Because I can\u2019t get it all from staring at her collected poems and trying to write my own [crappily] in the same form, I really need to look at her letters because they are extraordinary \u2013 just as intense, condensed, experimental, elliptical, and fascinating as her poems.<\/p>\n
Okay then\u2026so I need a general bio for context, after which I\u2019m planning to focus on two of her most ambiguous, interesting, and charged correspondences. The first are to her sister-in-law, Susan Huntington Dickinson.<\/a> The first are interesting because there\u2019s an open question about what sort of relationship the two had. They were both writers, and Susan knew more than anyone about Dickinson\u2019s poetry, having received 250+ poems over their 30+-year correspondence. For Dickinson, the relationship was at once intimate, cherished, world-opening, and contentious.<\/p>\n The second are three fragmentary texts known as the Master<\/i> letters \u2013 i.e., after the addressee. They are very\u2026charged. What the hell are those things \u2013 diary entries, poetry, draft letters, fair copies of sent letters, literary experiments? And the addressee \u2013 a real person, different real people, an imaginary person, different imaginary people, a personification, a deity, an abstraction, and\/or several of the above? Here\u2019s an overview<\/a> of the Master<\/i> letters, which, of course, assumes that they are all about SEX!!!! D: D: D:<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to go with my favorite answer to questions like, \u201cAre you x, y, or z?\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n Pro tip: Depending on how sarcastic and\/or generally devious the people in your head are, do not use this formulation when asking them questions because you\u2019ll only get one answer instead of the three you expected. And, even if that single answer is the most accurate, it\u2019s neither explicit, nor elaborate, nor ultimately satisfying.<\/p>\n \u201cRight then. So is there any way at all of you answering my questions in a more useful fashion?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy answers are plenty useful. It\u2019s just your perspective that\u2019s unhelpful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re<\/i> unhelpful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very helpful. It ain\u2019t my fault if you\u2019re not ready to consider the truth of what I say.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo, in other words, you\u2019re quoting the Gospel according to Mick: \u2018Thou canst not always get what thou wantest, but, if thou tryest sometimes, thou just might find, thou gettest what thou needest?\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n \u201cWell, the archaic conjugation kinda kills the meter, but the sentiment\u2019s correct.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because I can\u2019t get it all from staring at her collected poems and trying to write my own [crappily] in the same form, I really need to look at her letters because they are extraordinary \u2013 just as intense, condensed, experimental, elliptical, and fascinating as her poems. Okay then\u2026so I need a general bio for… Continue reading The time has come to figure out what the hell Emily Dickinson was doing.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[731,639],"class_list":["post-8816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-poetry","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8817,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8816\/revisions\/8817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/oddpla.net\/modernwizard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}