Point and Line [Paperback]

Thalia Field (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0811214427 | ISBN-13: 978-0811214421 | Publication Date: April 2000

The new book spanning the genres of poetry, fiction, and theater, by the highly-acclaimed Thalia Field. The wonderful writings in Thalia Field's long-awaited new book Point and Line deny categorization, they are "nicheless." Perhaps describable as "epic poetries," these riveting pieces represent a confluence of genres in which Thalia Field has been involved over the course of her career: fiction, theater, and poetry. Written from a constructivist, post-genre sensibility, they elude classification, and present the author's concern with clarity in a world that resists it. For instance, in "Hours" and "Setting, the Table," Field uses indeterminate performance techniques to emphasize the categorical/conceptual nature of thought. Other pieces use generative schemes, portraits of mental shapes, which create meaning out of noise. Visually, each chapter is captivating, showing the author's need for shapes and colors in her work, her fascination with the contours of speech.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mike teases Sal about her hair and her shadowy shoulders./ He calls her his 'dirty little iceball' and she smiles that he loves her enough to name her." Debts to previous genre-busting metafiction and metapoetry, and a persistent interest in the physical properties of a book, are pulled through a winningly feminist sensibility in this remarkable debut. A set of nine discrete poetic essays, post-modern myths, apparently-unactable theatre-pieces, versified diaries, extended jokes and fictional experiments (along the tonal lines of Gillian McCain and others) add up to, as the Kandinsky epigraph describes it, "a new, independent life in accordance with its own laws." "Seven Veils," from which the opening quote is taken, uses long lines to tell the semi- or pseudo-story of a teenager who happens to be a comet as she careens brilliantly through "dummies," "governments," "households," animals and rites of passage. Heavily indebted to Wittgenstein, "A\1" interweaves the thoughts of an analysand with ideas about other situations, among them that of a cat in a famous philosophical quandary. "The Compass Room" experiments with perspectivism, multiple narrators and vague settings, in a way readers of John Barth will recognize: "Each book has a title and all chapters have numbers," it opens. "Walking" tries to recreate the moment-by-moment perceptual experience of a walker in a city, scattering phrases, lists, associations and sentences all over its 23 pages, in an ambitious update of late-model New York School verse. "Hours" is a postmodern parody of a play-script, with impossible stage directions for "Microbes" and "Whales." While the methods of proceeding are familiar, the characters and results are not, making this wonderfully varied first book a real pleasure. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A fascinating tour de force...an often vital exploration of time, intimacy, daily life and American social history. -- The Cafe Review, Annie Seikonia, Summer 2000

Between the inward tension of the point and the outward push of the line, Thalia Field maps a force field of relations, power games, shifting configurations. In a language both cool and intense, and with a surveyor's precision. But for all the geometries, we are irresistibly pulled towards the center, the emotion which cannot be stated or described, only surrounded, so that the real story happens in the consciousness of the reader. -- Rosmarie Waldrop

Field has created a playground of provocative thoughts and human actions which become performance on the page. -- How2 (Alerts), Catherine Kasper, Fall 2000

Field has left many doors, hallways, and rooms that other writers may not have previously been able to see. -- Review of Contemporary Fiction, Paul Maliszewski, Fall 2000

To invent new structures within which it may be possible to speak what could not previously be spoken... -- Rain Taxi Review of Books, Kim Fortier, Summer 2000

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811214427
• ISBN-13: 978-0811214421
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,103,959 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sparkling, fresh and brilliant debut, May 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Point and Line (Paperback)

The critical acclaim that has accompanied this book of poetry into the world was if anything too understated. The writing sparkles like a cut diamond and the sensibility of the poet is unflaggingly curious and observant. Well worth the effort --

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful to see, April 13, 2006

By 

K. Barnhart (Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Point and Line (Paperback)

I was assigned this book for a writing class, and I confess that I have very little idea of what is going on in it. I kept asking classmates if they could explain a section to me, only to be disappointed when they weren't sure, either! It is an extremely difficult book to grasp as a whole.

However, it is absolutely beautiful. I might not know what Field is trying to say, but I can look at the pages for hours and enjoy how she says it. The layouts of the various pieces mimic the standard styles for other types of writing, while twisting them to suit Field's purpose. Within these pieces, the words themselves seem to be placed to mimic the traditional while saying something completely new, much like the layouts. Examples: the "content" section at the beginning, the "first lines" at the end - both fairly standard for a book of poetry, but with text that does not play the standard role. Instead, these are whole pieces to themselves.

Point and Line requires several reads to fully appreciate it, and I look forward to doing so.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!, July 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Point and Line (Paperback)

As a homemaker in Pennsylvania, I rarely cross paths with such refreshing and challenging work as Thalia Field's. The chapters "Setting, The Table" and "Walking" opened me up to a whole range of stories buried in the everyday details of the home: "the debris leaves/the deafness of the/elderly or/the watermark of drinking glasses/put down so long/even the stain has aged..." I don't know what to call this book--a poem, a novel, a play? All I know is that it's pretty darn amazing.