The Fast

by Hannah Weiner

Nonfiction. This is the first of four early journals, written in 1970 (THE FAST); in 1971, (COUNTRY GIRL); in 1972, (PICTURES AND EARLY WORDS); in 1973, (BIG WORDS). These journals depict the development of the clairvoyance from feeling and seeing auras, to seeing pictures, and finally the slow development of seeing words which first appeared singly, then later in short phrases. The culmination of this seeing of words resulted in the CLAIRVOYANT JOURNAL, written in 1974, and published by Angel Hair Books, now known as United Artists Books, in 1978, and in many books that followed.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published July 1, 1992

About the author

Hannah Adelle Weiner (née Finegold) (November 4, 1928 – September 11, 1997) was an American poet who is often grouped with the Language poets because of the prominent place she assumed in the poetics of that group.

Weiner was born in Providence, Rhode Island and attended Classical High School, until 1946, and then Radcliffe College. She graduated with a B.A. in 1950, with a dissertation on Graham Greene. Working in publishing and then in Bloomingdale's department store, she was married and then divorced after four years. Weiner started writing poetry in 1963 though her first chapbook, The Magritte Poems after René Magritte, was published in 1970. It is not indicative of her latter work, being "basically a New York School attempt to write verse in response to the paintings of René Magritte". During the 1960s she also organized and participated in a number of happenings with other members of the New York City art scene, where she had been living for some time. These included 'Hannah Weiner at Her Job', "a sort of open house hosted by her employer, A.H. Schreiber Co., Inc."and 'Fashion Show Poetry Event' with Eduardo Costa, John Perreault, Andy Warhol and others in a "collaborative and innovative enterprise that incorporated conceptual art, design, poetry and performance." In the early 1970s, Weiner began writing a series of journals that were partly the result of her experiments with automatic writing and partly a result of her schizophrenia. Judith Goldman claims that politics and ethics were central to a mode of writing she developed and called "clair-style," which used "words and phrases clairvoyantly seen" and that Weiner arrived at a method of composing that employed "these seen elements exclusively." Goldman also provides the insight that "Weiner let no representation of herself circulate that did not take her status as a clairvoyant into account." She influenced a number of the language poets and was included in the In the American Tree anthology of Language poetry (edited by Ron Silliman). Beginning with Little Books/Indians (1980) and Spoke (1984).

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not like I expected at all. I would give it 5 stars if this was the 70's.

[Hannah Notess · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked up the book because I wanted to read a book by a poet with the same name as me to fulfill the 52 book challenge for 2023. However if I want to read random thoughts from crazy people I can do that on Twitter.

Honey, maybe the black yellow purple aura man will not bother you so much if you eat a full meal and stop dropping acid 😒

[Eleanor]

"anything so direct as that seemed unthinkable"
"the bitch why did she bring the buttons. I mean the police."

[christee henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful and distressing

[indigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

was recommended this by a white guy who asked me to come to a poetry reading with him after we met at a different poetry reading the same night then turned out to be married and had a wife (referred to her as girlfriend) in france. and then he was like i would never turn down an opportunity to hang with a friend esp a poet. and i was like u fucking weirdo first off i met u 3 hours ago aint no way u asked me here just to be my friend. never trust a man for nothing. but I did get this for 15 dollars which is a steal. #win. mostly writing this review to benchmark my sick and twisted sex and the city from the underworld era wherein men keep asking me to be they side piece like what abt me is communicating that to u. maybe I need to go under the knife.

Edit:
Love how ridiculous she is. I mean it is kind of pointless to read but it is intense all throughout which keeps u hooked / disengages you. I like how she ends with “the fast ended last page” like period

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like her poetry and loved the first 15 pages of this & then well I didn't fear the colors, and then I discovered this dark place where I rooted for the bad energy of greens and metals, then I came back and felt sad for Hanah. Then I finished the book & went to a birthday party. Here's hoping that this book will resonate deep within the psyche. And even though the book didn't blow me away as I had hoped it would, I'm thrilled that it is so readily available.

[Natalie Campbell]

maybe all of my stories will be anecdotal. i was reading this book and walking out of the subway, and it is a book that i picked up based on its cover at a small press 4 for $10 display, pretty randomly, and a person passing me looked at me and said "that's my favorite book!" and i said "really?" and he said "really." and that was it.

[Kate Rosenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisite. Distressing. Makes scary sense. Also completely baffling. Completely unforgettable. If you ever thought you were crazy, read this. You will either feel as though you are not alone or that, damn, you haven't even begun crazy. Beautiful.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been hereby deemed 'para-wear' due to highly synthesized drawstrings, wooden spoons, & temperature alacrity. Please see below for more information. No. The other below.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The year before on an acid trip I stood by the wall where all the electric wiring was and could not only see it in the walls but could feel it."