David Hess (the) introduced me to Aaron Kunin at last year's Boston Massacre. I was a little dazed at the time, feeling socially challenged, so I didn't make much of the opportunity. I generally figure I make a lame ass impression on first meeting. furthermore, he reminded me strongly of a friend of mine, a writer, red-haired 'fro and all, so I was internally dazzling myself with that surprise. Kunin's an interesting guy, to judge from the bit of work I've seen and heard about. oh, I was feeling a bit old that day, as it was my 52nd birthday, and the average age of those around me was a good 20 years younger. but anyway, I guess I've set the scene for the following, which is just some cogitation on Kunin's "Mauberley Series". you can download the pdf here. what gets me right off is Kunin's (should I call him Aaron, like I know him?) intro. to wit:

The vocabulary derives from a peculiar nervous habit: for several years, I’ve been compulsively transcribing everything I say, hear, read, or think—in short, all the ambient language that I can pick up—into a kind of sign-language (technically a “binary handalphabet”) that looks more or less like fidgeting or piano playing. The inception of this practice can be dated quite precisely at February 14, 1993—my twentieth birthday..

he says a lot more, but that there is a mysterious gem. what do you suppose that's all about? it sounds a little like a Kenny Goldsmith experiment. and yet. I don't get what he's trying to put forward here, altho it fetches up a framework of sorts, something of an artistic working persona. somehow, he translates Mauberley via this binary handalphabet. well all right then. all this could be preparation for the work, the Series itself, or a distraction. or both. which is all potentially keen, don't you think? the repetitions of words and phrases, retooled, produce a compelling, mesmeric effect. Kunin boils his vocabulary for this work down to 170 words. I'm reminded of Berrigan's sonnets, which themselves show a constrained vocabulary. the limited vocabulary forces words into different meanings, or shades. the poems are really exquisite, personal, it seems, tho within the constraints of this process. one of the attributes of Virginia Woolf's novels that I admire is their singular challenges. she begins each novel with a specific means in mind. the shifting viewpoint in Dalloway, the sparse breaking wave speeches of The Waves, etc. Kunin seems to take a similar approach, the work as project. in the case of both writers, we see a lot of freedom in their formality.