#about carson

[antigonick]

Hi! Do you happen to have a pdf copy of "Nay Rather"? I really want to read it but the physical copy is too expensive for me atm :') thank you!!

Sorry, I don’t! But most of the chapbook is taken up by a re-edited version of Carson’s essay, “Variations on the Right to Remain Silent”, of which a similar (I think older?) version is available for free here. It’s followed by two poetry exercises that are interesting in their own right, but the essay is by far the most interesting in my opinion.

[antigonick]

Hello! May I ask what book by Anne Carson I should start reading if I want to dip my toe in some of her works? I've been debating between Antigonick and Eros the Bittersweet, but I'm happy to try anything!

Hi! Definitely Eros the Bittersweet if you're looking to read more of her down the line—it's engaging, thought-provoking and accessible, and it lays the foundation for most of what she explores throughout her body of later works: desire, language, performance vs. writing, etc. Antigonick is great (obviously... I loved it), but it's more niche and narrow, and I think one draws more from it with the context of Carson's earlier writing(s). I'd recommend reading If Not Winter (translation notes included) before that as well, to get a glimpse of how Carson approaches translation, and how/why she went in that direction with Antigonick.

[antigonick]

Hi Pauline, I might be mixing things up after going through a lot of your book recs pages, but did you happen to recommend a book by Anne Carson on writing? If not, could you recommend one of hers that's at least writing adjacent? I had a dream about it and it suddenly seems of the utmost importance

Hmmm, maybe you mean Variations on the Right to Remain Silent, which exists as an essay and as part of a chapbook titled Nay, Rather? I think that would be the most straightforward work specifically on writing (or at least on creating in an hybrid space that writing is part of). She does mention writing more roundaboutly pretty much everywhere though -- I would recommend Decreation, where she doesn't outright explore her own writing process, but that sheds light on it through her comparative studies and what she "sees" in others'.

[antigonick]

Hey Pauline! First of all, thank you for your anne carson's electra's response. Second, i was wondering if you have read eros the bittersweet? i've been wanting to get a copy but i see different publishing dates on them and one is even being released this march. so i'm a bit confused which copy to get. Thank you so much!!!

Hi! Yes, I've read all of her works. Eros the Bittersweet is an offshoot of Carson's PhD thesis, extracted and amended into the essay form. It hasn't changed from edition to edition, except maybe very minimally! The last publication is only a reedition in a new collection. You can buy any of them.

[antigonick]

hello! sorry to bother, but i haven't been able to find your thoughts on this while searching through your tags - could you maybe tell us what your thoughts on 'the beauty of the husband' are? i finished reading it a few days ago and i've seen many mixed views, as it tends to happen. im not quite sure still what i think of it - i feel like i loved it, like i always love carson's writing, but i feel like something was Lacking, it kind of felt overall meh to me. what are your thoughts?

Hmmm, yes. The Beauty of the Husband is not my favourite either—some poems are more successful than others, and there are a few that I re-read with pleasure, but as a whole it's lopsided. I haven't read it cover to cover in a while, so I can't give you an expert analysis off the top of my head, but my theory is that it all comes down to Eros. Carson is much better at writing desire (love ungrasped, longing) than she is at writing romance (love in the moment of its short-lived reaching), and The Beauty of the Husband is most successful when she dwells on the moments of missing, of reach-without-grasp, of the intellectualisation or figuration of desire, rather than when it tries to express the feeling of love. The Beauty of the Husband, between the lines, is a dialogue with Keats; and while Carson's conversations are usually fruitful because she connects with her interlocutor, forcefully or not, in The Beauty of the Husband she doesn't quite find her Keats, for me.

I might be biased because I do know and love Keats, while for a lot of her works I was more willing to be taken by the hand, if not lied to, about the figures she interacts with. Immersion can't be the same if you hold yourself back or can't be manipulated as easily.

Still, the experimentation on format and tangos is exciting, as are the metaphorical / mythological motifs running throughout, so there's that!

[antigonick]

Hi dear Pauline!

I started reading Autobiography of Red today, and it’s a bit tricky for me. Do you have any recommendations for additional reading (say, essays/interviews/analysis?) to better understand Carson’s style in general and this verse novel specifically? Thank you for your help!

I love your blog, keep being amazing ❤️

Hi! Okay, it's part of what I'm writing on, so this might be a bit scattered, and I also don't want to digress for hours on the subject. In short: keep in mind that Carson, with Autobiography of Red and with most of her works, is exploring the bittersweetness of desire—what it means to reach, what it means to not grasp, the disappointment of that, what's left behind or within—and exploring the possibilities of language (sometimes, often, both intertwine.) What is left silent in Autobiography of Red's is as important as what is said, despite its linguistic simplicity. But she's also a reader-manipulator. You cannot trust her in the sense that she'll tell you the whole truth (she won't); but you can trust her to tell you a good story, and not "seeing" every details of its underbelly doesn't detract from its quality.

If you want to understand its cogs a little more, I recommend reading Eros the Bittersweet first; her take on desire and the way language affects it is key to Autobiography of Red. Some of Geryon’s mindfucks with time are also clarified there. Reading the "real" fragments of the Geryoneis might give you pointers as well; it's been beautifully but very closely translated by David Campbell for Loeb Classics. Also, a few easy-to-tackle articles on the subject (you shouldn't need any prior knowledge/research to understand those, I think?):

Erotic Sufferings: "Autobiography of Red" and Other Anthropologies, by Sharon Wahl

The Monstrosity of Anne Carson's "Autobiography of Red", by Leif Erik Schenstead-Harris

"First I Must Tell about Seeing": (De)monstrations of Visuality and the Dynamics of Metaphor in Autobiography of Red, by Monique Tschofen

“Who Can A Monster Blame for Being Red?” Three Fragments on the Academic and the “Other” in Autobiography of Red”, by Bruce Beasley

[antigonick]

I didn’t know mary oliver and anne carson are queer omg

Mary Oliver very much. Her long-time partner was Mary Malone Cook. For Anne Carson I'll add a disclaimer: she won't touch labels with a ten-foot-pole, but gender-non-conformity (see Autobiography of Red, Antigonick, and Elektra or Bakkhai's translation notes), demi/asexuality (see AoR, The Anthropology of Water, Mimnermos: The Brainsex Paintings, The Glass Essay) and bisexuality (see AoR, Red Doc>, Canicula di Anna, Sappho If Not Winter, or Beauty of the Husband) are an elemental part of all her works. The way she tackles the concept of Eros as well as her constant effort towards genre-bending is tied to queerness too, in my opinion. Her works are about queerness, but they are also full of deflections and blur the line between confession and autofiction. I personally read her as queer, but that's in the largest sense of the word.

[antigonick]

hello, i wanted to ask if you knew there was a chronological way to read play translations by anne carson. i have Elecktra and was wondering if i should read something else before that. thank you for your time!

Hey! No strict order, and it's just my preference, but I'd recommend going for chronological-ish—her translations are already creative at the start, but they veer more into transcreation as time goes on. Elektra is fairly straightforward, it's a good one to start with. It's also one of my favourites; you'll find it again in her Oresteia, with a few tweaks. Grief Lessons and an Oresteia are accessible without knowing much of the source-texts, Carson gives you the keys in her introductions. Then, Iphigenia Among The Taurians and Bakkhai, which are more performance/intervention-based, but still clearly translations; then, if you're feeling it, go for Antigonick and The Trojan Women; these are fully settled in adaptation/rewriting riff territory, but they're very neat. You just need to be a bit used to her voice and schtick before you dive into those.