Plainwater (Vintage Contemporaries): Essays and Poetry

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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. Plainwater: Essays and Poetry by Anne Carson – eBook Details Winter 2002). "The Mirror of Simple Souls: An Opera Installation Libretto". The Kenyon Review. 24 (1): 58–69. JSTOR 4338292. Hannah Siegel: Anne, you spoke about the women living alone in the walls and how you were really drawn to that element. As you work on pieces like Plainwater, do you find yourself drawn to certain elements more than others? Are there certain aspects of the world you create that you find yourself wanting to describe more than others? Traveling by foot creates a corporeal connection with the land. Our species first migrated one footstep at a time in pursuit of the flora and fauna that fed us. When we began to undertake such journeys for spiritual reasons as well, our planet became marked by the many paths of our species’ longing. Anne Carson: But still, it’s a difference because you’re physically moving. It’s a different space of thought than being stationery in a room. I think a lot of our ideas germinate in the car.

D: Well, a pretty girl is good to look at. And I guess you need that in art because art needs to be good to look at, too. Robert Currie: [Laughs] But anyway, I don’t know if Anne agrees with me, you probably don’t, but I think the reason I’ve enjoyed doing [Egocircus] is because I think the loveliest thing we can do on any day is think with somebody else. I just like thinking with other people. [To Anne] But you probably want to crawl into your hole. Marcus, Ben, ed. (2004). The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 9781400034826. November 2007). "Deer (Not a Play)". London Review of Books. 29 (22): 28 . Retrieved 9 September 2020. Anthropology is a science of mutual surprise,” Anne Carson writes. A sweeping sense of astonishment pervades her lyric essay “ The Anthropology of Water,” in which a young, female speaker walks the Camino de Santiago. Along the course of a rugged pilgrimage, Carson’s defined formal structure enables the logical leaps that keep the speaker in a constant state of new encounter. The speaker considers dreams, folklore, the purposes and sensations of pilgrimage, and her love affair with a male companion she refers to only as “my Cid” as she seeks penance (for what, the reader doesn’t know). As her mind’s constellated meanderings undercut the journey’s unceasing forward motion, “The Anthropology of Water” erodes assumptions of linear progress.

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Chen, Ken (1999). "Interview with Anne Carson". Satellite. 1 (1). Archived from the original on 2002-06-24 . Retrieved 10 September 2020. Eastham, Ben; Testard, Jacques, eds. (2017). The White Review Anthology. London: The White Review. ISBN 978-0995743717. Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780608027401. The Little Maid and the Gentleman, or, We Are Seven,' William Wordsworth". In Llewellyn, Caro (ed.). Know the Past, Find the Future: The New York Public Library at 100. New York: Penguin Classics for the New York Public Library. pp.62–67. ISBN 9780147507853.

Williford, Lex; Martone, Michael, eds. (2007). Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present. New York: Touchstone – Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-3174-6 . Retrieved 17 July 2020. The “Essays on the Road to Compostela” describe a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, undertaken over the course of a month of walking. The speaker, a woman who sees herself as largely genderless, travels with a man she identifies only as “My Cid” and to whom she has no sexual attraction. The pair discuss deep questions such as loneliness and its avoidance, the importance of faith, and what defines a pilgrim. Together, they walk to Santiago de Compostela. But then, the speaker says, Just as no mountain ends at the top, so no pilgrim stops in Santiago. The city and the saint buried there are a point of thought, but the road goes on. It goes west: Finisterre.Spalding, Esta, ed. (2001). The Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the 2001 Shortlist. Toronto: House of Anansi Press. ISBN 9780887846724. Finally, the book wraps up with a travelogue of sorts called "The Anthropology of Water." It's about Anne and a boyfriend doing the Simon & Garfunkel thing ("Yes, we've all gone to look for America..."). It's like snooping in a poet's diary, this section, and you not only get an idea about camping (of all things), but learn about the psychology of man and woman in close quarters (pup tents, sleeping bags, cars, etc.) and the communion one feels with nature, even under times of stress. Anne Carson: Well, maybe. I mean, there’s all kinds of ways to change your thought or open your thought, but I don’t think that’s what Hannah was asking about. June 2014). "The Albertine Workout". London Review of Books. 36 (11): 34–35 . Retrieved 9 September 2020. February 2011). "Sonnet of Exemplary Sentences From the Chapter Pertaining to the Nature of Pronouns in Emile Beneviste's Problems in General Linguistics (Paris 1966)". The Nation: 32 . Retrieved 19 July 2020.

Swift, Todd; Jones, Evan, eds. (2010). Modern Canadian Poets: An Anthology. Manchester: Carcanet. ISBN 978-1-857549-38-6. September 2019). "Ich bin doch kein Centrefold". The Times Literary Supplement . Retrieved 9 September 2020. Justice of Aphrodite in Sappho I". In Greene, Ellen (ed.). Reading Sappho: Contemporary Approaches. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520201958. April 2012). "Powerless Structures Fig. 11 (Sanne)". The New Republic. p.25 . Retrieved 9 September 2020.

Part one, “Mimnermos: the Brainsex Paintings,” is probably Carson as she’s best-known to the public. The classical scholar in her comes all the way out, presenting fragments, whether authentic or fabricated, of the ancient Greek poet Mimnermos. Things really get interesting when she dredges the persona up for an interview. It’s got as much to say about the topics of memory, desire, and the pain we all try to keep hidden as The Autobiography of Red, and as an added bonus, it throws in about the near-constant war between creation and creator, persona and public. But it’s more than poetry about poetry, it’s how we as humans exist within this world we must exist in. It is, in short, the sort of daring and original genre-bending work I love to read.

Glover, Douglas, ed. (1993). The Journey Prize Anthology 6: Short Fiction from the Best of Canada's New Writers. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0771003141. Bloch, Chana; Bowles, Paul; Duguid, Paul; Michaels, Lisa; Milosz, Czeslaw; Mitric, Julia; Treisman, Deborah (Summer 1997). "A Symposium on Translation". The Threepenny Review (70): 10–15. JSTOR 4384633. A: I'm tired of Freud. I bet you're tired of Aphrodite. You're probably tired of me, and you haven't even gotten to the good part of the book yet.Once you get used to the quirky periods (that must be ignored) and to the fact that Carson has forced you to slow down and read her poems slowly, you're safe at the plate. August 2002). " 'Swimming Circles in Copenhagen: A Sonnet Sequence ', 'Spring Break: Swallow Song ' ". London Review of Books. 24 (15): 33 . Retrieved 8 September 2020. Brede Baldwin: I just notice how much red there is everywhere. You’re talking about blushing, you’re talking about cheeks, and you’re talking about wolves seeing red. To me, that’s the most intimate color you could choose. So it just puts you in this mood for the entire passage. I’m wondering if there was any specific purpose behind this choice, or if you sort of just ran with it? Maybe I’m reading into nothing.