Radical Poetics and Yoga, or Practice makes Practice

Yeh, so, Stein. Means I've been reading lots of LangPoets on said, along with many bits on Objectivists. Got to go to yoga last night after missing last week due to feeling heavy after fab meal at Jasmine's. ---Click &c.---

Stein Crit: Lots of Bernstein, Hejinian, Perloff, Quartermain, DuPlessis, so forth. But it was reading Bruce Andrews' Paradise and Method when it hit me. The whole culture war hit me again. Andrews wants, writes, advocates, theorizes a poetics that Very Directly confronts and rejects what Jameson described at late capitalism. You know, that consumer-militarist mise en simulacrum in which we are obliged to live, like it or not. And I've had it. I know, that sounds weird, but here's the thing. Confront and reject, explode, raze, whatever. Not going to work. We need that destructive revolutionary energy, but also some realism. The Patriarchal Jackdom ain't going away, not if all we do is Confront and Reject. It IS our context, for now. Better thought, more Irigarian and clearly Integral (yes as in the Inst. as in Ken Wilber), is this: set up a peer to it. Irigaray argues for a Feminine Gender (which I see very finely textured, varied, multiple) that would Not Replace the Masculine, but would balance and partner it, as in Tantra. Now, that Does require changes in the Masculine and in men, no doubt. But not its/their historical death. Late capitalism won't leave us until one of several possible things happen. Here's two. Global climatic meltdown and no more oil. Or. Incorporation and transcendence of the epoch and its content. That is, we have to grock it and get above it, operate with in On Other Principles That Are More Humane, Inventive, and Soulful. For instance, this means not totally dismantling the military-industrial-consumer complex, but getting a larger perspective on it and figuring out how to make it do "better" work. Vague, yes, but the thought I'm starting to have. See, what Althusser called the State Apparatus, and what Hegel called History/Spirit already does this. It encounters a new edge, a resistance movement, an antithesis, the carving out of a new form of life, and domesticates it, incorporates it, reduces it to a style or life style choice Within The Dominant Paradigm, and then glides bumpily on. Tie-dye shirts in dayglo colors appeared in mainstream stores in like 1973. So, that's what these counter-movements need to learn to do. We see this a bit in poets like Zukovsky and Graham. We see it in the programs of the Integral Institute and the Spiritual Progressives et al.. Figure out your values and aspirations and imaginative-soulful-desires and make the monster Mammon and his minions serve your and others' flourishing. This will require changes in Mammon and Minions as much in us. We shall see how this works itself out in the book.

Yoga: Oh, boy, am I starting over. And oh boy, do I have some resistance to this teacher. There's like ten people in this class, no introductions, no sense of connection, not even her name, and three of us were starting last night. Hmmm. First, she goes very quickly. Not a problem, when I know the sequence we're doing, but hers are not the one's I know. So, I'm feeling off my center because I'm processing and learning. Ok. Fine. Good. That's life as we are in it. BUT, At one point we were getting into Frog. This requires squatting, legs open to the side, hands planted between and in front, resting of shins on triceps, and leaning forward until your feet are off the floor and all your weight is on your hands, balance, breathe. OK. Sure, we can modify the pose to keep our toes on the floor and just test the weight and balance, ease in over time. This is yoga. But then she says, See how you feel here, where your balance wants to be, now lift your feet, it's just a matter of Confidence. Now, me, who has been learning new versions of familiar vinyasas and new asanas all hour, and is now told its a matter of confidence, and trying to keep my breath regular while learning all these New Patterns That Are Uncannily Like Old Patterns I Grock, well, I thought, Back OFF, Woman. Sure, I've been not doing yoga with others for a long time, and not doing yoga as often I should (yes, should, i develop an incredible level of "its a job" about these things, which puts me off them, which i need to deal with, that's all me). But to imply to a class of beginners, which we all are, that this is a matter of Confidence irked me. I feel a bit wary of this teacher now. So, I'll see about opening past that.... And about these vinyasas and breathing well in them. Practice makes practice. So, practice and get some patience, dear Stormier, it's good for you.