Ann Carson

Duane L. Burton
Dr. Shirokova
English 1102
13 September 2012
Another Look at Ann Carson 's Short Talks
Who is Ann Carson? Why do I have to read this anyway? I really didn’t see the point in it. For one thing, the writer lost me after the introduction. I was then asked to find the meaning in what Ann Carson was trying to say, to me. It was very hard reading Short Talks. Confusion twists and turns. It was like going through the “fun house at a carnival.” Just imagine. Before you go any further there’s a “big turning barrel” (her introduction) that already had me “slipping and sliding” and falling. I eventually crawled out of it. Then I climbed up the “rickety stairs made out of chains” (the next Short Talk). There 's the big goofy mirror” that’s all distorted and everything. Reading Short Talks again and again and again, seemed like an exercise in futility. Or, was it… really? One thing was certain. I seriously had a headache from the first readings.
Something began to happen a couple of days after reading “On Gertrude Stein About 9:30”. Researching Gertrude Stein started to help me finally begin to “connect the dots” to some of Ann Carson’s Other Short Talks. I saw a monumental task when, all along, Ann Carson was suggesting “to me” to “just be me.” Immediately, I felt no pressure to have a well thought out plan on what to write. Only to write.
When I think of Anne Carson’s “Short Talks” it’s like an abstract work of art. Reading Short Talks was like “riding a bicycle backwards and using a rear view mirror to see what’s ahead.” Yes, reading her works for the first time was very awkward.
After re-reading a few short talks, I began to feel like I was that little kid again going to the museum for the first time. I just couldn’t understand the concept of modern art. Going from crayons and markers to Rembrandts and Monet’s is no easy task. In grade school it was exciting going to the museum. Looking at all the pictures and colors and different objects and forms. As an adult, you begin to appreciate the time, effort and skill it took to produce something from nothing. For a novice, art is “interesting” but what is its relevance to me? Like Short Talks some pieces you get and, others, you just don’t.
After reading “On Gertrude Stein about 9:30” and researching who she was, I started to gain some perspective. The more reading I did of Ann Carson’s “Short Talks” the more it felt like an art experience. An artist may have an idea of what he/she is attempting to convey to their audience. I believe that writers are the same way. Short Talks is like art, no two people can look at it “exactly the same way”. It must be something to these thoughts. What is she saying through her thoughts to me?
After more research I found that Short Talks really came about by accident. Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. The titles in Short Talks were referring to art work (sketches). But, people were more interested in the captions than the sketches. So, emphasis faded slowly from the visual to the imaginable. Her writing began to take form based on captions.
Ah ha! So, this has to explain the sort of randomness to her writings. Another piece of the puzzle started to come together. I felt she was also giving a crash course on fine arts and literature. She spoke of philosophers, writers, artists, Greek mythology in a fundamentally different way. This is when the readings started to make some sense. Evidently the people, situations, questions and answers are all in some way, important to her. So, what does this all mean to me?
I would suggest her works were not written to be read conventionally. As I researched “On Gertrude Stein about 9:30” I was blown away. Not only was she (Stein) a powerhouse in her own right but there was “strength” and liberation in works as well. Maybe Ann Carson could relate to in Gertrude Stein. Stein and her brother resided in Paris. They were consummate art collectors. Eventually Stein began to write as well. However, she became more known for the art collection and the artists that frequented their apartment. It was ground breaking “counter culture” that began to take shape from those gatherings. Stein aspired to become a prolific writer. It was her contributions to the “arts” as a whole which became her greatest achievement. Carson wanted to focus on painting but writing became her forte. Both Anne Carson and Gertrude Stein are ‘revolutionaries in their own right(" Gertrude Stein." 2012. Biography.com 14 Sep 2012, 06:34 ).
Stein was also instrumental in helping Pablo Picasso to get more exposure for his unconventional art form “cubism”. But wait, why this seemed so familiar. Again Ann Carson’s style of writing is somewhat likened to “cubism” in the respect that it’s very abstract and subjective. Just like art is subjective to its viewer so is Ann Carson’s Short Talks’ to its readers. No two people read it exactly the same way. My images and meanings I attach to understanding “Short Talks” will be just as different from another reader.
There is no rhyme or reason in Short talks. A sort of randomness that I’m certain is telling me something else. Science, art, literature, language what? The visualizations can be described as mosaic, words and imaginations. It took a while for me to not “be held captive” and think too hard about the words and their meanings (Bartholomae and Petrosky) I started to examine the readings like one would a new piece at the art gallery. Hum, I wonder what this piece is saying, what mood was she in when she wrote this. What was her motivation or, lack thereof to write this piece? I have to admit that these readings are “well out of my league”.
As she splashes (writes) her words on Canvas (paper), I felt privileged to experience a writer from this perspective for the first time. Her writings seem to be complex, cynical, and deep words that come to mind with Short Talks. Her writings are like experiencing a Monet’ or Picasso, Rembrandt for the first time. There may be other ways to see this I’m sure. I think if I kept reading over and over again I would probably see it differently than I do now. So I step back (re-read) a few times and changed my perspective and began to see some other things. In some ways she was her own Polymath (versed in many subjects), like Aristotle. It is no wonder she has been considered a genius by some. If I could sit down with her, I’d like to know, from her perspective, what these Short Talks are really about. Is it something, someone, everything or just nothing? Maybe it’s just that, art without the pictures. The museum of Short Talks is the words but, where are the pictures?
Each short talk is like a painting. “My imagination” has become the canvas. “My thoughts” have become the brushes. “My feelings” are the colors that create how I see “Short Talks” Anne Carson challenges me to figure it out for myself. I see art that still challenges me to use my own imagination. Her writings seem to be “in your face”. In other words, she refuses to think for me. She refuses to bring me to some “logical conclusion”. Finally I’ve read something I truly feel has challenged me to consider, another way of reading.

Works Cited
Bartholomae, David, and Anthony Petrosky. Ways Of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 9th ed. ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. Print. http://www.biography.com/people/gertrude-stein-9493261. N.p, 14 Sep 2012, 06:34 . Web. 20 Aug. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/gertrude-stein-9493261>.

Cited: Bartholomae, David, and Anthony Petrosky. Ways Of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 9th ed. ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. Print. http://www.biography.com/people/gertrude-stein-9493261. N.p, 14 Sep 2012, 06:34 . Web. 20 Aug. 2012. &lt;http://www.biography.com/people/gertrude-stein-9493261&gt;.