David Herrle

                                                               

Magna On Magna feature interview with David Herrle, Editor of SubtleTea.com and scribbler.

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Question:   What do you see as the major problem in today’s poetry scene?

Answer: Too much.  In the unminced words of D. Boon (Google him if you’re not familiar), “I’m f**king overwhelmed!”  Part of me considers being human alone to be cosmic poesy; we are living metaphors of the highest (and therefore most corruptible) order.  Another part winces at cacophony.  Everyone’s a poet and poetry is everywhere.  I help feed the bull market by producing SubtleTea.  I don’t say this to be cynical or lofty.  I’m just being honest.  I deal in poetry and poets among other artists, but I rarely read poetry otherwise.  I like it for ten minutes or so at a time, and I dig a small group of poets rather than poetry in general.  (Robert Graves is one of the few.) 

“Too much” in this case is more blessing than blight, however.  It’s a blessing I can appreciate without binging.  You poets, keep it up!  This is a good boom, all in all.  It’s like too much sex: it’s not necessarily bad though it can be exhausting.

Question: What is your opinion of poetry and politics mixing?

Answer: I tend to avoid it when I scribble, but I’m not averse to it in others’ work.  Typical, PC, basically intolerant “lefty” rants, however, bore me to bloody tears.  Political work embeds itself in temporality, cements its feet in specific history and blunts art’s proper infinity.  This relates to my basic lack of appreciation for strict historicity in “period” films or shows: I prefer a parallel universe, so to speak, a stylized, modified reality over total (or attempted total) reenactment or documentary.  Leone’s West over Ken Burn’s West! 

There’s call for factuality and politics, yes, but I tend to enjoy and write “timeless” pieces, poetry or prose.  Political writing is naturalistic.  Social realism and ideological art are usually annoying and soulless, subordinate to the mass or State or party.  Give me the philosophical or metaphysical any day.

Question: What is the last book that you read?

Answer: If books were women, I’d be a total slut.  I read a few books simultaneously – well, in alternation in the same stretch.  They tend to overlap.  I recently finished John Dean’s BLIND AMBITION chronicle (intense, smart, and sincere), Germaine Greer’s THE FEMALE EUNUCH (some important work despite her female chauvinism), and some David Hume essays.  (Hume is the thinker who thought himself into unthought, as I like to repeat.)  Slamming some Japanese theology, Ian Kershaw, Charles R. Pinches, and taking shots of Spinoza now.

I haven’t been able to read fiction for a long while, preferring history and philosophy.  This is both strange and sad, I must admit, for fiction is a great love.  I hope to return to her soon.

Question: What CD is in you car’s CD player right now and why?

Answer: John Coltrane’s MEDITATIONS and ASCENSION alternating.  MEDITATIONS features Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali added to the grand Coltrane Quartet (Tyner, Garrison, and Jones).  Elvin Jones, the Quartet drummer, reportedly complained that he was lost in the free jazz wall of sound, next to Ali’s simultaneous drumming, I think.  ASCENSION features Freddie Hubbard, Dewey Johnson, Marion Brown, John Tchicai, Sanders, Art Davis, and Archie Shepp added.  Intense, “avant-garde” jazz, particularly post-1963 Coltrane, is some of the only abstract-expressionism, so to speak, I adore in art.  It is praise, explosive human glory, messianic rebirth from the bitter blues’ lamentation and psalms and prophecy.  If there is an art that is always positive and life-affirmative besides the Beethoven/Ravel-type genres, it’s lovely jazz.

That said, for Coltrane I prefer SUN SHIP and A LOVE SUPREME as exemplary works.  Coltrane’s STELLAR REGIONS is good for a “softer” expression, featuring his wife Alice on piano and Rashied Ali on drums next to Garrison as the only other Quarter vet.

Question: Does a writer have to write full time to be “valid”?

Answer: No.  Beware of the arbiters of “validity”.  They are often buffoons.  The stroke of the pen, literally or figuratively (you could be typing), establishes validity.  This doesn’t necessarily mean you are cut out to be a writer or that you write splendidly.  But your written thought, your translated, transmitted soul is itself glorious.  We are, as Tolkien said of fairy-story authors, “sub-creators” involved in “sub-creation”, emulous of God’s image.  I think everybody has something worthy to say at least once or twice (probably closer to thousands) in their lives.

As for writing as A Writer, whenever you can participate in the struggle earns validity.  Yes, being broadcast through publication is undeniably an eventual must for writers.  Patience, fine-wine maturation, and “waiting to strike” may stall such achievement more than luck, opportunity, publishing politics, and salability.  Unpublished work may be quite valid, but the trick is letting others know its valid or sharing the validity through distribution and audience.

Interview conducted by L. Ward Abel

Comments

[Aurora]

Great interview, guys. David, you have a knack for expressing serious truths in a humorous way that actually accentuates the validity of the whole argument. Kudos to you both on a fine exchange!

[Matt]

Very cool interview.

[DonIannone]

Loved the interview and this line is a keeper: "If books were women, I’d be a total slut."

[Nick Zegarac]

You're on fire in this one, David. A lot to digest, but presented in a totally non-fattening way. I'm with you - when it comes to a diet of artistic thoughts, just give me the meat and leave the potatoes for somebody else. Great read!

[Joseph Armstead]

What a great interview! A joy to read and to think about! David has a fabulous mind and great charisma -- love the whole "What CD are you listening to?"-riff on Coltrane and jazz!

[Janet]

Mr. Herrle, you are truly one of a kind (in a good way). Engaging interview.

"....But your written thought, your translated, transmitted soul is itself glorious..." I agree!

[Robert]

Much to glean here. Enjoyed, Gentlemen.

[Bryan]

Funny and interesting. Good job.