Oh my god. I dream of screenless life, and try to take two weeks for it per year, but it seems a privilege to have started a career before screens were required, and a curse that we must learn to exist peacefully with them now. We millennials are the last generation to have gotten a taste of life before blue light. But this inspires me; suddenly I miss wrist-moving action. Thank you!
Yeah, I've been doing more writing by hand all week since writing this, and it's been very productive and fun—and also now my wrist hurts?? I guess the computer-free life isn't *all* gravy...
Hi Mason, Maybe you came across Mary's erasure book An Incarnation of the Now when you were researching for your article, but if you didn't you can check out SeeDouble Press. We are a small press that is dedicated to text and image books and we publish Mary Ruefle.
Wow. Didn't know about Mary Ruefle. Just ordered Dunce (lucky to live next to a poetry only bookstore (https://twitter.com/index_poetry). btw, also check out Donald Knuth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth) -- very famous mathematical and computer scientist. And guess what? He does not use email also!!
I've only just discovered your newsletter, and it's such a breath (gust) of fresh air. Thank you! I've played around with whiting/blacking out text before, but usually on old tech papers or white papers. The language is so different there—it offers up a really unique voice when trying to come up with a poem.
Thanks so much! And, yes, I think part of what makes Ruefle's erasures so compelling is the trove of weird old 19th-c. books she's found to work on—you get these very small glimpses of a totally different era/ethos/worldview.
Over the weekend I was diving into my bookshelf and found Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes, where he cut into the pages of The Street of Crocodiles. I had forgotten how much I had thoroughly enjoyed that.
I love that Ruefle calls her work in books ‘erasures’. I’ve only seen poems like this called blackout poems because the artist/writer fills the page with black and leaving only a few words visible. It almost feels like censorship. Ruefle, by adding white, seems to be liberating the page.
Neil Gaiman writes the first drafts of his books by hand. His second draft is typing the book into his computer.
Yes, the Wite-Out method creates a very different vibe than black Sharpie! (Though I think Ruefle uses black sometimes too.)
And that's interesting about Gaiman. Would be curious to know what other contemporary writers hand-write their first drafts. (I know my writing is better when I do so, but I also often skip this step out of laziness/hurriedness.)
I so relate to wanting that outfit when it doesn’t work for climate or life. What does it evoke for or resonate in us that we might duplicate in another context? It all comes back to what is being said.
I am a visual artist, but I love writing, and I use asemic writing in my paintings, made-up marks that nod to writing but mean nothing. I have a graceful script, a cuniform type "alphabet", and writing that looks like calligraphy. Could that be considered "fake" writing? I use asemic writing to punctuate space and to convey feeling; primitive, elegant, strange? I loved the poem by Ruefle. Thank you for posting this.
Oh my god. I dream of screenless life, and try to take two weeks for it per year, but it seems a privilege to have started a career before screens were required, and a curse that we must learn to exist peacefully with them now. We millennials are the last generation to have gotten a taste of life before blue light. But this inspires me; suddenly I miss wrist-moving action. Thank you!
Yeah, I've been doing more writing by hand all week since writing this, and it's been very productive and fun—and also now my wrist hurts?? I guess the computer-free life isn't *all* gravy...
The grass is greener, indeed.
Lack of practice; it worked okay until the typewriter was invented 😉. Hang in there.
Loved this! In 2021, not owning a computer is the ultimate act of erasure.
Yes!
Hi Mason, Maybe you came across Mary's erasure book An Incarnation of the Now when you were researching for your article, but if you didn't you can check out SeeDouble Press. We are a small press that is dedicated to text and image books and we publish Mary Ruefle.
Thank you! Lovely to find out about your publications.
For anyone else who's interested, the direct link is https://seedouble.press/store/incarnation?rq=ruefle
Wow. Didn't know about Mary Ruefle. Just ordered Dunce (lucky to live next to a poetry only bookstore (https://twitter.com/index_poetry). btw, also check out Donald Knuth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth) -- very famous mathematical and computer scientist. And guess what? He does not use email also!!
Thanks, I did not know about Knuth!
I've only just discovered your newsletter, and it's such a breath (gust) of fresh air. Thank you! I've played around with whiting/blacking out text before, but usually on old tech papers or white papers. The language is so different there—it offers up a really unique voice when trying to come up with a poem.
Thanks so much! And, yes, I think part of what makes Ruefle's erasures so compelling is the trove of weird old 19th-c. books she's found to work on—you get these very small glimpses of a totally different era/ethos/worldview.
Thank you for your reply, Mason! And I agree!
Over the weekend I was diving into my bookshelf and found Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes, where he cut into the pages of The Street of Crocodiles. I had forgotten how much I had thoroughly enjoyed that.
Wow! And she looks like a real scamp, too.
Total scamp!
One of the best things I've ever read is her essay, "Pause."
I love that Ruefle calls her work in books ‘erasures’. I’ve only seen poems like this called blackout poems because the artist/writer fills the page with black and leaving only a few words visible. It almost feels like censorship. Ruefle, by adding white, seems to be liberating the page.
Neil Gaiman writes the first drafts of his books by hand. His second draft is typing the book into his computer.
Yes, the Wite-Out method creates a very different vibe than black Sharpie! (Though I think Ruefle uses black sometimes too.)
And that's interesting about Gaiman. Would be curious to know what other contemporary writers hand-write their first drafts. (I know my writing is better when I do so, but I also often skip this step out of laziness/hurriedness.)
I so relate to wanting that outfit when it doesn’t work for climate or life. What does it evoke for or resonate in us that we might duplicate in another context? It all comes back to what is being said.
For me, it evokes rumpled, collegiate, sapiosexual, east coast NPR listener.
#goals
What’s not to love!
I am a visual artist, but I love writing, and I use asemic writing in my paintings, made-up marks that nod to writing but mean nothing. I have a graceful script, a cuniform type "alphabet", and writing that looks like calligraphy. Could that be considered "fake" writing? I use asemic writing to punctuate space and to convey feeling; primitive, elegant, strange? I loved the poem by Ruefle. Thank you for posting this.