Exegesis by Baer: My translation of the Aristotle is literal, and the sentence is from the next-to-last section (XXV) of the Poetics. Aristotle is great granddad to all statements which link words such as imagination/art/poetry to analogy/representation/imitation. Through his use of multiple verb tenses here, he’s also saying more than Husserl does in this selection. Graham uses this quote as a transition from “objective” researches which are philosophic to the next, “subjective” quotes.
Jo Baer — Broadsides & Belles Lettres
4./5. Quotations given by Graham: “The expression ‘in fact’ can... certify or alienate. (He wasn’t in fact at home; he said he would be, but we didn’t believe him and had a look; or again, we didn’t think it possible for him not to be at home, but it was a fact!) The term ‘actually’ is just as conducive to alienation. (‘I don’t actually agree.’) Similarly the Eskimo definition ‘a car is a wingless aircraft that crawls along the ground’ is a way of alienating the car.” Bertolt Brecht “An alienation of the motor-car takes place if after driving a modern car for a long while we drive an old Model T Ford. Suddenly we hear explosions once more; the motor works on the principle of explosion. We start feeling amazed that such a vehicle, indeed any vehicle not drawn by animal-power, can move; in short, we understand cars by looking at them as something strange now, as a triumph of engineering and to that extent, something unnatural. Nature, which certainly embraces the motor-car, is suddenly imbued with an element of unnaturalness.” Bertolt Brecht Rejoinder: “I walked to my office to resume work for the afternoon. At my desk I found papers waiting for my signature. As I picked up my pen to begin, I experienced a strange although not alarming feeling of dizziness. Since the sensation lasted only a moment, I reached for another paper... I found that the words on it seemed literally to run off the top of the page... Then came another puzzling experience: I could not express what I wanted to say... When morning came I quickly learned that I was not fully recovered. My eyes happened to be attracted to a favorite picture of mine, done by Turner, the noted British watercolorist. It was called The Smugglers, a scene of smuggling a century ago on the River Clyde in Scotland....The picture was a favorite, not only because of the subject but because of the skill of the artist. With the doctors once more in the room, I tried to tell them about the picture. I could remember neither its name nor that of the castle. In every way I could, I tried to give hints and clues to the assembled company, which included my wife and son ... I had sense enough then, however, to cease trying to force myself.” Dwight D. Eisenhower
Exegesis by Baer: The Brecht is a juxtapose of two separate quotes, cunningly cemented through the noun “car,” fore and aft. Brecht’s first paragraph says that to define a state of affairs (to check it out), like defining a function (how something works), will isolate and therefore “alienate” by hypostasis. The second paragraph is a detailed rendering, an example of “alienation.” The passage by Eisenhower used not to be separated in the middle. Graham found the whole thing and gave it its interval. I submit it for reasons geometrical. 6. Quotation given by Graham: “Things that exist exist, and everything is on their side.” Donald Judd Rejoinder given by Baer: “A beam on its end is not the same as the same beam on its side.” Robert Morris 7. Quotation given by Graham: “Content is on the side of the object.” Jean-Paul Sartre Rejoinder given by Baer: “In the old arguments about the nature of substance, table and chairs were always the example; they didn’t argue about the primary and secondary qualities of their pants and shirts.” Donald Judd 8. Quotation given by Graham: “A peer today, gone tomorrow.” John Wesley Rejoinder given by Baer: “Ars longa, vita brevis.” Hippocrates Exegesis by Baer: I think the artists are rethinking and reworking their concepts of object. I also think the classic questions of “appearance”/”reality” are no longer useful and are needlessly complicating for them/us. The best artists today keep “appearances” (i.e. “qualities”: color, texture, hierarchy, etc.) to a modicum. They do this to emphasize the integrity of the object, its wholeness, its actuality, its factuality, its brute, materialistic presence. The work wants nothing to do with the dualizing ideas of “appearance” versus “substance”; rather, it is a deliberate enforcing of the native and naive sense of things entire. Leaving aside the interior of this sheaf of quotes, I want to look at its structure and intent. A series of quotations is really an allusive
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