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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Empyre 1 poetics and play<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Belated hellos, all! <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I am so grateful for the opportunity to
interact with ideas here that i almost don’t know where to begin.<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">It’s always <i>awkward</i> to introduce
oneself (Truong Tran: “</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">You begin with a foundation premised
on shame”),<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">but <i>awkwardness</i> (that weird
mash-up of eagerness and diffidence) is often an initial stage of play, of
making, of thinking, and especially of introductions.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Awkward: <b>awk (adj.)<span></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">mid-15c., "turned the wrong
way," from Old Norse afugr "turned backwards, wrong, contrary,"
from Proto-Germanic *afug- (source also of Old Saxon aboh, Old High German apuh,
Middle Dutch avesch, Dutch aafsch), from PIE *apu-ko-, from root <i><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/*apo-?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">*apo-</a></i>
"off, away." <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><b><i><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Apo</span></i></b><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">, in turn, “forms all or part of: <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/ab-?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">ab-</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/abaft?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">abaft</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/ablaut?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">ablaut</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/aft?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">aft</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/after?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">after</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apanthropy?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apanthropy</a>
(</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">“aversion to human company, love of solitude”)</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">; <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/aperitif?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">aperitif</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/aperture?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">aperture</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apo-?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apo-</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apocalypse?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apocalypse</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apocryphal?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apocryphal</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/Apollyon?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">Apollyon</a>
(“destroying angel of the bottomless pit”); <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apology?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apology</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apoplexy?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apoplexy</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostle?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apostle</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apostrophe?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apostrophe</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apothecary?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apothecary</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/apotheosis?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">apotheosis</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/awk?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">awk</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/awkward?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">awkward</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/ebb?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">ebb</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/eftsoons?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">eftsoons</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/of?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">of</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/off?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">off</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/offal?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">offal</a>;
<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/overt?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">overt</a>.”</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">With all this catastrophic baggage, how
can we help but want to run away when asked to account for ourselves? Let’s
take refuge in <i>play</i>, as we do in our teachers, our body of resources,
our communities, however flawed or tenuous:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">And guess what? <i>Play</i>’s ultimate
etymology is, fittingly, uncertain!<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/play#etymonline_v_16469" title="Origin and meaning of play" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">play (v.)</a><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Old English plegan, plegian "move
rapidly, occupy or busy oneself, exercise; frolic; make sport of, mock; perform
music," from Proto-West Germanic *plegōjanan "occupy oneself about"
(source also of Old Saxon plegan "vouch for, take charge of," Old
Frisian plega "tend to," Middle Dutch pleyen "to rejoice, be
glad," German pflegen "take care of, cultivate"), which is
apparently connected to the root of <b>plight</b> (v.), <i>but the ultimate
etymology is uncertain</i>… <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">But, on the other hand, on the very same
website:<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">plight (n.1)<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">"condition or state (usually
bad)," late 12c., "danger, harm, strife," from Anglo-French plit,
pleit, Old French pleit, ploit "condition" (13c.), originally
"way of folding," from Vulgar Latin *plictum, from Latin plicitum,
neuter past participle of Latin plicare "to fold, lay" <i>(from PIE
root <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/*plek-?ref=etymonline_crossreference" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">*plek-</a>
"to plait")</i>.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">(That Proto-Indo-European is an entirely
speculative endeavor makes it all the more appropriate for this kind of diasporic
play, which maintains a fraught/speculative relationship to points of origin.)<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Too much already here to unpack. That “play”
and “plight” should form the two-in-one Janic nexus that indicates both joy and
implicitly-bad condition –“danger, harm, strife” –should come as no surprise,
and its embeddedness in “plait,” or braid, further underscores the indivisibility
of putative opposites. I read this most poignant of Walter Benjamin’s exhortations
as a declaration of the value of cultural and artistic play and resilience: “[The
spiritual stakes of revolutionary struggle]<b> </b>manifest themselves … as
courage, humor, cunning, and fortitude.” Through “humor” and “cunning,” <i>play</i>
takes its place as necessary for survival and resistance.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Complementary colors collide to create
the braid’s ornamental qualities. The fold (“pli”) invites a Deleuzian insight,
which perhaps someone else can further unfold, exfoldiate, or un/revel. If “the
fold is an event” then so is the playful gesture, so is the untenable plight. <span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">The idea –or maybe “impulse” is more apt –that
we are braided into a narrative that far supersedes us is catalytic to my
making process. Though always starting from a place of doubt, of shaky awkward
shame, i stand perpetually half-submerged at the edge of the great expanse of
the sea of linguistic and material poeisis, looking out at the exhilarating and
frightening endlessness. (Material: of the mother, the sea, la mer.) (Truong Tran:
“</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">I was playing around with language in the hopes of getting
inside of language” oh yes.)<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">When i weave or write, i never know what i’m
doing: does anyone? One starts from impulse, and it’s in the making process
that uncovery is made. I don’t consider myself an artist, a poet, a scholar
(though i’ve been trained as the latter) but rather a fellow-traveler in all
regards. This frees me from having to live up to standards, from having to take
to heart the intimidating competitions set up for artists, poets and scholars.
I enjoy making things. I enjoy collaborations. My primary collaborators in the
word have been mIEKAL aND, Adeena Karasick, and Alan Sondheim, all of whom are admirable
risk-takers in their flamboyant contributions to verbal sub/cultural production.
They help me realize effects i could never achieve alone, wouldn’t even know
how or where to begin. As a semi-young person i had a private dream of having a
house made of jewels. When mIEKAL and i made the online version of <i>Literature
Nation </i>with<i> Hyperpoesy</i> (<a href="http://joglars.org/literature_nation/litnat/index.html" style="color:rgb(5,99,193);text-decoration:underline">http://joglars.org/literature_nation/litnat/index.html</a>)
I realized that this was my house of jewels. The audio gifs no longer work on
my laptop, maybe on no one’s. But the house of jewels lives in my mind.<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Late in this mesh of musings, let me ask
for help. I have been trying without much success to theorize the text/textile
nexus from a variety of approaches. I am experiencing frustration. I thought that
maybe a rigorous investigation of metaphor would get me someplace, but I’m
stalled out over my indignation at text-workers having colonized textile metaphors
for their own purposes, rarely understanding the material aspects of their
somewhat glibly appropriated figures of speech. Some exceptions –rigorous
thinker/makers on text/textile –include Francesca Capone, Elizabeth Barber, Jen
Bervin, Cecilia Vicuña, Jen Hofer, Jeffrey Gibson, whom am i leaving out? I
would be grateful to expand my set of references.<span></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Is this an introduction? Let’s play...<span></span></span></p>
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