F.M.R.L., a title, a frame

F.M.R.L. Footnotes, Mirages, Refrains and Leftovers of Writing Sound* is published today.

The title is ‘F.M.R.L.’: not ‘Ephemeral’. I chose this title because of its ambiguity and because it calls to be sounded. I chose it to draw the attention toward language as material; to stay away from any literal understanding of sound as ephemeral, as if unworthy of attention; and to prompt other departures from and into words and letters. To claim invention, intermissions and diversions—responding to a recurring invite that often comes to me from sounds—for example, any time somebody hesitates to pronounce the title of my previous book (or my surname, even). Smiling at the thought of people stumbling upon these letters. How to make all this part of a connective tissue of listening into writing? Language beyond me. That’s why Scratches by Michel Leiris is so present in this book, as he is so receptive to the sounds within phonemes and letters and peels off a whole new layer of meaning by thinking beyond meaning as external referent, but meaning made and remade through resounding deviations and displacements, through listening and through a world of sounds ‘filled with strangeness’. A book that might not appear** as a book about sound, but is very much a sounding book. A way to build a language and most of all, a way of working through arrangements. To become frame.

* While writing the title, I accidentally spelled ‘Writing Wound’. How to ignore this?
** ‘appear’.

inner hidden workings of psyche

Out of sheer curiosity I went to look for my Italian edition of Hillman’s book, and I was glad to meet my older self being drawn to the same section in the book, back in 2006, the actual first time I read it before my following two encounters in English last year and this week:

to deliteralize sensation (James Hillman)

Second time round reading The Dream and the Underworld, underlining again parts I’d forgotten I’d underlined, yet are even more relevant for how I work today.