Atlantis, an Autoanthropology

Nathaniel Tarn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature and Anthropology at Rutgers University and the author of over three dozen works of poetry, criticism, and scholarship, including The HÖlderliniae, Gondwana and Other Poems, and The Embattled Lyric: Essays and Conversations in Poetics and Anthropology. He has lived north of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the past forty years.

“Nathaniel Tarn doesn’t fit our whole world within his imagined autobiographical Atlantis, but he comes intoxicatingly close by way of a rigorous and expansive investigation of his lifelong quest to achieve a science of spirituality. ‘Completion,’ Tarn declares, ‘is not a word that should ever come near this book.’ Likewise, no reader interested in the myriad histories and personae of the self will wish for it either.” - Albert Mobilio “What a great pleasure it is to read such a thoughtful, original, and necessary book, one that touches on so many aspects of culture, the life of the mind, the sources and resources of the creative imagination, all indelibly arrayed against a long life full of exotic travels and memorable human encounters. There is so much to savor in this fabulously inviting work of courageous generosity.” - Jed Rasula "A work of brilliant originality, simultaneously a memoir, an ethnography, a sweeping masterpiece of travel literature, and above all, a poetic testimony of unflinching intelligence and grand passion." - Norman Finkelstein (Restless Messengers) "It’s singularly interesting experience to ingest this book, to be amid it, even to be overwhelmed by it. Atlantis, is a readable avalanche, a discontinuous (but still chronological) memoir, a Big Bricolage of notations, essayistic forays, diary squibs of living life, field notes and polemics, giving the reader charming and telling vignettes . . . these being anecdotes of rare drollery, along with polemics of incisive, and sometimes got-a-bee-in-bonnet challenges...." - Rachel Blau DuPlessis (Restless Messengers) "Tarn brings to life a seven-decade career lived traveling and writing throughout the world. Impressive in his ability to conjure up meetings with publishers and conversations with friends that took place more than 50 years ago, Tarn builds on his experiences to create an ethnographic study of himself that reads like a biography that is an autobiography. Enthusiasts of anthropology, poetry, academic life, and self-writing will enjoy Tarn’s approach and the insider’s perspective he brings to a life spent translating, publishing, editing, teaching, and traveling. . . . Recommended. Graduate students through faculty." - S. Batcos (Choice) "At its heart, it is an exploration of poetry: what it is and how it comes about within the mind of the creator. There are insights into the visionary poetry of Wordsworth and Blake, the need for the poet not merely to give pleasure but crucially to become part of the very spin of the world in motion. It is also about the many different sides of Tarn. . . . Although, at times, the writing is introspective, his style is always engaging and often conversational with a good dose of humour." - Neil Leadbeater (North of Oxford)

• Foreword  xiPreface  xviiThrow One  1Throw Two  7Throw Three  16Throw Four  22Throw Five  31Throw Six  39Throw Seven  46Throw Eight  57Throw Nine  69Throw Ten  80Throw Eleven  93Throw Twelve  103Throw Thirteen  118Throw Fourteen  127Throw Fifteen  141Throw Sixteen  149Throw Seventeen  161Throw Eighteen  170Throw Nineteen  177Throw Twenty  188Throw Twenty-One  197Throw Twenty-Two  205Throw Twenty-Three  214Throw Twenty-Four  225Throw Twenty-Five  233Throw Twenty-Six  242Throw Twenty-Seven  255Throw Twenty-Eight  265Throw Twenty-Nine  273Throw Thirty  278Throw Thirty-One  284Throw Thirty-Two  291Throw Thirty-Three  296