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Re: important message from iceland

Posted By: MACK!
Date: MON, 5/7/01, 4:19 p.m.

In Response To: important message from iceland (hugleikur)

Hi Thor (is it OK if I address you as Thor for short? It sounds very cool to call someone that when it is part of there real name :))

First, Great story!
Thanks for sharing it with us. The whole thing was a very interesting idea, and I actually enjoyed the way that you put the lines together. It gave the lines a sort of new life to see them whithout the images and in the form of a poem that no one would suspect was from a superhero comic. Very nice how you seamlessly connected the lines from my opening DD pages with 2 lines from Kevin Smith. It actually gave me a new perrspective when reading it.

I am familiar with the Burroughs cut up poems and that Bowie uses this method to write song lyrics. I do this myself. But mostly by cutting up different pieces of my own words from different things I'm done and mixing them together.

Your cutups are used "out of context" in that
they are words from a comic presented in the format and context of a poem, but the poem is not really "out of context" from the point that the words and ideas are from the same title and exact point of view of the character they originally described. In fact they are still very much in keeping with the original persective of that character.

But I actually think this is part of the charm of what you did. I love the fact that it still works as it was originally intended as POV of the character, while standing on its own as a serious and valid POEM.

I think the fact that you cut it up from my and Smith's DD words add an extra layer of interest to the poem, as it works in both worlds.

If it were up to me, I would suggest that you use the poem but credit it as cut ups from our DD words.
I also love the idea that the newspaper wants to run a story on it and that you may win an award for it.

So, as much as I can give it, you would have my blessing crediting it as a cutup of our DD words.

The only variable in that plan is that Marvel Comics owns the copyright to Daredevil and the words the Kevin and I wrote when we worked on it. I don't exactly know how that would figure in to what you are doing but I thought that I should remind you of that. I would think that they might like the press in the newspaper story, but I actually have no idea what their policies are in something like this.

If you really want to make sure, you could ask Joe Quesada.

: Dear David Mack

: Ok, here’s the thing.

: My Name is Thorarinn Hugleikur Dagsson and I live in
: Reykjavik, Iceland. I have a confession to make. About
: a month ago I stumbled into something called
: Poetry.com. It’s a website dedicated to amateur
: poetry. Anyone can write their own poem into a contest
: and have the chance of winning some money. Now I
: thought it might be fun to make a poem out of
: comic-book dialogue to see if it would be taken
: seriously. I was rereading the new Daredevil series at
: the time and I put together a "poem" out of
: dialogue originally written by Mr. Kevin Smith and Mr.
: David Mack.

: I thought it might be interesting to see how people would
: react to a text like this when not knowing it is
: actually from a comic-book.

: here is the poem: Hole

: When I was a child
: I lost my sight
: thanks largely to a good deed.
: Somehow I cross the line
: a blurring one
: where the scents, echoes and chills
: come less from outside my head
: and more from inside it.
: I’ve been blind since I was a child
: and as a result
: I’ve never actually seen the woman who
: cried herself to sleep in my bed last night.
: I dreamt that a picture of her fell down
: and broke into pieces.
: But they are puzzle pieces.
: I’m trying to put them together
: except that I’m drowning
: and they float to the top.
: They are parts
: of a hole.

: As it turns out the poem got quite a responce. A week ago
: I got this letter from Poetry.com: "Dear
: Thorarinn

: After carefully reading and discussing your poem, our
: selection Committee has certified your poem as a
: semi-finalist in our International Open Poetry
: Contest. Your poem will automatically be entered into
: the final competition held in May 2001. As a
: semi-finalist, you now have an excellent chance of
: winning one of 104 cash or gift prizes—including the
: $1,000.00 Grand prize. You may even win the $
: 10,000.00 Annual Grand Prize! We wish you the best of
: luck as you compete for these prizes in the coming
: weeks.

: and that’s not all . . .
: In celebration of the unique talaent that you have
: displayed, we also wish to puplish your in what
: promises to be one of the most highly sought after
: collections of poetry we have ever published, The
: Silence Within."

: The letter goes on and on about how much of an honor it
: is for me to chosen for something lik this. And whil
: reading it, I couldn’t stop lauching.

: Then I thought: "I can’t go on with this! These
: aren’t even my words!". Now, I don’t have many
: principles, but I don’t want to be a plagiarist.
: Allthough, I could get away with this, because
: basically it’s just something called cut-up poetry. An
: approach to the form in which written text is taken
: out of context and put together as a poem. David Bowie
: and William Burroughs are among the ones who have done
: this before.

: What I did, however, was more of an experiment. I am an
: art student and I usually learn by testing all sorts
: of things, and the seeing what happens. I never
: expected this to go this far. I hope you aren’t mad or
: anything, but I’d understand if you were.

: I guess what I’m looking for is some sort of a permission
: or a blessing. If you wan’t me to stop this from
: happening, I will. If you want me to put your names
: above the poem, I will. If it wins and you want the
: award money, I will send it to you. Because I, as an
: artist understand if your work is personal to you. And
: I don’t want to hurt anybody.

: However, if you give me your blessings, I will not take
: the credits. I have told the biggest newspaper in
: Iceland about this and they will print the whole true
: story if something happens. And you can also tell
: people about this in the Daredevil letterpage or
: something. After all, a Daredevil-poem acknowledged by
: a proffesional comittee as a piece of art is kinda
: funny.

: Wating for a reply,
: Thorarinn Hugleikur Dagsson.

: Email: buddybradley@hotmail.com

: Address: Tryggvagata 4B
: 101 Reykjavík
: ICELAND

: P.S. I also sent this to Kevin Smith

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Messages In This Thread

NEW: important message from iceland -- hugleikur -- MON, 5/7/01, 6:24 a.m.
NEW: Re: important message from iceland -- jastronopoly -- MON, 5/7/01, 1:29 p.m.
NEW: do this... -- ~Adam -- MON, 5/7/01, 1:56 p.m.
NEW: Re: do this... -- Justin -- MON, 5/7/01, 7:12 p.m.
NEW: Here are some Copyright resources... -- Justin -- MON, 5/7/01, 7:24 p.m.
NEW: That's amazing! -- ~Adam -- MON, 5/7/01, 1:58 p.m.
NEW: Re: important message from iceland -- Anne Athema -- MON, 5/7/01, 2:32 p.m.
NEW: Re: important message from iceland -- MACK! -- MON, 5/7/01, 4:19 p.m.
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