October 24th, 2008 / 4:52 pm
Author Spotlight

Mark Jarman

I mentioned The Reaper during Mean Week. Mark Jarman was one of the editors. He was a teacher at the place whereat I got my (insert name of sometimes maligned writing degree that ends in an A and begins with an MF) and I liked his readings a lot.

(Did I say that about him already? That his were my favorite faculty poetry readings? Mary Reufle was good, too. Maybe I’ll write about her later. She had a lecture that was both really good and it gave me the fucking creeps.)

Anyway.

I have Jarman’s book Epistles sitting here next to me. Sarabande published it. I really like it. This is a little from a poem called “Listening to you”:

Got to the burnt out bulb to study the beauty of failure. There in its violoated space, the arms raised but the filaments incinerated, the flashmark like the feathery white face of a moth, it is no cool and detached, the ruined throne room of a dead sun king.

Here’s an interesting thing. Jarman is a religious poet. He writes about his faith quite eloquently and quite surprisingly. I am, on the other hand, happily agnostic. But I still really enjoy Jarman’s professions of faith.

(O’Connor came up early in the week. Same thing, there. I haven’t read it cover to cover, but I’ve enjoyed some of the letters in A Habit of Being. Somewhere she refers to someone buying a new car as getting a “hale automobile” and for some reason that’s always stuck with me. I have no idea why. And some of the Mystery and Manners essays have been really helpful to me.)

All this to say go buy and/or get from the library a copy of Epistles.

***

UPDATE:

Ah, here’s a weird moment of synchronicity. Google Video has a 2 hour debate about the existence of God between two philosophers. Arguing against the existence of a Christian God is Clancy Martin. See a comment by pr in Jimmy’s last post to see Mr. Martin’s first appearance on this blog today.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3780702651936909797

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22 Comments

  1. pr

      Matthew! I am interested. Thanks for this post. I will check this guy’s stuff out. I read a lot of religious writers- actually, specifically Catholic ( except for Tolstoy, who was Russian Orthodox, not Roman, but the two have much in common)- and am more atheist than agnostic. But belief is fascinating to me. Or -well- fascinating doesn’t quite encompass what I want to say.

      I think one of the things that the soon-to-be election brought out in me is an interest in morals. And I went through a period of reading about the history of morals- bad stuff, like anti-gay, ant-divorce, kill-muslims, people-rot-in-hell stuff- and to me, good stuff, like, don’t rape rob and steal and so on. Yes, Clancy Martin. I found his shit disturbing. Perhaps, honestly, lacking morality. But–no this is better- a human struggling to be moral, and not quite doing it. This is basically what it means to be human. The failure to do the right thing. Then we die, full of remorse and regret and shame! (I put that exlamation point there to be funny. I am not as funny as you all. I wish I were.)

  2. pr

      Matthew! I am interested. Thanks for this post. I will check this guy’s stuff out. I read a lot of religious writers- actually, specifically Catholic ( except for Tolstoy, who was Russian Orthodox, not Roman, but the two have much in common)- and am more atheist than agnostic. But belief is fascinating to me. Or -well- fascinating doesn’t quite encompass what I want to say.

      I think one of the things that the soon-to-be election brought out in me is an interest in morals. And I went through a period of reading about the history of morals- bad stuff, like anti-gay, ant-divorce, kill-muslims, people-rot-in-hell stuff- and to me, good stuff, like, don’t rape rob and steal and so on. Yes, Clancy Martin. I found his shit disturbing. Perhaps, honestly, lacking morality. But–no this is better- a human struggling to be moral, and not quite doing it. This is basically what it means to be human. The failure to do the right thing. Then we die, full of remorse and regret and shame! (I put that exlamation point there to be funny. I am not as funny as you all. I wish I were.)

  3. Matthew Simmons

      I’ll have to see if I can find those issues of NOON. I did a little more digging, and Martin has a novel coming out next year that seems, according to a New York Times article, like it has its publisher (FSG) or editor really excited.

      Also, there seems to be a Tao Lin connection to Martin. From Tao’s trip to Kansas last year.

      I have been meaning to read Tolstoy’s Master and Man.

      Do you know that book about O’Connor, Walker Percy, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day. It’s called The Life You Save May Be Your Own, and it’s about the four of them, their Catholicism, and their writing. I read a bit of it and enjoyed it.

  4. Matthew Simmons

      I’ll have to see if I can find those issues of NOON. I did a little more digging, and Martin has a novel coming out next year that seems, according to a New York Times article, like it has its publisher (FSG) or editor really excited.

      Also, there seems to be a Tao Lin connection to Martin. From Tao’s trip to Kansas last year.

      I have been meaning to read Tolstoy’s Master and Man.

      Do you know that book about O’Connor, Walker Percy, Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day. It’s called The Life You Save May Be Your Own, and it’s about the four of them, their Catholicism, and their writing. I read a bit of it and enjoyed it.

  5. pr

      No, I don’t know the book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, but thank you for mentioning it. I have read very little of Thomas Merton, but did read quite a bit of Walker Percy a long time ago. You rock! I love this site.

      Tolstoy’s short story, Master and Man, I read somewhat recently- very good stuff, if you are interested in his later work, where he really became the father of what unfortunately was communism, but at that time, I think of as the beginning of the end of feudalism. It’s one of his great short pieces. I find him so pertinant in that he really had huge moral problems with his world and fought them in a complicated way- and it got ugly. He was not in any way pro the revolution that was happening at the end of his life because he was so PEACE. But Mastter and Man ( I think we are thinking about the same short story) is often collected with his other short works, including The Kreuzer Sonata, Family Happiness, The Death of Ivan Iva(fuck can’t remember)-and they are all so interesting in terms of the end of a huge era that effected not just Russia, but the world.

      Class. Class is no joke.It is still no joke, even in the USA, where “poor” means overweight instead of starving, and poor also mean drivng cars and shopping at Walmart.

      Recently, I’ve become interested in that fact that this fiction writer inspired an entire religion! It was a very Gandhi thing. So I’ve been reading academic shit about that whole religion that he inspired “Tolstoyans”. Crazy shit.

  6. pr

      No, I don’t know the book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, but thank you for mentioning it. I have read very little of Thomas Merton, but did read quite a bit of Walker Percy a long time ago. You rock! I love this site.

      Tolstoy’s short story, Master and Man, I read somewhat recently- very good stuff, if you are interested in his later work, where he really became the father of what unfortunately was communism, but at that time, I think of as the beginning of the end of feudalism. It’s one of his great short pieces. I find him so pertinant in that he really had huge moral problems with his world and fought them in a complicated way- and it got ugly. He was not in any way pro the revolution that was happening at the end of his life because he was so PEACE. But Mastter and Man ( I think we are thinking about the same short story) is often collected with his other short works, including The Kreuzer Sonata, Family Happiness, The Death of Ivan Iva(fuck can’t remember)-and they are all so interesting in terms of the end of a huge era that effected not just Russia, but the world.

      Class. Class is no joke.It is still no joke, even in the USA, where “poor” means overweight instead of starving, and poor also mean drivng cars and shopping at Walmart.

      Recently, I’ve become interested in that fact that this fiction writer inspired an entire religion! It was a very Gandhi thing. So I’ve been reading academic shit about that whole religion that he inspired “Tolstoyans”. Crazy shit.

  7. pr

      OK, I am going to live post on this video that you sent me (sorta). Matthew, did you watch this? It’s LONG. I love the idea of “moral relativsm” and the argument about it. And I love the argument against it. The – not a real quote, I’m doing my best “persistance of evil is the proof of the oppsite of it”.

  8. pr

      OK, I am going to live post on this video that you sent me (sorta). Matthew, did you watch this? It’s LONG. I love the idea of “moral relativsm” and the argument about it. And I love the argument against it. The – not a real quote, I’m doing my best “persistance of evil is the proof of the oppsite of it”.

  9. pr

      Oh, and I’m shitfaced.Now this guy is bugging me. I’m listening but I am annoyed. This religion is so much more interesting when reading St. Augustine, who wrote about the other religions that flourished at the time of its origion.

      Also, I am watching Hantuchova playingg against Paszek, You know, in Zurich?

  10. pr

      Oh, and I’m shitfaced.Now this guy is bugging me. I’m listening but I am annoyed. This religion is so much more interesting when reading St. Augustine, who wrote about the other religions that flourished at the time of its origion.

      Also, I am watching Hantuchova playingg against Paszek, You know, in Zurich?

  11. pr

      OK- Clancy goes second? In other words, he has to defend. Perhaps the whole idea of debate is inherently one sided.

  12. pr

      I don’t think this is the same Clancy as Noon.

  13. pr

      OK- Clancy goes second? In other words, he has to defend. Perhaps the whole idea of debate is inherently one sided.

  14. pr

      I don’t think this is the same Clancy as Noon.

  15. pr

      I’m too drunk to comment intelligently. What I do like to hear is ” we are constantly failing”. That I like. THh idea “the bar is too high”. That I like, but I think he misunderstands. In my understanding of Cathloicsm -is we all fail all the time.

      Now “little babies die” so their is no Christ. Sort of expected. Now they are talking about Zorastians (sp).

      This is not the same Clancy Martin. Diamond dealer whore fucker? No. But I loved this shit. I love people speaking passionately, about whatever. BYE!

  16. pr

      I’m too drunk to comment intelligently. What I do like to hear is ” we are constantly failing”. That I like. THh idea “the bar is too high”. That I like, but I think he misunderstands. In my understanding of Cathloicsm -is we all fail all the time.

      Now “little babies die” so their is no Christ. Sort of expected. Now they are talking about Zorastians (sp).

      This is not the same Clancy Martin. Diamond dealer whore fucker? No. But I loved this shit. I love people speaking passionately, about whatever. BYE!

  17. pr

      Ah fuck. Not Zurich. They are in Bali,

  18. pr

      Ah fuck. Not Zurich. They are in Bali,

  19. Matthew

      I’m glad you watched and were inspired by the video.

      I thought it was just a coincidence, too, but I have my NOON’s in front of me, and one says:

      Clancy Martin is a jewelery salesman in Texas.

      And the next says:

      Clancy Martin is a former jeweler who now teaches philosophy at University of Missouri in Kansas City.

      So, weirdly, I think it really is the same guy. Which makes him a very interesting person to me. I will read his writing and see what I think.

  20. Matthew

      I’m glad you watched and were inspired by the video.

      I thought it was just a coincidence, too, but I have my NOON’s in front of me, and one says:

      Clancy Martin is a jewelery salesman in Texas.

      And the next says:

      Clancy Martin is a former jeweler who now teaches philosophy at University of Missouri in Kansas City.

      So, weirdly, I think it really is the same guy. Which makes him a very interesting person to me. I will read his writing and see what I think.

  21. pr

      Holy shit. I bet you are right. I may have to rewatch that video, now that I am not half dead drunk.. I know he studied with Lish, but he doesn’t have the affectations that many Lish students have. His work left a huge impression on me. Not an entirely good one, but strong.

      Thanks again, Matthew, for this most excellent post.

  22. pr

      Holy shit. I bet you are right. I may have to rewatch that video, now that I am not half dead drunk.. I know he studied with Lish, but he doesn’t have the affectations that many Lish students have. His work left a huge impression on me. Not an entirely good one, but strong.

      Thanks again, Matthew, for this most excellent post.