bLOGOS/HA HA: The Reign of La Langue

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

28 January 2015

The Reign of La Langue

Marie's words to Jeanne have long since reached the sea and returned into the various atmospheres.

Art is dead, Long live Art!

Verbum mortuum est, dum vivat.

The great circulation of language continues. Below, a new reign falls upon the ground of all, and on those standing around; on the dog, too.

In 1808, Théâtre des Acteurs de Regard proposed that this monument should be inscribed with a poem beginning
'Passants, contemplez cette pyramide…'
'Passers by, contemplate this pyramid...'

detail

A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/

someone looks at something...

LOGOS/HA HA

...but it never eventuated.

A.B. is writing to chere Leontine : the fall of words align with the obelisk (atopped by the funerary vase intended to hold the bullet-pierced heart of Louis Desaix ...but it never eventuated) and with the rood tree, stripped and strung with the lines of the new langue : telegraph, telephone and electrification.