Tony V., Legendary Instigator

I just came across the two rigor posts for the first time, and while I need to think about this a little bit before jumping in completely, I did have a little thought: Jared's last post, while packed with interesting stuff, contained one sentence that really illustrated an effect of rigor I think quite by accident: "Boy, am I spinning out of control here." Now this is a feeling I can definitely relate to -- I think I've even written something very similar in one or two of my own posts here -- and when does this feeling of spinning out of control occur? During an intellectually rigorous delineation of an argument. Now as poets I think we would all agree that relinquishing control is a good and even necessary thing. I would suggest as a development of this, though, that there are different types or levels of control at a given moment, and while we might be adept at giving up control on one level, we might have a much uneasier or more difficult time spinning out of control on another. The rigor which formal constraint requires I bring to, say, a sonnet, often has the effect of causing me to lose some control on a level I wouldn't otherwise have access to -- and this is the very control that debilitates me most as a poet. So perhaps this form-induced disorientation is similar to the blog-as-whirligig phenomenon that a couple of us, at least, tend to experience. Lord knows I make more discoveries in a half-hour of, shall I say rigorous, writing here than in a half-hour of driving around in my car listening to Poison. (Not that Poison isn't a stimulating and rigorous whirligig in its own way, but you understand.) And if you were to look at my couplet ramble as an example, you'd probably notice that over the course of the post my thinking repeatedly shot away down paths that at the post's outset would have appeared to me to be completely overgrown.

I'm tempted to follow up on this idea of rigor allowing for (or even demanding) increased attention, but a) that's all pretty obvious, I guess, and b) I'd like to hear what you all think about this as it stands. As for the prose poem melee, I'm not going to touch that hot potato just yet. (Although it does perplex me why you people are always bagging on poor Mr. Tost.)

Oh, one other thing, Lauren: I'm out of the loop enough not to know what T.V. had to say about rigor in architecture. What sparked all this? Could you recap a few of the dear man's thoughts for me?