Comments on: “The” “age” “of” “genius” http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:40:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Chad Parmenter http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25459 Chad Parmenter Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:46:03 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25459 Maybe the gummy clinging of the term to current conversations suggests the same about Romanticism? Maybe the gummy clinging of the term to current conversations suggests the same about Romanticism?
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]]> By: Terreson http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25446 Terreson Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:08:26 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25446 Having spent some time chewing on Abigail Deutch's blog article I could so riff on the theme. Probably at too much length. Especially on Lanny Quarles's, Margo B's, and GBF's takes. In all three of which cases I get the sense of poets looking to get inside, or behind and to, the word's original meaning. And maybe at their best that is what poets are about: getting the language back to when it was young, even primitive, less guarded, not so rationated. So when did genius become a property and a noun, and not a verb? The question is rhetorical. Margo B. already supplied the answer of when. Terreson Having spent some time chewing on Abigail Deutch’s blog article I could so riff on the theme. Probably at too much length. Especially on Lanny Quarles’s, Margo B’s, and GBF’s takes. In all three of which cases I get the sense of poets looking to get inside, or behind and to, the word’s original meaning. And maybe at their best that is what poets are about: getting the language back to when it was young, even primitive, less guarded, not so rationated. So when did genius become a property and a noun, and not a verb? The question is rhetorical. Margo B. already supplied the answer of when.

Terreson
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]]> By: Gary B. Fitzgerald http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25444 Gary B. Fitzgerald Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:30:39 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25444 On 'Genius'... . I am a flat puddle made easily empty by a careless splash, a shallow depression filled mostly with mud. I’m wild crushing waves, deep seas and vast, too large to explore. I'm a sparkling lake, bright and happy, sun on the ripples, birds floating carefree on the breeze. I am cold and dark and damp, a persistent downpour, hard and unrelenting. I am just a zig-zag trickle snaking slowly down the sidewalk. I’m the river that broke down the door. . Copyright 2008 - HARDWOOD-77 Poems, Gary B. Fitzgerald On ‘Genius’…

.
I am a flat puddle made easily empty
by a careless splash,
a shallow depression filled mostly with mud.
I’m wild crushing waves, deep seas and vast,
too large to explore.

I’m a sparkling lake, bright and happy,
sun on the ripples,
birds floating carefree on the breeze.
I am cold and dark and damp, a persistent
downpour, hard and unrelenting.

I am just a zig-zag trickle snaking slowly
down the sidewalk.
I’m the river that broke down the door.

.
Copyright 2008 – HARDWOOD-77 Poems, Gary B. Fitzgerald
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]]> By: John Oliver Simon http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25434 John Oliver Simon Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:09:01 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25434 Kenny Goldsmith is ambitious. He cops to this. Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Kenny Goldsmith is ambitious. He cops to this. Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
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]]> By: Margo Berdeshevsky http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25431 Margo Berdeshevsky Sun, 27 Sep 2009 05:50:22 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25431 See recent pop heroine, Elizabeth Gilbert, on the subject: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html One of her points in this equally pop "TED" discourse is that anciently the notion of genius was that as a disembodied assisting spirit, the genius helped to counter the narcissism and an artistic person - if the work was good, he/she had to give credit to an element outside the self - and if the work bombed, they might say, well, not entirely my fault, see, I had my disembodied genius working on it. ...and all this prevailed until the renaissance when the notion was altered to putting the creative person at the center of the universe and in a rational humanism, people began to believe that creativity came completely from the self. But a bottle of genius, like a bottle of time--weigh preciously on the scale of the heart or its feather. Whatever one calls it, or mumbles her prayers to. margo See recent pop heroine, Elizabeth Gilbert, on the subject:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

One of her points in this equally pop “TED” discourse is that anciently the notion of genius was that as a disembodied assisting spirit, the genius helped to counter the narcissism and an artistic person – if the work was good, he/she had to give credit to an element outside the self – and if the work bombed, they might say, well, not entirely my fault, see, I had my disembodied genius working on it. …and all this prevailed until the renaissance when the notion was altered to putting the creative person at the center of the universe and in a rational humanism, people began to believe that creativity came completely from the self.

But a bottle of genius, like a bottle of time–weigh preciously on the scale of the heart or its feather. Whatever one calls it, or mumbles her prayers to.

margo
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]]> By: Jeffrey Side http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25429 Jeffrey Side Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:09:06 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25429 If genius is an inappropriate word, presumably because there is no such thing as authorship, according to the underlying theory underlying this blog topic, then surely all "works" found/borrowed/stolen by "authors" such as Kenny Goldsmith etc. should be published anonymously. But they are not. Why is this? If genius is an inappropriate word, presumably because there is no such thing as authorship, according to the underlying theory underlying this blog topic, then surely all “works” found/borrowed/stolen by “authors” such as Kenny Goldsmith etc. should be published anonymously. But they are not. Why is this?
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]]> By: Terreson http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25426 Terreson Sat, 26 Sep 2009 19:34:05 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25426 Good post, Lanny Quarles. It encourgaes me to say what I really think about the word. When I think of genius I think of possesssion as in being possessed, being in the possession of genius, however briefly, as usually is the case. I also think of one's daemon in the sense that both Goethe and Socrates thought of it. A kind of spirit that leads and with which one often fights. Then I think of flameco's duende which Lorca characterized as an earth spirit and with which the artist (and matador) conducts the ultimate fight, gets possessed by, must learn not so much to dominate but still master. It goes without saying the artist must have duende in the first place, which is probably rare. I've always loved that Lorca cited Saint Teresa as an examplar of duende. "Think of the case of Saint Teresa, that supremely 'flamenco' woman who was so filled with duende." Pretty primitive, huh? Possibly just mythopoeic. But I think closer to the word's origins. Terreson Good post, Lanny Quarles. It encourgaes me to say what I really think about the word. When I think of genius I think of possesssion as in being possessed, being in the possession of genius, however briefly, as usually is the case. I also think of one’s daemon in the sense that both Goethe and Socrates thought of it. A kind of spirit that leads and with which one often fights. Then I think of flameco’s duende which Lorca characterized as an earth spirit and with which the artist (and matador) conducts the ultimate fight, gets possessed by, must learn not so much to dominate but still master. It goes without saying the artist must have duende in the first place, which is probably rare. I’ve always loved that Lorca cited Saint Teresa as an examplar of duende. “Think of the case of Saint Teresa, that supremely ‘flamenco’ woman who was so filled with duende.”

Pretty primitive, huh? Possibly just mythopoeic. But I think closer to the word’s origins.

Terreson
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]]> By: lanny quarles http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25423 lanny quarles Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:53:43 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25423 [a. L. genius, f. *gen- root of gi-gn-Sre to beget, Gr. c¬cmerhai to be born, come into being. In Lat. the word has mainly the sense 1 below (the extended sense 2 occurs post-classically), and a fig. sense approaching 3. As a word of learned origin it is found in the Rom. langs.: F. génie (whence Ger. genie), It., Sp., Pg. genio, which have approximately the same senses as in Eng. To some extent the sense-development in Rom. has been affected by confusion with ingenium (see engine): cf. for example F. génie civil ‘civil engineering’.] 1. With reference to classical pagan belief: The tutelary god or attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character, and finally to conduct him out of the world; also, the tutelary and controlling spirit similarly connected with a place, an institution, etc. (Now only in sing.) In the first two quots. Genius is the proper name of an allegorical person who in the Rom. de la Rose represents the native moral instincts of mankind as setting bounds to the range of sexual passion. [a. L. genius, f. *gen- root of gi-gn-Sre to beget, Gr. c¬cmerhai to be born, come into being.
In Lat. the word has mainly the sense 1 below (the extended sense 2 occurs post-classically), and a fig. sense approaching 3. As a word of learned origin it is found in the Rom. langs.: F. génie (whence Ger. genie), It., Sp., Pg. genio, which have approximately the same senses as in Eng. To some extent the sense-development in Rom. has been affected by confusion with ingenium (see engine): cf. for example F. génie civil ‘civil engineering’.]
1. With reference to classical pagan belief: The tutelary god or attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character, and finally to conduct him out of the world; also, the tutelary and controlling spirit similarly connected with a place, an institution, etc. (Now only in sing.)
In the first two quots. Genius is the proper name of an allegorical person who in the Rom. de la Rose represents the native moral instincts of mankind as setting bounds to the range of sexual passion.
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]]> By: Terreson http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/09/%e2%80%9cthe%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cage%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cof%e2%80%9d-%e2%80%9cgenius%e2%80%9d/#comment-25422 Terreson Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:45:04 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5275#comment-25422 Good response indeed. Terreson Good response indeed.

Terreson
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