Today’s work comes via Reader B., who notes that it reminded him of some work found here before (true) and whose accompanying link eventually led me to the intense Behind Their Lines: Poetry of the Great War site.
WORK
“Jo’s Requiem”
He had the ploughman’s strength
in the grasp of his hand;
he could see a crow
three miles away,
and the trout beneath the stone.
He could hear the green oats growing,
and the south-west wind making rain.
He could hear the wheel upon the hill
when it left the level road.
He could make a gate, and dig a pit,
and plough as straight as stone can fall.
And he is dead.
—Ernest Rhys
—from The Leaf Burners
WORD(S)
eunoia /yoo-NOI-ə/. noun. A cultivated, intentional goodwill. In rhetoric, eunoia specifically refers to the feelings of goodwill a speaker inspires in an audience. Aristotle used the term to refer to the kind feelings between spouses which he maintained were the foundation of an ethical life. Eunoia is one of the shortest “panvowels” — words that contain all the vowels just once (see also: “regular panvowels,” or words which contain all the vowels just once and in order, such as facetious). From Greek εὔνοια (well-mind or beautiful thinking).
Poet Christian Bök wrote a book called Eunoia composed of five chapters, each of which use only one vowel…also known as a univocalic work.
“Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech. The text deletes selected letters.” (Christian Bök)
“There are two stories about the Archidamian War. The first is in Thucydides; the second is not (though it has to be pieced together from little bits of evidence in Thucydides along with other evidence). The first is essentially military, the other is not. It is in fact religious or ideological. To put that another way, the first is a story about battles for territory and attempts by one side to kill people on the other side; the second is a story of a struggle for goodwill, Greek eunoia.” (Simon Hornblower)
“The orator produces eunoia through his practical knowledge of the emotions. It is for that reason that the passions form part of the art of rhetoric. The quality of eunoia in the speaker is generated through producing emotions in the audience.” (Eugene Garver)
WEB
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Dear Data is a “year-long, analog data drawing project” that is both intriguing and easier to just check out for yourself than have me try to explain. I’m absolutely doing this in some future letters.
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The Oxford Centre for the Study of the Book has a great audio/podcast series of discussions about research into the “material history of the book”. The latest discusses a new archive of Graham Greene letters.
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Kyua Shim’s site has many examples of his exploration into “code-generated typography.” You’ll have to click the “Portfolio” link to see it…Shim’s web is made in an annoying way that defies direct linking.
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Today in 1827, Andrew P. Kehoe firebombs his home and then sets off an explosion in the Bath Consolidated School in Michigan, killing 38 schoolchildren and six teachers, making it the deadliest mass school killing in United States history. Fortunately, 500 pounds of explosives did not detonate or the death toll would have been significantly higher. Kehoe, the school board treasurer and embarrassed loser of an election for a position as the town clerk which he had filled on an interim basis for a few months, was also facing foreclosure on his home. Kehoe, who drove to the school after blowing up his home, would die in a suicide explosion he triggered in his vehicle—which was filled with shrapnel materials—along with the school superintendent he had called out, a local farmer and Cleo Claton, an eight-year-old survivor of the initial explosion who had wandered out of the rubble of the school.
WATCH/WITNESS
B. B. King passed away last Friday. The 1972 BBC documentary Sounding Out is a great watch. My recommendation for a great listen with just the music: the classic 1965 album B. B. King: Live at the Regal.
REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES
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Reader B. sees a connection: “Your combination of odaxelagnia with the poem’s last lines (‘Jesus didn’t / need balance / he had nails’) was fascinating, and a tad arousing.”
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Reader S. discovers a neat word: “Came across a neat new (to me) word today: aeonium, a type of house leek whose name comes from the Greek word for ageless. One and only one of each vowel…”
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Reader B. writes in regarding the WORKs selected in honor of the memory of Franz Wright: “Those two selections are amazing.”
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As does Reader P.: “Sorry, Franz. ¶ Glad to see the choices.”
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