Tuesday, July 22, 2014

surpassing things we've known before passing on its effect

       There had been other troubles, with a chief called Big Head wounded while on a friendly visit to Fort Kearny. The Cheyenne felt especial put upon, for by their lights they had always been amiable to white men. Even after all these bad things, they sent a delegation to see the Government Indian agent and apologized. They also returned a woman they had captured. but you see the complication was this: Indians wasn't ever organized. Them that come in to apologize wasn't the same as what killed the whites. And them that the soldiers usually punished was never the ones who had committed the outrages. The white people on who the Indians took revenge had no connection with the soldiers.
     It was pretty early on that I come to realize that most serious situations in life, or my life anyway, were like that time I rubbed out the Crow: he spared me because I was white, and I killed him because I was Cheyenne. There wasn't nothing else either of us could have done, and it would have been ridiculous except it was mortal.

Thomas Berger, Little Big Man






Yesterday two blogfriends discussed Berger on Twooter, I didn't stop to think why, adding to the conversation that when I read Little Big Man when I was nineteen it was KABOOM! Today I discovered why he might have been being discussed: he died this past July 13th.

It has been years since I read Berger. I liked the Reinhart Tetrology, especially when read against Updike's Rabbit Tetrology for comparison and contrast in style, tone, themes, I liked his second historical novel, Arthur Rex, I liked some of his genre-examining novels like Who Is Teddy Villanova and Nowhere, but all failed when measured against Little Big Man. I didn't know it when I read it, but it engaged many of the concerns I encountered in Theory in grad school, especially but not limited to its examination of passing: see the excerpt above. I am about to find out if it's KABOOM! still.














[constant change figures]

Lyn Hejinian

constant change figures
the time we sense
passing on its effect
surpassing things we've known before
since memory
of many things is called
experience
but what of what
we call nature's picture
surpassing things we call
since memory
we call nature's picture
surpassing things we've known before
constant change figures
experience
passing on its effect
but what of what
constant change figures
since memory
of many things is called
the time we sense
called nature's picture
but what of what
in the time we sense
surpassing things we've known before
passing on its effect
is experience



6 comments:

  1. Maybe you like Little Big Man because it is like Moby Dick, only different, The Indians as The Whale and The White People as The Whalers, Custer is Ahab?

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    Replies
    1. I hadn't thought of that, I'll look when I reread, though I do agree with Crabb's obsession for killing Custer being an Ahab-like quest.

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  2. 1) would be glad to have a copy of little big man

    2)speaking of writers one read years ago - billmon, formerly of whiskey bar, now tweets and so on - i quote from his most recent twitlonger post

    Apocalypse Now and Then

    "Today, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States is providing $47 million to help address the humanitarian situation in Gaza."
    http://m.state.gov/md229563.htm

    Captain Willard: "It was a way we had over here for living with ourselves. We'd cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies."
    Apocalypse Now
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078788/quotes

    3)when i quoted the above at moonofalabama.org, the blog for whiskey bar hangers-on, one fellow thanked me and said it was always good to know what t row price was thinking

    i hadn't known that was billmon's his day job - as it happens, though, i already have an established relationship with the vanguard group

    4)another blogger from years ago on twitter now - fafblog - he goes to pro-palestinian demonstrations these days - i'm not surprised

    5)atmospheric clues enabled me to at last find the out-of-the-way corner of the wooden floor that had been unilaterally designated as pissoir du chat - practical suggestions?

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    Replies
    1. K, keep your eye on the mail.

      re: 5) I'm dumb today, so huh?

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    2. 5 - cat has been urinating on a wooden floor corner for an indeterminate period time - cleansing and deodorizing actions are necessary - i'm not really sure what would work and would appreciate advice

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    3. It's been years since we've a catpiss-problem. Last time we cut off access and put fresh litter box at point where cat gained access. If that's not option, I suggest ask vet - there may be new theories/products/etc since last I looked.

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