Montaigne...Silliman. Delany: On Some Lines of "Shadow and Ash"

概要

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Abstract Theodor Adorno has noted that an essay "obtains its contour from its content." If one studies Samuel R.Delany's essay, "Shadow and Ash," in which, among other things, he considers the work of poet Ron Silliman, it begins to appear that this idiosyncratic essay obtains its contour from its content: Silliman's work. Just as Silliman's Alphabet is made up of a series of sentences which do not, in any simple way, follow one from another, so Delany's essay is made up of discrete numbered sections which are not, in any simple way, connected. To suggest that the form of Delany's essay was influenced by the form of its subject, Silliman's Alphabet, is only speculation, but that Delany's essay leaves us speculating about this and about other things is a sign of its success. A good essay is not about coming to an understanding, but about trying to understand, and this trying, this essaying, should not end when the last page is turned.
2011-04-01