[Though earlier I'd donated to Duke letters from Wallace Fowlie (1908-1998) to me, more recently, in sorting through my files, I came across photocopies of at least some of the letters I wrote to him. Here's another one of them, from when I lived on Spruce Street. For his other letters, please see Wallace Fowlie Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Here's a link to the collection guide.]
Philadelphia, Pa.
Thursday, March 26th
1992
Dear Wallace,
I don’t know who’s been
busier, me taking classes, or you teaching them, & giving lectures.
However, Arthur Rimbaud & Jim Morrison always remain in mind, & where
they are involved, I always have extra time & energy. So let me assure you,
I’d love to be a reader for you, whatever you desire!
There is a spectacular
book store here, Borders Bookshop, which is two stories high & always full
of people, It’s a good place to browse & keep up with literature &
criticism.
A few weeks ago, I
picked up an excellent history of the Punk Rock movement, England’s
Dreaming: Anarchy, Sex Pistols, Punk Rock and Beyond by Jon Savage (St.
Martin’s Press, 1992), which provides additional evidence of Rimbaud’s &
other French poets’ influence on rock and punk artists. In addition to
translated quotations of Rimbaud, there is for instance the specific example of
the band Television, an early band influence at the outbreak of Punk in the
mid-1970s.
Richard Meyers and Tom
Miller dropped out of school in Virginia, went to New York, and took the names
Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine. They
opted for rock because, Hell says, “all the people whose work I was interested
in, the self-conscious, twisted aestheticism of the French 19th
century, were not the popular ground for the writing of the time.” (p. 88) They
picked elements of fashion as well, which inspired the New York punk scene,
which in turn influenced English groups.
I hope you’re fully
recovered from your cold. Many people in class are ill, too. Only today did we
have a first feel of fresh spring air. The city is a fascinating place for
graduate study, but it’s hardly a health spa. . .
Most of my reading of
late has been devoted to class-related studies, primarily on European &
U.S. 19th century histories of the aristocracy and officer corps.
The latter group is as far from the work of individual poets as one can
imagine, and yet it’s still interesting by the very outrageous contrast. I
recall Proust’s comments on his military service through the thoughts of
Marcel, which in turn reminds me of E. A. Poe’s bittersweet experiences in the
Army and at West Point. (Poe lived here for a time; I have yet to visit his
house, now a museum, up on Spring Garden).
Then there is
Appollinaire [Guillaume Apollinaire], and his strange acceptance of fighting in
the Great War. My feelings at the time might have been closer to the Dadaists
in Zurich, or even to the wild ravings of Céline and Hasek. [Louis-Ferdinand Céline
and Jaroslav Hašek]. The war seems completely insane from the vantage point
of 1992. But then, we’ve in many ways, as a society, hardly moved beyond it.
The world is still quite full of nationalistic madness.
Still no word on The Doors Complete? Since JFK, there hasn’t been
much more comment on The Doors, which is strange really. Critics and
indeed many of today’s youth have negative feelings about it because of the
drugs & drug use shown. Today’s youth seems to be fixated more on
Government-approved cigarettes and alcohol, and yet it was clearly alcohol that
did Morrison in, both artistically and physically. That was part of Stone’s mytho-biography
as well, for those who wishes to see it. The film was hardly a glorification of
drug use.
Most of my friends, including my sisters, found the film inspiring of the
artistic process, an expressionistic rendering of Morrison’s losing struggle
with the destructive as well as creative forces in his being. He succumbed to
flesh & blood weaknesses. But his struggle was not a meaningless one. He,
if not as forcefully and heroically as Rimbaud, did share some of Rimbaud’s
artistic imperative.
Why indeed hasn’t someone made a mytho-biography of Rimbaud? Perhaps that’s
coming in the wake of his centenary. But such a film would have to be miraculously
innovative, in order to get at Rimbaud’s poetics. Maybe Werner Herzog could
begin such a work, a fractured first look inspired by the poetry alone, not a
soap opera of his relationship with Verlaine. Someone should try. Your
Rimbaud-Morrison work may inspire someone to try it. Think of that, next time
you look out at an audience like the one at Charlottesville. Certainly, if the
recent films inspired by W. S. Burroughs and Kafka can be made, a Rimbaud film
can at least be attempted.
Well, Wallace, I hope all is well with you & that the semester is
proceeding as hoped. Mine is already lurching into its final stretch, & I
will be finished in early May. I may come down to North Carolina for a short
while. But will spend most of the summer here. I’ll let you know. Let me know
if you want me to read your Morrison segment. I look forward to the possibility
with great excitement!
Take good care of yourself.
As Ever
Erik
