Plainwater: Essays and Poetry - Softcover

Carson, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375708421 ISBN 13: 9780375708428

Publisher: Vintage, 2000

Synopsis

The poetry and prose collected in Plainwater are a testament to the extraordinary imagination of Anne Carson, a writer described by Michael Ondaatje as "the most exciting poet writing in English today." Succinct and astonishingly beautiful, these pieces stretch the boundaries of language and literary form, while juxtaposing classical and modern traditions.

Carson envisions a present-day interview with a seventh-century BC poet, and offers miniature lectures on topics as varied as orchids and Ovid. She imagines the muse of a fifteenth-century painter attending a phenomenology conference in Italy. She constructs verbal photographs of a series of mysterious towns, and takes us on a pilgrimage in pursuit of the elusive and intimate anthropology of water. Blending the rhythm and vivid metaphor of poetry with the discursive nature of the essay, the writings in Plainwater dazzle us with their invention and enlighten us with their erudition.

About this title

About the Author:

ANNE CARSON was born in Canada and has been a professor of Classics for over thirty years. Her awards and honors include the Lannan Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Trust Award for Excellence in Poetry, and fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations.

From Booklist:

Carson's poetry and prose defy categorization as much as they blur the boundaries of their own forms. In fact, nearly formless, Carson's writing resists convention through word variation and substitution, stretching language to create new meanings, formulas, and outcomes. For example, in "The Life of Towns," town becomes a representative letter like a in the formula: if ab and bc, then ac. In other words, townviewpointself and self includes all the various vantage points and different ways of expressing vision. Carson, a professor of ancient Greek and Latin, incorporates classical languages and a mythological sensibility in surprising ways throughout her work. The strongest and most engaging section is "Short Talks" (from her book by that title), which was excerpted in the 1992 Best American Essays but could have just as easily appeared in a poetry anthology. The pieces have the appeal of haiku and the experimental quality of language poetry by Scalapino and Lauterbach. These "talks" gracefully unite the vivid metaphor and rhythm of poetry with the contemplative and digressive discourse of essay. Carson knows the rules of language and how to break them. This is stimulating, rare, and challenging writing, fabulous food for thought--for the adventurous reader. Janet St. John

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375708421
• ISBN 13: 9780375708428
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272