ChicagoPostmodernPoetry.Com
Poetic Profile
Dodie Bellamy
General Questions
1) Where did you grow up? Was poetry and writing
part of that mix?
I grew up in Hammond, Indiana. If it wasn't such an alienating environment I
wouldn't have spend so much time alone reading voraciously and writing in my
journal.
2) Who are your poetic influences, favorite poets, writers, artwork,
other things that inform your work?
They are constantly shifting. More recent touchstones have been mostly
artists--Eva Hesse, the Thai artist Montien Boonma, and my young friend from LA,
the painter Matt Greene. I'm interested in the writings of Joseph Beuys right
now. And I'm reading Edward Fowler's examination of shishosetsu, The Rhetoric
of Confession, because I'm thinking through the whole collapse of
fiction/nonfiction. Horror continues to be an obsession. I still love Spicer
and Wieners, and--I'm not ashamed to admit it--Sylvia Plath.
3) When did you 'become' a poet when did poet become part of your
everyday life?
When I moved to San Francisco in the late 70s and immersed myself in the poetry
scene here.
4) Where were you educated? Was this important?
I went to Indiana University. As an undergrad I was in comparative literature,
so I got exposed to lots of European and some South American experimental
writing. What it didn't give me was a sense of an American avant garde--or that
I myself could ever enter such a lofty realm.
5.1) You are a prolific writer how do you balance this with other concerns?
It's a constant challenge, especially with teaching, a job it's hard to slack
off on. Last semester I commuted from San Francisco to LA, teaching 2 classes
at CalArts. That ended in May and even now, nearly August, I'm still recovering
from that. Now I'm trying ruthlessly cut things out, so I have this sort of
monkish life of nothing but work and writing.
6.1) Your work is very sexual how do you use this as fodder for your work?
I've tried to approach sexuality from a number of angles. I'm tired of
narratives around sex, and I'm approaching the subject more from a position of
abstraction and fragmentation--seeing it as a state of being rather than a set
of actions.
6) What is your favorite food?
Lychees, because they look like squishy eyeballs, yet they taste like perfume.
7) Sports Team?
I know nothing about sports, except for scandals about the players that Kevin
Killian tells me.
8) Vacation Spot?
Vancouver. When I go there I stay with my friend Scott, who has a monkey puzzle
tree in his front yard, and, if it's the right time of year, peonies are
blooming everywhere. And also LA. I love LA. My love for LA is too big for
this brief essay.
9) Curse Word?
Fuck.
10) What is your opinion of Avant garde American writing in comparison to
other avant gardes from other places in the world?
The only other contemporary avant garde writing scene I know much about is
Canadian, and no matter how much Canadian writers I know complain about being
dismissed, they appear to me to have much more acceptance than here in the U.S.
Or at least the avant garde is acknowledged there--by populations outside
itself. I know several experimental writers who have received a Governor
General's Award. But how many do I know who have received NEAs? Almost none.
In the
US, the way we're trapped in this fog of vulgarity and malignant
consumerism--and violence--it's amazing that any avant garde exists, that
anybody would have the enormous energy to write and create spaces to make that
happen. Footnote: I don't feel totally comfortable critiquing vulgarity,
malignant consumerism, and violence, as they've inspired some awesome art and
writing. Everything's double-edged.
11) does the avant garde exist?
It always exists. The question should be: does it make an impact? I doubt
experimental poetry does, but it certainly needs to exist. We can't give up and
drown in hopelessness. But, then, I guess, shouldn't we define avant garde?
Does it need to be this "high" thing, or can it include the far fringes of pop
culture that worm their way into the mainstream and do have a serious impact.
Like rap did. Perhaps we need to stop seeing avant garde as equaling exclusion,
a sort of aesthetic prissiness.
Craft Questions
1) How do you form a poem?
I'll have a concept or topic or story I want to explore, and I'll take lots of
notes and collect disparate bits and then start pushing them around and
reworking them.
2) Do you use collage, parataxis cut ups or other tools?
I use lots of collage. In Cunt-Ups I used cut ups, but only in that book. And
I reworked the cut ups intensely. I like working things in more intuitively
than using a formal procedure.
3)Is poetry an organic or synthetic process for you?
Organic, of course, but always keeping in mind that it's all total artifice.
4) Where do you write? Is Ambiance important? Do you have rituals or habits
when you write?
I usually write on my laptop on a bed tray, sitting up in bed, with my cat
leaning against my leg--at least when I'm getting started. The laptop isn't
hooked up to the internet, which makes it feel more private, and I need that
sense of privacy. Once I'm full swing I can write anywhere, and I usually
switch to my desk and iMac. Unless Kevin's around. We share the iMac, so if
he's around I let him use that (he works fulltime, while I'm home most of the
time) and I use the laptop. Rituals? I get nervous when I'm starting a project
so I want to stuff food in my mouth. I eat raisins and pumpkin seeds, as I
figure they'll do minimal damage and I get sick of them pretty
quickly.
5) In the balance between found language and created language where
does your work fall? Do you use many sources?
Created language takes center stage, but found language is very important to my
work. I use it mostly to create a sense of
foreign-ness, an alien voice entering the text, throwing it off-kilter. I
gather material from everywhere, but my favorite
sources are theory books. I extract material and then really abuse it. I get
an adolescent pleasure in that abuse.
LINKS
The San Francisco Chronicle review of Pink Steam:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2004/07/18/RVG6C7JC
0M1.DTL
Body Language, the issue I guest edited of Suspect Thoughts: A
Journal of Subversive Writing
http://www.suspectthoughtspress.com/main.htm