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omnipoetics:munn [2025/04/24 00:57] – ["The Mushrooms of Language" (Munn 1973)] mahrukhomnipoetics:munn [2025/04/24 01:00] (current) – [References] mahrukh
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 ====== Writing in the Imagination of an Oral Poet (Munn 2016) ====== ====== Writing in the Imagination of an Oral Poet (Munn 2016) ======
  
-In his pre-commentary to this essay, Rothenberg points out how Munn's work on the Mazatec shamaness and oral poet, Maria Sabina, complicates the issue of orality in ethnopoetics. His work informs "the location of a concept of the 'book' and 'writing' at the center of the genuine ethnopoetics of a major oral poet." He also mentions the notion of "'archecriture' (or primal writing)" being "coequal with speech" - as seen in [[omnipoetics:antin|David Antin's]] work. (474)+In his pre-commentary to this essay, Rothenberg points out how Munn's work on the Mazatec shamaness and oral poet, Maria Sabina, complicates the issue of orality in ethnopoetics. His work informs "the location of a concept of the 'book' and 'writing' at the center of the genuine ethnopoetics of a major oral poet." He also mentions the notion of "'archecriture' (or primal writing)" being "coequal with speech" - as seen in [[omnipoetics:antin|David Antin's]] work. ((Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome Rothenberg, University of California Press, 2016, p.474))
  
-The reason for this complication comes from an oral poet who performs and transmits incredible works of poetry, along with her other shamanistic duties such as healing and guidance, //without knowing how to read and write//. The society she belongs to does not read and write, at least not in the popular literary sense. Yet, one of the core "themes of her chants is the book." Sabina reads "‘The path of your hands, the path of your fists, the path of your feet.’ In other words: what one does, where one goes. 'I am she who questions and sees,’ says the shamaness. 'I am she who examines the tracks of the feet and of the hands.'” This brings back the image of hunters reading signs on the track of prey, "the idea of reading in the more primordial sense than reading words." She reads the tracks on the body for signs of illness. (475) "This woman of words, who is completely illiterate, is fascinated, haunted, obsessed by the idea of writing" (476) and repeatedly brings forth the image of the book of wisdom, the book of language, passed down to her by the 'Principal Ones' to use in a psychedelic vision. Munn traces a blurring of modern elements under a "celestial bureaucracy" as well as ancestral precedence in her vision.+The reason for this complication comes from an oral poet who performs and transmits incredible works of poetry, along with her other shamanistic duties such as healing and guidance, //without knowing how to read and write//. The society she belongs to does not read and write, at least not in the popular literary sense. Yet, one of the core "themes of her chants is the book." Sabina reads "‘The path of your hands, the path of your fists, the path of your feet.’ In other words: what one does, where one goes. 'I am she who questions and sees,’ says the shamaness. 'I am she who examines the tracks of the feet and of the hands.'” This brings back the image of hunters reading signs on the track of prey, "the idea of reading in the more primordial sense than reading words." She reads the tracks on the body for signs of illness. ((Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome Rothenberg, University of California Press, 2016, p.475)) "This woman of words, who is completely illiterate, is fascinated, haunted, obsessed by the idea of writing" ((Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome Rothenberg, University of California Press, 2016, p.476)) and repeatedly brings forth the image of the book of wisdom, the book of language, passed down to her by the 'Principal Ones' to use in a psychedelic vision. Munn traces a blurring of modern elements under a "celestial bureaucracy" as well as ancestral precedence in her vision.
  
 The ancient Mexicans didn’t just use mushrooms— they //saw// with them. Under their influence, visions turned into written forms: the night alive with glyphs, the hand moved by something beyond will. Writing was painting, and painting was the act of life itself speaking. Their poets—like Nezahualcoyotl—wrote songs with flowers, words that lived in color and breath. María Sabina stands in that same lineage, merging Christian and Mesoamerican signs. Language here isn’t just spoken— it’s //seen//, //sung//, and //revealed//.  The ancient Mexicans didn’t just use mushrooms— they //saw// with them. Under their influence, visions turned into written forms: the night alive with glyphs, the hand moved by something beyond will. Writing was painting, and painting was the act of life itself speaking. Their poets—like Nezahualcoyotl—wrote songs with flowers, words that lived in color and breath. María Sabina stands in that same lineage, merging Christian and Mesoamerican signs. Language here isn’t just spoken— it’s //seen//, //sung//, and //revealed//. 
  
 <blockquote>A universe in expansion, where events are the outcome of chance as much as necessity, can’t be contained between the covers of a <blockquote>A universe in expansion, where events are the outcome of chance as much as necessity, can’t be contained between the covers of a
-book; a reality which is not created once and for all but in course of realization is not written in advance but being written, it demands a text, an open-ended, unlimited play of signifiers in accord with the combinatory play of life itself. (479)</blockquote>+book; a reality which is not created once and for all but in course of realization is not written in advance but being written, it demands a text, an open-ended, unlimited play of signifiers in accord with the combinatory play of life itself. ((Munn, Henry. “Writing in the Imagination of an Oral Poet.” ((Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics, edited by Jerome Rothenberg, University of California Press, 2016, p.479))</blockquote>
  
-==== References ==== 
-  - Munn, Henry. "The Mushrooms of Language." //The Psychedelic Library//, [[www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/munn.htm]] Accessed 23 Apr. 2025. 
-  - Rothenberg, Jerome. "Henry Munn: From 'The Uniqueness of María Sabina' (In Memoriam)." //María Sabina: Selections//, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris, University of California Press, 2003. 
-  - Munn, Henry. "Writing in the Imagination of an Oral Poet." //Symposium of the Whole: A Range of Discourse Toward an Ethnopoetics//, edited by Jerome Rothenberg, University of California Press, 2016. 
  
  
      

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