She Considers

she considers his question

in fragments of verse

(an excavated text + listening experience)

Out of the exaggerated ruin of a disastrous past come nineteen esoteric fragments, once part of a lengthy document, perhaps a letter, prepared by an unknown "she" for an equally arcane "he". The "question" has not survived the ravages of time.

The fragments gain in mystery from the question's vagary. A theme can be gleaned: "verse, austere, less pleasing and pathetic" versus "wistful dreams" of a kiss, a supper table, a happy time.

Time has humorously excised the original: the manifesto [fr 6], once several pages long, now trails into uncertainty. The first song to life [fr 14], originally in many verses, survives in only one darkly ironic word.

Other redactions are elegantly sparse. Her sleeping potion [fr 15] is as austere and poetic as any Greek ruin by the sea. The second song to life [fr 17], pits paper and grey filings (eraser dust? filed papers? the plastic dust of laser printers of the period?) against a viscerally "aortal time", with little reward: "a few words left...you'll be lucky" or "to be loved...is not long."

Regardless of what became of he, she, and the question between them, these few words have survived thus far. The spaces between them, "expand or compress", "so complexly present" [fr 18: Epitasis]. Omission transmogrifies the prosaic. The question each of us finds the fragments reckoning with can be surely identified only as the question that is our own.

--The Editor

LISTEN:

Voice & design by L. Courie.
Recorded by Chris Boyd in Athens, Georgia, July 2009.
Music from Inhabitants, a free improv by Dan Nettles' Kenosha Kid: Dan Nettles: guitar, Dave Nelson: trombone, Rich Ianucci: accordion, Jeff Reilly: percussion.

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SOURCE MATERIAL:

Fragment Number: Title*	Typographical Reconstruction**	Imaged original
Fr 1: She invokes the muse	TYP[1]	Image [1]
Fr 2: She invokes the wind	TYP[2]
Fr 3: She sings of a happy time	TYP[3]
Fr 4: She proposes a toast	TYP[4]
Fr 5: She resorts to chance	TYP[5]
Fr 6: She writes a manifesto	TYP[6]	Image [6]
Fr 7: She is seized by melancholy	TYP[7]
Fr 8: She sings of regret	TYP[8]
Fr 9: She confesses wistful dreams	TYP[9]
Fr 10: She sings of beauty	TYP[10]
Fr 11: She threatens violence	TYP[11]
Fr 12: She wraps herself in a blanket	TYP[12]
Fr 13:	TYP[13]	Image [13]
Fr 14: She sings of life	TYP[14]
Fr 15: She prepares a sleeping draught	TYP[15]
Fr 16: She feels certain lacks	TYP[16]
Fr 17: She sings again to life	TYP[17]
Fr 18: Epitasis?	TYP[18]
Fr 19: She sees a piece of glass, or a shadow	TYP[19]

* The editor has sequenced the fragments and assigned titles to suggest the original document. For an exhaustive discussion of historical, contextual, and physical evidence for the order and title derivation, please refer to the editor's paper published in the Postmodern Decrier of Derivative Analytics, Volume 19, 2913

** A typographical reconstruction of the fragments is presented for legibility. Spacing approximates placement of the words on the original page.

Comments? Confusion? Intense Longing? Contact sheconsiders.
Last updated: 04/06/10.