{"title":"Painting and Poetry","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0017","url":null,"abstract":"Poets almost inevitably reflect painterly ideas and ideals, and methods and processes in their work. Painters too almost inevitably reflect the principles of poetry—metaphor, narrative, symbolism, and so forth.\u0000 At a conference at Washington University in St. Louis in 1997, on the relationship between poetry and painting, Derek Walcott said: “When we look at paintings that do not attempt to mimic the page, but make something more than just calligraphy, there is an echo that goes with that painting. The echo need not be the linear representation of an idea, like a piece of prose, or fiction painted, or even a poem painted, but some other echo that it creates.”...","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121110771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reading William Faulkner’s Light in August","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0028","url":null,"abstract":"Sometimes William Faulkner’s fiction conjures up for me images akin to those found in, say, the paintings of Edvard Munch. Both painter and writer share a particular kind of cold and cold-blooded angst. Munch’s 1901 lithograph “Dead Lovers,” which depicts a man and a woman lying dead on a stark bed, blood running down from the mattress to the floor, might have served as a jacket illustration for ...","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"347 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115847004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"East Lansing, Michigan","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0042","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 September 10\u0000 \u0000 There was no warning.\u0000 Rising from his rest\u0000 the dog bit the man’s leg,\u0000 did it quietly,\u0000 then returned to his spot\u0000 on the front lawn to rest.\u0000 A solitary taproot\u0000 grows into a green bush\u0000 on which years later\u0000 a naked girl one day hangs...","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134121381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Young Doctor (1916)","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0045","url":null,"abstract":"<p> <italic>At noon he smiles and nods</italic> </p> <p> <italic>as he drives by</italic>,</p> <p> <italic>thinking perhaps soon</italic> </p> <p> <italic>she will be pregnant</italic> </p> <p> <italic>coming to me</italic>,</p> <p> <italic>but he’s wrong.</italic> </p> <p> <italic>He sees a long line</italic> </p> <p> <italic>of pregnant women</italic> </p> <p> <italic>packed like fish</italic> </p> <p> <italic>in a net bursting out</italic> </p> <p> <italic>the seams of their dresses.</italic> </p> <p>Ah! Give me a cup of tea...</p>","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134454066","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0037","url":null,"abstract":"I am Mfu, not a bit romantic, a water spirit,\u0000 a voice from deep in the Atlantic:\u0000 Mfu jumped ship, made his escape, to find relief\u0000 from his grief on the way,\u0000 long ago, to Brazil or Georgia or Carolina—\u0000 he doesn’t know which;\u0000 but this is real, not a sentimental...","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133462851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Down and Up","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0052","url":null,"abstract":"Once up, nude or not,\u0000 they tend to come down—\u0000 gravity not withstanding,\u0000 with or without understanding.\u0000 They come down.\u0000 The woman carrying a lantern\u0000 comes down slowly,\u0000 inspecting the dark.\u0000 A woman fresh from her bath\u0000 comes down, damp and refreshed.\u0000 Somebody’s niece or wife, in a chemise,...","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124209584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"No One Goes to Paris in August","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0051","url":null,"abstract":"A Montparnasse August\u0000 with view of the Cimetière. A yard of bones.\u0000 We wake to it. Close curtains to it.\u0000 Wake to its lanes. Rows of coffin-stones in varying light.\u0000 Walking here. Late with shade low, low, long.\u0000 We’re passing through, just passing through\u0000 neat aisles of gray mausoleums....","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"97 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114848771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In Search of Rebecca","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0029","url":null,"abstract":"The hard questions usually have no simple answers. For me, writing stories is the best means of dealing with difficult questions of ethics, morality, and philosophy. In confronting perplexing questions in my fiction and poetry, I’ve achieved an odd kind of success. Often, I have no idea how to formulate the question, let alone the answer, before I struggle with it through the process of writing. The writing then becomes the avenue into the complex nature of the question itself. If I come out of the process with a clearer sense of the question, and with no answer—which is more often the case than not—I am satisfied. That’s the odd success. I stopped, for example, asking, “Is there a God?” by age twenty-one, after which everything, in Gide’s words, seemed “downhill.”...","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"137 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128873821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Supply and Demand","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0032","url":null,"abstract":"Part 5 includes 23 poems. Some of the poems--for example, “Water and Sand,” “Faith,” and “Alchemy”--employ rapid scene cuts and flash images. The poem, “Hair,” delves deep into Black hair superstitions, wryly but without judgement. His own epic poem, “The Slave Trade: View from the Middle Passage” shows that art can be both political and didactic. The rest of the poems in this section deal with diverse themes and topics including work, grief, weakness, justice, faith, and place.","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126555716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Necessary Distance","authors":"Kia Corthron","doi":"10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656007.003.0020","url":null,"abstract":"People have a tendency to ask a writer, Why did you become a writer? How did you become a writer? Every writer hears such questions over and over. You ever hear anybody ask a butcher a question like that?\u0000 So, what’s so special about being a writer? Maybe we are simply fascinated by people who are brave (or foolish) enough to go against—and lucky enough to beat—the odds....","PeriodicalId":145201,"journal":{"name":"The Essential Clarence Major","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121830241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}