Architectural Body, Autopoiesis, and Language – I’m still trying to think through the review I’m writing of the Architectural Body. By focusing the review so much on poetry and poetics, I’m not entirely addressing the book itself, but on what I see as an extension of the ideas in the book. The problem is that by veering away from the main point, I’m finding myself on uncertain territory that may require me to make some assumptions that may or may not be correct. Here, briefly are the problems: • Gins says very little about language or writing in the book. She says something along the lines of “Those who rely on language alone are leaving out various scales of action’ (this quote is highly inaccurate, actually). The question is, so where or what is language? As I see it, she is drawing on the ideas of Maturana, who sees language as something as part of the environment. Thus, language is “out there” and “in here” as is our environment. Now the question, so what? • Well, if this is the case and we want to write poetry that does critique or effect some kind of change, then the poetry implied, would be a total poetry. A poetry that does not just describe or highlight, but that interacts with other scales of action. An example of this kind of poetry can be found in The Architectural Body when the artists ask us to explore the texture of the book itself. A poetry that stimulates not just a mental action but a physical action.. When avant-garde poets say they are making the reader aware of the process of reading, it seems A/G are saying they actually are making the reader aware of a process of reading.. there are other scales of action! When we read, there are children screaming (at least at my house), my toes scratch against the soles of my shoes, etc. To be aware of these things off the page is to really be aware of the process of reading. Processes are very complex things. • Somehow we’ve come to accept discreet boundaries between experiences. Perhaps this is in part the fault of language (here we are again!). But here I need to expand.. these boundaries are ostensibly useful, but then again they reinforce the idea that our experiences can be isolated. Anyone who has conducted a psychology test can tell you that it is impossible to create flawless conditions that would truly verify the data..ermm.. Now, how proscriptive do I want to be with all this? Not at all. What I want to do is suggest a possible direction..