Karmic Traces

by Eliot Weinberger

For the past twenty years, Eliot Weinberger has been taking the essay far beyond the borders of literary criticism or personal journalism and into the realm of poetry and narrative. Full of stories, yet written in a condensed, imagistic language, his essays are works of the imagination where all the facts are verifiable. As entertaining as fiction and as vivid as poems, making unexpected stops in odd corners of the globe or forgotten moments in human history, erudite, politically engaged, and acerbically witty, there is nothing quite like his work in contemporary writing.In Karmic Traces, Weinberger's third collection from New Directions, twenty-four essays take the reader along on the author's personal travels from the Atacama Desert to Iceland to Hong Kong on the verge of the handover to China, as well as on imagined voyages in a 17th-century Danish ship bound for India and among strange religious cults or even stranger small animals. One never knows what will appear next: Viking dreams, Aztec rituals, Hindu memory, laughing fish, or prophetic dogs. And, in "The Falls", the long tour-de-force that closes the book, Weinberger recapitulates 3,000 years of history in a cascade of telling facts to uncover the deep roots of contemporary racism and violence.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Travel, History, Criticism, Literary Criticism, American

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Eliot Weinberger is a contemporary American writer, essayist, editor, and translator. His work regularly appears in translation and has been published in some thirty languages.
Weinberger first gained recognition for his translations of the Nobel Prize winning writer and poet Octavio Paz. His many translations of the work of Paz include the Collected Poems 1957-1987, In Light of India, and Sunstone. Among Weinberger's other translations are Vicente Huidobro's Altazor, Xavier Villaurrutia's Nostalgia for Death, and Jorge Luis Borges' Seven Nights. His edition of Borges’ Selected Non-Fictions received the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.

Reviews

[Maru Kun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eliot Weinberger has developed his own unique niche in writing fascinating and esoteric essays about a whole range of interesting and unexpected subjects, along with essays on poetry which will be of great interest to the ever smaller number of people who keep up to date with modern verse.

Who knew, for example, that in medieval India dogs were valued for their political insights and might be used by an Indian monarch to guide the future affairs of state. Thanks to the author’s excellent research I now know that:

“…there were grave problems with the government if the dog yawned, vomited, ran away, hiccupped, coughed, seemed anxious, fell asleep and shook violently, dug a hole, howled or looked into the sun…”

I intend asking my Jack Russell terrier, Schopenhauer (also known as ‘Shoppi’) for his assistance in assessing the outcome of the 2018 congressional elections but as he is already exhibiting quite a few of the behaviors listed above I am not at all optimistic.

I wanted to mention one essay in this book which is on the history of ‘Aryanism’, the pseudo-scientific racial theory so loved by Hitler. The essay traces the history of the theory from its very earliest roots through its heyday in 19th century Germany and then on to the Nazis and up to the present day.

Much of the Aryan theory was built up by trying to tie philological discoveries to biblical history and in particular an interpretation of the different fates of the sons of Noah in the bible, including matching up different races of people with a particular descendant of Noah. Any Englishman true to his cultural roots, (whether they be traced through Ham, Yam, Shem, Japheth or whoever) would instantly categorize this theory under the philological heading of “utter bollocks” . However as a “history of ideas”, and in particular an examination of how mistaken pseudo-science helped fuel misguided racist opinion with awful consequences for the world which are still felt today, the essay is outstanding.

Six plus stars for the essay (and four for the book, only because the few poetry essays are a little obscure, even for someone who has an interest in the subject).

[Bill Tarlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much amazing information in these essays it's impossible to paraphrase the whole. The essays stack facts one after another until they lead you somewhere unexpected yet inevitable. Of course the facts are like a stacked deck, Weinberger knows where he is leading you and his art is in the seeming absence of authorial voice. He doesn't state opinions or offer analysis. He just offers evidence until a case is made. Sometimes he'll make an abrupt turn that sends you looking for connections. These turns can be political as when a natural history lesson suddenly turns to an aside about current events and the essay ends. The reader is left to consider the relation of the habits of small mammals to human warfare.
This is not academic writing. Weinberger approaches his subjects with a poet's eye. And there is a lot of poetry throughout. It's refreshing to see poetry given the same weight and attention as history or anthropology in a book aimed at general readers.
The book opens with a couple of pages of facts about Iceland that seems to encapsulate an entire people. Of course that can't be so, but it feels complete as if our own lives could be reduced to a handful of footnotes.
The book closes with an epic review of the world's literature of oppression. Beginning with some biblical etymology out of Genesis Weinberger traces the evolution of otherness through the ages. Each shift leading from ancient slavery to 20th century genocides is marked by textual reference. This underscores both the power and the arbitrariness of facts that become canon once they are enshrined in books. Ant that casts an interesting light on this whole project.

[melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

not as good as An Elemental Thing, but good nonetheless.

starred sections, for me:

An Archaeology of Dreams
Jón, Olaf's Son
In the Zócalo
Genuine Fakes
Sex Objects
Renga
MacDiarmid
Karmic Traces
The Falls

[echo]

zastanawiam się, czy to ja czegoś nie dostrzegam, czy to inni się oszukują — ponieważ wracam po raz kolejny do Weinbergera i nie potrafię przebrnąć przez jego eseje bez błagania w myślach o koniec; widzę, że znajduję się w mniejszości; recenzje chwalą jego erudycję i zdolność do tworzenia zaskakujących asocjacji, ale to, co widzę, nijak ma się do tego, co reszta ludzi czytała; Weinberger tworzy w „Karmic Traces” kolaże informacji, notki biograficzne, recenzje i relacje z podróży, i poza kilkoma wyjątkami, nie widzę sensu w czytaniu czegokolwiek, co napisał

zacznę od wyjątków: pierwszy esej o Islandii robi świetną robotę, ukazując dziwaczną stronę wyspiarskiego państwa; „Naked Mole-Rats” wylicza informacje o życiu podziemnych zwierząt, żeby zaskoczyć czytelnika pointą o wojnie domowej w Somalii; teksty opierają się na listach zaczerpniętych z autorskich przygód czytelniczych

metoda, na papierze, wydaje się genialna; przez postmodernistyczną kolażowość widzimy absurdalne — i zarazem potraktowane z czułością — człowieczeństwo; problem polega na tym, że po kilku razach metoda staje się męcząca, a brak konkluzji, tez czy wniosków, sprawia, że przykłady dryfują daleko poza pamięć i zostaje kolorowy nieład, smugi w mózgu, ładne nic

Weinberger, mistrz eseju, nie przemawia do mnie; próbowałem nauczyć się od niego czegoś i udało mi się to, ale w negatywie: wiem, że nie mogę za bardzo zakochiwać się w zebranych ciekawostkach, nie mogę oddawać publiczności nieprzeżutych kawałków tego, co skonsumowałem

w jednym z esejów, „Vomit”, pojawia się porównanie informacyjnego przesytu dzisiejszej cywilizacji do przejedzenia; porównanie proste, ale postawione z zadziwiającą pewnością, jak na kogoś, kto ów przesyt reprezentuje — po przeczytaniu którejkolwiek z książek Weinbergera (a nawet pojedynczego eseju) czuję się, jakbym zjadł wielki kawał ciasta; i to wcale nie takiego dobrego, nie za słodkiego, tylko takiego przesadzonego, dla Am*rykanów

[Eric Byrd · Rating 4 out of 5]

The modernist lyric and the Borgesian essay--nice parents for any style. Very excited to read more of him.

[flannery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, who is this guy and how does he know everything? This collection is a little uneven and I skimmed some of the criticism, but it still had better information and more of it than any book not by Eliot Weinberger, including the fact that Thomas Hart Benton's daughter used her inheritance to fund the Lyman cult, of which she was the matriarch, a detail sandwiched between other, better details, in a book of lists in which every fact is better than the one before it. Also in an odd and sort of senile essay about vomiting, this quote:

"It also means, for the maker of Art, that to produce implies a conscious decision not to consume, if only momentarily- to arrogantly proclaim ones right or need to ceremoniously place one's tiny little leaf in this rainforest... These are the feelings of nearly everyone in the hyper-production of the West: I have consumed too many things; I can't possibly keep up with all the things to consume; I'm always consuming the wrong thing; I'm too stupid or uninformed to know which thing to consume; I've consumed too many of the wrong things; there are too many things so I won't consume any..."

In the same essay, he talks about a "popular group of slinky women singers introduced sitting on toilets" as part of the MTV Music Video Awards... uh does anyone know what year that was?

[Eli Tubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stopped reading this book for a little because I didn't want to finish the collection. I saved the last couple essays for a month or two after actually arriving to them. Eliot Weinberger talks about everything I wished I learned in school, only he probably said it all better than anyone else could've. Weinberger is a genius and he proves this in Karmic Traces talking of naked mole rats, Icelandic ghost myths, bogus witness poetry, Nordic travelers, elusive mexican myth and so much more. This book is everything.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays from 1993-1999. Every 6 years or so Weinberger, and New Directions, collects his essays from various publications and publishes them between covers.
His more recent titles seem to be bettter, maybe because they are more contemporary (although nothing feels aged in here), or because he somehow improved his unique style of commentary/criticism.
To some extent he reads an obscure book on an obscure subject, and then presents snippets of the oddest bits from that tome.
Sadly the title essay was, for me, the least interesting of the lot, And while the longest, and last, essay in the collection is stunningly wide ranging, it is not one of his very best longer pieces. His ability to concentrate complex subjects into a few pages or paragraphes is mind boggling (in this piece, in particular, Rwanda).
Always worth a read, I don't know what I will do when I have read all of his collections. I always have one sitting in my reading pile, knowing I can pick it up and read one (or two, or three) interesting, and so insightful, pieces, before bed.

[Robert Reinhard · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are no subjects of which Eliot Weinberger is not a master. In this collection, the reader is gifted with incisive and laudatory reviews of Hugh MacDiarmid and James Laughlin that are classics of humanism. The final world and geographical historical survey of slavery/fascism/racism/phrenology/aryanism is shattering using his methodology of just accumulating hundreds of connected facts and statements.

[Wyatt Reu · Rating 5 out of 5]

🤯 — very good

[Griffin Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essay “The Falls”—please read it.

[Anna-Leigh]

Another book club book not finished… I just could not appreciate the random stories within this book. I’m looking forward to hearing what the other club members thought.
Format: physical.

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gathering essays written between 1994 and 1999, this collection is now dated, but has several strong pieces: ‘Jon, Olaf’s Son’ (1998), a short biography of an Icelander’s journeys in the 1620s; discussions of several obscure but interesting authors; and ‘The Falls’, tracing the perversions of white supremacy from the Roman world to the Rwandan genocide (1999).

[Scott Tienken · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such go disagreements; Tad possessed by some contrarian whim, Mart annihilating his heart. No soft blinking, the comma music of her pauses paused, the the blue-brown irises lasering him to quintillionth size. O what unreasonable disapproval--he staggers backward, forearm to forehead--O such jilty nauseous melodrama.
'I'm just not seeing it, Mart.'
Make me calmer, his pinkening eyes plead. Just this once.
'Sorry. Nope.'
Let my holes, membranes, and dimensions absorb your least offer of armistice. Allow the return of our more mellow familiar. No more \scowling down at their esoteric fumblebum and seeing different things.
'No way, no how.'

[J. Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essays like you've never read before, spanning the globe to cover all matters poetical, anthropological, mythical, and intellectual. Weinberger is going to be one of the great names. Of all the essays though, the last one, The Falls, makes me want to read this book over and over.

--Neil

[John Fredrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd little book. Much of the material is surprising in its range of subject matter, and one gets the sense that the author is quite knowledgeable. There were a few essays that I quite enjoyed, but overall I found the book to be pretty incomprehensible.

[Derek H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loaned this to someone in I.C., but now I no have it. It good. It amazing, really. It lost.

[karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Kevin O'Rourke · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to write any sort of writing at all, this should be required reading beforehand. Weinberger is a master.