On 27th November 1944, my grandfather Denys Godin sent a letter to his former schoolfriend, Richard Christopher Warlow-Harry, a Major in the British army and at that point prisoner of war number 12700 at Oflag IX / A-H, Germany. An Oflag, from the German Offizierslager, was a prisoner of war camp for officers, set up in accordance with the requirements of the 1929 Geneva Convention. Oflag IX / A-H was located in Spangenberg Castle in northeastern Hesse, Germany. What had been the banqueting hall of this fairy tale castle served now as a dormitory packed with double bunk beds. The guards were infamously harsh. Pigs roamed the moat. In his 1992 autobiography,
Reading through Don Paterson's latest book of aphorisms ("The Fall at Home") I found this:
"A student brings me a Xerox of a page of 'Henderson the Rain King', with most of the words whited out to reveal what I assume was a poem. 'What's this?' I ask. 'It's an "erasure" poem', he replies. I tell him it's half-finished. The remark passes over him, silently and very high, like the Hubble telescope. I have a loathing of all art made *procedurally*, which makes me want to smash it for the mere sake of introducing into it some minimal human warmth."
Preceded by "I preferred not to think that no one had come, but rather that my reading was being held in total secrecy"... Hmm, any connection, I wonder?
Interesting that you don't mention "A Humument" in this context -- too obvious?
I don't know most of the erasure texts you cite, but I do have a copy of "Nets", which seems to me more a case of highlighting rather than erasure? Moreover, and I may be completely missing the point here, it seems to me that Jen Bervin has created nothing novel or of any great note in its own right from her source in the process, unlike Tom Phillips or, by the look of it, Ronald Johnson. It is an attractive little book as an object, though, and in its 11th printing of 1500 copies since 2004!
Reading through Don Paterson's latest book of aphorisms ("The Fall at Home") I found this:
"A student brings me a Xerox of a page of 'Henderson the Rain King', with most of the words whited out to reveal what I assume was a poem. 'What's this?' I ask. 'It's an "erasure" poem', he replies. I tell him it's half-finished. The remark passes over him, silently and very high, like the Hubble telescope. I have a loathing of all art made *procedurally*, which makes me want to smash it for the mere sake of introducing into it some minimal human warmth."
Preceded by "I preferred not to think that no one had come, but rather that my reading was being held in total secrecy"... Hmm, any connection, I wonder?
Mike
A most interesting article, which I enjoyed reading not least because Major RC Warlow-Harry-Harry is my grandfather...!
Interesting that you don't mention "A Humument" in this context -- too obvious?
I don't know most of the erasure texts you cite, but I do have a copy of "Nets", which seems to me more a case of highlighting rather than erasure? Moreover, and I may be completely missing the point here, it seems to me that Jen Bervin has created nothing novel or of any great note in its own right from her source in the process, unlike Tom Phillips or, by the look of it, Ronald Johnson. It is an attractive little book as an object, though, and in its 11th printing of 1500 copies since 2004!
Mike