Fascinating critical essay on Austrian poet Georg Trakl and the influence of cocaine and other intoxicants on his work.
(via Public Domain Review)
All posts in category dark
george trakl’s snowy descent
Posted by sean on October 29, 2014
https://sd-stewart.com/2014/10/29/george-trakls-snowy-descent/
malone dies
[…] but I know what darkness is, it accumulates, thickens, then suddenly bursts and drowns everything.
I myself am very grey, I even sometimes have the feeling that I emit grey.
—Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies
Posted by sean on November 30, 2013
https://sd-stewart.com/2013/11/30/malone-dies/
a knoblike process
Creeping crepuscule, descrescent light, harbinger of dreaded return to EST, where darkness dampens day’s early end. Decumbent drone diminishes daily, drowsy in the drawing room. Sip long from murky melodies, muddy froth spilling forth in rivulets, dirgeful delights diverging in drone’s ear canals. Mellifluous miasma of musical melancholia!
Dismantling of outdoor seating commences! Desperate attempts to affect staring at nothing continues. Doctor Chumply the Mouth Breather appears, Mickey D’s in hand, heart-attack-in-waiting, following with tiny aggrieved steps the trail of nitroglycerin tablets strewn across the decking. Take the elevator, not the stairs, for they are locked, despite the sign in the kitchen encouraging good health through stairs-taking. O, Dr. Chumply, what will become of you, will you follow those tablets to the Haunted Wood™ where the witch stokes her stove as she awaits your fleshly delights.
[But Christine, what of loneliness, standing there behind the invisibility cloak, always working, always writing, what did engagement mean for you, O Invisible Author, did you drape yourself in a duvet woven with words…]
Glossary
lumpfish: Any of various fishes of the family Cyclopteridae, especially Cyclopterus lumpus of North Atlantic waters, having pelvic fins united to form a suction disk and a body bearing prominent tubercles.
tubercle: A small, rounded prominence or process, such as a wartlike excrescence on the roots of some leguminous plants or a knoblike process in the skin or on a bone.
Quick now! Homophone challenge question: would you rather your words resonate or resinate. Think about it while staring into the clouds.
Nod to From your favourite sky
Posted by sean on November 6, 2013
https://sd-stewart.com/2013/11/06/a-knoblike-process/
light | dark
Light Dark Light Dark Light Dark Light Dark Light Dark Light Dark Light Dark
Light Light Light Light Light Light Light
Dark Dark Dark Dark Dark Dark Dark
LIGHT
DARK
DARK
LIGHT
[narrator leaves house, unpacks moon-viewing instrument]
LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT
[the ‘light’ from the moon is false — it is a reflection of the sun]
DARK DARK DARK DARK
[narrator adjusts focus, lets in more light]
LIGHT dark light
LIGHt dark lighT
LIGht dark ligHT
LIght dark liGHT
Light dark lIGHT
light dark LIGHT
[narrator goes inside, observes black ring around eye, laughs bitterly]
DARK light DARK
[narrator watches solar eclipse on television, loses vision in one eye]
one eye: DARK DARK DARK DARK
other eye: LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT
[other eye compensates, dilation lets in more light]
LIght DARk LIGht DArk LIGHt Dark = dark | LIGHT
[narrator freaks out at giant pupil peering back out of mirror]
LIGHt dARK
LIGht daRK
LIGHt dARK
LIGHT DARK
[narrator takes sedative, falls asleep]
D-A-R-K
[narrator sleeps for days, dreams about moon]
D–A–R–K l-i-g-h-t
[narrator stands on moon in dream, looks at sun, falls asleep in crater]
D_A_R_K
[narrator feels hot, wakes up on sun, quickly returns to sleep, wakes up on earth]
L_I_G_H_T
[narrator applies eye shadow, begins collecting shiny objects]
light light light light
[narrator sprouts bushy tail, gathers nesting material]
dark light dark light
[narrator curls up in ball, falls asleep in nest]
DARK DARK DARK DARK DARK DARK DARK
[narrator dreams about the sea]
LIGHT | DARK
[narrator wakes in forest, burrows deeper in nest, falls asleep again]
DARK | DARK
[narrator dreams of monks self-immolating, twitches in sleep]
L__I__G__H__T | dark
[narrator wakes, crawls out of nest, forages on forest floor]
L–I–G–H–T
[narrator lies on a rock, soaks up sunlight]
LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT
[narrator leaves dark, enters light]
L____I____G____H____T
Posted by sean on November 28, 2012
https://sd-stewart.com/2012/11/28/light-dark/
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