INVITATION
is welcomed.
My 2015 prosimetrum with 154 sonnets, Thanks for Noticing: The Interpretation of Desire, locally sold out quickly. I'm now ready to publish a revision, and the existing "blurbs" and reviews of the book are already excellent and need no changes.
For a wider reach, I am collecting commentary on specific sonnets to be published as a companion volume and on line. These comments will be introduced with a note that commentators are responding only to specific sonnets and have not reviewed the entire book.
I want
honest comments from many
perspectives: disagreeable comments are certainly welcome. Comments can
treat the meaning of the sonnet, its technical features, how it
reflects (or fails to reflect) Shakespeare's 1609 Sonnets,
or
tangents to the sonnet you'd like to write about — political, musical,
scientific, religious, sexual, literary, legal,
nautical, psychological, social, or any other interest the sonnet might
call to mind that you'd wish to explore. You'll help me select the sonnet that might best interest you. Comments should be at least three good paragraphs and longer if you wish. You’ll provide me with a bio so you can be properly credited.
* Here are a dozen such comments already on line.
* Here are five suggestions for your commentary
(unless we have arranged otherwise).
* Here are General Questions used for literature.
* Here's my bio.
* Here's background for the revision.
* Here's a review of the English sonnet form.
* Here's a surfeit of communications about the 2015 edition.
For more information, write me at vern@cres.org.
You may have landed here from vernbarnet.com -- welcome!
#suggestions
0. Right now I particularly solicit comments on specific sonnets.
1. If you want to comment on the book, please know that I am grateful for whatever you might say -- positive, hostile, questioning, auguring, reframing. You will help draw attention to -- help others notice -- the revised book by whatever you say. Length is entirely up to you, from a sentence to a long-form essay.
If you don't want to comment, please know that I am grateful for whatever attention you care to give to the book, and I hope you find some interest and maybe pleasure from it.
2. If you write without the chance to review the whole book and are cautious about the more scandalous/blasphemous/profane sonnets, they are indicated in the revision by a dash on either side of the page number in the Contents (pages 6-7); the page numbers are 50 + the sonnet numbers. These sonnets might be considered problematical:
GLORIA -- 25, 43, 55,
CONFITEOR -- 90, 101
SANCTUS ET BENEDICTUS -- 113-115, 118-125, 127-135
AGNUS DEI -- 139, 143, 146, 148.
3. You can write about a particular sonnet, or a pair, or group of them, or about any part of the book, or the book as a whole. If you want a suggestion from me, I'll probably have one, if I haven't already offered an idea or two!
4. Below the blue bar are General Questions.
Here are some possibilities for other themes and approaches --
* the organization of the book by parts of the Mass
* comparisons with Shakespeare (and/or other sonnet writers)
* sexuality and/or spirituality
* use of world religions
or a particular tradition such as Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam.
* musical references (or just opera references)
* the musicality of the sonnets as a technical achievement or failure
* use of, and variations in, the sonnet form
* aids included in the book, such as
the Foreword, the Introduction, the Collect for Purity
the guide to reading sonnets (pages 220-221)
suggested reading schedules (page 48)
and other appendices.
5. Feel free to contact me if you have questions. For example, if you want me to identify all the sonnets that employ carpentry metaphors, or all referring to T S Eliot, or all the sonnets in Petrarchan form, just let me know.
Vern
General Questions
ONE. Matthew Arnold, in writings like The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (1864), suggests something like three steps in evaluating a piece of literature:
1. What did the writer try to do?
2. Was the writer successful?
3. Was it worth doing?
TWO. W. H. Auden's questions are in The Dyer’s Hand: "The questions which interest me most when reading a poem are two.
[1] The first is technical: “Here is a verbal contraption. How does it work?”
[2] The second is, in the broadest sense, moral: “What kind of guy [sexism noted] inhabits this poem? What is his notion of the good life or the good place? His no tion of the Evil One? What does he conceal from the reader? What does he conceal even from himself?”
THREE. ART FORM GUIDE in brief
literature, opera and other musical forms, painting, sculpture, architecture, theater, video, dance, worship, and other arts
1. Objective — What do you see/have you seen/heard/etc — scenes, objects, dialog, characters, events, shapes, movements, etc.
Reflective — What objects, emotions, moods, themes became symbols for larger meaning?
2. Interpretive — What is the work of art about? What would aliens learn about humanity from it? What is its message?
3. Decisive — How would you title or summarize this art? What personal experiences or historical circumstances does it prompt? How does it affect your future? How might it enlarge (or diminish) your understanding of yourself and the world?
FOUR. CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS
Another set of general questions that can guide critical analysis of any work of art:
1. What is the work trying to communicate or express? What appears to be the central themes, messages, or emotions conveyed through the work, explicitly or implied?
2. How does the form serve the content? How do the techniques, structure, style, or medium enhance or complicate the work's meaning and effect?
3. What is the relationship between the work and its historical or cultural context? How does the piece reflect, respond to, or challenge the social, political, or artistic expectations of its culture?
4.How does the work engage with or depart from established conventions? Are traditional forms and presentation format and venues followed, or do you perceive innovation?
5. What is the work's emotional or psychological impact on the audience? How might your assessment of the work be similar or diverge from others who experience this work? Why would responses be different or similar?
6. How do the work's various elements interact with each other? How do the components of the specific medium help to create the whole? (Examples: NOVEL--characters and plot, PAINTING- color and composition, MUSIC--instruments, structure, DANCE--movement and costume, POETRY--sound and images.
7. What questions does the work raise that it doesn't answer? Do you find ambiguities, contradictions, or open-ended aspects that invite multiple interpretations or ongoing reflection? Is the impact weak so you can forget it after your exposure or do you want to cherish it for a time?
8. How does the work reveal or conceal the artist's presence? Is the creator eager to known and to be identified with this work otr is there a traditional sensibility which makes the creator's identity relatively unimortant? How does this affect how you esperience this work?