does anyone have suggestions for writing in a trance? juliana, our resident hypnotist?

anyway, here are my thoughts on....

the midnight

I think my favorite thing about this book is the overall mood of mystery and investigation. It’s hard to pin down. Reading the Midnight is like sifting through the empty house of a dead collector. Going through boxes in an attic, letters in a desk drawer. There are so many histories and artifacts. It feels very collaged, like Howe gathered all these materials, pieces of evidence. For what exact purpose I am not certain, but I read them with interest because they feel very intentional. I put together little fleeting narratives as I read these. Detective. The small boxy poems are harder to pin down, but they feel very ghosty to me. Spectral. Hushed. (I could use these for my own work, if my ghost poems continue—they might die.) With each little box I get a whole (unintentional or not??) moment. To me these don’t read as though Howe is putting them together randomly, they feel like she’s put together a scavenger hunt for us to figure out. But like I said, I haven’t figured them out yet. Such a strong sense of history and research.. The images are striking and spooky, more evidence. Children with dark eyes, old drawings, so much to do with printed matter. Love of printed material and old books. Gothic. Centuries-old handwriting. Very much collecting evidence of the ghost of these readers & writers. Permission to create my own narrative (as opposed to, say, jackson maclowe’s work..). My, that was scattered.

Back to my unsuccessful phony trance making.