In an era of rampant objectification, reification and alienation, contemporary world new poetry is in a state of being rejected and abandoned by poetry itself. However, there are still lonely and brave people who bear obsession and redemption, and persist in re-initiating questioning and reflection in the form of poetry, so that existence (poetic thinking) can resonate in the life and thoughts of the existent (poet). The birth of Angel.XJ's new poetry collection "Rock Academy and Science Cat" marks that she will be a "most future-oriented poet". According to Hölderlin's words, it is to use poetry to shape and establish human habitation on this earth.
Heterogeneity: The boundaries of language and the direction of time and space
Angel.XJ is a bilingual poet in Chinese and English who practices a kind of "cross-language practice" in the fields of science, literature and art. His "cross-border and experimental" new poetry creation is undoubtedly of surprising and expected value. Abstraction is the highest realm of formal art. The poet has created some strange word groups, which expand the time and space of semantics and the spiritual orientation with disordered combinations of freedom, synesthesia, mismatch, blending and deviation, allowing the body and soul to enter a transcendent, abstract and super-image world. All art is moving towards abstraction. The poet uses new writing techniques to make bold breakthroughs in the language structure, giving the language itself multiple imagination spaces, complicating the connotation of the language, alienating the direction of the language, and maximizing the tension of the language, from "boundary" to "infinity".
Culturally heterogeneity is a new aesthetic feeling produced by the coexistence, integration and assimilation of multiple cultures. The new generation of poets is deconstructing the expression of "mono-cultural subject" from the perspective of Euro-American centrism, and striving to move towards cultural exchange and the generation of "multicultural subject" in the era of cultural globalization. Angel.XJ's poetry extracts and transforms the signifier and signified of traditional words, thus generating new strange and abstract semantics. This weird and absurd new language expression can be described as profound and profound with long-lasting meaning.
Professor Geng Zhanchun, a contemporary Chinese poetry critic, once said that there is a flow and cycle of energy between language, body and society. In other words, the subject can actually be decomposed and degraded into elements, and "language" connects the individual to the infinite space of human existence. Liao Xijuan (Pseudonym Angel.XJ ) poetry contains rich and infinite symbols and mysteries, fully reflecting her exploration and subversion of the nature of the world and language. Her poetic language ability exudes a kind of magic. Through the power of symbols and language, it reveals the essence and mystery hidden behind the phenomenon, and gives everything a new meaning and connotation, allowing the image landscape of words to transform into a poetic dream field, allowing poetry to burst out its own sound, color, light, electricity and shadow in the field of infinite imagination, thereby obtaining a surreal, cross-time and space grand experience realm.
The "Rock Academy" and "Science Cat" in Angel.XJ's poem, "Rock Academy and Science Cat" are metaphors for modern life and cultural conflicts. College rock usually has profound connotations and social consciousness, and its core characteristics are independence or alternative. Rock music rose in a beat way. When structuring the "mutual achievement" of literature and music, the cat on the stage is no longer an alien, but a mirror for self-examination. The poet connects the individual to society and history through "language". Language itself can become "other". Language and everything can be the subject of each other, with a brand-new combination of words and creative artistic conception, giving people a refreshing aesthetic feeling. Her poems often use a combination of non-traditional grammar and logic, but they can collide with new semantic space, photocopying the scars of postmodern poetry such as surrealism, absurdism, fauvism, and stream of consciousness. In the strangeness and obscurity, even bizarre and weird, mysterious and dreamy, a new visual space is presented, which is abstract, profound and vast: the self and the other are mutually objectified, and in the "conflict" for the power of freedom, a "mutual" relationship is formed. Her poetry gains a kind of lift toward the future from the gravity of worldly predicaments.
Alienation: Symphony and ensemble of metaphysics and physics
As an avant-garde poet with a forward-looking vision and international background, Angel.XJ is distinctively open and compatible. Her poems extensively borrow and use the artistic forms and expressions of opera, ballet and musical. The interactivity and creativity of this art form. Drama and opera play an important role in the epic. They are not only the medium for the dissemination of the epic, but also the extension and deepening of the content and theme of the epic. They are a poetic ensemble of science and art, achieving the aesthetic effect of "harmony but difference" between poetry and art.
Within this poetry collection "Rock Academy and Science Cat", Angel.XJ is good at using symbolic art to express deep thoughts on the primitive, secular and religious worlds through the cross-border integration of scenes, elements and languages. Through the techniques of surreal symbols and metaphors, many strange images are created and innovated: the goddess of light, witnesses, magic mirror rhapsody, transparent skin and submarines. In particular, "blinds" symbolize a complex psychological state of concealment and display, isolation and communication. Through the opening and closing of blinds, the poet skillfully creates an atmosphere that is both obscure and full of hints, making the artistic conception of the poem full of mysterious and profound tension. Her poetic style is close to the body and soul, human nature and the world, and wanders between the gaps in space and time, setting off a semantic situation of cross-border blending and heterogeneous integration.
As Levinas said, the relationship with existence is not a relationship with the other itself, but a transformation of the other into the same. The process of verbal exchange means letting the "other" enter, letting the "other" stay, and realizing the interaction of difference and sameness. Dreams and reality are intertwined, illusions and self-reflection coexist. The poet, with his keen insight and extraordinary creativity, transforms complex psychological phenomena into vivid poetic scenes, and experiences unprecedented spiritual shock under the dual impact of vision and thinking. The poet can always find the most perfect words for these peculiar artistic conceptions: "The view from the terrace is full of imagination", "In September, thoughts can make the river flow backwards", "How long will they hug and stay together at night before they are washed away?", "After the body is buried, the dream continues to live", "The poppy tree at the top of the sky breaks free from the ancient time capsule". The poet subtly extracts the ridicule, confrontation or teasing of her personal life and personalized language, and exposes the ultimate honesty and understanding in doubt: "Dancing in the sun is like swimming in the crowd/You are just one of the numbers/Everyone's saint/And a traitor to himself". In addition, the human body photography, hands, fingers and other elements in the poem, as well as the words "E flat, C sharp" and "equal temperament, zodiac nature" in the poem, are particularly typical symbolic, enriching and deepening the imagery and spirit of the poem. Alienation is both a creative tool and an innovative path for the poet.
The poet bridges and re-establishes himself from externalization and the unknown world, and with infinite imagination and creativity, brings a new driving force to our new poetry creation and even the life and time of poetry.
Alien: The reproductive aesthetic organ of poetry
"Only when you are outside the world can you feel the existence of the world." The poet tried to overlook the vast vision of mankind through a planetary thinking.
With the advent of the AI era, I think poetry will be an aesthetic organ of the poet that breaks through the survival function. Poetry will surely work with artificial intelligence, biomedical engineering, etc., and the combination of organic organs and non-machines will create the future of mankind. Kant's so-called "aesthetic judgment", sensory functions such as sensibility, rationality, and supersensory perception, through the computing power of artificial intelligence, complete the infinite combination and generation of poetic artistic conception. This kind of " grafting ", "sewing" and "bridging" will be the theme of future poetics.
Everything in future poetics revolves around the "absence or presence" of poetry. The exploration of the pioneers has given the basic dimensions of future poetics: action, technology and machine. It is not only a response to the current dilemma and crisis of poetry, but also a new form of poetry. Its advocacy of diversity in creative technology actually contains the secret path to future poetics. The "one" creative technology means the end of history, and the "many" creative technologies will give us and poetry a new life and future.
Angel.XJ explores a certain connection or contrast between rock music and science in his collection of poems "Rock Academy and Science Cats". The poet uses various symbolic scenes and images to construct the framework of the poem, such as the performance of a rock band, the process of scientific experiments, the agility and mystery of cats, etc., which means that the poem explores the balance or conflict between freedom and rationality, passion and calmness. Angel.XJ's poems focus on grand themes such as human nature, society, nature, parallel universes, future time and space, and science fiction planets. Through poetry, he conveys all his cracks and conflicts, entanglements and compromises, contradictions and paradoxes about the world, life, and the universe, in order to break through the closeness’ of the inner world and the barriers of the world beyond, and to give poetic compensation to the world of the wasteland and the human world, which is also a restoration and return of a higher dimension.
Future poetics is not a time dimension, but a new form and new path of poetry creation, and it is also a purpose of new poetry creation to return to poetry itself. Angel.XJ's poetry creation has distinct "cross-border poetry" characteristics. "Cross-border poetry" should be a direction and prototype of future poetics. It not only inherits the tradition of "dramatization of new poetry", but also opens up a new paradigm and ecology for new poetry creation. In the experiment of "cross-border poetry", whether it is the "cross-border" of poetry and drama, or the "mix and match" of poetry and rock and other song and dance forms, or the "symphony" of poetry, music, dance, performance and other arts, they are all Liao Xijuan (Angel.XJ)'s experimental exploration of future poetics. This is undoubtedly a solo adventure, with a unique cultural poetics "phenomenon of existence" way, to the future poetics "phenomenon of existence".
Qin Feng, whose real name is Pu Jianxiong, is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the Chinese Literary Critics Association, a member of the Chinese Poetry Society, and a doctor of literature. He is also the author of poetry collections "Only in the Vast" and "The Wind is Down", and is the executive editor of the poetry magazine "Sichuan Poet".
translation by：Angel.XJ（廖锡娟），银行与金融学博士、学者,金融学教授；双语诗人，评论人。双语诗刊 Rainbow Arch Hall《Rainbow Arch乐诗中西》创始人。中英文诗歌作品曾发表于《星星》《诗刊》英国诗歌社会员,苏格兰诗歌社会员；RainbowArchHall.com; Hello Poetry Foundation; Poetry Hunter; All Poetry 等中外诗刊。著有英文诗集 "Muse or Amuse, A Journey to Atomic Adventures"；中文诗集《摇滚学院与科学猫》。
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