Bords de mer francis ponge biography
This article explores how a poetics of the nonhuman in the work of Francis Ponge underwrites a humanism wherein we no longer have to take sides.!
At the seaside, approaching the water edge, we see a very simple thing, waves repeating themselves.
Yet even when dealing with the simplest phenomena, we must observe a certain etiquette, a certain form; and so, we reduce the object of our study, simplifying, diminishing its thickness.
Ponge's interest in edges, boundaries, 'bords de mer', dispelled the vertigo of gazing at the overwhelming bulk of phenomena: the grand.
Perhaps overwhelmed by the boundless, we are vexed and plot against it on the periphery with our marginal definitions. There our reasoning turns shaky: we lack sound notions and have to resort to approximations.
Air itself, when agitated by variant temperature, tragically tries to influence things, but can only leaf through and occasionally earmark the ponderous marine volume.
The other, more stable element that supports us, plunges itself up to the hilt into the thick of things. Sometimes, the energetic muscle reveals the blade that we call beach.
When all is said and done, the beach is still a familiar territory, even when the elements are getting carried away.
The savage and sterile interstic