Christian Bök - Inviting Us to Rethink how Language Works Essays

In the post-Modernist world, developments in the sciences overshadow human relationships. To bridge humankinds transferation from science and technology, Christian Bk turns science into poesy, and poetry into science. He delves into pataphysics, the poetics of an imaginary science which renders the English lyric poem whimsical and at times nonsensical. He withal attempts virtuosic feats with his hold up and concrete poetry. Bks language welcomes new interpretations and shows that poetry is an ongoing process that prat disrupt traditions and reshape them. Bks innovative practice of sound, form, and narrative reshapes language, inviting the audience to rethink how language works.Exploring sounds primitivism, Christian Bk transforms his poetry into wild vocal terrains. He deconstructs and reinvents means in language by banishing words from some of his sound poetry. pursual the post-Modernist tradition of melding old materials with new ideas, Bk re-imagines Dadaist Hugo Balls poem Seepferdchen und Flugfische (Seahorses and Flying Fish) by infusing it with his own tempos, pitches, and exclamation points. The language in this poem does not consist of words but a disembowel of nonsensical sounds like billabi, zack, and bisch Can language still be language without words? To be effective, language must be able to go on ideas. Bks language then, communicates ideas through explosions of non-meanings. It relies heavily on its emotive byimection, stirring the audiences imagination with fluctuations in pitch, tone, and tempo. It is also metalingual it draws attention to itself as the audience tries to decipher the poem through altogether the sense of hearing. In his poem Valuvula, Bk chants in an alien language. S... ... Available http//www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html, 2000. Accessed November 16, 2003. Bk, Christian. Valuvula in UbuWeb Sound Poetry. Available http//www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html, 2000. Accessed November 16, 2003. Carmine, Starnino. Vowel Movemen ts Pointless Toil and Empty Productivity. Books in Canada 31, 4 (Jun/Jul 2002) 29.Crawley, Devin. Eunoia. dick & Quire 67, 10 (October 2001) 40.Crawley, Devin. The book of Bok authors new poetry call uses just one vowel per chapter Eunoia. Quill & Quire 67, 10 (October 2001) 9. Dykk, Lloyd. Are we having fun yet? Series 2002 I Resolve The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, 3 January 2002, p. D12.Pataphysics, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 2000 ed.Samuels, Ian. Books highlight poetrys past and present. Calgary Herald Calgary, 18 October 2003, p. ES12.