mallarme - connor chapman

The pages that stood out to the most by far were 163 through 165, which makes the most sense (no pun intended, I'm pretty sure), since Mallarme more likely than not wanted to make the biggest impact on his audience in the beginning. Here he drops the word "DICETHROW" all capitalized, and phrases all trickle down both pages, and these phrases also begin to mention waves, and both of these concepts relate to chance. I read ahead a little bit, and thought about the first few pages of Tender Buttons, and after reading the preface, the back of the book, and listening to my professor's preface of her work, she apparently is painting pictures of each tiny little perception of this or that as it permeates Gertrude Stein's thoughts. It is very apparent that Mallarme's work here is its forerunner, but instead of the concept of perception, there reside in this part of the text the themes of chance and uncertainty. In a way, Mallarme is vomiting onto paper something very distinct. It appears a mess, but at the same time, he is getting at something: all of that which pertains what he feels is chance.

Mallarme's language, I would argue, is not the language of nonsense. In fact, I'd argue that nothing we've read thus far is genuine nonsense. Everyone's definition of nonsense, of course, varies, but here he is still keeping in with a specific theme, and the way these phrases all diagonally go from the top left to the bottom right of each page represents this in a strictly visual sense--even if I had zero knowledge of English (or French, for that matteR), it would not be unreasonable to assume that Mallarme was still doing something with the placement of the phrases themselves. It's unconventional, sure, but it works. Nonsense doesn't mean meaninglessness, nor does it necessarily mean bad writing, either here or in Tender Buttons, in Lear's poetry or in Alice. Nothing can be inherently random, even if we want it to be. To draw on my first nonsense blog post, for example, I wasn't getting at any specific themes, and it wasn't going anywhere, though Morelli and Freud would probably disagree and have a word or two with me.

Thing is, though, I don't know else nonsense can be conveyed or what nonsense will convey after reading all this.

Blog 2 - Mallarme & The Language of Nonsense : Nicole Seifert

Using our previous methods of analysis on Mallarme's work creates a few difficulties based on the difference between these pieces and the work of Carroll and Lear, but it may also provide some meaningful insight. We may focus mainly on content, as we did for most of Carroll's writing, excluding the mouse's tail/tale poem. In this sense, "A Dice Throw" reads similarly to many other poems; its meaning is not direct, yet we are unlikely to apply the term "nonsense" to it. The presence of recurring themes throughout the poem provides continuity and allows us to hold some expectations that are accordingly met.

With Lear's limericks, we spoke about how the form "carries" the poem, i.e. the form prevails over to the content to the extent that the content's sense may be sacrificed to preserve the form. This does not seem to be true in regards to Mallarme, yet form is vital in a different way. There are many passages where the form and content reflect upon each other. Additionally, the element of sound links to content and form (and also plays a role in Carroll's and Lear's works). For example,  "will falter / and fall / sheer folly" (168) provides a visual falling motion whilst the alliterating f-sound ties the lines together. The polysemy of fall here (meaning a physical fall or a metaphorical fall, e.g. failure) vaguely represents the homophony of tail/tale by Carroll, which shows that Mallarme also plays close attention to language and uses it as a multipurpose object. (Note: I am not sure if the polysemy of fall applies to the untranslated work, but I still think it's presence in the English translation holds some relevance.)

Mallarme makes analysis difficult with the very open interpretation possibilities of his work. Depending on whether the reader focuses on a visual, auditory, or purely content-based reading (or a combination of these), the meaning they produce may be completely different from when they focus from a different angle. Also, Mallarme's writing is the farthest from our world that we have experienced so far. Both Carroll's and Lear's writing are based on our world with a twist that defies our expectations of what roles people, animals, and objects fulfill. Mallarme's, on the other hand, provides content that does not necessarily defy our views of what is normal, but disturbs our sense of continuity in both form and content. In regards to form, the structure of the poem is so out of the ordinary that we may disagree upon which order to read the lines. For content, concepts and themes are brought up in a way that we must link them together on our own; there is not distinct plot or meaning (and this holds true for many poems). For these reasons, I perceive Mallarme's language as a bit more nonsensical than that of Carroll or Lear because it breaks more of our expectations that those it meets. However, it is only this balance between sense and nonsense, i.e. the inclusion of worldly concepts, themes, and events, that allows the nonsense aspect to unfold.

Mallarme Free Write- Ball

The most obvious example of the layout reflecting the text comes on the first page as Mallarme describes the "frenzied", desperate glide of the Chasm. The steep fall of the text seemed to evoke a feeling of slipping, of losing control (perhaps related to chance?). It took me longer to notice, but the layout of the passage on the second page also reflects the image evoked in the text, the subtle listing back and forth of a ship on the water as one regains control from the fall.
As I write this, reading the passage aloud in the middle of the DUC, I feel as if I am only beginning to understand this passage in its entirety. It was a bit jarring for me how Mallarme jumps from the image of the chasm gliding "on a wing its own" to returning to the image of the ship. While I found this poem enjoyable, I also found that certain sections were somewhat hard to follow and read almost like a polished stream of consciousness piece, like a rant with connections only evident to he ranter. Meanwhile, I am the rantee, utterly rapt in the words but not really understanding what I'm supposed to be learning. However, I can see the connections between the Void and the Sea very clearly in this passage through the layout. The Chasm, the abstract image of chance, falls before steadying itself and becoming the more concrete ocean while still remaining of itself in the sail. The danger that chance presents is constantly visible in both the fall and the ship's fight through the waves.

I feel like my lack of ship and ship-related knowledge is somehow impeding me in reading this poem. Can anyone who has ever encountered a ship help me decipher some of the language in the last few lines? What is the span? Is that a ship part? Google isn't helping.

Mallarme's Nonsense Language- Ball

I found it hard to determine whether or not Mallarme’s language, as seen in “A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance” and “Sonnet on X”, can truly be defined as the language of nonsense. While, for Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, one could clearly say that the nonsense found in their work was derived from language, the nonsense found in Mallarme’s work is much more subtle, and it can be found in a variety of aspects of the text.

                Whereas a large portion of the nonsense in Lear and Carroll’s work can be found in fantastic imagery and direct logical contradictions, Mallarme’s language usage is much more concrete. As opposed to disproportionate noses and rabbits in waistcoats, the imagery in “A Throw of the Dice” is very much grounded in realism, relying heavily on the image of ships on the water, pens, and the titular throw of the dice. However, in spite of the difference in imagery, the logical flow of the story progression of the works discussed are very similar. While the imagery is often very clear, the flow of events often makes it difficult to explain what the poem is “about”.

                However, the majority of the nonsense in Mallarme’s work is not derived from the language but rather the formatting of the poems. This is especially apparent in “A Throw of the Dice” but can also be seen less prominently in “Sonnet on X”. Mallarme’s formatting causes one to be thrown off whereas other nonsense writers we have discussed have a tendency to stick to established poem formats such as the limerick to “carry” the nonsensical content. Mallarme’s work is very jarring for the everyday reader, and this greatly contributes to the nonsense value of his work.

                While the language of Mallarme does have elements in common with other nonsense writers such as Lear and Carroll, I would not say that his language is that of nonsense. The nonsense to be found in his work is too nuanced to be attributed to something as simple as language and instead is a composite of a variety of literary elements.

Blog Post 2 Mallarme-Merchant

          In the past few weeks we have talked about nonsensical poetry and literature in class with examples from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Edward Lear’s whimsical limericks. We analyzed their work in great detail and saw how these two authors depended on the form and rhythm of their writing rather than the depth of meaning of the words. In these examples both Carroll and Lear wrung out certain words in the English language by twisting and morphing them to fit their needs—it did not matter whether or not their writing actually made sense, they rather focused on the sounds and rhythm of their passages. We discovered how both writers played with words and the English language to create literature that made no logical sense but it fit into the purpose of creating nonsense. Mallarme on the other hand has a very different style of writing where even though some people may classify it as nonsense, I disagree.

            I would say that Edward Lear’s limericks that we read in class fit into the complete nonsense literature pile. When you read his poems you see that his main purpose of writing was to create a piece with 4 lines that rhyme. That was his sole purpose and therefore when read aloud, Lear’s limericks had a beautiful flow and rhythm but the words made absolutely no sense. I believe Mallarme’s writing differed greatly. Instead of focusing solely on the form and structure of the piece he wanted to write, the French poet instead paid greater attention to the content and meaning of the poem rather than focusing on the rhythm. You can still see when you read his poems that they still have a specific pattern and rhythm but the rhymes have been molded around the meaning and not the other way around like Lear’s poems. Because content is given such importance in Mallarme’s work, I do not believe his language is one of nonsense. Mallarme did not create words to add in his poems because he wanted better rhymes but rather found other ways he could create a steady beat in his work where he could work around the words he wanted to use.

            Mallarme’s work may be considered nonsense due to his unconventional style of writing which combines many different styles of fonts, sizes, spacing, and capitalization but a closer reading of his poem will demonstrate how important all of these factors are to the meaning of the text. He uses fonts to emphasize certain words and phrases, which add to the poems interpretation. He creates a unique visualization with his creative use of spacing, which helps the reader connect the poem together. In “A Dice Throw” Mallarme structures the words on the page to resemble the path of a rolling dice to show its random nature, which he then compares to the uncertain movement of the sea. Mallarme makes is difficult to interpret his poetry as nonsense because it does have a deeper meaning unlike Lear’s limericks, he just created his own unique structure, which may be more unconventional.

Amanda Codling- Mallarme

Mallarme’s can be interpreted in many different ways, including by the angles of words and visual representation, a word as an object or thing and common language practices and language etiquette. In his work, Mallarme delves into a world of convention breaking, while still maintaining conventions that would add to his piece in a very nonconventional way.

He really plays with the original purpose of words. People tend to use words specifically for their meaning. For example, if I were to tell a friend of mine, “hello”, I would want her to understand that I am greeting her since that is the purpose and the meaning behind hello. Mallerme, on the other hand uses words for exactly what they are in many cases, ink on a page. In daily conversation and in works of literature, the words have their own meaning and are given even more by the contextual clues. We were always told as a child first learning to pick up on the context clues if we want to understand what the ‘it’ the passage is referring to was. Mallarme took context clues to a different level with his style of espacement. Much of the words meaning was greater understood do to its placement on the page and its proximity to other words. This gives his texts a sort of visual manifestation of meaning without having used any words. When we were analyzing Lear’s limericks, we noted that his limericks almost don’t have the same effect and meaning had the drawings not been there. In the same sense, Mallarme’s poems would not have the same meaning and would be very confusing had the spacing not been present. To even further his point of words just being there, he changed the style of the writing part of the way through his poem. At one section where this happened, he was talking about a quill. The combination of talking about a quill and changing the writing style to handwriting helped give the passage more meaning. He used a combination of the definition of words, the spacing on the page, the size of the word and various formatting techniques to convey the actual meaning of his words.

In this poem, we see that proper language etiquette, such as punctuation and plot development is lacking. He sets up themes and rhythms that allow the poem to flow on, but does not utilize transitions, commas, or periods. This is something so heavily emphasized in all basic writing. We learn that sentences stop at periods, but if you must pause in the middle of it, include a comma. Mallarme, on the other hand, stops you with his spacing. He never ends his sentences. He ends this thoughts, drives them forward, and stops them with sound. Instead of using exclamation points, he capitalizes, bold faces and enlarges words and phrases. Unlike Carroll, Mallarme does not try to explain himself for disrupting etiquette at the end. He flowed because he wanted to and even if you tried not to, you felt something in reading his poem.

I believe Mallarme is the language of nonsense, because while I did see some themes in this reading, I did not actually understand what was going on. He described different situations and ideas, but there was no formal transition from one to another. His poem was too open. He gave the nautical theme, but he also emphasized the theme of chance. It’s up to the reader to try to understand how everything fits together and understand the true underlying meaning of the poem. If three different people were given that task, the responses would be different. For example, when I read this poem, I thought of a reflection on life. Life is full of chance events and sometimes it feels like the result of many of your decisions is a dice throw. We can’t predict the future, so we just make our choices and hope that “MAYBE” something amazing will happen.

This particular line illustrates the inextricable relationship between form and meaning, which also echo one another. Mallarme employed a lot of techniques for aesthetics and form throughout the poem and this page illustrates many of them such as capitalization, italicization, and font size.

If we look at the text’s particular arrangement on the page, we observe that the words progress downwards to the end of the page. Therefore it meets the reader’s expectations in regards to words such as “Down falls” and “abyss.” Looking at these together, it appears that meaning can be drawn because just as the “Down falls” signals, the words physically ‘fall’ down the page into an ‘abyss.’ It is as if the text is performing the actions signaled by the words themselves. In this way, the words become more than words on a page that are read but rather material things that work together with the blank space to echo the content.  Just as the rhythmic quality of Lear’s poem often had us overlook the nonsense, the aesthetic of Mallarme’s poem acts in the same way in our analysis. This particular example shows how form and content echo each other.

Mallarme-Joan Shang

We’ve learned and practiced techniques for analyzing nonsense poetry in works such as Alice in Wonderland and Lear’s poems. Specifically, in Alice in Wonderland we learned that we often treat language as a material thing when we don’t understand it. Words transform into a thing rather than a means of communication. This is one of the ways that we’ve come to understand nonsense in our analysis of such works. Using this particular tool, we can analyze Mallarme in that the words are often perceived a material thing on the page. They are as much a ‘thing’ on the page as they are a communication medium; perhaps in some parts of the work we see instances of the former more than the latter. For example the following words form a ‘wing’ shape on the page: “WHETHER the Chasm whitish fullitude frenzied down a declivity desperately glides on a wing its own in….” (164).  Without being in their original arrangement across the page, this phrase doesn’t seem to make too much sense. However, in their arranged places on the page, there is a meaning conveyed that wasn’t present in the former situation illustrated above. The words serve as a guide for our eyes as they decline down the page in the form of a wing. The synergy of words as communication and material thing creates a meaning that we were unable to get before.

In some ways, Mallarme makes it difficult to analyze the nonsense poetry because it seems to make sense. That is, the meaning of words and the shapes they form seem to fit the meaning that is being portrayed. Yet if we look at the words in an isolated manner, examining the shape itself or meaning of words itself then it becomes much more nonsensical. The form/structure and words appear inextricable.

It is difficult to analyze it because the form/structure aligns with what the words seem to be communicating. When identifying Mallarme’s language as nonsense or not, I acknowledge that there is no definitive grasp on this element because of the paradoxical situation that we run into. However, if we look at it overall, I would say that it is nonsense as we see many characteristics in Mallarme’s work that echoes those preset in Alice in Wonderland and Lear’s poems. One particular characteristic that stands out is meaning as secondary. Alice in Wonderland achieved this by employing various techniques such as polysemy and circular conversations that closed off meaning. Lear’s poems achieve this by prioritizing form and choosing works for the sake of rhyming over the meaning of words. In a similar way, Mallarme makes meaning secondary by rigorously employing aesthetics over the actual meaning of words. For example, the manipulation of spacing, blank space, and text to represent something or action is an example of aesthetics employed by Mallarme. Just like Lear, words seem to be chosen for their sound. The following example shows this: “will falter and fall sheer folly.” Examples such as this illustrate how Mallarme’s work exhibits nonsensical language.  

Free-write - Melissa Mendoza

In the passage “A Dice Throw” on page 180 and 181, Mallarme uses both form and content in relation with one another. The passage is,

“EXCEPT

on high

PERHAPS

as far away as a place           merges beyond

                                                                        outside any interest

                                                            assigned to it

                                                                        in a general way

                        by certain obliquity in a certain declivity

                                                                                    of flames

                                               

toward

            what must be

                     Septentrion as well as North”

This passage demonstrates the relationship between the form and content because the positioning of the words give them a better three-dimensional sensation. By placing the word “high” at the very top of the page and capitalizing “perhaps,” Mallarme creates the feeling of being elevated and placing an emphasis on the possibility. The capitalization of this word also brought to mind an image of someone who dawns on an idea, lifts up his or her finger and suddenly says “perhaps…” which in my opinion, allows for greater connections between the author, the passage and the reader. Another example of this relationship was in the phrase “outside any interest” which happened to be close to outside of the range of the rest of the poem. There is a feeling of disconnection and later which may relate back to the feeling of separation when in the ocean. Feeling further away from reality is something that can be experienced in the midst of the ocean, especially when thinking about being in an abyss.

I looked up also the definition of Septentrion and found it was a Latin word for “of the North.” What was more significant to me was that when I read the word “toward,” I felt that the passage had been guiding me all along, to what eventually would be north. Meaning in this passage did not come from one particular way of reading. When I first read it, I had almost no idea what I was reading or how it was supposed to be read. But after rereading it, and listening to it in class, I was able to further examine the structure of the passage and use it’s movement and content to guide me to a clearer understanding of what Mallarme may have intended to say.