Mallarme Post - Michelle Wolff

            I found it very difficult to interpret Mallarme. I thought this because he used several unconventional methods of writing. Mallarme makes interpretations confusing in the way in which he places words on the page. When I started to read Mallarme for the first time, I was not sure how to begin reading the piece. Since the words are not in the traditional straight lines, I didn’t know what word I was supposed to read next. I had to sort of “eye ball” what word was higher on the page in relation to the others to see what the word order was. Once I figured out how to read the piece, the rest continued to flow. I started to think that Mallarme intended for this piece to be read quickly, due to his few words on the page, but the trouble came as to what word was to be read next. In the piece, Mallarme writes essentially one word on a line, so it takes almost no time at all to read the whole page. Once I figured out the word order, I read it extremely quickly. One of the interesting techniques Mallarme used was he placed the words on a page so they at first seemed random in placement, but once I started to read closer and analyze the words, I came to the conclusion that the placement of them was not random at all. For instance, in one excerpt from the piece, it states,

“veil of illusion being splashed back their obsession, along with the wraith of a gesture

            will falter

            and fall

                                   

                                    sheer folly,”

An interesting observation about this is the relationship between the words and the visual placement of the words. The specific words, “falter,” “fall,” and “folly” all have a “falling” like sound to them. Although they have different definitions, their similar sounds can help group them together. Also, the placement of them on the page parallels their sounds. Mallarme chooses to place these words towards the bottom of the page to match the continuous “falling theme.” He also cleverly places them in a falling, descending order down the page to show the words themselves sort of “falling.” This is unique because it is not often that the placement of the words themselves contributes to the overall mood or tone the passage is trying to convey.

I do think that Mallarme’s language is nonsense. I think that sometimes he does make sense in his words but I think the part of his work that is non-traditional is his visual style. For instance, his placement of words on a page and also his use of varied font sizes, helps contribute to his unconventional methods. But I think overall his work is possibly regarded as nonsense because he writes many thoughts in his work that do not always flow together. The confusion also comes from the difficulties of figuring out how to read his work. Once I understood how to read the piece, I really enjoyed its complexness even though there were only a few words on a page. The simplicity of the pages surprisingly turned out to be not that simple.