… Walter Benjamin, that is… At the Dairy Queen.
(With apologies to Parker Posey.)
"One of Benjamin's many unrealised projects was a book
that would consist only of culls from already existing material;
he would do no more than arrange and edit."
— Screenwriter Frederic Raphael, May 2011 Literary Review
Raphael is clever, but I prefer Wallace Stevens on culls—
It is not enough to cover the rock with leaves.
We must be cured of it by a cure of the ground
Or a cure of ourselves, that is equal to a cure
Of the ground, a cure beyond forgetfulness.
And yet the leaves, if they broke into bud,
If they broke into bloom, if they bore fruit,
And if we ate the incipient colorings
Of their fresh culls might be a cure of the ground.
Dairy Queen — Click to enlarge—
See also Stevens and "The Rock" in this journal and today's "Shoe."
