Re: Inverted Forest

Colin Pink (colin@cpink.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 05 Aug 1999 12:01:41 +0100

In message <93e71d95.24da0049@aol.com>, Squeila@aol.com writes
>In Inverted Forest why does Robert Waner think Raymond Ford is psychotic.  He 
>says that theres hardly a line of verse in Ford's work, it's all poetry, and 
>that he writes under the pressure of a "dead weight beauty," and that he is 
>the most "gigantic psychotic" that Corrine will ever know.  In the end Ford 
>did turn out to be the one with the oedipus complex, but what did Waner mean?

Maybe Waner is being an unreliable narrator here.  After all he is in
love with Corinne so he has a reason to cast Ford in an alarming light.
There doesn't seem to be any evidence in the story of behaviour by Ford
that might indicate psychosis (though I haven't read it for a while so I
might have forgotten something), mostly his behaviour is just typically
neurotic - which given his childhood is hardly surprising.

'The Inverted Forest' strikes me as quite a confused story.  I don't
think JDS was really in control of his material when he wrote it.  It is
however one of the most fascinating of the under-published stories.  JDS
of course has a big thing about poets (they seem to symbolise for him a
certain kind of spiritual striving) and how they are in some sense
risking their sanity/lives in tearing the veil from mundane existence
and bringing back treasure for the rest of us. The poet as shaman. 

I often get this sensation myself when I've read a really fantastic
poem.  There's something about a really powerful poem which is other-
worldly and awe inspiring.  Perhaps JDS wants to suggest that Ford's
poetic endeavour is along those kind of lines, something that could
cause one to lose ones sanity; a kind of Georg Trakl/Paul Celan type
figure.
-- 
Colin Pink