Crystallography (book)
Encyclopedia
Crystallography is a book of poetry
and prose
published in 1994 and revised in 2003 by Canadian
author Christian Bök
. Based around a pataphysical conceit that language is a crystallization process, the book includes several forms of poetry including concrete poetry
, as well as pseudohistorical texts, diagrams, charts, and English gematria
. An important illustrative feature is the section entitled A Key to Speleological Formations, which compares each letter of the alphabet
and punctuation mark to a rock formation, allowing each poem to be read as if it were a landscape feature.
Major poems in the book include Geodes and Diamonds.
Bök explains the title in an introduction. Crystallography refers to both the science of crystallography
and a reanalysis of the word's roots: crystal meaning "clear", and "graph" meaning "writing".
Inspired by the etymology of the word “crystallography,” such a work represents an act of lucid writing, which uses the language of geological science to misread the poetics of rhetorical language. Such lucid writing does not concern itself with the transparent transmission of a message (so that, ironically, the poetry often seems “opaque”); instead, lucid writing concerns itself with the exploratory examination of its own pattern (in a manner reminiscent of lucid dreaming). (Bök, 2003)
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
published in 1994 and revised in 2003 by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
author Christian Bök
Christian Bök
Christian Bök is an experimental Canadian poet. He is the author of Eunoia, which won the Canadian Griffin Poetry Prize, and which has been said to be "Canada's best-selling poetry book ever."-Life:...
. Based around a pataphysical conceit that language is a crystallization process, the book includes several forms of poetry including concrete poetry
Concrete poetry
Concrete poetry or shape poetry is poetry in which the typographical arrangement of words is as important in conveying the intended effect as the conventional elements of the poem, such as meaning of words, rhythm, rhyme and so on....
, as well as pseudohistorical texts, diagrams, charts, and English gematria
Gematria
Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like...
. An important illustrative feature is the section entitled A Key to Speleological Formations, which compares each letter of the alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
and punctuation mark to a rock formation, allowing each poem to be read as if it were a landscape feature.
Major poems in the book include Geodes and Diamonds.
Bök explains the title in an introduction. Crystallography refers to both the science of crystallography
Crystallography
Crystallography is the experimental science of the arrangement of atoms in solids. The word "crystallography" derives from the Greek words crystallon = cold drop / frozen drop, with its meaning extending to all solids with some degree of transparency, and grapho = write.Before the development of...
and a reanalysis of the word's roots: crystal meaning "clear", and "graph" meaning "writing".
Inspired by the etymology of the word “crystallography,” such a work represents an act of lucid writing, which uses the language of geological science to misread the poetics of rhetorical language. Such lucid writing does not concern itself with the transparent transmission of a message (so that, ironically, the poetry often seems “opaque”); instead, lucid writing concerns itself with the exploratory examination of its own pattern (in a manner reminiscent of lucid dreaming). (Bök, 2003)