From Publishers Weekly
Despite her fastidious, ornately post-modern style, Carson finds her subject matter in classicism. The fruits of this unique, difficult combination are strikingly displayed in this selection of her published work. Seemingly composed of equal parts enigma, experiment and exegesis, Carson's writings incorporate a dizzying spectrum of forms?prose poem, mock interview, travel journal, academic essay. "Mimnermos: The Brainsex Paintings" explores what are perhaps figmentary fragments of the ancient Greek poet's work, which divulges "a kind of hunger for the motions of the self that we are mining still." The blurb-like, often humorous paragraphs and prose poems of "Short Talks" (which are "on" subjects as varied as chromoluminism and Sylvia Plath) and "The Life of Towns" (with stops in "Apostle Town" and "Town of Greta Garbo") afford the pleasure of a whimsical crossword puzzle. But Carson achieves a surreal, perplexing brilliance in "Canicula di Anna," a 53-section poem partially set in the paintings of the 16th-century artist Perugino. The final selection, "The Anthropology of Water," takes an abruptly confessional turn, though one measured (as the title suggests) by the poet's near-scientific intellectualism that, as in all these writings, gives her work a dazzling lucidity. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From The Boston Review
"I will do anything to avoid boredom," writes Carson in the section entitled "Short Talks." It is the task of a lifetime. Carson's work questions the boundaries of traditional forms by including invented dialogue (between herself and Mimnermos, a poet of the 7th century BC), brief musings on a variety of unrelated subjects ("On Trout," "On Disappointments in Music," "On Hedonism"), travelogue and journal entries of a character named Anna at a phenomenology conference, and poems that treat concepts and figures as if they were towns: "Freud Town," "Town of Greta Garbo," "Town of the Death of Sin." Never glib, nor ever merely polemical, this melange is poignant and laconic. Just when we thought the postmodernists had said everything there was to say about words, grammar, and punctuation (on the one side) and time, location, and people (on the other), Carson takes us that little bit farther. Copyright © 1996, Boston Review. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Carson's poetry and prose defy categorization as much as they blur the boundaries of their own forms. In fact, nearly formless, Carson's writing resists convention through word variation and substitution, stretching language to create new meanings, formulas, and outcomes. For example, in "The Life of Towns," town becomes a representative letter like a in the formula: if ab and bc, then ac. In other words, townviewpointself and self includes all the various vantage points and different ways of expressing vision. Carson, a professor of ancient Greek and Latin, incorporates classical languages and a mythological sensibility in surprising ways throughout her work. The strongest and most engaging section is "Short Talks" (from her book by that title), which was excerpted in the 1992 Best American Essays but could have just as easily appeared in a poetry anthology. The pieces have the appeal of haiku and the experimental quality of language poetry by Scalapino and Lauterbach. These "talks" gracefully unite the vivid metaphor and rhythm of poetry with the contemplative and digressive discourse of essay. Carson knows the rules of language and how to break them. This is stimulating, rare, and challenging writing, fabulous food for thought--for the adventurous reader. Janet St. John
Midwest Book Review
Carson’s essays and poetry arise from philosophical and literary roots, providing dialogues, vignettes, verbal photographs of description, and poems which reflect travel experiences. The result is an excellent, scholarly collection which will appeal to any interested in literature and the art of essay and poetry productions.
Review
"Breathtaking. . . . A work of gorgeous innovation and a staunch hypnotic intelligence."--The Village Voice
"Carson has . . . created an individual form and style for narrative verse. . . . Seldom has Pound's injunction 'Make It New' been so spectacularly obeyed." --The New York Review of Books
"Anne Carson is a philosopher of heartbreak." --The Nation
Review
"Breathtaking. . . . A work of gorgeous innovation and a staunch hypnotic intelligence."--The Village Voice
"Carson has . . . created an individual form and style for narrative verse. . . . Seldom has Pound's injunction 'Make It New' been so spectacularly obeyed." --The New York Review of Books
"Anne Carson is a philosopher of heartbreak." --The Nation
Book Description
The poetry and prose collected in Plainwater are a testament to the extraordinary imagination of Anne Carson, a writer described by Michael Ondaatje as "the most exciting poet writing in English today." Succinct and astonishingly beautiful, these pieces stretch the boundaries of language and literary form, while juxtaposing classical and modern traditions.
Carson envisions a present-day interview with a seventh-century BC poet, and offers miniature lectures on topics as varied as orchids and Ovid. She imagines the muse of a fifteenth-century painter attending a phenomenology conference in Italy. She constructs verbal photographs of a series of mysterious towns, and takes us on a pilgrimage in pursuit of the elusive and intimate anthropology of water. Blending the rhythm and vivid metaphor of poetry with the discursive nature of the essay, the writings in Plainwater dazzle us with their invention and enlighten us with their erudition.
From the Inside Flap
The poetry and prose collected in Plainwater are a testament to the extraordinary imagination of Anne Carson, a writer described by Michael Ondaatje as "the most exciting poet writing in English today." Succinct and astonishingly beautiful, these pieces stretch the boundaries of language and literary form, while juxtaposing classical and modern traditions.
Carson envisions a present-day interview with a seventh-century BC poet, and offers miniature lectures on topics as varied as orchids and Ovid. She imagines the muse of a fifteenth-century painter attending a phenomenology conference in Italy. She constructs verbal photographs of a series of mysterious towns, and takes us on a pilgrimage in pursuit of the elusive and intimate anthropology of water. Blending the rhythm and vivid metaphor of poetry with the discursive nature of the essay, the writings in Plainwater dazzle us with their invention and enlighten us with their erudition.
From the Back Cover
"Breathtaking. . . . A work of gorgeous innovation and a staunch hypnotic intelligence."--The Village Voice
"Carson has . . . created an individual form and style for narrative verse. . . . Seldom has Pound's injunction 'Make It New' been so spectacularly obeyed." --The New York Review of Books
"Anne Carson is a philosopher of heartbreak." --The Nation
About the Author
Anne Carson's new book, Men in the Off Hours, is available from Knopf. Ms. Carson is the recipient of many awards, including the 1996 Lannan Award and the 1997 Pushcart Prize, both for poetry. She will be teaching at University of California, Berkeley, in the spring of 2000.
Plainwater: Essays and Poetry ANNOTATION
This volume brings together the most turbulent of Carson's published disruptions--"Mimnermos: The Brainsex Paintings, " "Short Talks, " "Canicula di Anna, " "The Life of Towns, " and "The Anthropology of Water." Prose and poetry imbued with robustly female provocations, it makes an eloquent and supremely emphatic statement.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Plainwater brings together five selections from Anne Carson's growing body of highly praised work. Included are Mimnermos: The Brainsex Paintings, a present-day dialogue with a poet of the seventh century BC; Short Talks, one-minute lectures on topics as diverse as trout and Parmenides; Canicula di Anna, a chronicle of a phenomenology conference conducted in Perugia, Italy; The Life of Towns, verbal photographs that capture the essence of the nearly extinct "town"; and The Anthropology of Water, a travelogue of three moments in the journey of a woman's life.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Despite her fastidious, ornately post-modern style, Carson finds her subject matter in classicism. The fruits of this unique, difficult combination are strikingly displayed in this selection of her published work. Seemingly composed of equal parts enigma, experiment and exegesis, Carson's writings incorporate a dizzying spectrum of forms-prose poem, mock interview, travel journal, academic essay. ``Mimnermos: The Brainsex Paintings'' explores what are perhaps figmentary fragments of the ancient Greek poet's work, which divulges ``a kind of hunger for the motions of the self that we are mining still.'' The blurb-like, often humorous paragraphs and prose poems of ``Short Talks'' (which are ``on'' subjects as varied as chromoluminism and Sylvia Plath) and ``The Life of Towns'' (with stops in ``Apostle Town'' and ``Town of Greta Garbo'') afford the pleasure of a whimsical crossword puzzle. But Carson achieves a surreal, perplexing brilliance in ``Canicula di Anna,'' a 53-section poem partially set in the paintings of the 16th-century artist Perugino. The final selection, ``The Anthropology of Water,'' takes an abruptly confessional turn, though one measured (as the title suggests) by the poet's near-scientific intellectualism that, as in all these writings, gives her work a dazzling lucidity. (July)
Art & Photography
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