I swallowed an iron moon
they called it a screw
I swallowed industrial wastewater and unemployment forms
bent over machines, our youth died young
I swallowed labor, I swallowed poverty
swallowed pedestrian bridges, swallowed this rusted-out life
I can’t swallow any more
everything I’ve swallowed roils up in my throat
I spread across my country
a poem of shame
—Xu Lizhi (translated by Eleanor Goodman)
—from Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Worker Poetry
ploce /PLAW-see/. noun. A figure of speech in which a word is emphatically repeated to bring attention to a particular attribute or quality. Latin, from Greek plokē (complication) from plekein (to plait). See also symploce, the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning and end of successive clauses, such as G.K. Chesterton’s “The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”
Some examples of ploce:
“Why wilt thou sleep the sleep of death?” (William Blake)
“I feel that the time is always right to do what is right.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
“How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!” (William Shakespeare)
“How much wider does this wider go?” (anonymous, quoted by Lisa Smartt)
“Give me a break! Give me a break! Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat bar!” (ad jingle)
Fascinating, layer upon layer, of writing, labor, industrialization, class and…humanity. → The Chinese Factory Workers Who Write Poems on Their Phones :: see also, Iron Moon, the documentary film and the recently released anthology, Iron Moon: An Anthology of Chinese Worker Poetry
“Each 7×7 invites one visual artist and one writer to engage in a two-week creative conversation. The format, inspired by Surrealist games of the early 20th century, challenges participants to improvise, in their respective disciplines, a spontaneous story that pushes into ever-wilder imaginative terrain.” → 7x7
“A new study says historic smells are part of our ‘cultural heritage’ and should be saved to bring the past to life.” → Why you like the smell of old books
A fun exploration and great visualizations… → Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive?
“The Snail Mail Game Show is an interactive project based in challenges and creativity. Every round, participants receive a prompt with a creative challenge to complete and send back. Any mediums are allowed, the only rule is the submission must be sent via snail mail.” → Snail Mail Game Show
“For 10 years he’s been posting a new digital illustration—ranging from the abstract to representative, sci-fi to surreal, somber to sarcastic—every 24 hours.” → A CGI Master Made a New Artwork Every Day for 10 Years. Here Are The Results
Trying to preserve Chinese letterpress printing…the sheer logistics are something. → Taiwan’s last lead-character mold maker works to preserve the past
Malcolm Gladwell. I know. But this is good…and needed. → Malcolm Gladwell on Why We Shouldn’t Value Speed Over Power
Such a cool interactive timeline/visualization (“that spans across 14 billion years of history, from the Big Bang to 2015”) to browse around in. Prepare to get lost. → Histography
Today, the 2nd Sunday of May, is Mother’s Day in the United States and nearly 100 other countries from Anguilla to Zimbabwe…and Benin, where it is celebrated on May 14. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation making the day official. Assumed by many to be another example of a holiday created by greeting card companies to sell their wares, the modern version of Mother’s Day was inaugurated in 1908 by Anna Jarvis, who wanted to celebrate the efforts of her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, a peace activist who had treated injured soldiers on both sides of the United States Civil War and subsequently organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day” to bring together families from opposing sides of the war. If those families could meet and find common ground, perhaps there is hope for us yet in these politically tumultuous times.
It took Jamie Scott three years of shooting to create ► this gorgeous time lapse video.
The ► BriefCam Video Synopsis service transforms surveillance video into timestamped composites…the result is eery, Big Brother-ish and intriguing.
Reader J.: “I was of course morally exercised on seeing that Graham Parker/Dave Edmunds’ seminal ‘Crawling from the Wreckage’ wasn’t listed among the Vehicle Wreck Ballads, but then happily found it among the Car Wreck Songs. Clearly they are correct, and ‘CftW’ is no ballad in the traditional sense. But I would urge them (and everyone) to abandon their precious (and fake!) genrism (this should perhaps be genrsme–who has time to look these things up?) and embrace the bracing fact that we all live, as it were, ‘under wreckage,’ as Jack Clarke once said that we live ‘under image.’ It is well to salute them all–Graham, Dave, and Jack–as we all try to figure out in what direction we’re supposed to try to crawl.”
Reader C.: “The similarity in names brought this song to mind when you mentioned ► Luna Lee in Katexic. A good Sunday morning listen (and and old favorite): ‘Luna Marie’ by the Mad Maggies.”
Reader S.: “Your subject line, ‘this better captivate theclamorites.’ Rhopalic! I see what you did there.”
I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.
Enjoy the WORK section? Try Notabilia http://ktxc.to/nb for a new WORK every day and concīs http://ktxc.to/concismag publishing original short pieces of all kinds.
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