Turning Vision into Action....at least hypothetically

Strike up the music of the band
We're blazing a trail for the promised land
Heaven on earth is within you.


Through the writing of stories, poetry, essays, and a novel, I’ve creatively contended with the consumer culture and the problem of the ideal in the modern era. This preoccupation in time would lead to a vision of cultural transformation and where I believe our democratic society needs to go to truly progress beyond the modern era. Conceding my limited credibility, this blog provides a synthesis of recognized visionaries, poets, and writers with the objective of making a credible argument. Ultimately, it is a certain feeling the project strives to inspire and sustain on a certain level, making more vital use of poetry and the arts; consequently whether one agrees or not is less important than whether one senses it and feels it over time.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Confronting the Truth: Crossing into the Realm of Dostoyevsky

In some respects, the heavenly ambitions of the Promised Land Project are not that far fetched: it’s merely a question of confronting the truth about our human nature then working to creat a society that promotes the best of our nature while minimizing the worst. But much of the problem comes from confronting that truth. At this point in our journey, we cross into the territory of Dostoyevsky. In my mind, Whitman and Dostoyevsky seem complementary, in part due to the writings of D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller. If I were to create a reading list, I'd set Whitman's "Song of Myself" alongside Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground.

Dostoyevsky’s genius is such that it highlights an unpleasant side of our nature that we can recognize in ourselves. Though we all may be attracted to the ideal, in some way or other, if we’re to progress, we must confront the truth. Only when we can do that can we then harness those redeeming qualities of our nature capable of blazing a passage through to the Promised Land.

Some years back I read with some interest an essay on Dostoyevsky by a writer of my own generation, David Foster Wallace. As I finished the essay I became saddened at my fate. In my mind, there is the possibility of danger in appreciating Dostoyevsky while failing to appreciate Whitman. While Wallace achieved some renown, my own novel, a comic parable that attempts to convey some of the poetic spirit of Whitman's poetry, languished at the bottom of the slush pile (I would later learn that the same literary agency that had accepted Wallace had rejected me). Following Wallace's suicide, I'd read an article on the renowned writer who's writing seemed to have trajectory similar to my own. But I don't know that as to date I've only read that one essay.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Ancient Greek Mindset: Poetry and the Truth

As we continue our attempt to think outside of the modern mindset, as related in the previous blog, it would be well to turn to Ancient Greece. I don’t believe it’s by accident that Rimbaud’s poetic genius flourished with an eye towards Ancient Greece as related in his 1871 seer letter. Furthermore, I don’t believe it’s by accident that great poetry and great philosophy arose together at the same time and place that’s commonly referred to as the Golden Age of Greece. More than art, poetry can be about the truth and engender the positive emotion that promotes greater integrity of reason. With some correlation to Rimbaud’s seer letter, Edith Hamilton describes the ancient Greek mindset as follows, from her book, The Greek Way (an excerpt taken from a chapter about Plato, no less):
It is clear that in Greece the values were different from our own to-day. Indeed we are not able really to bring into one consistent whole their outlook upon life; from our point of view it seems to involve a self-contradiction. People so devoted to poetry as to make it a matter of practical importance must have been, we feel, deficient in the sense for what is practically important, dreamers, not alive to life’s hard facts. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Greeks were pre-eminently realists. The temper of mind that made them carve their statues and paint their pictures from the living human beings around them, that kept their poetry within the sober limits of the possible, made them hard-headed men in the world of every-day affairs. They were not tempted to evade facts. It is we ourselves who are the sentimentalist. We, to whom poetry, all art, is only a superficial decoration of life, made a refuge from a world too hard to face by sentimentalizing it. The Greeks looked straight at it. They were completely unsentimental.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Thinking Outside of the Modern Mindset: Revisiting an Ancient Argument

The importance of Black Elk’s vision is that it provides a perspective from outside of the modern era that can lend itself towards its transcendence. Another such perspective can be gleaned by revisiting an ancient argument, or difference, between poetry and philosophy (i.e., mythos and logos) as cited by Socrates in Plato’s Republic.

The modern era has exalted the notion of detached reason. It’s common to hear, “let’s set aside our emotions and address this reasonably.” But this is a false sentiment as neuroscientists have demonstrated that the ability to reason is inseparable from emotion. Rather, we should be attempting to promote the positive emotion that lends itself to greater integrity of reason.

The modern era has also demoted the notion of the myth. It’s common to hear , “That’s just a myth,” to be dismissive of something as untrue. A more accurate and working definition of myth we'll use here is as follows: the stories a society tells about itself. Rather being dismissive, we should ask how the mythos relates to the dynamics of our human nature; or how does the mythos enable or impair our ability to confront the truth.

The Promised Land Project weighs in on this “ancient argument” on the side of poetry while striving to provide a resolution to this ancient argument. More than art, poetry can be about the truth. Coming from this angle, the project can lend itself towards culturally transformative change at a time when incremental change is proving insufficient to meet challenges that have appeared on the horizon.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Black Elk: A Vision of Eastward Invasion

The individual consciousness of Whitman's vision of westward expansion, to my mind, should be balanced by the vision of Black Elk. As excerpted from his Great Vision as related in Black Elk Speaks, we get an illustration of a hunting and gathering society of the American Indian being forced into the modern era:
Then the people broke camp again, and saw the black road before them towards where the sun goes down, and black clouds coming yonder; and they did not want to go but could not stay. And as they walked the third ascent, all the animals and fowls that were the people ran here and there, for each one seemed to have his own little vision that he followed and his own rules; and all over the universe I could hear the winds at war like wild beasts fighting.
The "promised land" is symbolic of a shared vision, or a collective vision, that is capable of overriding and incorporating one's own personal vision. Put another way, the project strives to induce a greater sense of the 'we' over the 'I'. To some degree or other, the Promised Land Project provides a hypothetical means to reverse that which is occuring in the above excerpt from Black Elk's vision.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Whitman: A Vision of Westward Expansion

In turning away from Europe to write distinctly American poetry, Whitman would turn westward. The first edition of Leaves of Grass, published in 1855, arrived at a time of United States westward expansion. Whitman's visionary poetry can be both characteristic of his time and place in the nineteenth-century America and transcendent of his time.

In the poem "Song of Myself," one can see the individual pride and the nationalism that would take on more destructive forms in the twentieth-century. One can see the nineteenth century American rationale of manifest destiny as a precursor to the twentieth-century German rationale of Lebensraum. While one can see the individual pride that would become central to our present consumer culture, there is also in Whitman, I believe, that which remains transcendent and relevant to our current democratic society. Continuing on the Whitman trail, I believe we can discover that which can unite us.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Walt Whitman and the Modern Democratic Song

Walt Whitman consciously set himself apart from Europe in order to write poetry deemed distinctly American and the muse, more or less, would oblige. But Whitman could only set himself apart so much; for example, he wrote poetry in the English language, a language derived from Europe.

As the industrial revolution and the modern era would begin in Europe then become transplanted in America, so would the individual consciousness that first arose in Europe (see the previous blog, May 22) become transplanted to take an American form. The poem "One's Self I Sing" opens the final version of Leaves of Grass as follows, somewhat misconfigured:

One’s Self I Sing
One’s-self I sing, a simple separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse.

Of physiology from top to toe I sing,
Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the
Muse, I say the form complete is worthier far,
The Female equally with the Male I sing.

Of life immense in passion, pulse, and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

English Romanticism and the Rise of Individual Conciousness

As we continue to explore the foundations of modern poetry, we move into the realm of English Romanticism. Perhaps no poet personifies this movement more than the poet William Wordsworth. As Stephen Gill writes in his introduction to Wordsworth’s The Prelude:
The poem is a landmark in European literature because it records the coming into being of an individual consciousness at exactly the moment when European society was being tortured into extreme self-consciousness through the convulsion of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic war that followed.
The rise of individual consciousness in Europe would shape the modern mindset and appear prominently in Whitman's vision of American democracy as reflected in "Song of Myself."

Friday, May 21, 2010

On the Trail of the Poetic Genius

Continuing on the Whitman Trail, as it merges at points onto the Rimbaud trail, there's something about the poet that transcends his or her time while simultaneously being a product of that time and place. The reason we're following the trail of the poetic genius is to gain insight into the course of human evolution and determine where we need to go as a society. Writing in his study of Rimbaud, Henry Miller states as follows:

“The future always has and always will belong to – the poet.”

It serves our purposes to heed not only the poets of the past but our contemporary poets as well. On this blog, I'll be paying particular attention to the poets that shaped the foundations of modern poetry because we'll be addressing the rotten foundations that hold up the modern era. As we recognize ourselves as trailblazers and strive to discover a backdoor approach into the Promised Land, as we confront the various obstacles that may initially appear insurmountable, we can take heart on the nature of genius to find a way though no way may appear before our own eyes. The nature of genius can be a humbling experience. Describing the difference between talent and genius, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer states as follows:

“Talent hits a target that no one else can hit. But genius can hit the target that no one else can see.”

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Faith We'll Reach The Promised Land

The term The Promised Land may seem like a stale term. That's okay, on some level it seems stale to me as well. There's a part of me that wants to go with another title. To my ears, it sounds like something of a church cliche, which it is -- on some level. But it does provide an example of our attempt to revitalize old symbols. The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy defines the term as follows:

Promised Land: The land that God promised he would give to the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; the "land flowing with milk and honey"; the ..land.. of ..Canaan.., or ....Palestine..... The Israelites did not take it over until after the Exodus, when they conquered the people already living there.
By extension, an idyllic place or state of being that a person hopes to reach, especially one that cannot be reached except by patience and determination, is called a "Promised Land." (my bold to emphasize how it relates to our purposes)

As we attempt to restore a shared vision, as mentioned in the previous blog, it's prudent to heed our visionaries and Martin Luther King, Jr. may well have been the last American prophet we had. The context of his use of the term Promised Land excerpted in the following speech made on the eve of his assassination, by itself lends revitalization and lends me to believe, by God, we'll get there one way or another:

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Addressing a Spiritual Crisis in the Modern Democratic Society

To use the term crisis is to imply a state of urgency, something that one may sense on an emotional level. A working definition I use for a spiritual crisis is, simply, when entrenched narrow interests threaten the integrity of the greater collective. But whether or not we're at a crisis depends on one's sense of urgency. The Promised Land Project provides a hypotheical means to address a spiritual crisis in the modern democratic society. To address a spiritual crisis, as I see it, requires some kind of spiritual movement. But I expect its roots to be in poetry rather than religion, though religion is a part of it. It's about revitalizing the moral culture as a whole; and religion is a part of that culture, as is art, ideals, history, and other aspects.

In modern poetry, and much of contemporary poetry, there's a continued fascination with novelty that leaves it, to some degree or other, stuck on "The Voyage" of French poet Charles Baudelaire. The last lines of this poem, translated, are as follows:

To plunge to the bottom of the abyss, whether it be Heaven or Hell,
To the bottom of the Unknown in order to find something new!


As we're trying to reach the former rather than the latter of the two places mentioned above, our retort to American poet Ezra Pound's dictum to "make it new" is something different, if not new: revitalize the old. This is to say we're attempting to take up old symbols and breathe new life into them. "The Promised Land" is symbolic of a shared vision. One means to address a spiritual crisis is to restore a shared vision, which is why our trail of the poetic genius also merges with recognized visionaries. Addressing the matter of self-interest, which is part of human nature, a shared vision can enable the individual to feel his or her self as being part of something greater than the self, it can imbue the individual with a sense of purpose beyond his or her self. But the key words here are feel and sense.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Revitalization of Art and Life

I'm not one to call poetry a dead art form but it's not surprising the proclamation gets tossed around a bit: it could use some revitalization. Rimbaud attempted as much, and not without some success; yet the ramifications of his art would also help to set poetry on a path towards increasing esotericism. Rather than referring to poetry as a dead art form, I put it more diplomatically: as the avant-garde pushed the margins of the art form, the art form has become marginalized. I've read before that poets inhabit the margins of society but can come to the forefront in times of crisis. The Promised Land Project provides a vision of how poetry does just that.

In his study of Rimbaud, the writer Henry Miller states as follows: "It does not require paper and ink to create poetry or to disseminate it. Primitive peoples on the whole are poets of action, poets of life." Recalling as we set out on the Whitman trail (see blog, May 17th), the challenge is to move poetry from the pages to the people, from the written poetic, paper and types, or paper and ink, to the living poetic, bodies and souls, poets of life. Thus we're attempting a revitalization of both art and life where poetry, and art in general, give rhythm to action, as Rimbaud put it in his 1871 seer letter.

Merging on to the Rimbaud Trail

There is in poetry a streak of men and women who seem to strive toward something beyond the literary art form, where poetry serves as a means toward a greater society. Such was the case of the French prodigy poet Arthur Rimbaud, who, as a mere teenager, would also cause a revolution in written poetry and provide another part of the foundation of modern poetry. Rimbaud used poetry as a means to become a seer, in correlation to the tumultuous times of the Paris Commune. He'd hoped to restore the people to an optimal, primitive state of existence at times referred to, vaguely, as "sun-child". Rimbaud would fail in this attempt and ultimately renounce his methods.

The trails of both Whitman and Rimbaud come together in that the source of their poetry was inward, toward the primitive, or primal, self. One might call this the soul, or primal soul. The Promised Land Project strives to make sense of the present and project a greater future through the lens of the primal past. On the Whitman trail, this is reflected in a single line from "Song of Myself", where the poet seems to go inward then project outward:

I speak the password primeval....I give the sign of democracy

Monday, May 17, 2010

Setting Out on the Whitman Trail

This is unfinished business with me….how is it with you?
I was chilled with the cold types and cylinder and wet paper between us.

I pass so poorly with paper and types….I must pass with the contact of bodies and souls.

-- from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, 1855
So begins the second poem from the first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass in 1855. The opening poem of that edition, later to be titled, “Song of Myself”, would cause a revolution in written poetry and provide part of the foundation of what would become modern poetry. Part of the genius in Whitman’s poetry is that at he can have a way of addressing the reader as though he were talking over your shoulder; and as the second poem begins, Whitman seems to look back at the ecstatic assertions of the opening poem and already recognize the limitations of poetry in written form.

The Promised Land Project is about moving poetry from the pages to the people. We recognize the limitations of the written word. Consequently, it's not so important to read everything I write nor is it to understand or agree with what I write. Written communication has its contribution, as does written poetry, but ultimately it is the affect that we're after, or the feeling, beyond the symbols. The project is about taking a poetic approach that is the creative use of symbol and metaphor to evoke the spirit. Thus we're creating a kind of poetry-based spiritual movement. But we're attempting to move beyond paper and types, that is, the written poetic. We're attempting to move towards a poetry of bodies and souls, that is, the living poetic.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

NY Times Editorial on an Approach to Cultural Change

Another David Brooks editorial. While I don't always agree with him, he seems to have an integrity and breadth of knowledge to consistently draw on as we engage the broad issue of cultural change. In this editorial, Brooks highlights an approach to cultural change that may work in conjunction with the Promised Land Project. Then again, it may not; I'd have to learn more about it.

NY Times Editorial on the Limits of Legislative Change

New York Times columnist David Brooks provides an editorial on the limitations for top down change to occur. The Promised Land Project promotes a bottom up change approach.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

D.H. Lawrence quote about the ideal

"Morality which is based on ideas, or on an ideal, is an unmitigated evil. No absolute is going to make the lion lie down with the lamb unless the lamb is inside. It is no good casting out devils. They belong to us, we must accept them and be at peace with them." -- D.H. Lawrence