On Apollinaire and the Calligrammes
I don’t like them. In fact the Calligrammes are the kind of thing that I just hate, stuff so much not to my taste that it is hard not to consider them bad and ill-thought out. I don’t mind the words that they are composed of, those are good, but the whole concept of drawing simple pen and ink composition built up of words has been such a boon to lazy greeting card creators the world over that it is difficult not to look down on Apollinaire’s creation of the form.
In To Speak Meaningfully About Art — it was said that as well as the baseline requirements to speak meaningfully a critic needed to be able to consider the following about the art under discussion:
- important in relation to their creator
- Unimportant in relation to their creator
- Important in relation to other works
- Unimportant in relation to other works
The Calligrammes are important in relation to Apollinaire but unimportant in relation to other works, in that importance to other works are not just their creator’s works but those of creators who come afterwards — the historical perspective that a critic should be able to provide.
The Calligrammes have survived, even thrived since Apollinaire’s death as per the greeting card makers observation, they have made ,many other people happy — especially first and second graders who get to make twinkle twinkle litter star in yellow letters on dark blue paper, or notes on mothers day in the shape of a heart.
From the above you may assume that I dislike the Calligrammes from an elitist perspective, and you’re probably right, but ask yourself this — do you think Apollinaire created them as an act of populism?
One could also argue that the Calligrammes have had a large effect on creators that came after Apollinaire, in the form of Concrete Poetry — another poetic form I dislike instinctively.
As to why I dislike these poems — they make the meaning of the words subservient to the visual image. And the visual image is seldomly that impressive as an image itself, if it were not composed of words we might not even care, but because the otherwise boring image is composed of words we feel a slight frisson of originality and are attracted. It is often a trick to make the trite and forgettable seem worthwhile and filled with effort.
Of course one problem with this feeling of mine is that Apollinaire was seldom trite and forgettable.
Another problem is that perhaps the moment for the Calligrammes has not yet arrived, perhaps the Calligrammes are eternal and also of the future.
One feeling the Calligrammes bring forth in me is that which often comes during any intense psychedelic experience — that the world is composed of one infinitely long word, the letters of which can be seen in every aspect of creation if we focus on them.
Looking at this infinite word one gets the feeling that if one were to pronounce it creation itself would be undone, the world ended and furthermore an end made to the otherwise endless cycle of birth and rebirth, a shortcut around the Buddha to give voice to this word that comprises the universe.
Of course the Calligrammes do not replicate this infinite word — the primeval, original word. But the fact is it cannot be replicated by a human being — but perhaps an AI augmented human could replicate it.
Perhaps the new Calligrammes will be computerized visualizations of Poetry following patterns laid out by programs following an intention of poets otherwise too strange to understand.
To properly envision what I’m thinking of imagine The Last Lunar Baedecker reformatted so that Mina Loy’s poetry followed the latest Chinese maps of the lunar surface an augmented reality in which we could focus on a part of the whole and, following the words that attached to that part, drift in to the eternal and infinite poem comprising reality, and when the time was right finally pronounce that unpronounceable word and unsay existence!
This article was started by IG Agent 13, but finding that he was busy turned it over to IG Agent 18 who has finished it.
Note from IG Agent 18: I don’t think this is what 13 wanted really, but it was what I thought on the subject.