{"id":288,"date":"2013-09-20T01:02:25","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T06:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/?p=288"},"modified":"2018-01-06T11:12:15","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T17:12:15","slug":"displaced-earth-an-engagement-with-sand-and-soot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/displaced-earth-an-engagement-with-sand-and-soot\/","title":{"rendered":"Displaced Earth: An Engagement with Sand and Soot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrienne Dodt, Series Contributor<\/h2>\n

Adrienne’s series “Digital Landscapes<\/a>” is about navigating hypertext.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stephanie Strickland’s The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot<\/i><\/a>\u00b9 is a poetic hypertext about a love story between the characters Sand and Harry Soot. The text is made of linked nodes that one can traverse through different methods. Each node contains two verses, one for each character (titled \u201c1\u201d for Soot and usually \u201c0\u201d for Sand, though she occasionally has other binary code titles), and an image that is in some way science-based. One can read the text in any order through links attached to words, links attached to images, and links attached to a series of 0s at the bottom of each page.<\/p>\n

The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot<\/i> is displaced through its content and its form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Sand<\/b>:<\/td>\nSoot<\/b>:<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand is earth.<\/td>\nSoot is earth.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand is the substance silica,<\/td>\nSoot is the substance carbon,<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
which makes glass and silicon chips.\u00b2<\/td>\nwhich makes life.\u00b2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand is inert.<\/td>\nSoot is active.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand represents the raw material<\/td>\nSoot represents the processed (burned)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
out of which we construct our virtual reality.<\/td>\nremnants of the once living.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand is that which is natural, untouched.<\/td>\nCarbon is the material<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand encompasses both the natural and the unnatural.<\/td>\nout of which we construct living reality.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sand is that which will be interpreted by humans.<\/td>\nSoot is that which was interpreted by humans.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1
\nBiocompatible glass? <\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Harry Soot,<\/i>
\nSand looks askance.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 unclear, of course, about fire.
\nSand an infinite receiver\u2014\u00a0 <\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How original, originating,
\ninfinitely flexible. Beyond <\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>it really was\u2014<\/i>
\nflex in fact, an infinite <\/i>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 F<\/i>orests aflame.<\/i>\u00b9
\ndeceiver: Proteus at home.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

01000011
\nSand is sand.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

New York City<\/strong>: The ubiquitous (American) city, it becomes indistinctive in the process of fictionalization: the Everycity. NYC is the projection of human’s ideal \u201cmetropolis\u201d\u2014 fears, desires, artistic impulses\u2014 a filtered view of an actual New York City made of concrete, steel, people, neighborhoods. New York City is a physical, human-made geography. NYC is an abstract, human-made geography.<\/p>\n

1
\nHarry Soot believes he is watching.
\nHarry thinks he is in Times Square.
\nHe is. She is not.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

It is telling that only Harry Soot is associated with New York City. Soot symbolizes man (in both the general and gendered interpretation), who must navigate human-made geographies. This arena is closed off to Sand, who represents non-living nature turned into technology.<\/p>\n

1
\nSoot ground his keys
\nin his pocket,
\ndefacing his Metrocard.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

This verse is located next to an image of a Metrocard\u2014 a pass for New York’s subway system. The card is a means of travel through the city. By scraping his keys against the card, Soot renders it unusable. He sabotages his \u201ckey\u201d to the trains, the portal to moving from one place to the next, with his actual keys, the portal to (presumably) his home. He cannot (doesn’t want to) navigate the actual city. He is intentionally dis-placed as a character, a persona on the internet, a fictionalized person who cannot traverse reality.<\/p>\n

The image of the card itself links to another node of the text; thus the card becomes a literal portal from one site to another even as it is rendered as an image and is thus inutile as passage through an actual place.<\/p>\n

Nature<\/strong>: Amorphous, uncontrollable Nature is the symbol of that which is not constructed. Nature is the Everywhere; it is incomprehensible as it encroaches on our constructed geographies. Nature is that which we classify and name\u2014 an interpretation of the unknown\/other\u2014 into flora, fauna, geological features. Nature is a fictionalized ideal of nature: an overlaid transparency onto the living and non-living earth.<\/p>\n

0
\nSand seeks the scent
\nof lemon viburnum,
\nmurmuring purple
\nof the ringneck doves\u2019 soft
\ngurgle as they walk on the wall
\nand their syllables spill over and
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

fall
\ndown
\na
\ncolumn<\/i><\/p>\n

of slowness. Midnight blue
\nof Krishna’s<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

In this verse, Sand is in her untouched state. Nature overtakes the language (of doves, but still a language), rendering it almost unintelligible, and language \u201cspills over\u201d and \u201cfalls\u201d down the human-made construction of a column. The column represents one of the earliest breakthroughs in architecture, a milestone of human ingenuity.<\/p>\n

0<\/i><\/p>\n

Sand\u2019s similarity to scarabs? Or a
\nrosa dolorosa<\/em><\/i>,<\/em> every petal
\nthorned? Or swallows up close.
\n\u201cThe tail is forked and as <\/i>elegant<\/i>
\nas a trout\u2019s, but more attenuated,
\njust short of baroque,\u201d says the
\nnaturist. I quote.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

In this verse, Sand represents controlled nature, nature that has been quantified, measured, and classified. Sand is that which is taken from nature and processed for human knowledge (which is in itself a use.)<\/p>\n

0
\nSand resounds as long as a whale song
\npassed along and around the waters of the
\nworld. Like a <\/i>motherchild<\/i> pod, she\/they
\nboth <\/i>threatened<\/i> and succored by the
\ncoasts. Alone in the bay, rolling over and
\nback beneath the moon, as<\/i><\/p>\n

1
\nHarry and his cohort heave
\ninto view, traveling in a pack,
\ndriving them aground.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

This is the conflict between human and (the rest of) nature: humans attempt to conquer animals, land, and geology for their own use while nature resists and fights back. In this verse, Sand has been conquered by Soot; nature has been conquered by human for use.<\/p>\n

The Internet<\/strong>: The internet is a no-place and therefore, so goes the sophism, an every-place. The internet is both constructed\u2014 through code and content\u2014 and unconstructed\u2014 through its immateriality, the lack of physicality. The internet is a medium through which humans navigate from site to site to site in our conception of the internet as a series of places, both connected (linked) and unconnected (discrete).<\/p>\n

The hypertext is a dis-placement: there is no spatial determination (or order) to the text. One can travel through any chosen path to interpret the text. In this way, the text is doubly dis-placed: through the non-place of the internet and through the de-construction\/interpreted re-construction of its narrative.<\/p>\n

0<\/i><\/p>\n

Sand insinuated herself. ZaumZoom in,
\nshe has gone ahead. ZoomTzim out,
\nshe is not behind.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

Sand \u201chas gone ahead,\u201d or, in another word, progressed. \u201cProgress\u201d and \u201cadvance\u201d (to go ahead) are the words we use to describe technology. To take the natural and turn it into the abstract is progress because it furthers human purposes. Sand is located on the internet, which is conducted through silicon\/sand. She can progress because she is of the internet, or the internet is of her.<\/p>\n

1
\nHarry Soot
\ntried to find a center. Beneath or beyond.
\nA point to yield or resist.<\/i>\u00b9<\/p>\n

Soot, on the other hand, is a constructed and self-constructed entity. His subjectivity tries to relate to an objectivity beyond himself, and that objective reality is, paradoxically, virtual. It is that which he cannot touch. Soot cannot locate himself because he is incompatible as a physical substrate. He is caught up in his own abstraction.<\/p>\n

We, as readers, construct a narrative through our choices acted upon the text. The dis-placement of the text is, ultimately, what frees us to perform other operations of interpretation.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

\u00b9 Stephanie Strickland, The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot<\/i>. http:\/\/www.wordcircuits.com\/gallery\/sandsoot\/frame.html<\/a>
\n\u00b2 I riffed off of some of Strickland’s ideas here.
\nStephanie Strickland, \u201cSeven Reasons Why Sandsoot is the Way It Is.\u201d http:\/\/www.wordcircuits.com\/htww\/strickland.htm#top<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2245<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Adrienne Dodt is a poet and essayist. Adrienne\u2019s work can be found in\u00a0The Body Electric\u00a0<\/em>anthology and\u00a0Fact-Simile<\/em>,\u00a0Apothecary<\/em>,\u00a0Con\/Crescent<\/em>, and\u00a0Monkey Puzzle<\/em>\u00a0magazines. Ze is a member of The Next Objectivists poetry collective in Chicago. Ze was the Poetry Editor for\u00a0Bombay Gin<\/em>\u00a0magazine in 2008-2009, and ze edited the Next Objectivists\u2019 chapbook\u00a0Collective Unconsciousnesses<\/em>\u00a0in 2011. Adrienne currently teaches English at City Colleges of Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adrienne Dodt, Series Contributor Adrienne’s series “Digital Landscapes” is about navigating hypertext. Stephanie Strickland’s The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot\u00b9 is a poetic hypertext about a love story between the characters Sand and Harry Soot. The text is made … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[47,46,48],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digital-landscapes","tag-adrienne-dodt","tag-stephanie-strickland","tag-the-ballad-of-sand-and-harry-soot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":808,"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.srpr.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}