hi Richard, if this helps, Brakhage mentions Grosseteste's "The Light Philosophers" on pages 42 & 43 of Cantrills Filmnotes issue no 21/22 - the transcription of his "The Text of Light" film in 1974. he talks about a paragraph, loses track, then comes back to it. & mentions Hollis Frampton has used the idea/dialogue in his "Zorns Lemma" film. "On Light or The Ingression of Forms".
there's a footnote on page 42 that mentions Brakhage subsequentlt discovered that the name quoted by Ezra Pound is a combination of 2 philosophers Erigena & Scotus. maybe Arthur Cantrill would remember if this note came via a later conversation or part of the talk. actually flipping through the article again, there's another mention on page 36. & possibly more towards the end of the article - I made it to this section and have been watching the films on youtube & researching, so need to finish it. On 22 March 2012 13:49, John Powers <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Richard, > > I'm not sure if Brakhage actually read a lot of the "philosophers of > light," but I can tell you from going through a lot of his correspondence > in the Brakhage Archive in Boulder that he discusses what he's reading > quite often, and I can't recall him mentioning in the correspondence that > he has read them. In a letter from 1972 (sorry I don't have more > information handy right now), he mentions the following books from his > personal library as the most important to his artistic practice: > > Ezra Pound-Guide to Kulchur, ABC of Reading, Spirit of Romance > Charles Olson-The Human Universe, Call Me Ishmael, The Mayan Letters > Gertrude Stein-Lectures in America, Geographical History of America > William Carlos Williams-In the American Grain, "Spring and All" > DH Lawrence-Studies in Classic American Literature > Louis Zukofsky-Bottom on Shakespeare > Donald Sutherland-On Romance > Hugh Kenner-The Pound Era > > These are the books he mentions most frequently. Again, this is dated > 1972, which is around the time he makes THE PROCESS and THE RIDDLE OF LUMEN > and shortly before TEXT OF LIGHT, so it's possible he picked them up later. > But there's not a lot of mention of reading them specifically. > > best > John Powers > University of Wisconsin-Madison > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* Richard Ashrowan <[email protected]> > *To:* [email protected] > *Sent:* Wednesday, March 21, 2012 6:36 PM > *Subject:* [Frameworks] Stan Brakhage and the 'philosophers of light'? > > Does anyone know whether Stan Brakhage actually read or owned copies of > written works by Robert Grosseteste, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, Duns Scotus > or Francis Bacon? He refers to them, some of them often, but as far as I > can tell most of the references he makes to them have been traced back to > Ezra Pound's Cantos, wherein they are quoted (and sometimes misattributed) > heavily. It would seem probable that most of Brakhage's knowledge of these > philosophers was in fact indirect through the lens of Pound, though I > wouldn't want to assume that if anyone has any evidence to the contrary. > > I wonder if anyone knows if Brakhage had any of these medieval works, or > other non-Pound references to them, in his library? Availability of these > works in source translation in the 1970s would most certainly have been far > more difficult than today, though it certainly remains problematic. I > assume Brakhage did not read Latin? I know Frampton did - translating his > own passages of Grosseteste's De Luce, a hint I assume he might have > ultimately got from Brakhage, though he also read Pound. > > There are also many other light philosophers in this domain which I do not > believe Brakhage ever mentions anywhere - Al-Hazen, Al-Kindi, St Augustine, > St Basil, Roger Bacon, John Dee, Robert Fludd, Giambattista Della Porta, > and latterly of course, Newton. > > Any thoughts on this most welcome. > > Richard > > Richard Ashrowan > [email protected] > Web: www.ashrowan.com > Blog: http://richardashrowan.tumblr.com > Alchemy: www.alchemyfilmfestival.org.uk > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > FrameWorks mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks > > > > _______________________________________________ > FrameWorks mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks > >
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