Category Archives: Remediation

Space Brownies: Alice B. Toklas, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs

Posted on May 16, 2012 by wcd2

May 16, 2012 Gertrude Stein was dead at that point; she had died in 1947. In 1952 Alice signed a contract with Harper’s to write a cookbook. Then in her 70s, Alice was not as quick with her pen as … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts communities, collaboration, Experimental poetry, film medium, Food in literature, Handwritten script, Interdisciplinarity, Media, Modern art, print medium, Publishers, Radio, Remediation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged Alice B. Toklas, Brion Gysin, canibus sativa, cookbook, cut-up method, Gertrude Stein, Harper's, hash brownie, hippie counterculture, I Love You, mash-up, Nova Trilogy, Peter Sellers, remix, William S. Burroughs | 2 Comments

Edwidge Danticat: French, English, Creole

Posted on March 14, 2012 by wcd2

March 14, 2012 Her first languages were Creole and French. At 12, she spoke almost no English. At 26, her collection of short stories, Krik? Krak!, was nominated for the National Book Award. It’s mind-boggling to think of that trajectory … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Caribbean literature, collaboration, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, Creole, Gender, Global South, Igbo, Latin America, Media, mixed races, peripheral networks, print medium, Radio, Remediation, Translation | Tagged Chinua Achebe, Creole, Edwidge Danticat, French, Haiti, Igbo language, Joseph Conrad, Krik? Krak!, literacy, mediascape, National Book Award, Paris Review, Polish, Radio Lumière | 82 Comments

Yusef Komunyakaa and Chad Gracia, Gilgamesh

Posted on February 22, 2012 by wcd2

February 22, 2012 I’ve never given a talk at UCLA. Caltech, yes, in nearby Pasadena; also the Huntington Library. But never at the famed Royce Hall, 405 Hilgard Avenue. So I’m a bit anxious about tomorrow: a graduate student … Continue reading →

Posted in adaptation, Classics, collaboration, Comparative literature, contemporary poetry, Cuneiform, Dance, epic, Handwritten script, Mesopotamia, Near Eastern poetry, Remediation, Theater, Translation, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged Caltech, Chad Gracia, Cunieform, Enkidu, epic, Gilgamesh, Huntington Library, Ode to the Maggot, Our Oriental Heritage, Pasadena, Sumeria, UCLA, Will Durant, Yusef Komunyakaa | 67 Comments

Langston Hughes, Jacob Lawrence

Posted on February 8, 2012 by wcd2

February 8, 2012 Langston Hughes never went to Black Mountain College, but maybe he didn’t need to. 1948-49 was emblematic. A no doubt incomplete list of what happened during those months: in June 1948, Langston Hughes moved into 20 East … Continue reading →

Posted in abstract expressionism, collaboration, Cuban poetry, Media, Modernist poetry, print medium, Remediation, Translation, twentieth century art, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts | Tagged Arno Bontemps, Ben Frederic Carruthers, Black Mountain College, City Center, Cuba, Cuba Libre, Haiti, Home in a Box, Jacob Lawrence, Kurt Weill, Langston Hughes, New York, Nicolas Guillen, One-Way Ticket, Poetry of the Negro, Street Scene, Troubled Island, William Grant Still | 21 Comments

Two-Way Street

Posted on January 18, 2012 by wcd2

January 18, 2012 Alex Steele never took a class from me. I don’t think I’d ever seen her around the department. But my colleague, Richard Deming, who was going to direct her senior essay, is away on a Fellowship … Continue reading →

Posted in Contemporary Art, Egypt, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, Translation | Tagged Andrew Seguin, Matt Kish, Melville, Moby-Dick, new media, One Drawing for Every Page of Moby-Dick, pedagogy | 162 Comments

Agha Shahid Ali’s “Call me Ishmael Tonight”

Posted on January 4, 2012 by wcd2

January 4, 2012 This was his last book of poems, published posthumously. Agha Shahid Agha had died of brain cancer on December 8, 2001. How important was Moby-Dick to the Kashmiri poet? Probably less than what Melvilleans would like to … Continue reading →

Posted in Islam, lyric, Near Eastern poetry, Nineteenth-century literature, Remediation, Translation, Twentieth century literature, world literature, World religions | Tagged Agha Shahid Ali, Amitav Ghosh, Arabic, Bible, Call Me Ishmael Tonight, Donald Hall, Edward Said, ghazal, Hayden Carruth, Kashmir, Mark Strand, Melville, Moby-Dick, Persian, Qur'an, W.S. Merwin | 62 Comments

Frank Stella re-mediates Moby-Dick

Posted on December 28, 2011 by wcd2

December 28, 2011 The numbers speak for themselves. Begun in 1985, the Moby-Dick series is still ongoing, with one or more artworks corresponding to each of the 135 chapter titles, over 300 of them at this point. They are mostly … Continue reading →

Posted in abstract expressionism, Chinese art, epic, Japanese art, Near Eastern poetry, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, twentieth century art, world literature | Tagged "Near East Series", Australia, Frank Stella, Herman Melville, Islamic decorative arts, Japan, Moby-Dick, MOMA, Robert K. Wallace, Roberta Smith, world literature | 168 Comments

Collaboration with Chance

Posted on December 21, 2011 by wcd2

December 21 On our Facebook page, Edgar Garcia posted a link to Jackson Mac Low’s Words nd Ends from Ez. Ezra Pound, of course. The two poets used to be friends, but they were no longer close when Mac Low … Continue reading →

Posted in epic, Experimental poetry, Music, Nineteenth-century literature, print medium, Remediation, Rock music, Twentieth century literature | Tagged Add new tag, chance, Experimental poetry, Ezra Pound, Herman Melville, Jackson Mac Low, John Bonham, John Cage, Led Zeppelin, Moby-Dick, Music, randomization, Rock music | 9 Comments