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5 January 2005: I'm still thinking about Richard Kostelanetz's circular statements. I suddenly wondered if they are poems. If not, what are they? In my poetics, a poem is simply a verbal expression that's lineated in one way or another (has "flow-breaks," to be exact). But some texts can be too short to be lineated, like a one-line epigram. Or Richard's "THE TRUTH OF FICTION IS THE POWER OF ARTIFICE IS," to introduce another of Richard's circular statements (which I have a near-irresistible urge right now to give a one-word name to but will resist, anyway). How, then, do we decide whether such a text is prose or poetry, in terms of my theory?
Actually, I now recall, a poem in my poetics is not "simply a verbal expression that's lineated in one way or another"; it's "a literary verbal expression that's lineated in one way or another." I divide verbal expressions into three groups: informrature (verbal expression whose main purpose is objectively to communicate some truth), advocature (verbal expression whose main purpose is to persuade) and literature (verbal expression whose main purpose is to provide aesthetic pleasure).
An epigram would be a combination of informrature and literature since it attempts to convey a truth in a witty way. Wit isn't quite an aesthetic activity, but close enough. Or should I make a new category of verbal expression? I don't think I need to. I think I should call Richard's circular statements prose epigrams rather than poems. But other image-centered rather than idea-centered circular statements would be poems. Not because of their lineation, but because they're doing what poems do--give a kalruser a sensual boost.
That is the decisive thing. Richard's circular statements give one experiencing them a conceptual boost, so would be informrature, like epigrams.
The circular poem, "MELTING SNOW PROVIDING CONTRAST TO A GARAGE ROOF'S BLOSSOMING ROSES PROVIDING CONTRAST TO," on the other hand, would be literature.
Everybody clear on this now? I'm fairly sure I am.
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