BRAKHAGE on THE ART OF VISION

Well in this excerpt from the Brakhage Sunday salon (7.7.96), you have the epitome of this weekly gathering at its very best. Stan holds forth on his great 4.5 hour epic poem, The Art of Vision (which is really Dog Star Man unpacked, as it were) and touches on why various forms of epic poetry are no longer relevant to him (and to our times). Here you’ll find Stein, HD, Williams, Pound, Zukovsky, Lawrence, and also his view on the relative failure of Dog Star Man’s ‘universe in a box’ concept, etc. You will also hear him make mention of only now wanting to leave a “snail’s trail in the moonlight.” which will be the title of my book and accompanying personal essay film portrait of him. One of the off screen voices (the most articulate one) is our dearly missed friend, Phil Rowe, who was at the very heart of these salons, and to whose memory I shall dedicate the book.