...and to conjure up a geography of the possible

"Indeed, we have long looked to novelists, artists, philosophers, and poets to articulate our yearning for a better world -- as well as our dread of a worse one -- and to conjure up a geography of the possible." - BookForum, June/July/August 2010

Over the course of the next sixty-four blog posts (aiming for a consistent Monday through Friday, except for time off for intergalactic journeys), I will be corresponding with a young filmmaker named Mai. She'll have her own guest account here during that time.

We're doing something akin to a letter exchange in the style of Akemi (that context makes more sense if you'd read the graphic novel Kabuki, by David Mack), encouraging and spurring each other to break out of "prison" and express our innate, innovative best in the form of creative projects.

"If you don't like the the story your culture is writing, it's not enough to rail against it or say you don't subscribe to it. You have the obligation of writing your own story-- To be a contributing author of your own culture." - Akemi, in Kabuki: The Alchemy by David Mack

We're both living in Brooklyn right now. Although I've only just arrived and Mai has lived in New York all her life, I could not help noting the interleaving of Brooklyn and Whitman. I thought I already knew a lot about Whitman, and the quote seen in my wanderings, "I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the uni-verses are limitless..." continued to tug at me, and so I delved further:

"Whitman claimed that after years of competing for "the usual rewards", he determined to become a poet. He first experimented with a variety of popular literary genres which appealed to the cultural tastes of the period. As early as 1850, he began writing what would become Leaves of Grass, a collection of poetry which he would continue editing and revising until his death. Whitman intended to write a distinctly American epic and used free verse with a cadence based on the Bible. At the end of June 1855, Whitman surprised his brothers with the already-printed first edition of Leaves of Grass. George "didn't think it worth reading".

Whitman paid for the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass himself and had it printed at a local print shop during their breaks from commercial jobs. A total of 795 copies were printed." - Wikipedia on Whitman

Originally, I suggested to Mai especially since she is Chinese-American that we let the I Ching be a prompting theme for each day's writing. That didn't sit too well with her. She finally agreed to use the I Ching to set the tone for the entire 64-day endeavor. So we tossed the coins virtually and, not surprisingly, we got Hexagram 25.

The interpretation I found for Hexagram 25 is of a stick-figure of a man straining to avert disaster. However, instead of focusing on avoidance, if he would just let Life flow naturally he would be out of harm's way and effortlessly in right place at the right time.

Hexagram 25 is one of embodied natural innocence... infinite innocence...

I do not doubt I am limitless, and that the uni-
         verses are limitless—in vain I try to think
         how limitless;

I do not doubt that the orbs, and the systems of          orbs, play their swift sports through the air on purpose—and that I shall one day be          eligible to do as much as they, and more than          they;

I do not doubt there is far more in trivialities,          insects, vulgar persons, slaves, dwarfs, weeds,          rejected refuse, than I have supposed;

I do not doubt there is more in myself than I have          supposed—and more in all men and women          —and more in my poems than I have          supposed;

I do not doubt that temporary affairs keep on and          on, millions of years;

I do not doubt interiors have their interiors, and
         exteriors have their exteriors—and that the
         eye-sight has another eye-sight, and the hear-
         ing another hearing, and the voice another
         voice - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, snippet from poem Faith

Bonus: From interpretation of Hexagram 25: "Not succumbing to things is a question of Qi. Keeping far from disease, bad influences, fears and sorrow may help some, but only a little. It causes many restrictions, but is not safeproof.

The best remedy is to make your own body and soul safeproof. Connect your soul to heaven and nature instead of human matters. Live the fullness of a natural and open life, allow your soul to go deep and high, do not stay on the common road where everything is mediocre. Enjoy beauty and happiness, energy and love, so sorrow and fears cannot get hold on you. Where everything is full of life, decay can find no place."

Synonyms for natural include: unaffected, spontaneous, genuine, artless, sincere, relaxed, open, effortless, ingenuous, unpretentious.

art credits: Futuristic utopia via Honors 491 class on Utopias/Dystopias leads me to find Philip Hone Williams' work including New York City in the Future; Landscape with Orbs, by Philip Hone Williams; like how Williams muses in his Irreverent Rapture painting, "whoever can juggle five balls while floating apparently gravityless in midair knows something about whether there will be a Rapture or not and when it will be."

Comments

[Jeb]

Reading this at 430am is atypical for me...I get your feed, but sporadically, it seems. Nonetheless, I'm filled with wonder and an expectation that authentic life remains possible. Today, at least.

Thank you for that. Your writing is beautiful.