Monday, September 5, 2011

Loitering with Intent



















Though loitering with intent, not to do mischief, while reading you, off and on, in the nowhere of the blogosphere, I haven't blogged much. Summer, storms--of various kinds--and physical problems have cut short my time at the computer, but now there are fresh pictures, and a little about Robert Walser's Microscripts.

Above: black elderberry--I think--at the pond, tiny figures in the distance, just the right proportion.



















Hard-boiled? The eggs are so carefully placed. Discarded from someone's meal?
















Delicate chance mold, mushrooms breaking down all right and finding another form. Words that might apply to Robert Walser's life.

Walser sometimes shrunk his writing to tiny letters and marks, which for a time was believed to be code. He wrote "Swine," an essay now included in Microscripts, published by New Directions, on a slip of paper measuring approximately 3 inches by 2 1/2 inches. Walser's tone disarms with seeming inconsequence. His tone charms me:

A person can be swinish in matters of love and might even succeed in justifying himself to a certain extent. In my opinion, various possibilities would appear to exist with regard to swinishness, etc. Someone might happen to look like a person who appears to be a swine, and all the while he is at bottom perhaps fairly upstanding. One can say with a rather large degree of certainty that men seem to possess a greater predisposition and talent for swinishness than women, who of course are now and then capable of achieving excellence in this regard.

Walser's charm is sly: "achieving excellence " in swinishness. I'll cop to that.

What are you up to? Let me know, please.

12 comments:

  1. Those eggs- so many mysteries on Academy.

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  2. Tiny figures indeed.

    What a coincidence: my totem is the swine.

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  3. i'm not feeling particularly swinish but a tiny bit piggy for more perfect summer days, less rain, less work, more play time. and i did grill teriyaki marinated pork chops recently that were quite remarkably delicious.

    just ordered Microscripts. i AM piggy.

    thank you, dear Mim, for a charming post.

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  4. Hello, Bloggerinos--
    Some creature, probably a raccoon, cracked those eggs, ate yolk and white, and left shells.
    Be well,
    M.

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  5. After reading this, I just looked up Robert Walser, who I had never heard of before. I feel drawn to read more of his work - thank you.

    I have been reading Gormenghast and am welcoming in the autumn.

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  6. Gormenghast! For real? Tremendous contrast to Walser.

    Fall rains here: cool and almost bracing. Soup and baked potato weather. Talk about plain fare.

    Happy to read Signs . . .

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  7. Hey Mim

    I love your photos, I thought at first the mushrooms were wee grey animals.

    I also just read your essay 'Food, Sex and Betrayal' and loved it!

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  8. Hi Mim - I've been 'loitering with intent' lately, too - living on a slow-inward-slow-outward breath. It helps, I think, with noticing things more and differently. I, too, thought the two furry grey shapes were exotic wee creatures - caterpillars, perhaps, showing off their finery. Thanks for the introduction to Robert Walser and 'Microscripts'. And to nmj for referencing your essay 'Food, Sex and Betrayal'. I'm off to see if this is a piece on line. . . As to what I've been up to, everything and nothing it seems - I don't have much to show 'in form' from these past few months but trust something is about to announce itself - hopefully in the studio where I'm trying to break through into something new. Love to you, dear Mim. Take care xo

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  9. nmj--raspberries in the food line right now. They ripen late here. I'm glad to have a reader for the essay and happy to pass the word about your fine novel, "The State of Me."

    Be well , you too, Claire. Seems we're courting the muse. I don't mind that old-fashioned term.

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  10. I do like this entry very much and it made me think a lot, excuse for so far not being able to comment anything worth.
    Please have a good Tuesday.

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  11. I commented earlier but blogger played up. So, I've come back now to congratulate you on that beautiful first photo. Loved it. And I also loved the quote. So witty and humourous.

    Many thanks. Nice to see you around.

    Greetings from London.

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  12. I'm very much enjoying revisiting your blog, I hope you don't mind, I'm sending you an invitation to mine which I made private - just because... microgreens!
    deirdre

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