Everywhere Being is Dancing: Twenty Pieces of Thinking

by Robert Bringhurst

In this companion volume to The Tree of Meaning (GP, 2006), Robert Bringhurst collects talks and meditations under the principle that “everything is related to everything else.” His studies of poetry, polyphonics, oral literature, storytelling, translation, mythology, homogeny, cultural ecology, literary criticism and typography all build upon this sense of basic connection. Across the collection emerges a sustained interest in poetry–the existence of a poetry to which poems are answers, an examination of philosophy in poetry, the relationship between poetry and music, and the concept of polyphonics. Bringhurst’s thinking involves the work of poets, musicians and philosophers as varied as Ezra Pound, John Thompson, Don McKay, Empedokles, Parmenides, Aristotle, Skaay, Plato, George Clutesi, Elizabeth Nyman, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Dennis Lee and Glenn Gould. The value Bringhurst places on translation–the process of, the dialogue between one language and another, and the sheer experience of witnessing translation by reading and hearing poems, stories and songs in their original languages–is another strong presence in this collection. Accompanying the English narrative are passages in Tlingit, Haida, Chinese, Greek, German, Cree and Russian, for readers who want to find the patterns and taste some of the vocabulary for themselves, for those interested in meeting the languages part way. Winner of the 2008 Hubert Evans Noon-Fiction Prize.

Genres: Philosophy, Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays, Criticism

345 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2007

About the author

Robert Bringhurst is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He is the author of The Elements of Typographic Style – a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type. He has also translated works of epic poetry from Haida mythology into English.

He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, British Columbia (approximately 170 km northwest of Vancouver).

Reviews

[Nick]

In the past few years I've read Bringhurst's poetry, his work on Haida, The Solid Form of Language, and am now going through this title and The Tree of Meaning.

Much of his work is on the fringe of human knowledge, thought and writing that few other people are publishing, or have the time to publish. It's great that someone is writing these titles, but at times it feels like Bringhurst takes advantage of the esoteric nature of his subjects, and his niche position as an author to trade accuracy for cleverness.

In this title, for example, he claims that some modern cultures have lost their literature. To those with stars in their eyes for Bringhurst it's easy to take the claim at face value. But in the book itself it remains more or less an unvalidated claim, just an opinion. Under what criteria is this a true statement?

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to love about this book, a huge array of thought provoking stuff. I'm just not as quick to let Bringhurst off the hook for loose statements. But at the end of the day he has a deeper knowledge of language than any other author I've come across.

[Andrea McDowell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pieces on poetry I enjoyed and am glad to have read, though I didn't always agree with him.

The pieces about the wisdom of the ancients I enjoyed much less so. I am not particularly interested in the opinions of a long-dead teenager; there are plenty of intelligent and thoughtful kids around today who I would rather listen to and talk with. The supposed wisdom of these long-dead greeks is a bit part of why we are in the problems we're in today -- problems Bringhurst spends a lot of time decrying, then valorizing the people who got us here. I find it a bit nuts.

And then there were a bunch of extended reviews of books and other art works I have never seen/read, which might have been brilliant but I have no way of knowing. I don't understand why these are included in essay collections. Unless the work reviewed or the artist discussed is well known enough that you can assume any reader is likely to know of them, what is the point?

Overall, a mixed bag. Thoughtful and interesting discussions on his own arts dragged down by extended and repeated nostalgia for the old days -- and I mean really old, as in well before his own birth, and nothing he could himself have personally experienced. In such concentration it sounds like "get off my lawn" "old man yells at cloud" anger at modernity -- which is in many cases well deserved, but not all.

[cass ˚◞♡⋆｡ °✩ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super unique perspective on language and had some beautiful poetry, but overall nothing too crazy that stuck out for me

[W.C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection suffers in comparison with Bringhurst's THE TREE OF MEANING. The same subjects are present---mythology, first nation oral literature, even Chinese writing---all of which are interests of mine. But the essays here don't catch fire like those in the other collection. Worth having and reading, but more pedestrian takes on these matter than the brilliant evrsions in the other book.

[Alyosha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking and intriguing collection of thoughts. I would recommend it to anyone who is poetically inclined, who loves language (loves language itself or loves through language), which, naturally, is everyone and anyone. My thanks again to Pamela for lending me such a great stimulus to my own reflections.

[Wally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent piece of thinking about language, poetics, being. Bringhurst works with ancient and vanished languages and talks about how people who spoke/wrote with these languages were able to perceive the world, and how different that is from our own perceptions and biases.

[Christopher Patton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a review of this extraordinary book comeing out in CNQ in a few weeks ... will post the link when it's up.

[Priscilla Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am mesmerized by Bringhurst's thoughts and by his sentences. About what poetry is, what language is, about what myth is, about what science is.

[David Anthony Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bringhurst is a polymath to be envied. He writes about language, poetry, typography, art, translation, Native American culture, nature and much more with erudition, passion, and elan.