Make It New

 

Citroen 2CV

"Make it new," said Ezra Pound. Perhaps he didn’t even know what that meant. Does "new" refer to a poetic form (Pound famously wrote in Cantos) or the impulse behind the artistic endeavor itself?  When it comes to appliances most people would say they prefer a new Sub Zero refrigerator to an old Amana, but there's something charming about the waffle iron that comes down in the family bringing with it a host of olfactory memories. Cars epitomize old and new. The word “model” connotes something to be praised and imitated as in a “model student.” On the other hand one talks of vintage cars which have the resonance of a fine wine, One of Anne Beattie’s most famous stories is “A Vintage Thunderbird"--1978! You can go to IKEA to get Danish Modern Modular furniture, or hunt for antiques in Hudson. Everything about this latter runs against the notion of machine line production with its economy of scale. What comes off a conveyor belt is as new as an Ezra Pound poem—if not more so, but in a decidedly mechanical way.

read "Double Exposure" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

read The Wormhole Society by Francis Levy

and read The Wormhole Society: The Graphic Novel by Francis Levy and Joseph Silver

and watch Wisconsin's "Jump Around"