BOOKS
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reason to stun reasoning into bewilderme11l. The strength of his poetry
depends upon his ability to make the reader believe that simple
reasoning and a straightforward recording of the facts are all that will
be needed to get the poem, but at the same time Handke is building up,
playing
to,
this expectation, he is pulling the rug out from under it.
The power of Handke's poetry surfaces at precisely the moment the
reader realizes that he has been fooled, that the props of the intellect,
including language itself, have been subverted.
Handke does not use symbols and, excep t in a few cases, he does
not depend upon images and the piling up of clusters of associated
sensations. Instead, he uses words almost as if they were road signs
(with all the banality implied in this) which one by one he proceeds to
point in co11lradictory directions. Taken individually, the signs seem
clear:
First, run through a cornfi eld.
Then run through rows in an empty concert hall.
Then, at the end of the football game, try to
get back in the stadium through the main entrance.
"Suggestions for Running Amok"
Clear enough, and with humor to boot. But in the next series the
direction of the signs shifts abruptly:
When you step out on the street are you capable of
having only
presence of mind?
When you have stepped out on the street are you
capable of being only
active?
Once you have reached a decision are you capable of
reaching no
other
decision?
This switch, from commands to questions , not only alters the relation–
ship between the "you " being addressed and the " }" who is placing the
signs-for one thing, bringing them closer together-it also forces the
reader to resituate himself in relationship to the poem. Though only
mildl y unsettling at this point, each new seri es that follows c011linues
to'vary the relationship between the "you " and " I" and, indirectly, to
redefin e the read er's presence.
It
is as if the furniture in a room is
constantly being rearranged, constantly in upheaval, and you are being
moved with it; it becomes imposs ibl e to establish a fixed perspective.
