On Difficulty

in poetry and other arts

George Steiner, On Difficulty (1978)

A common reaction to poetry: Huh?

Four DifficultiesContingentModalTactical (my favorite!)Ontological

Four Difficulties

Contingent -- a cultural reference that you might have to "go look up." 

Your understanding (and, presumably, enjoyment) is contingent on knowing some fact (or tune?) 

Jan van EyckMarriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami, 1434

single candle =

God’s eye

St Margaret?

crystal prayer beads

oranges = ?shoes

imported carpet $$$

Fido

Four Difficulties

Modal -- after sincerely trying to engage and understand the work, you just can't like it due to fundamental issues of taste or personal experience.

(Horror films revel in modal difficulty.)

The Slaughtered Ox 1655

Four Difficulties Tactical -- the artist deliberately gets in your way of

immediately understanding the work's meaning (Why do this? Which is more enjoyable – the tale

or the telling of the tale?)  Pulp Fiction Speed or overwhelming complexity of music –

bebop Insider slang in lyrics Ravel’s La Valse

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg Woman in Front of a Mirror, 1841oil on canvas, 33.5 x 26 cm (13 3/16 x 10 1/4)

Braque, The

Portuguese, 1911

CUBISM

James Rosenquist    Welcome to the Water Planet1987

POP-ART

Hypo Alpe-Adria Center in Klagenfurt, Austria, MAYNE, 2002

Four Difficulties

Ontological -- the artist through the work challenges the very definition of the genre or even the idea of art itself

Fountain, 1917

Four Difficulties

ContingentModalTactical (my favorite!)Ontological

All together now . . .

HOLBEIN, HansThe Ambassadors1533Oil on wood207 x 209.5 cm

Attention, shoppers. From within the     inverted commas of a strambotto, seditious     whispering watermarks this time of day. Time to get

   out and, as they say, about.

From a poem, “Where Shall I Wander,” by John Ashbery, 2005

Attention, shoppers. From within the     inverted commas of a strambotto, seditious     whispering watermarks this time of day. Time to get

   out and, as they say, about.

From a poem, “Where Shall I Wander,” by John Ashbery, pub. 2005

contingent

Attention, shoppers. From within the     inverted commas of a strambotto, seditious     whispering watermarks this time of day. Time to get

   out and, as they say, about.

From a poem, “Where Shall I Wander,” by John Ashbery, pub. 2005

tactical

Attention, shoppers. From within the     inverted commas of a strambotto, seditious     whispering watermarks this time of day. Time to get

   out and, as they say, about.

From a poem, “Where Shall I Wander,” by John Ashbery, pub. 2005

ontologicalThis is a poem?

ontologicalThis is a poem?

in music?

Brian Ferneyhough

Ferneyhough String Trio (1995)

Ontological?

Tactical?

Convention Expression

John Cage (after McLuhan)

‘music is information brushing against information’

JOHN ADAMS

Hallelujah Junction (1996)

for 2 pianos – rhythmically very tricky for the performers

improv, especially with electronics

new tunings

rhythmic developments

hybrids with rock, studio techniques

timbral refinement

Non-ontological directions in new music

x

Me

Sonata Rocinante – a tactical difficultyan initial idea

as written

developed

Sonata Rocinante

Rocinante – Don Quixote’s horse

4 sections -- Rocinante•as described by Cervantes

(bony, stubborn)•as imagined by Quixote•again as described by Cervantes•as imagined by Quixote –

and the reader?

• the horse• the rider• the writer• the reader

(computer demo performance)

Sonata Rocinante

the horse

Sonata Rocinante

the rider

Quixote’s POV – Rocinante as dark, powerful, muscular

(sort of in the style of Chopin)

Sonata Rocinante

the writer

the author’s games(the composer’s games)

horsin’ around

Sonata Rocinante

the reader

the response of the reader integrating the effects of the novel

Undercurrent

traditional motific development & expansion

then subjected to various folding, fragmentation and repetition