Dear Gentle Reader,Hello, again, from Hong Kong.
It's 3WW time, again.
This week (CXL) the words are folly, hostile, and ordinary.
Further, each haiku gets its very own American sentence title.
What Truman Capote knew and wrote of; 'True Crime', of the heart, oh yeah.Holly Golightly.Folly, hostile, flighty; noordinary girl?
Thllee seasons only, fllom a deciduous leaf's life expellience...Summer folly springIn the ordinally waywith hostile fall, next.
Sigmund Freud oversimplified... Him or Me? That is the question, no?Ego, 'Super', Id.Ordinary folly, split...Hostile in/a part.
Tschuess,
Chris
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31 comments:
Brilliant use of the prompt at 3WW and amazingly catchy and creatively innovative titles. Phew! Clever (as ever) you!
I think the 'server error' is a temporary glitch with the preview window, as the actual link is still clickable.
In that second haiku, the r has been replaced by 2 lls in three, from , experience and ordinarry. A typo!
The titles are amazing and haiku are awesome, typo notwithstanding!
mirror cracked from side to side
fun haiku's guatami is right about the typo in the second one tho.....
Dear Andy,
Cheers. You are right, it must have been only temporary. But, at the time, I couldn't access it either, only the main site. Go figure.
Dear Gautami,
You know, I changed those deliberately because, when I pronounced them with a lisp, it sounded to me like they had two ls for the r, because the lisper tried hard to get beyond the lisp.
You'll note that I also doubled the ls for the substituted rs in the American Sentence title for that haiku, too...
But maybe you are right. I'll wait to see what the next two people think; I am more than willing to change it back to the single substitution. I vacillated for a bit before posting, but came down on the doubled l side of things. Any other comments, out there?
Dear Paisley,
I see that you found it as jarring as Gautami did. So I might have to change it.
Do others feel the same way?
Tschuess,
Chris
Cleaver use of the words, and I liked that you titled each with an American Sentence.
I don't mind the off spelling in haiku II. I had to go back and read it twice, but I got it, after I said the word out loud.
These haiku are great!!!
Love your American Chinese accent in the second haiku, Chris.
Your third one is a little dark and frightening. Is this the Haikuist's villainous side peeking through?
Have a good one.
Terea
great and funny (though the one is maybe not so PC as we like)
Brother Chris:
You are as demented as, as, well...I think we know who.
Walt Whitman Candy Sampler of the streets and King of Pith, también. I'd like to follow the neural pathways to these little gems.
Apropos of the lls controversy, what's funny is that, for me, all the lls (single and double) began to conflate into a tasty delirium.
Dear Thom,
Thanks. I'll leave it as I wrote it.
Dear Teresa,
Leaves, come fall, start to dry up. They become less flexible. They are no longer limber enough, at the tip, to pronounce the letter r. Hence the ll substitution...
Dear Life Without Clots,
I hadn't realized that leaves had made it to the pc list.
Presumably vegans are highly irritated, now, as, if I can't mock leaves inability to pronounce the letter r (see above) they certainly cannot eat the buggers. No more salads. No more sprouts...
Dear Murat,
As mad as Junot Diaz? As yourself?
:)
Tschuess,
Chris
I don't think I would have thought so hard about the leaf haiku had there not been so many comments about it. I think the comments are part of the experience as much as the haiku itself. The words are for your ears not just your eyes in all three. I found myself whispering them as I read.
I liked the second one with the ll's - that's the way it can sound when some people say it, but I'm sure that's politically incorrect..
Chris,
Good save with your explanation on the second haiku. I still think you're diabolical, but I guess that goes with being the Haikuist.
Teresa
*clap clap*
Clever and smartly arranged with the Am Sentences as titles - loved this batch.
Dear Amy,
You read them the way they were intended to be read. Aloud.
I hold firmly to the belief that poetry is meant to be experienced visually, conceptually, slyly (through mental innuendo), aurally, and orally.
Dear Kristy,
Honest to goodness... I don't get the PC concerns, here. It's a leaf with a lisp.
Dear Teresa,
*Smile*.
Well, Jungians would certainly be hostile to Freud's holy, mental trio as Jungians saw three as far too few.
Freud though people with unequal weighting of actions by, or control by, the constituent actions of the actors from their trio might well be socially hostile.
I would have thought that all would agree that, for example that an id, or ego, or superego could be hostile in parts, and apart from their mates in the trio.
But, maybe I am diabolical.
Although calling myself the Haikuist seems far too presumptious. I think I would need to write good haikus, not simply attempts at quick and clever haikus.
Regardless, it is always a pleasure to read your quick, referential wit.
Dear Cloudia,
Thank you.
Dear Tumblewords,
Thank you, too.
Tschuess,
Chris aka (apperently) the Haikuist
Dear All who have concerns about alleged PC issues...
(Please don't take this personally, Kristy, it is not aimed at you, or at any of the preceding commentators. It is more of an open comment (with implicit willingness to hear responses) to the e-void that I don't wish to avoid.)
First, the leaf lobby is (I would have thought) not so big.
I must have been wrong.
No one minds when they (deciduous leaves) get stuffed into not just body bags, but mass grave body bags every fall after watching their companions (and their selves) survive the hostile heat of summer only to slowly toughen then dry out more and more as the wicked, impending fall looms large...
Second, and, seriously, it's a voice.
So, the size or efficacy of the lobby group should be irrelevant.
Speakers don't have homogenous voices.
Imagine the horror if we were all homogenous.
That would be a true dystopia, to me.
Dancers would need their tendons damaged so they didn't move TOO gracefully. Or they would make regular folk look bad and ungainly.
Professional singers would need their vocal chords damaged, too, for similar reasons.
OK, maybe that's argumentum absurdum, but, you can't have difference without contrast.
Personally, I like contrasts and appreciate the full spectrum just for being, for existing.
Further, the right to portray reality, or facets of it, is, I believe, a right of artists. A right with certain limitations, but not a privilege.
Artists can hold a clear mirror, sometimes, to the world, or a funhouse mirror, other times, to one (or certain) aspect(s) only to change the artist's emphasis and approach.
Artists don't have to be socially responsible, either. They just have to have a vision and a means of conveying it.
So, I am not sure why an artist, or anyone else, cannot note and make use of differences in the world.
I truly do not see that I am being discriminatory here.
I am not being hateful, which is the generally accepted limitation on the right to free communication.
I know that no one has directly suggested that, but if being PC has a purpose, and I am willing to conclude that at some level it has a principled purpose, it is really meant to avoid ugly, meaningless exploitation of differences amongst an homogenous, unthinking, uncritical group.
Me, I flatter myself that I and my readers are thinking, hopefully critically thinking, and heterogenous, not just in global composition, but in awareness of their mosaic contribution and, hence, aware of the contributions of all the other, heterogenous components.
A facile comment about race or gender or sexual orientation might be offensive and inappropriate.
Or, it might skewer a racist or sexist, or sexual orientationalist (that sounds more like a professional...) opinion by holding it up to the glare of scrutiny.
Commenting on difference, directly, or indirectly, is simply another aspect of speech. If you are able to read this post and this blog, you live somewhere where there are relative safeguards for freedom of speech.
That freedom is for things you agree with, and for things you find repulsive.
The only acceptable limitation, in my mind, are words that promote hate and hatred because hate and hatred can provoke demonisation of others and can unravel the social contract.
(continued on next comment)...
(continued...)
Why is the social contract important?
Because freedom of speech implies a lack of authoritarian control, which implies that the ruled have a say in the matter, and a right to criticize and even change the ruler and her policies, which implies a social contract.
Racial or ethnic or sexist or sexual orientation divides can be exploited for hateful reasons to divide and to unravel the social contract. Or they can be bridged and savoured for the different qualities and perspectives that they bring.
I do not see the value in denying difference. Difference exists. Vive la différence...
Besides, denying the right to observe and note differences merely internalizes those differences and makes speaking out about it, or being different, unspeakable.
Are leaves that lisp not allowed a voice simply because they lisp?
Are so called ugly people not allowed into the public light because they are (so called) ugly?
If the majority of representative media class end up bleaching their straightened teeth and enhancing their muscles, or their fat deposits, with plastic implants (for men and women, these days) does that mean that 'normal' people... who no longer look like the acceptable norm as indicated by media saturation are not allowed out on the airwaves?
I wonder.
I know that I am treading into contentious areas here.
In the USA, 2008 census projections show that about 19% of the population is rural, 15% of the population proclaims itself to be Hispanic, 12% of the population proclaims itself to be African American, and 5% of the population proclaims itself to be Asian American. Should anyone argue that any of these groups be invisible because they are not the majority?
Should anyone argue that differences can never be noticed or commented upon? And, by extension, that implies, to me, that the majority becomes the sole standard of discussion, and differences are not allowed to be noted, so they don't exist... At least not in discussion...
Is it not good that the USA can revel in having elected a black President and start to have that discussion about racial history that has been kept quiet for so long, and that impacts so many aspects of life in the USA?
Is is not acceptable for the Hispanic community to be happy at seeing one of their own potentially elevated to the highest judicial office in the land?
I fully agree that the merit and suitability, for example, of Justice Sotomayer is related to her proven intellectual, judicial reasoning and judicial temperment.
And, culturally, and socially, it is also deserving of discussion that the previous hegemony of cultural power is shifting, altering. And that it is doing so visibly.
Lastly, that second haiku is about leaves.
It is even titled accordingly...
Vegetarians masticate leaves with glee and pleasure.
Strict carnivores do so too, indirectly, through the vicarious leaf pleasure of bovine, equine or other fine animal flesh which is composed of the magic of transubstantiated leaves...
Harumph.
I really don't get the brouhaha...
Tschuess,
Chris
Hear, hear. I heartily agree with your lengthy comments. And I suppose it was my (unwitting) remark about a Chinese American accent that set off the pc brouhaha.
I find it interesting that most ethnic minorities are so terribly NOT pc. I spend most of my life among the Chinese-American community. Now that my children are grown and gone, there are days in which I do not speak a word of English, yet I live in California, USA. I affectionately call my siblings-in-law, their spouses and off-spring "the screaming yellow hordes." When my husband's family gets together, they total 38, and as eldest daughter-in-law it is my responsibility to feed them, all day, every day that they are visiting. And they are loud, and the children do scream, and I love them dearly. They call me "fat American aunt with the big nose," and they all love me dearly. But our names for each other are NOT pc.
Many of my neighbors are Spanish-speakers, and I speak Spanish, too. They affectionately call people "el gordo" (the fat guy), "la morena" (the black girl), etc. They don't worry about being pc.
So here I am, "melaninly-challenged," living in a sea of yellows and browns in a state of the US in which whites are a plurality but not a majority and in a neighborhood in which we are a minority. I forget that I'm not supposed to say such things because in my context, people say things like this every day without worrying about it. Some days I even forget that I am white.
And the references to the diabolical Haikuist are a continuance of my comments on Chris's previous post, where he showed us meat, a black pelt, and hinted that his cat had been sold as prime rib. The epithet referenced back to his Gotham City graffiti posts of the e-interregnum and the post about how he lives near Batman. I was merely suggesting that as the Haikuist he could be the newest villain in a Batman movie, a villain who persecutes cats. I did not mean that he was diabolical for not being pc.
Sorry, Chris, if I caused you grief.
Teresa
i like your wordsmithing and especially enjoyed the first.
Dear Teresa,
Thanks.
And I know fully well where you are coming from, and I had about a 99% hunch before you spelled it out so clearly.
And I am touched by your fuller explanation.
So, thanks.
I put my long response out there for those that do enough hacking to work out who I am, and, further, as an unambiguous clarification should I end up having (or choosing) to disclose this site's author and run or seek a very public office, where explanations or clarifications a priori might be useful.
I admit to having strong opinions on the concept of PC.
Vive la différence.
Dear Floreta,
Thanks, Floreta.
Glad you enjoyed.
My favourite is the second, personally, but only when I replace hostile with vicious, because then the ambiguity between fall the season and fall the verb is perfectly balanced. But, parameters are parameters, so I had to stick with hostile. Of the the three that are, the first is likely my favourite.
Tschuess,
Chris
love the titles, and, clever pommes!
Dear Chris,
No thanks are necessary. I am not ashamed of where and how I live; hence, my blog describing the journey of how I got here. Unfortunately, I do forget the rules of my race at times.
Your possible plans to run for high office certainly do explain why you keep the Hero, Pommes, on such a short leash (both literally and figuratively). Meglomaniacal, womanizing family members with substance abuse problems can be a liability in any political campaign.
I would recommend, however, for the sake of your future political campaign, you understand... that you allay the fears of those of us who succumbed to the Hero's charisma during the interregnum. Show us another picture of Pommes next week (again with the dated periodical of your choice), but next time have Pommes in a less "taxidermical" pose. That Pommes rug was truly frightening, and the other pose seemed ready to be placed as a specimen in a museum diorama of lordly cats. Show us Pommes in a three-dimensional feline sprawl across a newspaper next week. Or better yet, allow our Hero to speak to us again...
And finally, do not be so modest in accepting the title of "Haikuist". I believe that your "catchup effort" last week convinced us all that you excel at this art form. I think the only one who might give you competition in this regard would be the reincarnation of Basho. I haven't heard that a "haikuing" child had been found in a remote village in China or Japan or even South America... so I believe you're safe in that respect.
Best Always,
Teresa
Chris:
Your dystopian musings about dancers and singers immediately reminded me of Vonnegut's story "Harrison Bergeron." It's here if you haven't read it, though I suspect that you have:
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html
Be seeing you...
Dear Teresa,
I shall bear all under advisement. And thank you for the haiku accolades.
Dear Murat,
I just read Harrison Bergeron, and I liked it. And I have never read it before. Which seems odd given what I wrote and what Vonnegut wrote. Either we channeled the same muse, or, possibly, a fragment of a conversation must have lodged in my brain.
Actually, I have not read much by Vonnegut. When my friends were into Vonnegut I was into J.L. Borges and G.G. Marquez.
I may well have to read more. Ooh. I just pulled up a book list. He's written a lot. More hours in the day, Murat, where do I find them?
Tschuess,
Chris
Chris: No slouch, going with Borges and Garcia Marquez over KV. I was plowing the same furrows; in truth, I'm drawn more to Vonnegut now than then, as the middling-aged curmudgeon emerges in all his "radiance." Or should that be "radishes?" Probably the latter.
Apropos of nothing at all, as a wordsmith, you might find some enjoyment in occasionally making up faux-definitions for your word verifications. I have passed some time in the past doing this at another blogsite.
Today's "word" is stecogra.
Stecogra: An abrasion found only on the elbows of surly people. Very little is known regarding its epidemiology.
The second word that just came up was advelize. Given the recent l controversies, we might want to give this one a pass...
enjoyed the american sentences and the haiku combo... last haiku, last sentence... great stuff!
Dear Chris and Murat,
I enjoyed the Vonnegut story very much.
I was thinking that "advelize" is probably what the doctor does when he says, "Take two Advil and call me in the morning." Wouldn't you agree?
Teresa
Teresa:
Glad you enjoyed "Harrison Bergeron." A teacher in training this past year foisted it upon my middle school urchins and me, to the delight of all.
Your cracking of the word advelize shows that you indeed have the gift. Today's word (last time, Chris; I promise) is compitch, which is, I believe, the kind of itch you get free of charge. I've been comped meals in the past, but thankfully I've never been comped an itch.
Oh I almost resisted until the lovely advelize definition which is far too accurate. Golytely....a product (actual) to help you go easier when a bowel prep for scope or surgery is required brought more to the first haiku then i think intended by the golightly.
Is there anyone out there that can bear not to read aloud a poem of any sort? The enjoyment is dulled by silence as the mouthfeel of poem adds so much.
Dear Quin Brown,
Thank you very much.
Dear Teresa,
I always that the doctor prescribing advil was actually a paid hack to the pharmaceutical industry and the action promoting the use of advil, that you describe, was formally known as advangelizing. Of course, I could be wrong.
Dear Murat,
I do like stecogra. I will add it to my OED in the margin.
I also quite like the idea.
Dear One More Believer,
Thank you very much.
Dear Elizabeth,
Lizzikers, You're back!
It is lovely to hear from you. Although your product... Hmmm.
I prefer to keep my electrolytes.
Welcome back.
Tschuess,
Chris
I receive no word, of course, as I am already authenticated on my own site. Sigh...
Silly scribe tis you who were away and me who was here while you were gone.
Though pommes and graffiti were enjoyed by all tis your wit and wanderinging that holds us here.
Love to you three over there.
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