Anne Carson Reading

I attended the Ann Carson reading a little over a month ago. The most memorable work, perhaps ironically, was her essay on Proust, structured as a numbered list of observations and comments. It was a lovely piece of criticism as done by poets, which is to say good criticism. Here the argument is a proof of the pleasure of the text at hand. I would be able to express this better if I re-read the essay, but I remember it functioning largely through an intricate weaving of details from the text and from established interpretations. Carson shaped her work by controlling the stream of these details. For instance, she would allow it to drift of in the direction of Albertine's character flaws and then return, gently and yet with dramatic impact, to the fact that Albertine is really a prisoner. This reliance of specific detail would have been delightful if I had read the book, and, indeed, I couldn't help enjoying it, but I was also fuming at the the number of plot points she revealed. Proust only augments on re-reading but I'd have liked the ending to remain a mystery.

The section from Red was also excellent (to self: read over summer), with the description of the heaving night and the dramatic scene in the hospital. Unfortunately I don't remember any specifics. The short talks, I felt, were a mixed bag. A few of them were essentially jokes, all very funny, but other needed to be thought through a few times.