Re: leonard cohen

[robert wiener <wiener...>]

Robert,

The sources for my excerpts were the following internet sites:

1. The Leonard Cohen Conference quotation was found at
http://nebula.simplenet.com/cohen/frame.html
search for CANADIAN POETRY.
Here is more of the contents:
THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE LEONARD COHEN CONFERENCE
                "SINGER AS LOVER, RECONSIDERED"
 The contents of this book are now available at the following URL:
 http://www.arts.uwo.ca/canpoetry/cpjrn/vol33/Vol33index.htm
This book contains the proceedings of the Leonard Cohen Conference at
the Red Deer College on October 22-24, 1993. Edited by E.F. Dyck.
Canadian Poetry series, no. 33, Fall/Winter,1993.
ISSN 0704-5646. Published by the University of Western Ontario,
Canada, 1993. 131pages, paperback.

The book is available from Department of English, University of
Western Ontario, London, Ontario, N6A 3K7, Canada. Price USD 7,95 +
postage.

You can also order it on-line at
http://www.arts.uwo.ca/canpoetry/cpjrn/vol33/Vol33index.htm

Contents:
  Introduction by E.F. Dyck
  Keynote address: The Counterfeiter Begs Forgiveness, by Stephen
Scobie

On the Novel:
  Writing Around the Holocaust: Uncovering the Ethical Centre of
Beautiful Losers, by Norman Ravvin
  The Telephone Dance & Mechanical Ecstasy in Leonard Cohen's
Beautiful Losers, by Nicole Markotic
  Beyond Mummy and the Machinery: Leonard Cohen's Vision of Male
Desire in Beautiful Losers, by Paul Nonnekes

On the Poetry:
  The Mistress' Reply to the Poet, by Joan Crate
  How postmodern is Cohen's poetry? by Clint Burnham
  Re-membering the Love Song: Ambivalence and Cohen's "Take This
Waltz" by Charlene Diehl-Jones
  Interior Landscapes and the Public Realm: Contingent Mediations in a
Speech and a Song by Leonard Cohen, by Winfried Siemerling
  Cohen's Noos by Fred Wah

Keynote address:
  Ten or More Questions I Should Have Asked Leonard Cohen by Ira B.
Nadel Reading Leonard Cohen: Reprise, by Birk Sproxton

The conference at the Arts Centre of the Red Deer College was an
international and interdisciplinary celebration of Cohen's
contributions to fiction, drama, poetry, music, dance and performance.
Red Deer is about 80 miles from Calgary.

The Conference offered keynote speakers (Stephen Scobie and Ira B.
Nadel), eight prominent speakers, concert of Cohen's songs (several
artists, including Perla Batalla), Cohen Coffeehouse and the world
premiere of "The New Step", a play published in "Flowers for Hitler",
performed by the students of the college.

2. STORY WITH NO MORAL
http://nebula.simplenet.com/cohen/frame.html
search for all the following words "mulet ff paris" to get there.
Apparently from a periodical published in Paris, France which did a
special on Leonard Cohen including a few articles, all on the website
page above.  Contact information is on the page above.  I would guess
that the original French was translated by Keith Campbell for the
website, The Leonard Cohen Files.

3. PROPHET OF THE HEART
Again, use the above link,
http://nebula.simplenet.com/cohen/frame.html
search for "prophet of the heart" and click on "Prophet of the Heart"
to see what I saw.

Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Cohen <rlcm17 (at) hotmail(dot)com>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Date: Thursday, August 19, 1999 2:06 PM
Subject: Re: leonard cohen


>Dear Bob:  This was a wonderfully rich posting but w/ a number of
confusing
>elements, at least for me:  1) The paragraph beginning "A Leonard
Cohen
>conference" is completely unclear/mystifying to me--Can you rephrase?
What
>are your referring us to there?  Something published?  2) Is STORY
WITH NO
>MORAL published as an English-language translation of the French
book?
>(Maybe this is obvious?)  3) Is PROPHET OF THE HEART a bio of LC?
(Again
>obvious?)  Thanks when you can, and for this posting--rlc
>
>
>>From: "robert wiener" <wiener (at) mindspring(dot)com>
>>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>>Subject: Re: leonard cohen
>>Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 09:47:38 -0400
>>
>>Some information from internet sites that may be of interest:
>>
>>....
>>Cohen stayed in Greece on and off for seven years.  He wrote another
>>collection of poetry, the controversial Flowers For Hitler (1964);
and
>>two highly acclaimed novels, The Favorite Game (1963), his portrait
of
>>the artist as a young Jew in Montreal, and beautiful Losers (1966),
>>described on its dust jacket as a disagreeable religious epic of
>>incomparable beauty."   Upon its publication, the Boston Globe
>>trumpeted, "James Joyce is not dead. He is living in Montreal under
>>the name of Cohen." To date, each book has sold more than 800,000
>>copies worldwide. ...
>>
>>Various Positions (1984) was the full flowering of these
>>religious concerns. Songs like "Hallelujah," "The Law," Heart With
No
>>Companion," and "If It Be Your Will" are contemporary psalms, born
of
>>an undoubtedly long and difficult spiritual odyssey, so difficult
that
>>its conclusion left Cohen literally "wiped out." ....
>>http://www.leonardcohen.com/
>>(has song clips)
>>
>>"Dance Me to the End of Love" is on More Best of (1997), Live
(1994),
>>and Various Position (1985).  Its text was also used for a book with
>>illustrations by Matisse.
>>
>>By the way, "The Captain" from Various Positions has the following
>>Holocaust reference:
>>
>>"Complain, complain, that's all you've done
>>                Ever since we lost
>>                If it's not the Crucifixion
>>                Then it's the Holocaust."
>>                "May Christ have mercy on your soul
>>                For making such a joke
>>                Amid these hearts that burn like coal
>>                And the flesh that rose like smoke."
>>
>>There's also a Holocaust reference in "Death of a Ladies' Man".
>>
>>A Leonard Cohen conference included in a session On the Novel: a
>>paper, Writing Around the Holocaust: Uncovering the Ethical Centre
of
>>Beautiful Losers, by Norman Ravvin.
>>
>>And from,
>>LES INROCKUPTIBLES, FRANCE, MARCH 15, 1995:
>>HISTOIRE SANS MORALE - COHEN ENTRE CIEL ET TERRE    Story With No
>>Moral - Cohen Between Earth And Sky
>>  by Gilles Tordjman                      Translated by Keith
Campbell
>>comes the following:
>>Sidebar: Parasite of Heaven ("Le parasite du ciel")
>>                            by Marc Weitzmann
>>
>>If one had to look for poetic affiliation for Cohen -- for his work
is
>>as far away from the Beat poets as it is from traditional rock
>>lyrics -- it would undoubtedly be found partly in Ezra Pound and
Walt
>>Whitman, partly in Elizabethan poetry, and partly in a particularly
>>Yiddish tradition that deserves closer study. One example: "I am
with
>>the snow/Fallen in the sea/I am with the hunters/Hungry and
tired/And
>>with the prey/tender and naked/..." "I am the sorcerer and I am the
>>spell/I am the enigma that kills itself to solve its own mystery".
>>These two poems, that could well have been written by the same
person,
>>are signed by Leonard Cohen and Moshe-Lieb Halpern respectively.
>>Halpern was a Yiddish poet who died in New York in 1932.
>>
>>
>>In what is perhaps a promotional blurb for PROPHET OF THE HEART, by
>>Loranne S. Dorman & Clive L. Rawlins published in
>>1990 by Omnibus Press, 383 pages. ISBN 0-7119-1821-X
>>(hardback) and 0-7119-2774-X (paperback) was written, "He is a man
of
>>great spiritual and mystical bent, whose Judaism led him from a deep
>>personal dissatisfaction created by the horrors of the Holocaust and
>>proctracted through many of the sub-cultures of our age: drugs,
>>alcohol, sensuality, eastern mysticism, dianetics, astrology and Zen
>>Buddhism."
>>
>>You can find lots more for yourself, including over a dozen
references
>>to "Jewish" at
>>http://nebula.simplenet.com/cohen/frame.html
>>
>>Bob
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Martin Grossman <tgg (at) slip(dot)net>
>>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>>Date: Wednesday, August 18, 1999 2:07 AM
>>Subject: Re: leonard cohen
>>
>>
>> >Leonard says in an interview somewhere that the song is about the
>>Holocaust --
>> >and the persistence of love even under such unbearable
circumstances.
>>I'm
>> >paraphrasing rather badly, but this is the gist of it.
>> >
>> >Marty Grossman
>> >
>> >MaxwellSt (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
>> >
>> >> We have twice been asked to play his song, "Dance Me To The End
of
>>Love," as
>> >> a bridal dance.  I believe that is because, although the content
is
>> >> non-specific, the melody is a Russian derivative with a Jewish
>>nuance.  (Our
>> >> Russian violinist thinks so, anyway).
>> >>
>> >> Lori
>> >> Maxwell St.
>> >>
>> >
>> >--
>> >Julia Becker Grossman
>> >841 Solano Avenue #2
>> >Albany, CA 94706
>> >
>> >
>> >----------------------
>>jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
>> >