This hit at my lately, mostly ungovernable attention span in its weakest joint and I'm really glad you wrote this. I also think part of the aversion you've mentioned having engaging with lengthy works online / preference or focus on short poetry does us a service, because you're so considerate in formatting as well as alerting us to what we're about to go through, hahaha! *Here is a poem, there will be some additional commentary...* haha, I genuinely love that, and I've never read the works you've referenced here, but this quote; "When our identity is in danger, we feel certain that we have a mandate for war" resonates down to whatever core piece of myself that cannot come unstuck when so many accoutrements have fallen away, witnessed by all the other gunk of identity-grout undeniably residing, too. This kinda made me wanna write poetry, albeit my own brand of bad, bad poetry wherein I forge stupid metaphors from visions of my soul as not-entirely-separate from a filthy bathroom with its limescale fixtures burdened or haloed by layer by layer by layer of cheap laminate or something and I don't do that much anymore. Thanks, Josh. P.S. I have no idea what I'm talking about either, but a lightning storm just now rolled in over where I am, and as any person who's been a child in the tropics knows, despite the scum decor of abandoned duty, a bathroom quickly becomes something more important than pretty. Ahhhhhhh I'm in a tin shed on a laptop powered by a 40 metre cable leading into my house and the wet beats pound down aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh nah she'll be right. I'm going to benefit from a re-read of your beautiful translation now.
I wrote a response on my phone but hit back and it vanished :) Attempt #2!
The identity piece yeah. It's odd, even I feel this pressure on substack to take things more seriously. And then I remember, we are all just on here, basically literally blogging, for the love of it.
So on your note about bad poetry, once you kinda know where someone is coming from, bad poetry is much more tolerable :) My daughter now dabbles in poetry and because I know what she went through that day, what she had for breakfast, and where she is at in her life, I can really see what she's trying to get it. So, sometimes poems can completely stand on their own, sometimes they need context.
Like you picked up on this introduction I did of "hey, this is going to be a bit longer" and now when I read some part of a story about lightning and bathrooms, I'll know where that is coming from :)
So yeah, appreciate your comments and always stopping by. The electrical engineer in me is nervous for your electrical situation there, but I'm glad you'll be alright!
I always think because of WW2, WW1 gets little rememberance or less so in our time. It's nice again to read your posts on the history from this perspective.
Yeah it's been a confluence of things that brought me to this WWI investigation as I mentioned. I'm glad you are along for the ride because there are these fascinating nuggets like that Nicolas Carr quote that seem to jump out at me these days!
This hit at my lately, mostly ungovernable attention span in its weakest joint and I'm really glad you wrote this. I also think part of the aversion you've mentioned having engaging with lengthy works online / preference or focus on short poetry does us a service, because you're so considerate in formatting as well as alerting us to what we're about to go through, hahaha! *Here is a poem, there will be some additional commentary...* haha, I genuinely love that, and I've never read the works you've referenced here, but this quote; "When our identity is in danger, we feel certain that we have a mandate for war" resonates down to whatever core piece of myself that cannot come unstuck when so many accoutrements have fallen away, witnessed by all the other gunk of identity-grout undeniably residing, too. This kinda made me wanna write poetry, albeit my own brand of bad, bad poetry wherein I forge stupid metaphors from visions of my soul as not-entirely-separate from a filthy bathroom with its limescale fixtures burdened or haloed by layer by layer by layer of cheap laminate or something and I don't do that much anymore. Thanks, Josh. P.S. I have no idea what I'm talking about either, but a lightning storm just now rolled in over where I am, and as any person who's been a child in the tropics knows, despite the scum decor of abandoned duty, a bathroom quickly becomes something more important than pretty. Ahhhhhhh I'm in a tin shed on a laptop powered by a 40 metre cable leading into my house and the wet beats pound down aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh nah she'll be right. I'm going to benefit from a re-read of your beautiful translation now.
I wrote a response on my phone but hit back and it vanished :) Attempt #2!
The identity piece yeah. It's odd, even I feel this pressure on substack to take things more seriously. And then I remember, we are all just on here, basically literally blogging, for the love of it.
So on your note about bad poetry, once you kinda know where someone is coming from, bad poetry is much more tolerable :) My daughter now dabbles in poetry and because I know what she went through that day, what she had for breakfast, and where she is at in her life, I can really see what she's trying to get it. So, sometimes poems can completely stand on their own, sometimes they need context.
Like you picked up on this introduction I did of "hey, this is going to be a bit longer" and now when I read some part of a story about lightning and bathrooms, I'll know where that is coming from :)
So yeah, appreciate your comments and always stopping by. The electrical engineer in me is nervous for your electrical situation there, but I'm glad you'll be alright!
Oh no! Well thank you for the redo! Of course
I always think because of WW2, WW1 gets little rememberance or less so in our time. It's nice again to read your posts on the history from this perspective.
Yeah it's been a confluence of things that brought me to this WWI investigation as I mentioned. I'm glad you are along for the ride because there are these fascinating nuggets like that Nicolas Carr quote that seem to jump out at me these days!