The multi-faceted Luxembourger Tom Nisse publishes, in the editions of the National Center of Literature, “Digressions and resistance”. Faithful to his political and social convictions, he delivers his thoughts and feelings, without filter.
The thesis, an ode to poetry, this art that vampires his work and his thoughts. Coming from the series “Speech on Literature”, the writing results from the “Bicherfrënn Scholarship” which offers the opportunity to an author to perform a double residency in Berlin and Bourglinster. Also, it is in front of the castle of the Luxembourgish town that the poet settled his quarters for a week. In this idyllic setting, he takes stock of his convictions, his environment … his life. Separated from nostalgia, he remembers his first readings, his past loves … Novalis is watching.
A poem of his creation, La Liste, by way of illustration, Tom Nisse launches the object of his study: Poetology – a term derived from German. Halfway between naturalism and realism, Tom Nisse applies to transpose his rages, his sorrows, his joys in the face of a society he depicts as defeated.
He writes: “Beauty is at the service of the survival of beauty.” This recurring theme in poetry, he says, is flouted by ecological disasters and an ultracapitalist society. No revolution, his battles remain the same for anyone who knows his work. Read more about the World Literacy Day.
Spontaneous character
The myth of the city, object of study for Balzac, Maupassant or Baudelaire, is transposed to the great European capitals that are Paris, Brussels, Berlin. The poet describes schizophrenically the disgust that inhabits him in front of a world in total perdition. It narrates asylum seekers, heroin addicts or hypersecurity.
Tom Nisse writes: “Then the intimate love, carnal and erotic”, introduced by a short but explicit poem of the Palestinian author Mahmoud Darwish. The artist endures in front of sanitized feelings, monetized, vulgarized. The art of the poem is exposed as a counterpoint to this evaporation of this feeling, however primary and universal.
Hyphenation, the second part sounds more impersonal, more educational. However, the author intersects his presentation of poems and digressions, reinforcing this spontaneous character which is dear to him. You might be interested in reading something different about social science news.
The artist, in the manner of Jaucourt in the Encyclopédie of 1751, affixes the keys, the cards of the poet in order to anchor himself in reality and transcend reality. Far from any elitism, it exposes the importance of an elevating art and opposes any form of popularization. Thus, under his pen, poetry becomes object of social elevator. The artist stands out as defender of the poet’s cause. According to him, poetry is the poor child of art in French-speaking societies – in contrast with English-speaking countries.
In the end, under the guise of a work of anarchic construction, Digressions and Resistance turns out to be a manifesto. Whether the reader adheres to the beliefs of the artist or not, Tom Nisse studies, engages, enrage, but certainly leaves no one indifferent.