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We put Nate Pritts of H_NGM_N on trial for crimes against the literary establishment. Below, the transcript.
Banango: Dr. Pritts, you have been accused of an assortment of literary crimes, including the release and widespread dissemination of poetry chapbooks, an online magazine, and full-length books. What was your motive in committing these crimes? What could possibly drive a man to do such things?
Pritts: Your tone makes me think I should probably just keep my mouth shut, remain silent, but hopefully these two answers will help set the record straight – I did it because I wanted to & I did it because I had to.
Here I am, a citizen of Poetry, & as such my duties are many & varied & joyous. I write poetry & I read poetry – both, every day – but as Charles Olson said "It's not yr poetry that matters. It's Poetry that matters." So I couldn’t very well sit back & just sort of hope everything comes out right – that valuable poems will find homes, that books will get published by robust & interested presses who truly want to nurture vital voices. I started H_NGM_N – a roof under which I have stored everything I know, an engine committed to never stopping, a machine with a heart stuck in it & charged with a duty to publish & promote & enrich & enliven in every way possible through every means imaginable.
I had to do what I did & will continue having to do it. I’m embarrassed that there aren’t more people willing to put themselves on the line for Poetry. They crowd around in their holes & write about their surprising feelings using capital letters & exclamation marks. But a life in the Arts demands so much more than this.
The reason why there are underscores – rather than dashes (which the internet would allow in a web address) or any letters (“A” being the most obvious possibility) – is a secret. Part of the reason is that it looks more interesting to my eye, & part of why it looks better to me than any alternatives is that while it is incomplete – partial – it simultaneously carries within it the keys to understanding how it could be made whole. SO IT IS JUST LIKE ME.
As to the relative importance of Truth, it’s not for me to say. Being earnest, putting your heart into it – all of that makes sense to me. Being honest, that’s important. But Truth (with the capital “T”) in terms of Art? We each make our own Truth & what counts is how hard we believe it.
B: Gallows and the men who hang from them are manifestly physical presences. Even the Hangman game, you can’t play in your head—it leaves traces on paper. H_NGM_N once existed purely in the physical world, but now has a formidable internet presence. Dr. Pritts, please illuminate for us your feelings about poetry on paper and in pixels. If it rings too familiar (see: impending death of print), you will be held in contempt of the literary court.
P: I’m a sentimentalist, a nostalgic, always looking backward twice for every time I squint into the distance. A Romantic. As such, I will never give up on the power of paper, the way the printed word in someone’s hands can prompt creative & reflective action. Pixellated verse can / should have the same effect on people but, for me (& many people of my generation, as well as the younger generations) it doesn’t seem to. The online world is primarily a PUBLIC, or social, one, rife with the riches of an entire populace coming together, a town square, a place where jittery attention & fluid transitions seem to be the qualities most prized. The internet is a machine designed to help us connect with other people.
(Other people can argue about whether it works or not, or the various pitfalls, &tc.).
A book (or chapbook, or paper in the hand) is an older technology, a different kind of device. The communion there is of a more PRIVATE nature, one that asks us individually to confront a text, to wrestle with it, to sink deeply into it. The attention we need to apply there is of a more focused variety, more patient. The word printed on the page is designed to help us connect with ourselves.
Maybe I’m wrong, or maybe I’m just not that experienced in this. But this is how it is for me, & how it is sort of foundationally for H_NGM_N. Our online offerings help us connect to new audiences, to new poets & styles of poetry. It’s a way to rally the troops, to take stock of the army & to introduce new voices into the fray. Our print offerings are a way to pull you aside, talk urgently to you, to remind you of your actual mission. Both are necessary when you’re trying to build an empire - & using both to the fullest extent possible (aware of all the different implications of both types of technology, the limits & the reaches) is how you put yourself (your words, your heart) in a position to endure.
B: On a fall night in 2001, and every year thereafter, you were seen to approach a gallows. From them hung a man—not just any man, not just any hangman, but a H_NGM_N. Describe the man. How did he swing? What did he say to you?
P: This sounds like the beginning of a poem by Poe - & the rest of the poem goes like this: that man swinging from the gallows pole was me. I’m trying to describe H_NGM_N every single day / every single issue, book by book, chapbook by chapbook, stuffing envelopes & posting on the Tumblr, sending letters to people. H_NGM_N isn’t something that sits still long enough to be described, he moves when the shutter clicks, he’s constantly making a new pencil mark on the wall as he outgrows whatever it is that he was.
Seriously, I’m not the one to describe H_NGM_N. I can tell you what I think, sure, but 1) I’m obviously prejudiced as a result of my perspective & 2) it’s not static, it’s a process. So rather than describe what H_NGM_N is (or was, or is going to be), why don’t I just invite you over. Come see for yourself.
