Wk1 Assignment: New Constellations

Our first assignment was to read three pieces by three difference authors, choose 2-3 quotes from each, and write passages between them. Connecting the literary dots we identify for ourselves with our own writing, and creating new constellations.

“TIME is the dispersion of intensiveness” (Loy).

“The past remains wild” (Eckes)

“Mess . . . calls to Order . . . mess places place in the center of its disheveltry . . . Order’s displacement is in eyeshot of its reinstatement . . . mess is . . . the passage from Order to garbage. Thus, mess is liminal” (Kearney) 

“. . . culture [is] Perhaps humanities biggest mess . . . its most fertile shit” (Kearney)

“I make my poems to make a way through what I often perceive as mess” (Kearney) 

“Every word is a spur, an outgrowth, a departure. Language, like the city, is wild, even while it inhibits our freedom, our ability to make peace” (Eckes)

History is a Mess, and a Maze, and a Web too

Time weakens the intensity of the present. I believe that’s why people are often inclined to rewrite history. 

With this in mind, there’s no need to get too attached to any specific version of it.

With this in mind, history is a mess.

People debate history – who’s right, who deserves rights, whose rights should be prioritized, etc. –, despite its changing all the time. In doing this, they add to history. Changing history. Adding another alcove, another thread, or two or three to the maze / web of history. 

We turn ourselves around and wrap ourselves up in our own mess, and lose access to the lessons that we might learn from facing our history. 

All is not lost! 

History’s lessons are tangible in spite of its current state of mess. Our mess is liminal. 

It is very close to no longer being a mess. Meaning, it is even closer to making some sense.

That’s why I write. I, and I’m sure other writers / storytellers / creative people, write “to make a way through what I often perceive as mess” (Kearney). 

Which brings me to language. 

Language is a mess, and a maze, and a web too. Whose center is unidentifiable because of the complexities of its development over time. 

People debate a word’s etymology, adding to the thing’s history. Adding another alcove, another thread, or two or three to the maze / web of language. 

We turn ourselves around and wrap ourselves up in our own mess, and lose access to the freedom that fluency in language can offer. 

All is not lost!

The freedom language offers is tangible in spite of history’s mess. Our mess is liminal.

It is very close to no longer being a mess. Meaning, it is even closer to making some sense.

This is why I write. To make sense of the mess.

“In many Black American vernaculars, mess understudies for shit” (Kearney).

“CEASE to build up your personality with the ejections of irrelevant minds.

NOT to be a cipher in your ambient,

But to color your ambient with your preferences.

NOT to accept experience at its face value.

BUT to readjust activity to the peculiarity of your own will.

THESE are the primary tentatives towards independence” (Loy).

Given that History is a Mess,

Given that history is a mess, look inward, not backward, to find fulfillment. 

Given that history is shit, define yourself for yourself, and whatnot. 

Given that history is a mess, take its lessons with a grain of salt, or caution, or whatever is your preference. 

Given that history is shit, be cautious of people who too zealously reference the past as great. 

It was not. A great mess, maybe.

(Informal) Works Cited

Mina Loy, “Aphorisms on Futurism”

Douglas Kearney, “Mess Studies”

Ryan Eckes, “spurs” - section from General Motors (pages 25-41 in the full book scan)