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Oct 3, 2022 16 min

Hokusai by Anne Carson

from Words That Burn - Poetry Podcast

Where does practice turn to obsession? Is anger when pursuing perfection inevitable? These are two of the questions explored in Anne Carson's Hokusai. In the poem Carson takes a look at the later life of one of Japan's greatest artists: Hokusai. She creates poem of magical realism, one that allows the old painters daily ritual of painting lions to spring to life from the page. Using the poem Carson explores that frustration and subsequent anger that can arise from the creative mind. In the relentless pursuit of your best work, where should an artist draw the line? Once again Anne Carson has breathed life into an aspect of antiquity that is usually inaccessible to a modern audience, and does so in a way that causes use to empathise with it's subject. Part 1: Shadowboxer by Anne Carson: https://shows.acast.com/words-that-burn/episodes/shadowboxer-by-anne-carson One of Hokusai's Lions: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Hokusai%2C_Tiger_in_the_Snow.jpg/1280px-Hokusai%2C_Tiger_in_the_Snow.jpg Show notes: https://wordsthatburn.substack.com/p/hokusai-by-anne-carson?sd=pf Twitter: https://twitter.com/wordsthatburn?t=p7rGkfElfHZ_8ua0mvsB9A&s=09 Website: https://wordsthatburnpodcast.com/work Instagram: https://instagram.com/wordsthatburnpodcast?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= One Word (Reworked) by Christopher Galovan: https://soundcloud.com/christophergalovan

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Hokusai by Anne Carson

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This episode was published on October 3, 2022.

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