so i'm reading this book...

called Eimi (pronounced "a-Me", he says), by E. E. Cummings.

Have you read E. E. Cummings? I remember a poem of his that we read in high school. I hated it. Absolutely despised him for writing it. It was completely nonsensical.

And now, as it turns out, I think his style is quite brilliant. The book, Eimi, is stylistically very "E. E. Cummings," (google his poem called "the
sky was"). He is wholly unconventional and often refuses to make (inherent) sense. And I LOVE it.

This book is about Kemminkz\Peesahtel\Hoodozhnik\E. E. Cumming's trip through Soviet Russia in 1931, where he finds a "subhuman communist superstate,where men are shadows & women are nonmen." Fascinating. I think it appeals to me largely because it is the diary of a (fellow) traveller--a haphazardly attempt at analyzing the ways of being, foreignly. Of course, there's also the appeal of deciphering Englench* and pseudoRussian tidbits.

He opens this edition with a complete summary, day by day, page by page, of the events that will transpire in the book. This way:

June 1

hop down from upper shelf---chocolate with Gentle---his story:3 armies,misery & pogroms(268-269) but now all's well;yet he's depressed(269). 2 GPUs board chattering train---total terror & absolute silence:passengers & baggage searched---cops vanish(270). Kiev:untaxi to hotel(271)---a chair floors me---(272). Sweet air---I stroll---oldmen on hilltop. Marvellous starry churches---here the lone star of socialism dies---I attend a service(273). Magnificent sunset. I go to bed dinnerless.

This book is like an entire novel written in prose-like poetry. I'm excited. Enthralled, even.

I'm not saying I'm going to finish it or anything.


*like Spanglish, but with the -ench one instead

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As I'm writing this, I am listening to a catchy song that I've listened to a few times, but never really LISTENED to, if you know what I mean. As I'm half-listening to the lyrics, I hear: Santa Lucia, Barrio Bellavista, San Cristobal, across the Mapocho, La Moneda,La Casa Neruda.....this song is about Santiago! ...The city smothered in the smog, the snippy snap at wild dogs... I love those dogs! I like this place.