{ Thursday, March 6, 2003 }
I was struck by the epigram on a glosa* called "Stone Baby" in Sandy Shreve's book of poetry Belonging:
-- Vancouver Sun, March 17, 1995
Stone babies are also called "lithopaedia", and there are only known to have been four.
Not for the squeamish: photos of an operation removing a stone baby.
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*Glosa: Any poem expanding on the theme presented in the introductory stanza and usually repeating one or more lines of the opening in subsequent stanzas. Based on the Spanish form the mote, of the 14th century in which a line or short stanza, called the cabeza which set the theme of the poem. Following stanzas were built from phrases or lines of the cabeza which were often used at the ends of lines like a refrain. (from ahapoetry)
LINK | 8:22 PM | TB
Cynthia Flood, an instructor at Langara College has just published (or is publishing) a book on this very subject. She's a great writer, be sure to look for it...though I can not recall its title. Sorry
danielle | March 7, 2003 3:16 PMYuck. Or, in Spanish, puaj, puaj, puaj.
aa | March 7, 2003 7:50 PMThat is quite handily the creepiest thing I have seen since my first human dissection at art school... I really can't thank you enough for shooting past that trauma to become my new number one.
tim | March 8, 2003 12:37 AMHow interesting (the stone baby yes) but also the fact that I happen to be writing an essay on the history of the glosa this weekend, and you're quoting the definition of a glosa.
The definition says that the glosa was a form used in the 14th and 15th century Spanish courts of most notably Juan II. But the origin of the glosa can be traced to the unique history of medieval Spain. There's a great book on the history of al-Andalus (the name Spain was called when the Uppanayad caliphate was established in the 8th century). Anyway, to make a very long story short, the glosa contains elements of Arabic roots, Hebrew roots, as well as the Romanesque. The book is The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, by Maria Rosa Menocal, published by Little, Brown and Company. Very interesting read about the three religions that the Muslims called 'The People of the Book'. You can see how the form of the glosa, a dialogue between two poets, is in the form itself essentially a trilogue between the three cultures of medieval Spain.
Susan MacRae | March 8, 2003 12:36 PMby the way, the Cynthia Flood book is Making a Stone of the Heart, and I believe it is based on this particular epigram from the Sandy Shreve poem. (but don't quote me on it...)
Susan MacRae | March 8, 2003 12:40 PMI can shed light on the Stone Baby anecdote, above. In the early nineties, I and Sandy Shreve and Kate Braid formed a writers' and artists' support group called Sex, Death and Madness (SDM). I brought in the newspaper clipping and suggested everyone in the group make art or write a piece on stone babies. Sandy and Kate both wrote poems. Cynthia wrote the novel discussed above. I started several pieces but finished none of them.
I had not before seen photos of such a child--thank you for them.
Jane Eaton Hamilton | September 11, 2003 1:54 AMThis is very shocking and interesting. Does anyone know how the baby calcalcifies?
Emma Wilson | January 7, 2008 8:34 PMI WAS JUST TOLD BY MY DOCTOR THAT I HAD ONE OF THESE STONE BABIES.5 YEARS OF OFF AND ON SEVERE PAIN AND OTHER SYMPTOMS,EMERGENCY ROOMS AND SEVERAL DOCTORS JUST NOT LISTENING TO ME LATER. THEY GO IN TO DO A LYMPH NODE BIOPSY,DOCTORS GUESS ON MY "PAINFUL LUMP" AND FIND A STONE BABY.I KNEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG-WHY DIDNT SOMEONE LISTEN?!?!?!?
WENDY | July 17, 2009 2:00 AM{ Post a comment }
didn't Will Self write a novel from the perspective of a lithopedic narrator?
beev | March 7, 2003 10:01 AM