only be sorry for a second walls
only for a second be sorry for an order for walls
only for a moment be a sorry soul for a second in the walls
only for a walls
be active for a walls
Walls
be only one more than walls
be one and only only for a second mid YELL of the only walls
only be a breaking wave walls
only be a breaking wave waving mighty walls
Walls
break breakbreak only now walls
sorry for the second only that second walls
that second was triumphant and the walls
sorry for breaking walls
sorry for breaking down only walls
sorry for breaking down only for a second walls
Walls
so the only soul so the only soul walls
Walls
sorry for the four walls
breaking in for a sorry and then back walls
back walls
soul walls
sorry for breaking soul walls
sub walls
sub soul sorry for the walls
sub wave sub wave walls
only sub sorry for wave waving at the break down walls
only suitably sorry for waving suitably at the beautiful walls
voice coming voice has been walls
The voice walls
Voice the walls
the voice that breaks in waves the struggle to get walls
the waves of voice that break and struggle walls
the voice that breaks before the wave walls
the voice that breaks walls
want the waves walls
want the voice waves want to voice the waves not the walls
want to voice the waves not the walls
break the four walls
voice a broken walls
a voice breaks cracks four walls
a voice breathes in between walls
breathe in between walls
breathe like voices between walls
voices breathe into the next walls
voices crack into the next walls
crack break before walls
breath before voice walls
voice before break walls
breathe around walls
around all walls
breathe around the cracks in walls
The Walls
Four broken walls
Voice cracked walls
leading to walls
leading out into new walls
Way out walls
leading to a way out there walls
Their walls
leading them away they’re out they’re out walls
they wrote out walls
voice wrote out
a stale man ina beggar’s tree
‘you can call me butter’
a vanishing a randing a rutted
eight itch paintings ina goer’s
hall. Brandishing eight somethings
You can call ME b
itch again you four. Think
itz better without b. Don’t
race dont win on the brink. stutter
Melted persons caught without see
snatching snacking every more
teeth teeth teeth
the wincy what’s-left lost all but
left. ‘Enough now b’
The same but
I am interested in the rhetoric game of snowclones, the special breed of phrasal templates that constantly revisit a culturally established term. “X is the new Y” is now a common to most idioms, and mostly independent of the original “Brown is the new Black”. My interest is not in the discourse of lazy journalism, I know they rely on cliches and I’m pretty sure I know why. I’m excited by the broader significance of snowcloning; cliches, punning, stock piles of linguistic collocations that are knitted into communication. Most speech is littered with snowclones or other templated orders. What we do is more like like ‘oral writing’ than true speech. My question is, and nearly always is when faced with a linguistic trope, does it occur visually?
To satisfy the comparison, and to satisfy me, the image would have to be more than a visual pun, to be somewhat detached from its meaning-origin. The template itself would need to have overtaken the referent in some way. I asked a friend for any ideas, after a pained bafflement she suggested the main image of the film Scandal - Joannne Whalley posing as Christine Keeler, sat naked on a turned-around chair. This works for me. It’s been repeated to such a degree that it’s been adopted by visual culture as a standard format. The language of its use doesn’t necessarily signify the scandalous suggestiveness of the “original”, it doesn’t signify anything apart from the re-use of itself. It is loosing its context, yet instantly recognisable. More examples (all contestable, non absolutely definite) are;
a Warhol repeated portrait;
a never ending high-way somewhere in an American dessert;
a huge crown scene, just distanced enough to obscure any identifiable features of anyone;
a pieta/a crucifixion;
a hand reaching and touching another hand;
three (or more but not too many) people in a circle dancing in a natural setting.
Lawrence Weschler has a new book, Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences. It catalogues his investigation into the shared images of cultural output in history and the contemporary. Representations of moments, events and personalities follow a pattern. A photograph of the New York city-scape it matched perfectly to a painting of a 18th century harbour; while a ground-zero fire-fighter’s meeting is paired with Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, 1642. The images share more than similar scenarios or narratives, they share a schematic and aesthetic language. The formats and compositions are uncannily married. It poses the question, does visual culture borrow from itself so unconsciously and so often, or is this how we visually interpret the world, in known pre-set compositions.
Every story told is a re-telling at its heart, we have inbuilt narratives and myths hosting archetypal systems in our psyche. These are made manifest in the novel and cinema, reflected back at us. As we translate chaos into narratives, do we translate the world of infinite colours, angles and perspectives into framed images? Do we only see in vistas, still-lifes and compositions, (re)presented, seen and re-seen. Cinema has its own sub-universe of these continuously recycled hieroglyphs. Visual templates of Hollywood cinema feed into our broader library of icons, how we understand the world and ourselves. Different movie snowclones appeal to each of us for different reasons. Some of my favourites are;
close-ups of feet walking along;
a foreboding mansion seen through iron gates;
pan-out shot of a car driving away (always away);
a dog cocking its head or rolling its eyes from the floor – beneath all the action;
legs seen from below the water;
a busy cafe or restaurant;
the orchestra;
the boss sat at a desk in front of a large window;
whirling newspaper headlines;
the outside of a house with lights on*.
*Similarly mentioned in Michael Atkinson’s article ‘Anna Karina and the American Night’ in this months The Believer Magazine.
First appearing ultimately harmless but utterly unapproachable. On wheels. Angry about an incident that wrecked the garden, blaming the innocent and upsetting those who cannot be held responsible for their actions. Not like the others. Promising a punishment, something requiring meditating on, something undeserved, arguably. Arresting the day, the happy atmosphere in the kitchen, leaving it bashed. Replacing butter with dust.
proceedings
ultimately utterly. Appearing. Un appealing.
very very green
A line ending
should spell “change, danger and incidents”. Adventure
The Can Do Project
Promiser punisher a pauser
(stick)
arrestor. upsetter (in smoke)
End of listening doctor returns
The gang are weary. The end of the line
Ultimately harmless all along.
“Ahem”
“Aha”
Ahem?
A haaa
“Ah”
” A”
(ha)Ahem
Mm huh
mm
“Ahem”
“Aha”
A huh a huh
hah
write then write then write then think then write then write then write then think then breathe then write then write then think then think then view then write then write then partial viewing then incomplete partial viewing then write then write then think then write then write then write then write then write then write then write then write then breathe then delete then write then delete then write then delete then write then delete then
write than think then think then write then surprise then surprised then write then forget then regret then delete then write then write then write then write then pull then pull then pull then pull then pull then pull then pull then voice then different voice then write then write then pull then pull then pull then write then writ then think then think then write then write then write then view then review then review then review then write then write then write then breathe breathe breathe then sweet sweet sweet then write then write then write then write then write then write then write then write then look then look then write then look then write then look then write then write then write then write
then write then write then write then twitch then twitch then spell then spell then write then spell then think then think then write then think then write then write then write then ask then write then write then write then
I am present
The
currently presenting
(partial being)
I was NOMINATED
——————————————-
I am currently present
and fitting
I am fitting
I am presently king of
(- non existent)
FRIDAY
I am verging
SATURDAY
——————————————-
I am omnipollutent
(in french)
I am french
SUNDAY
I am currently special
( – lizing, about)
still fitting
——————————————-
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
I cut myself shaving, laughing thinking
I cut myself shaving thinking, laughing
I cut myself shaving laughing – thinking…
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
i cut myself shaving laughing, typing
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
I cut myself shaving laughing, thinking
