Author Asks

1. I've heard people criticize poetry by saying "why doesn't the poet just come right out and say what she means?" I admire Alice Fulton's work for many reasons, one of which is her skill with metaphor. Read "Babies" and make a list of all the metaphors you can find in the poem, noticing, as you do, the different ways metaphor can be "smuggled" into a poem as well as the intricacies she achieves. Write down what you understand to be the message or "content" of the poem, that is, what does the poem communicate? How do the metaphors she chose add up, cumulatively, to convey this idea? Do you think she could have conveyed this idea as effectively without using metaphor at all?



2. Read "inside gertrude stein" and "Who Is She Kidding" by Lynn Emanuel. Both poems are overtly concerned with the larger tradition of literature and directly address those concerns to the reader. Identify some of the strategies Emanuel uses to ask questions and make statements about what is involved in writing poetry. What do her allusions to "Marco" and to Gertrude Stein ask the reader to know or do? Compare her evident concerns with another poets— Yusef Komunyakaa, for instance, or Jeffrey McDaniel, or Gabriel Gudding.



3. The final lines of "Country Wisdoms" by Maggie Anderson provoke very different interpretations from readers. What is your interpretation? Discuss the poem with classmates or friends.



4. One of the poems in A Fine Excess uses a traditional form. Can you identify the poem and the form?



5. How do you read "Consolation" by Billie Collins? Is its tone sarcastic or sincere? How could this poem be read as self-referential, whether with respect to poetry in general or to his own poetry?



6. How does the work in this anthology define the meaning of the word "play" (as used in the subtitle, Literature at Play) with respect to writing? Use three poems in the book to discuss different methods of "play," finding examples of play using form, ideas, diction, puns, riddles, tone, et cetera.



7. How do the parentheses in Gabriel Gudding's poem "The Parenthesis Inserts Itself into the Transcripts of the Committee on Un-American Activities" work to convey a larger political statement?



8. If every poem is the poet's definition of a poem, find two poems in this anthology that define "poem" differently. Imagine that they are arguing the point. How would the argument go, and with whom would you imagine aligning yourself?

1. Read the editors' introduction. Do you agree with their assertion that language used in a strictly functional sense might be an aesthetic mistake? Can a work of artistic merit be created in simple, plain language that does not call attention to itself?



2. Some writers argue that style and structure are the essence of the writing art, and that great ideas are hogwash. With this dictum in mind, read over the selections by Mike Newirth ("Give the Millionaire a Drink") and Valerie Wohlfeld ("The Blank Notebook"). Which side of the argument do they fall on?



3. In "The Eighteen Dream-Words that Afoukal Gave Him," Patrick Chamoiseau has made what the editors call in their introduction an aesthetic wager: rather than using straight-forward narrative to tell of a slave's relationship to his master, the author dramatizes his story by use of pointillistic detail, setting apart each individual paragraph/scene via numerals (rather than allowing a supple, linear flow), and then book-ending these 18 "dream-words" with odd, italicized statements. Does the wager pay-off? Why do you think he chose to structure his story this way, rather than in a more conventional sense? Also, Chamoiseau never gives the actual dream word itself. Why? Do you think this was a mistake, or do you think the author is after a metaphor here?



4. In William Gass's "The Music of Prose," the author asserts that prose music is "far from frivolous decoration; it embodies Being." Do you agree or disagree with him? Gass continues: "consequently, it is essential that that body be in eloquent shape." He seems to be suggesting that the richer the expression, the richer the consciousness (Being); meaning, life itself is experienced and appreciated more richly by those with a deep sense of language and its music. What do you make of this stance? Its wider implications (outside literature)? Is Gass onto something, or is he just a highfalutin' snob?



5. It has been said that "all great art aspires to the quality of music." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Define your reasons. Read over the essays by Gass and White—do you think Gass's "music of prose" can transport a reader the way the music in White's essay can transport a listener?



6. Choose three pieces and tell why you think they were included in an anthology of literature "at play." Try to find three pieces which offer three different reasons.



7. List the various governing reasons of the editors in their choice of material for this anthology. Does the poetry reflect different criteria for inclusion than the fiction?



8. Choose your favorite language-oriented piece, the piece that gave you the most pleasure from its language. What stylist techniques gave you the most pleasure, and why?



9. What techniques does a writer use in creating a language-oriented piece of literature. What makes that kind of writer different from, say, a mystery writer or a writer of "pot-boilers?"