Ce discours est bien grotesque

Johann Baptist Fischart
scribbling diligently in his

Affentheurlich
Naupengeheurliche
Geschichtklitterung

was the first person it is said
to have used the word grotesque
as an adjective

it was used it would seem to describe
a monstrous fusion
of human and non-human elements

he writes:
strange, peculiar, grottogrotesque, fantastic jars,
chests, and boxes which can now be seen
in our pharmacies

Fischart finds a negativity in this unruly monstrosity
calling it silly, frightful, and ridiculous
but his work, the

Affentheurlich
Naupengeheurliche
Geschichtklitterung

is still considered
the Finnegan's Wake
of the 16th century

Writing itself is the grotesque exemplar
par excellence
the original cyborg
the human mind conjoined with line
chopped twisted and knotted
into symbols of sound and meaning

Montaigne called his own essays
'grotesque and monstrous bodies,
pieced together of the most diverse members,
without distinct form, in which order and proportion
are left to chance.'

Now in the long after
there is a more cryptic
political sense
to ornamentality

how do we actively engage
our own
grotesque
ornamental
monstrosity?


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