generously included a couple of poems from my latest book, Falsely Goethe, in his recent posts to ::fait accompli::, remarking in response to one of my postman poems about John Cage's X how Cage had signed Nick's copy of the book over the printed Cage signature that was already there.
I'd intended to respond to Nick earlier, but I was at something of a loss. I'd bought my copy of X at last year's bookfair here. It's an annual event, though in hiatus until two years ago, run by one of the local charities, where they collect secondhand books & then have a sale in one of the pavillions at the local showgrounds. The books are priced from about 50c through to $2 or $3, &, in the main, the quality matches. The first year I went, two years ago, there wasn't much. I bought a few things, can't really remember what. Went last year, not expecting much, & ended up with about 50-60 books. Lots of poetry I'd never usually buy, other bits & pieces, & a copy of Cage.
My problem in talking about this is that I find it almost impossible to convey how strange it was to come across a book of Cage's mesostics in Rockhampton. Sure there's a University here but it focuses on Engineering & Nursing & Education & Business with only a small Humanities school; & I think if you mentioned Cage it would be Nicholas that everyone assumed you were talking about. Finding this book was a bit like finding an antarctic flower growing in the middle of the desert, almost enough to start a doorknock campaign to try & find the owner. This place is a place that someone who liked Cage couldn't stand.
The bookfair's on again, this weekend, so went today & was disappointed. Bought a couple of things—a novel by Bruce Stirling, Stein's Three Lives, Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. Will go back tomorrow & see if anything else has surfaced. See if anything exciting has been let loose from the cage as it were.
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