-- Virginia L. Smyers
In all of the critical writing, the biographical writing, the research, and the commentary on modernist women writers and neglected modernist women writers, I find no mention of Jonathan Williams, the Founder and Publisher of The Jargon Society. Jonathan, without independent means, pretty much single-handedly raised the necessary funds for the publication of
The Last Lunar Baedeker
and
From This Condensery.
He was the driving force behind bringing the work of Loy and Niedecker into print and, in addition to raising the funds, he designed both books and oversaw their production.
Hugh Kenner once wrote that Jargon is the "Custodian of Snowflakes," but for those of us who view the publication of the work of Loy and Niedecker as a major contribution to literature, perhaps there might be a more permanent way of addressing the contribution.
Ed. note:
a major event of literary importance this year has been the publication of
From This Condensery: The Complete Writing of Lorine Niedecker
(Edited by Robert J. Bertholf), 300 pages, $30, from The Jargon Society.
HOW(ever)
invites informal commentary from women poets and scholars on Niedecker's work, as presented in this collection.
While it is true that the illustrations you included from Susan Hiller's work in the last issue of
HOW(ever)
are
quite recent and while I realize your space is very limited and that you try especially to feature writers who are not published elsewhere, I think that more context would acquaint the readers of
HOW(ever)
with what Susan is actually up to. I think her work is very important, from the standpoint of ethnopoetics and performance, two areas that I would like to see brought in more to
HOW(ever).
In an interview with her, she writes, "I think Barthes said a long time ago that all societies put a tremendous amount of effort into making things and an equal amount of effort into saying that these things are natural and couldn't be any way other than the way they are, and that they don't mean anything or express anything. I'm unravelling that denial of meaning, or that contradiction in our way of looking at things." Susan sees cultures as forms of reading/writing, and from her background as an anthropologist has a wonderfully multiple eye, like a fly, that sees a thing and reads it in simultaneous registers. Would love to see the history of modernism, of women in modernism, read within a multicultural context that includes women of oral cultures, oral traditions, and performance/multiple artists such as Susan who incorporate such viewpoints into work that also is completely in "our" world. go to this issue's table of contents
"If one who has passed the cycle of ten and is ready to make a New Beginning and start out on his real life-work seems to be standing alone and another with like development should become vitally associated with him through similar attainments, aims and ideals, instead of having the strength and force of two individuals, they would have the power of 11, for between them is the experience of the intervening digits of the strength of ten. But to attain this there must be a vital inner union and not a mere intellectual association. Standing thus shoulder to shoulder they can start out on a New Beginning in a higher cycle than either could have attained alone." (p.3) In the margin next to the last sentence HD has pencilled in:Br
H.D.
Scilly
1919