{"id":52,"date":"2004-03-11T14:17:21","date_gmt":"2004-03-11T21:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/?p=52"},"modified":"2004-03-11T14:17:21","modified_gmt":"2004-03-11T21:17:21","slug":"the-instruction-manual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/2004\/03\/the-instruction-manual\/","title":{"rendered":"the instruction manual"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>Back to the instruction manual which has made me dream of Guadalajara.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>J.A., &#8220;The Instruction Manual,&#8221; p10<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Risky risky risky risky. Commentary, I mean. <\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t understand this poem as a parody until I read Shapiro. Then I started to realize the intent behind the flatness of the sentences, the lack of nuance, the crayon box color scheme, and the enervating sensation that nothing is happening. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s embarrassing to admit I didn&#8217;t recognize the parody. I knew something was going on, but I didn&#8217;t know what it was. <\/p>\n<p>I like the poem better now that I see the parody. I prefer parody to that shutter blinded open mouthed earnestness of most poetry. On the other hand, I feel ashamed of that preference. Shouldn&#8217;t one be open hearted and naive, not scheming and split tongued?<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to decide to write with the true degree of parody that I feel. Isn&#8217;t it shaming. Isn&#8217;t it making fun, isn&#8217;t it saying Your way is bad. I want to write in parody of journal writing. I have written parody of journal writing. But not really. <\/p>\n<p>And the instruction manual bounces back and forth &#8211; to Guadalajara, to the manual, back to Guadalajara, in the office tower, down to the street, back up to the bell tower, back to the instruction manual. And isn&#8217;t &#8220;instruction manual&#8221; (the title) describing also how not to be, what&#8217;s past and through the parody? Isn&#8217;t the parody pointing out something that&#8217;s very true, teaching you toward a different place? <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not being careful in putting my thoughts into words, I&#8217;m at my desk, and I&#8217;m supposed to be working on the &#8220;questionnaire.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to the instruction manual which has made me dream of Guadalajara. J.A., &#8220;The Instruction Manual,&#8221; p10 Risky risky risky risky. Commentary, I mean. I didn&#8217;t understand this poem as a parody until I&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gemtactics.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}