Pierre Joris' Meanderings & mawqifs of poetry, poetics, translations y mas. Travelogue too.
by Pierre Joris ·
Once stood next to him at the Closerie des Lilas in Montparnasse on the shoot of What’s New Pussycat, still one of my favorite silly movies. A tall, lanky lad he was. Impressed me no end. Here are two clips, or rather one clip from Pussycat & the full version of 1972 film The Ruling Class (O’Toole appears first exactly 20 minutes in) — though I doubt I will ever watch Lawrence of Arabia again…
by Pierre Joris · Published August 10, 2009
by Pierre Joris · Published May 17, 2006
by Pierre Joris · Published October 25, 2007
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.
More
“Conversations in the Pyrenees”
“An American Suite” (Poems) —Inpatient Press
“Arabia (not so) Deserta” : Essays on Maghrebi & Mashreqi Writing & Culture
“The Agony of I.B.” — A play. Editions PHI & TNL 2016
“The Book of U / Le livre des cormorans”
“Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry of Paul Celan”
“Paul Celan, Microliths They Are, Little Stones”
“Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader” edited & translated by Pierre Joris
“Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj”
“Paul Celan: The Meridian Final Version”—Drafts—Materials
“Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-Between” edited by Peter Cockelbergh
“The University of California Book of North African Literature”
4×1 : Works by Tristan Tzara, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jean-Pierre Duprey and Habib Tengour
PABLO PICASSO The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Poems
Poasis (Selected Poems 1986-1999)
Poems for the Millennium 1 & 2
ppppp-Poems Performances Pieces Proses Plays Poetics by Kurt Schwitters
“Todesguge/Deathfugue”
“Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021)”
“Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello”
“A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly.” Edited by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh
“Barzakh” (Poems 2000-2012)
“Fox-trails, -tales & -trots”
“Paul Celan: Breathturn into Timestead-The Collected Later Poetry.” Translated & with commentary by Pierre Joris. Farrar, Straus & Giroux
“The common denominator of all my friends is that they’re dead.”…Peter O’Toole
Now he has sadly for us but happily for him joined them at long last. His 2 favorite movies were My Favorite Year (one of my all time favorite movies) and The Ruling Class as he made it with all his “chums.”
Do see ‘Lawrence’ again sometime. It is a brilliant movie. The subject matter it no way detracts from his and others skill on the screen. As he himself said of his craft, “I’m a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.”
If there is such a thing as resting in peace, he is one I hope gets it.
Thanks for putting this up.
As to whether there’s a certain amount of exposure to Arab and Turkish culture that makes it impossible to watch Lawrence again, the sweeping cultural generalizations provide more of a potential obstacle than its colonial heroism, as Bolt’s screenplay delivers layers of deconstruction and critique of such heroism and colonialism as well as focusing on Lawrence’s own megalomania and his naivite about the intentions of what he was participating in. Whether or not Bolt sufficiently undermines his own cultural generalizations I will watch the damn thing over and over and relish it. The way it plays fast and loose with historical fact makes for a lot of interesting research also.. the film is a cultural myth more akin to the great myths than most.
…and in the end…it is just a movie!
Ian — actually, I do tend to agree with you — true, indeed, the movie has its fascinating critical layers (used to speak to that when teaching post-colonial matters) — & no doubt at some point I’ll watch the whole thing again too. With relish, probably…
“Until Lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
I can’t remember who said it but it seems appropriate.