Real deep surprises

Vol.36,No.2(2010)

Rebekah Bloyd

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/105071

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Abstract
Czech immunologist and poet Miroslav Holub and American writer Rebekah Bloyd travel to Los Angeles theaters and Death Valley, among other places, during an April week in Southern California, 1985. Central to the essay is this idea: what is invisible or is (as yet) undetected is as important as what is known. Holub's method of poetry writing, his teaching at Oberlin College in Ohio and at Pitzer College in California, his ideas on and practices of translation, and his scientific method and discoveries as an immunologist are interwoven with travel and conversation; related moments from years before and years to come expand on these elements, including Holub's role in the discovery that the lymphocyte is the key cell of the entire immune system. Holub's poems "Crush Syndrome," "The Soul," "Creative Writing," "Behind the House," "The Earliest Angels," and "Hemophilia / Los Angeles" are discussed, as are his essays "Science and the Corrosion of the Soul," "On Growing Up: Comments from a Poet-Scientist," "Translation as Literary Lapse," "Whatever the Circumstances," and "The Discovery: An Autopsy" and his monograph The Immunology of Nude Mice. Motifs of angels, the soul, performance, and discovery appear throughout, and writers Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ted Hughes, and performance artist Laurie Anderson are mentioned. Two performances some 20 years apart by Marta Becket in her Death Valley Junction Amargosa Opera House book end the account.

Keywords:
Miroslav Holub; immunology; lymphocyte; nude mice; Death Valley; verga; translation; Oberlin College; Pitzer College; angel; soul; discovery; Marta Becket; Amargosa Opera House; Laurie Anderson; Gabriel Garcia Marquez; theater; performance; Los Angeles; Black Box Image Theater; Laterna Magika; science; poetry; Socialism; Communism

Pages:
9–20
References

Andrews, Tom (Fall 1993) ' Lives of a Cell'. Field 49, 32–36.

Holub, Miroslav (1982) ' The Soul'. Interferon, or On Theater. Trans. David Young and Dana Hábová. Field Translation Series 7. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College Press, 25.

Holub, Miroslav (1985) Unpublished manuscript, Claremont, CA. April.

Holub, Miroslav (1986) Letter to the author. 28 July.

Holub, Miroslav (1986) Letter to the author. 28 March.

Holub, Miroslav (1988) Question and answer session with Miroslav Holub, Creative Writing Program, King Building, Oberlin College. 19 May.

Holub, Miroslav (1989) ' The Thymic Defect'. Immunology of Nude Mice. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 13–52.

Holub, Miroslav (1996) ' Behind the House'. Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems. Trans. David Young and Miroslav Holub. Field Translation Series 22. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College Press, 198.

Holub, Miroslav (1996) ' Crush Syndrome'. Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems. Trans. David Young and Dana Hábová. Field Translation Series 22. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College Press, 174.

Holub, Miroslav (1996) ' The Earliest Angels'. Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems. Trans. David Young and Miroslav Holub. Field Translation Series 22. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College Press, 199.

Holub, Miroslav (1997) ' Science and the Corrosion of the Soul'. Shedding Life: Disease, Politics, and Other Human Conditions. Trans. David Young and Miroslav Holub. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 154–165.

Holub, Miroslav (1997) ' The Discovery: An Autopsy'. Shedding Life: Disease, Politics, and Other Human Conditions. Trans. David Young and Catarina Vocadlova. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 143–153.

Holub, Miroslav (1997) ' The Electron Microscope Tesla 242D'. Shedding Life: Disease, Politics, and Other Human Conditions. Trans. David Young and Vera Orac. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 61–65.

Holub, Miroslav (1997) ' Translation as Literary Lapse'. Trans. Rebekah Bloyd and Miroslav Holub. In Transit In Transition: Hong Kong International Festival Anthology.

Holub, Miroslav (1997) ' Whatever the Circumstances'. Shedding Life: Disease, Politics, and Other Human Conditions. Trans. David Young and Miroslav Holub. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 169–174.

Holub, Miroslav (2008) ' Creative Writing'. Trans. Rebekah Bloyd and Miroslav Holub. Poetry. CXCII(1), 18–19.

Schwyer, Elizabeth (2008) ' Documentary Chronicles Marta Becket's 40-Year Solo Career'. Santa Barbara Independent. 12 May 2010. < http://www.independent.com/news/2008/jun/26/marta-becket/>.

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