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Paul Metcalf (1) (1917–1999)

Forfatter af Genoa: A Telling of Wonders

For andre forfattere med navnet Paul Metcalf, se skeln forfatterne siden.

Paul Metcalf (1) has been aliased into Paul C. Metcalf.

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Værker af Paul Metcalf

Works have been aliased into Paul C. Metcalf.

Genoa: A Telling of Wonders (1965) 95 eksemplarer
Waters of Potowmack (1982) 42 eksemplarer
The Middle Passage (1971) 14 eksemplarer
Both (1982) 12 eksemplarer
U.S. Dept. of the Interior (1980) 11 eksemplarer
Araminta and the Coyotes (1991) 9 eksemplarer
Where Do You Put the Horse? (1977) 8 eksemplarer
I-57 (1984) 7 eksemplarer
Mountaineers Are Always Free! (1991) 7 eksemplarer
Louis the Torch (1983) 6 eksemplarer
Merrill Cove (1998) 5 eksemplarer

Associated Works

Works have been aliased into Paul C. Metcalf.

Triquarterly 19 (Fall 1970) For Edward Dahlberg (1970) — Bidragyder — 4 eksemplarer
Glitch 4/5 (1981) — Bidragyder — 3 eksemplarer
Lillabulero, Number 12, A Special Issue for Paul Metcalf (1973) — Bidragyder — 2 eksemplarer
New World Journal, Vol. 1, No.4 (1979) — Bidragyder — 2 eksemplarer
Glitch 1 — Bidragyder — 2 eksemplarer
Fire Exit, 4 — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
Ironwood 28 Dickinson/Spicer: A Special Issue — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
Vort #4, Fall 1973 — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
HAWK-WIND #1 — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
New World Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2/3 — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar
Fire Exit 3 — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar

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Almen Viden

Fødselsdato
1917
Dødsdag
1999-01-21
Køn
male
Nationalitet
USA
Relationer
Melville, Herman (great-grandfather)

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

Genoa-A Telling of Wonders
clubfoot : ahab foot
rolling plains : "roughly like the sea" ... our sacred cow
Attic (greek) : the boat
moving backwards on the stern (walking in chains, feeling of being dragged) : a backwards teleology
ahab's violent thrust reflected (Melville, in the Pacific—the western extreme of American force—untethered, fatherless, the paternity blasted—turning—as Ahab—with vengeance and malice to match the monster’s: turning and thrusting back to his own beginnings: to Moby-Dick, the white monster: to Maria Gansevoort Melville . . .)
twinning/division (explicitly at the end of the third chapter), discourse of Janus in Genoa chapter 2,
brother carl : whale? , vitality? : lameness?
brother carl's hydrocephalus : "ocean in my head" "the headwaters, perhaps"
cetacean head and skeleton : sperm head and flagella : narrator body, It is this—the huge-headed and long-tailed sensation—that I have been experiencing for some time.
trophoblast invading maternal tissue; sharks eating themselves in a frenzy
cetacean head, and eye position (blindness in one eye, flat world) ; embryo wide-set eyes
columbus's gout; island treasures (won as crystals)

Columbus as casuistry: "“During this time I have seen, and in seeing, have studied all writings, cosmography, histories, chronicles, and philosophy and those relating to other arts, by means of which our Lord made me understand with a palpable hand, that it was practicable to navigate from here to the Indies and inspired me with a will for the execution of this navigation. And with this fire, I came to your Highnesses.”" and then the immediate contradiction, though magnanimous “I say that the holy spirit works in Christians, Jews, Moors, and in all others of all sects, and not only in the wise but the ignorant: for in my time I have seen a villager who gave a better account of the heaven and the stars and their courses than others who expended money in learning of them.”


herman melville as if sired from St. Elmo's fire (corpusants): “Oh, thou magnanimous! Now I do glory in my genealogy! . . . thou foundling fire, thou hermit immemorial, thou too hast thy incommunicable riddle, thy unparticipated grief. Here again with haughty agony, I read my sire.”

(on the paralyzed band leader)
What would I do:

to bring back,

to save,

to return,

a not very talented musician . . .


//from a panting, breathless worship of these works (melville, columbus), to qualified praise/derision, to those who do not even read it except compelled, and who are then, if not bored to death, similarly horrified.

Carib(ian) Charybdis—such, perhaps, as Hart Crane—the ocean already in his head—leaped into . . .

"Columbus at first thought he had discovered India . . .
. . . thereby lopping off, roughly, one-half the globe: a hemisphere gone . . .
Melville, describing Hawthorne: “Still there is something lacking—a good deal lacking—to the plump sphericity of the man.”"


so-so (not so good)
Moby-Dick . . . a great white monster, with “a hump like a snow-hill . . .”
not Leucothea, not a white and winged goddess, protectress, who gave Ulysses an enchanted veil . . .
but moving out from this, from the closed and friendly Mediterranean, from the near ocean shores,
moving out, as Columbus, across the Atlantic, and, through Melville, into the Pacific:
the white gull become a white whale, cast in monstrous, malignant revenge . .

"I recall the cigars I smoked and gave away at the plant on the occasions of Mike Jr.’s birth, our firstborn; and, with the tobacco smoke, I taste again the pleasure, the pride that I enjoyed at that time—pride such as a man might feel at the mouth of the Mississippi or Amazon, sharing in those waters that push back the ocean, the waters they are in the act of joining . . ."

"He began telling a story—a wild tale about barbering among primitive Eskimos in Alaska, the natives being confused between haircuts and scalping. The customers seemed to know that he was lying, and this added to it . . ."

triple repetition (funny?):
Seeing me awake, he lit another cigar, handed it to me. I smoked, held my head in my hands, tried to reconstruct the evening. Carl finished SUPERMAN, picked up CLAREL, and
Seeing me awake, he lit another cigar, handed it to me. I smoked, held my head in my hands, tried to reconstruct the evening. Carl finished SUPERMAN, picked up CLAREL, and
Seeing me awake, he lit another cigar, handed it to me. I smoked, held my head in my hands, tried to reconstruct the evening. Carl finished SUPERMAN, picked up CLAREL, and

melville: “Pleased, not appeased, by myriad wrecks in me.” - 'more annihilated than repentant'
Obnoxious Carl, quoting Melville
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Joe.Olipo | 3 andre anmeldelser | Nov 26, 2022 |
The experience of reading Genoa was disturbing. It wasn't simply the setting, a two hour drive from here. It was a vertigo, the weight borne by the protagonist. There's a Stoner-type grace to the character in his labor. This uphill toil is something palpable. I can relate, along with the anxiety. The whispered doubt. The shudders. I recoil from this awareness and accept it as my own, or at least something similar. I thought the collage mechanic rather effective. I liked the twinning of Melville and Columbus. There's something visceral in their failure: the ache of their arc. It was interesting that as I read this novel, my best friend kept sending me pictures from his holiday in Cuba. There's much to measure in that distance. The crash of waves against a relative silence. Though Metcalf informs us early in the book that where I sit typing was once the floor of an ocean and later just south of an enormous glacier. I carried our rock salt down to the basement last weekend. I never opened the bag and the traces of actual snow this past winter were more of a joke than a hazard. The final insertion of Dreiser and Debs didn't work for me, though it must be admitted that all of my trips to Terre Haute were to see my best friend. I had contemplated a Melville project with various adjacent texts including Olson and Perry Miller. I'm not sure about that at the moment.… (mere)
 
Markeret
jonfaith | 3 andre anmeldelser | Feb 22, 2019 |
I love this book. But I don't get it.
I mean, I get the fictional story that is told, about Michael's brother Carl. At least, I get what happened. But I'm not sure of its significance. Or how it relates to Melville, or Columbus, or any of the other connections that are made. I mean, at times I could see the connection. But I don't understand the bigger picture. Was there a bigger picture? I'd love to hear what other people think.
See, despite this, despite me not 'getting' it... I really liked this book. It is a thrill to read, to learn about Carl, and to read the thoughts and readings that Michael quotes, to see the connections he is trying to make, or happens to make. I love Melville's writing, so of course I'm going to love a book that quotes freely from him and intersperses it into these thoughts that Michael is having.
I don't know. This book had me hooked from the beginning to end. And now I want to know more about it.
For those that don't know, and want a run-down: Michael Mills is an club-footed MD who refuses to practice. He comes home, feeds himself and his children, and then retires to the attic. The whole book takes place, let's say, over one night, as Michael ruminates about his brother Carl, his family history (he is related to Melville), and freely associates his thoughts with quotes from Melville, with the Columbus myth, with spermatazoa, and everything in between.
I want to read it again...

Just found this review. It is excellent. Behold:
As to the question of man’s monstrous inheritance, Metcalf admirably avoids offering up easy answers — the emphasis on literature does not lead the narrator to suggest that we as a species are redeemed in any way by instances of artistic excellence, nor does the narrator offer up literature as some method for finding solace. But the sympathy Mills has for Columbus, despite crimes committed upon the native population of the lands he “discovered”; for Melville, who doomed his family to penury with his will to fame; and, finally, for his murderer brother, points to the way literature can aid an understanding of monsters and their crimes. It is a simple truth, one that is easily forgotten, and one that the family members of those killed in Charleston seemed to acknowledge when they offered the murderer their forgiveness: Buried within every monster is a man.
… (mere)
1 stem
Markeret
weberam2 | 3 andre anmeldelser | Nov 24, 2017 |
Not recognized good writer; great grandson of Herman Melville.
½
 
Markeret
JayLivernois | 1 anden anmeldelse | Apr 10, 2013 |

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Værker
29
Also by
12
Medlemmer
386
Popularitet
#62,660
Vurdering
4.0
Anmeldelser
11
ISBN
42
Udvalgt
3

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