Chomskyana Linguica

by Pierre Joris · April 12, 2006

On 6 March, my blog pointed to a piece critical of Naom Chomsky — an odd quirky piece that gave rise to some interesting correspondence, among them a poem by Rochelle Owens. Rochelle clearly went to town, for she has added a second part, and you can read here on the New Verse News blog. Here’s the opening section of part I (which you can read in full here):

I was at a dinner party a dinner party I was
invited to the house the house of the famous American
linguist Noam Chomsky I was at a Chomsky dinner party
a party given by Chomsky a Chomsky dinner party Chomsky was
grilling chunks grilling chunks chunks
of Portuguese chunks of Portuguese sausage chunks linguica
linguica chunks of linguica Chomsky was grilling linguica
hosting a dinner party an informal dinner party at
his house his house on Cape Cod in Wellfleet Wellfleet
he was chomping on linguica Chomsky chomping
chomping Chomsky chomping linguica in his house

famous linguist and anarchist too
Israelphobic pious progressive Jew

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Reading

Segue (Artists Space, 11 Cortlandt Alley, NYC)

Saturday, August 17, 5:00PM

STAND4 Gallery: Karstic-Action VOTE 2024!

Performance - Vote drive - Exhibition by Nicole le Peyrafitte & Pierre Joris
STAND4 Gallery, 414 78th Street, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York 11209

Friday, September 6, 7:00PM

Adeena Karasick, Pierre Joris & Nicole Peyrafitte

Unnameable Books, 615 Vanderbilt, Brooklyn New York

Thursday, September 12, 6:30PM

A Tribute to Tyrone Williams

Join us in honoring the life, work and legacy of seminal poet and scholar Tyrone Williams. Poets House, 10 River Terrace, New York, NY

Saturday, September 14, 12:00PM

Pierre Joris, Scott Laudati & Nicole Peyrafitte

Lansingburgh Historical Society, River Poems at The Herman Melville House, 2 114th Street, Troy, NY 12182

Wednesday, November 6, 7:00PM

Jerome Rothenberg (1931-2024) Celebration

St Marks Poetry Project, 131 E. 10th Street, New York, NY 10003

Saturday, November 23

Poetry Reading

Tucson POG/Chax (details to be announced)

Pierre Joris, born in Strasbourg, France in 1946, was raised in Luxembourg. Since age 18, he has moved between Europe, the Maghreb & the US & holds both Luxembourg & American citizenship. He has published over 80 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies — most recently Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021) & Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello, both from Contra Mundum Press. In 2020 his two final Paul Celan translations came out: Microliths They Are, Little Stones (Posthumous prose, from CMP) & The Collected Earlier Poetry (FSG). Forthcoming are: Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” (Small Orange Import, 2023) & Diwan of Exiles: A Pierre Joris Reader (edited with Ariel Reznikoff, 2024). For a full list see the right column on this blog.

In 2011 Litteraria Pragensia, Charles University, Prague, published Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-between, edited by Peter Cockelbergh, with essays on Joris’ work by, among others, Mohammed Bennis, Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, Clayton Eshleman, Allen Fisher, Christine Hume, Robert Kelly, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Jennifer Moxley, Jean Portante, Carrie Noland, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff & Nicole Peyrafitte (2011).

Other work includes the CD Routes, not Roots (with Munir Beken, oud; Mike Bisio, bass; Ben Chadabe, percussion; Mitch Elrod, guitar; Ta’wil Productions). With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry, and with Habib. Tengour Poems for the Millennium, vol. 3: The University of California Book of North African Literature.

When not on the road, he lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his wife, multimedia praticienne Nicole Peyrafitte. A volume of their collaborative work, to be called Domopoetics, will be published in the near future.