#gabby bess

[lifeinpoetry]

I used to want

To be nothing

I laid down

I made a big fuss

But dying halfheartedly

Is a long life of pain

— Gabby Bess, from “FAKE TO BE REAL,” published in Newest York

[liquidlightandrunningtrees]

What is inside of you besides this human stuff of veins and bones and existential longing?

Gabby Bess, Tipping

[silence-singer-blog]

The cut-up method developed by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin is interesting when we think about the ways that we use social media, even tumblr. 

Burroughs explained the method:

“The method is simple. Here is one way to do it. Take a page. Like this page. Now cut down the middle and cross the middle. You have four sections: 1 2 3 4 ... one two three four. Now rearrange the sections placing section four with section one and section two with section three. And you have a new page. Sometimes it says much the same thing. Sometimes something quite different--(cutting up political speeches is an interesting exercise)--in any case you will find that it says something and something quite definite. Take any poet or writer you fancy. Heresay, or poems you have read over many times. The words have lost meaning and life through years of repetition. Now take the poem and type out selected passages. Fill a page with excerpts. Now cut the page. You have a new poem. As many poems as you like.”

Current artists use the technique as well:

“Cut-ups establish new connections between images," Foisy said, reading from a cut-up of Burroughs' and her own thoughts on the practice. "Screenshots from films are cut-ups. Films themselves are cut-ups. Writing itself is a cut-up. Thought forms are cut-ups. Memories are cut-ups." Once you think in terms of cut-ups, nearly everything appears as one.

--”The Power of Cutting Up Your Idols, and Everything Else” by Gabby Bess. 

My intention is to research as use the technique as a way of 1.) Overcoming artist block and 2.) Connecting my work with the work of those I admire to see what happens and 3.) Exploring ideas of creativity and originality and inspiration. The cut-up technique seems a good way to do this.

[heartshapedblunts]

[le-immorte]

I feel like I invent horrible situations and emotions in my head so convincingly that I give up on everything before anything even happens

Gabby Bess, from “Jeanne Dielman,” Alone with Other People

[lifeinpoetry]

I feel like I invent horrible situations and emotions in my head so convincingly that I give up on everything before anything even happens

Gabby Bess, from “Jeanne Dielman,” Alone with Other People

[lifeinpoetry]

[She] didn’t know how to comprehend the universe. She imagined the universe as a giant sad thing that consistently felt alienated by itself because it was too large and too sad for anyone to possibly understand it.

Gabby Bess, from “The Universe Has Taught Us a Great Trick,” Alone with Other People

[lifeinpoetry]

She knew that this was happening, this crushing feeling inside her ribcage and between her lungs, but she also knew that it would stop happening and that other things would happen, eventually.

Gabby Bess, from “Tipping,” Alone with Other People