Asemic and Pansemic, Jim Leftwich (reposted from Asemic Front 2, edited by De Villo Sloan)

 

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Jim Leftwich responds to "New pansemic vispo" (June 10, 2020)

"pansemia" by Jim Leftwich (July 15, 2005)

Hi De Villo,

Thank you for your latest Asemic Front 2 posting. I very much appreciate being included in your compilations [see "New pansemic vispo by Jim Leftwich." Asemic Front 2. June 10, 2020)

Here's a piece entitled "pansemia" I posted to my flickr site almost 15 years ago [shown above], on July 15, 2005. I had been using the term for a year or two prior to establishing the textimagepoem blogzine and its accompanying flickr site.

That was a phase for me. If you look around in the linked flickr album you'll find pieces using the title "asemia" from the same time period. The term "pansemia" didn't replace the term "asemia" in my thinking (nor did "pansemic" replace "asemic"); it merely assisted me in expanding my understanding of the theory and practice of asemic writing. If you're interested in this subject at all, then that point is worth noting. 

.

Lately, starting at the beginning of this year, 2020, I have been using the term "asemous" because it immediately and inevitably conjures the contrasting word "polysemous." No one can imagine that the term "asemous" is intended to be synonymous with the term "polysemous." Again, I think anyone who is interested in this subject at all should be interested in this point. 

Asemic writing was never intended to provide any kind of "reader response, anything goes, it means whatever you want it to mean" experience. Quite the opposite, in fact. It has always been intended to thwart the production of that kind of semantic noise.

I am writing this in a hotel room in Weatherford, OK, just west of Oklahoma City. My wife and I are headed for North Carolina, to spend some time with some of her family. We have been traveling around the southwest and the California coast for most of the past six months. 

OK. Some info for you, as an extended thank you for your ongoing support.

All best,

Jim

"pansemia" by Jim Leftwich (July 15, 2005)

"pansemia" by Jim Leftwich (July 15, 2005)