SXSW Poetry & A Suitcase Full of Snails

A Poet's Time Machine

If you’re bummed you can’t make SXSW this week, so are we. Want to get even more bummed? Read on. This week we put on our street-worn Chuck Taylors and headed over to the festival — you know, virtually. The most important thing to us was seeing where poetry might fit in to this Music, Film & Interactive festival (by the way, according to the SXSW overlords, interactive means “compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology,” by which we’re assuming they mean Twitter). But where is poetry found on Twitter? Why, in a multitude of Twitter movements, of course. You see, these days, Twitter has its own subcultures and isms — just like Slow Food! –  that require directions and much explaining from a panel of witty Twitter users who sit around and talk about Slow Twitter — yum.

What else did we miss? Just a film-poem on Sunday “in the whispery language of Polish.” We’re excited about this because we didn’t quite know film-poems existed, or that people are walking around saying, “Hey, seen any good film-poems lately?” We’re going to start tuning in to that kind chitchat, but not before we lose our film-poem virginity.

Are your legs tired yet? Let’s keep trudging along, looking for more poetry highlights. Not much to do with poetry, but interesting nonetheless, is a screening on Wednesday that covers the works of filmmaker Alan Govenar. The current film examines Governar’s short film The Poetry of Exactitude, which is based on the career of Lucien Mouchet, a Parisian who makes small-scale reproductions of carousels that are 1/20th scale of the original.

Poetry made an appearance in yet another film, aptly named “The Happy Poet.” (Are there any other types?) The story starts out by telling us about Bill, an out-of-work poet — whoa, hang on. What’s the opposite of an out-of-work poet? A gainfully employed Poetry CEO? Is this film trying to say that poets work at hot dog stands? Furthermore, does this film imply the even more disturbing stereotype that poets work at vegetarian hot dog stands?  It’s showing this Wednesday. You decide.

After our remote time-machine trip to Austin, we headed home — tired but inspired — and promptly began staring at the author names in our bookcase: Jonathan Lethem, Robert Haas, Jeanette Winterson. Hey, what’s Jeanette up to these days? Maybe she’s writing some vicious book reviews? In fact, she’s reviewing a book about a woman who traveled for forty years with a suitcase filled with  hundreds — hundreds! — of snails. Who are we talking about? Why none other than the smutty, wife-stealing author Patricia Highsmith. (This article appeared in the New York Times in December 2009 — we’re not claiming this is breaking news. But hey, we’re traveling in our time machine, remember?)

She'll Steal Your Wife

Miss Highsmith is quite the bad-ass. She’s obsessed with taxes, hates food (DSM does not condone eating disorders and no female appetites were harmed in the making of this post) and can easily steal up to three three wives at one time all while living off a robust diet of booze and cigarettes. Jeanette, thanks for reviewing Joan Schenkar’s book about Patricia Highsmith. Finally, someone who thinks it’s perfectly normal to store snails in your suitcase — not that we’d ever do that. — Lori Huskey

Video: The Poetry of Exactitude