Subject to Change Liveblog 6

John Trevathan (U Minnesota Twin Cities)


“The Mouth of Literature: Experimental Ecological Poetry in Galicia”



Prestige oil spill 270 miles off coast of Galicia
Manuel Rivas, The Disappearance of Snow talks about it
oil as “little trails of clay” (in the political discourse); narratives of denial
>> strategy like Goya’s etchings: what one cannot see expressing what one cannot say
The Mouth of the Prestige; we are forced to see that a nonliving thing is speaking to us about its silent yet volatile capacity
recycling of symbols as protest art; use of umbrellas
the March of Suitcases; bagpipes; conch shells
unbinding icons from their regional connotations
alliances between things and people moving away from cliches
ecological fragility: pluralism of people and habits
dehumanizing is about denaturalizing the everydayness of objects not removing the human
ultra-objects like hyperobjects (!)
The Disappearance of Snow a unique undertaking in four languages
<> Ortega’s descriptions of early avant garde movements
“Mayday” poem: onomatopoeias of clangs and beeps
minimal use of light
apostrophe speaking to fear; ambient noises of dogs barking “vomiting up the colors of nothingness”
a bizarre concatenation of objects outside their everyday qualities
to draw our attention to the ontological activity of language
threat of network of language disappearing completely