Ellie 10/31

I don’t know whether or not Blagues make the poetry avant garde in and of themselves but I think they are certainly characteristic of the avant-garde. I also found that Meditations in an Emergency, which was a very Blague-ish title to begin with was probably the most formally avant garde and also had maybe the most blagues? There was a lot of sarcasm, like “I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.” And then the next ‘paragraph’ for lack of a better word had : However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures…I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.” I thought the mockery of pastoral life being not-so-innocent combined with the mockery of city snobs was very funny and very blague. Even ” Heterosexuality! you are inexorably approaching. (How discourage her?)” was interesting, especially because it is unclear if ‘her’ is a specific woman or the overall pressure. He also does a lot with word-play type blague, which I think is very avant-garde or at least in line with the schools of poetry I’ve been studying for Mullen. For example in The Day Lady Died, his use of names is interesting and seems Blague-ish. He references Patsy which is a name that also has slang connotations, and then he says he is ‘leaning against the john door’ which means bathroom door most literally but a john can also be a term for a prostitute’s clients, and it sounds close to John Doe (which could suggest leaning on a stranger/casual sex) and “John dear” which when flipped to Dear John is a break up letter. Another place he does this is when Steps reads that the narrator has “just jumped out of a bed full of V-days” which is a clear pun on VDs. Other Blagues include ”