 

 

Poet of the Month 009: JULIAN TUWIM

 

 

 

 

 

Poet of the Month 007: ESTHER GRANEK

 

 

 

 

ANTONIN ARTAUD 
c 1947

 

L'AMOUR SANS TRÊVES

 

 

Ce triangle d’eau qui a soif

cette route sans écriture

Madame, et le signe de vos mâtures

sur cette mer où je me noie

 

Les messages de vos cheveux

le coup de fusil de vos lèvres

cet orage qui m’enlève

dans le sillage de vos yeux.

 

Cette ombre enfin, sur le rivage

où la vie fait trêve, et le vent,

et l’horrible piétinement

de la foule sur mon passage.

 

Quand je lève les yeux vers vous

on dirait que le monde tremble,

et les feux de l’amour ressemblent

aux caresses de votre époux.

 

 

 

 

L'Ombilic des limbes

 

 1925

 

 

 

The Write Advice 102: MARY RAKOW

My first mentor said, Write toward the pain.  And write something you could read to a dying person.  These are harsh, useful measures and they stay valid… On a more technical level I learn a lot by walking around the city.  It just happens.  You’re walking along minding your own business and you see in the Max Mara window something entirely new.  A mannequin wearing wheat colored menswear socks with blush suede pumps!  You stare at it for an hour, that friction, that juxtaposition, and you go home and write better dialogue because you’ve seen good dialogue with your eyes.

Q&A interview [2015]


 

Use the link below to read more about North American writer MARY RAKOW and her novel This Is Why I Came, published by the Counterpoint Press in December 2015:

 

http://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/this-is-why-i-came/

 

 

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