Lighthouse+Adjective



The **Lighthouse Adjective**, also called a semaphoric adjective or atmosphere-adjective, is a rhetorical device introduced and used by Futurist poetry proposed by F.T. Marinetti and explained in his essay "Destruction of Syntax--Imagination Without Strings--Words-in-freedom". Like its name suggests, a lighthouse-adjective is set apart from the body of the poem, as a lighthouse is set apart from the ships that it illuminates. It is visually separated from the rest of the piece by parenthesis, and "sheds its light" on any and every noun it can touch, including the poet him/herself. The Lighthouse adjective never transitioned into mainstream literature, and no one besides Marinetti referred to this technique as a "lighthouse adjective". However, in some other poets one can see a slight hint of a pair of words used to describe other words in it's sphere of influence, this is done in the same way Marinetti typically uses them, featuring the group of adjectives in all bold capital letters encased in parenthesis. Then, as Marinetti continues on, these words are used to describe all of the nouns around the adjectives.

Something to keep in mind about these adjectives: they are not bound beings. The lighthouse adjective can either describe one or any number of nouns around it, but lighthouse adjectives can also occur in lists in which the group of adjectives can be applied to surrounding nouns.

=Connections to Destruction of Syntax and Words-In-Freedom:=

In "Destruction of Syntax" Marinetti gives the following example: "If, for instance, in an agglomerate of words-in-freedom describing a sea voyage I place the following semaphoric adjectives between parentheses: (calm, blue, methodical, habitual) not only the sea is calm, blue, methodical, habitual, but the ship, its machinery, the passengers. What I do and my very spirit are calm, blue, methodical, habitual."

Marinetti has an entire set list of challenging concepts to redefine art and poetry. Among these he included a desire to destroy Free Verse and move from that to Words-in-Freedom. He meant to move from the traditional poetic structure of lines of poetry to a more free system of poetry which had no line breaks, and no order to it. He also sought to destroy Art (with, as he says, a capital A) by inclusion of such anti-poetry as onomatopoeia and mathematical symbols.

He sought to literally remove all vestiges of syntax and sense from poetry and art by introducing these concepts. Lighthouse adjectives could work independently of traditional adjectives, and thus illuminate far beyond the scope of regular poetry. All of his points in Destruction of Syntax moved towards this goal and created such products as Zang Tumb Tuum and his Manifesto. One example from Destruction of Syntax is his idea of "Imagination without strings", this concept contained the idea that all poetry and analogies should be opened and spread out into a much wider array of available meanings. He thought that each poetic phrase should become a new image, "unhampered" by punctuation or syntax.

Lighthouse adjectives are only a part of a program of creative violence, of destroying language and how it functions in order to make something new. Even the essay title "Destruction of Syntax" leans heavily on the violent noun "Destruction". This violence is only emphasized by Marinetti's thematic penchant for battle and especially the sounds of incoming artillery fire (see // Apr //// ès la Marne... // ; //Zang Tumb Tuum//). If it isn't quite graphic enough, consider this: what would happen if the same violence which is applied to language in Marinetti were applied to a physical person?

=Examples=

The Manifesto of Futurism
"The Manifesto of Futurism" contains many vivid adjectives and lingers on the themes of violence, technology and steam power, and riot, but not until the end of the piece are there adjectives in close proximity which act in a lighthouse-like way. From part 11:

"We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored, polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons..."

The adjectives multicolored, polyphonic, modern, vibrant, violent, and electric (though arguably a noun) all act in a sort of reverse-lighthouse way, shining their light back on what has already been laid down in the Manifesto rather than being elevated above the earlier text. Multicolored brings out the other color words he has already employed (black, red-hot, colored, green, red, violet, black, white-hot) and draws them together. Polyphonic emphasizes his use of "we" throughout the Manifesto, adding other voices to his own, suggesting a group, a movement. Modern (and later, electric) ties are seen not only with his love of cars and and other technological means of transport, but also to his disdain for the antique and classical, as is demonstrated by a few lines scattered throughout:

"But, as we listened to the old canal muttering its feeble prayers and the creaking bones of sickly palaces above their damp green beards, under the windows we suddenly heard the famished roar of automobiles." "But we had no ideal Mistress raising her divine form to the clouds, nor any cruel Queen to whom to offer our bodies..." and "4. We say that the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty; the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath--a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot--is more beautiful than the //Victory of Samothrace//."

The last example is the most vivid: the Winged Nike of Samothrace, housed in the Louvre, is often cited as one of the best-beloved sculptures in Hellenistic tradition. Marinetti's denunciation of such a well-beloved piece is made only more powerful by the adjectives which illuminate it in retrospect. Vibrant and violent hearken back to the majority of the piece - almost all of his language is violent and he uses several words that emphasize enthusiasm and passion - and electric appears throughout in reference, largely, to electric city lights.

Despite the fact that these adjectives appear at the end of the piece and are not isolated, they certainly illuminate the rest of the Manifesto. Perhaps this lighthouse is viewed through its reflection in the water.

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//Zang Tumb Tuuum//
An example of lighthouse adjectives comes in "Correction of proofs + desires in speed" from Zang Tumb Tuum. Here Marinetti uses many adjectives to describe a great deal of the world:

//"**(GREEDY SALTY PURPLE FANTASTIC INEVITABLE SLOPING IMPONDERABLE FRAGILE DANCING MAGNETIC)**// I will explain these words I mean the sky sea mountains are greedy salty purple etc. and that I am greedy salty purple etc. all that outside me as well **as in me** absolute totality simultaneity synthesis = the superiority of my poetry over all others stop".

Marinetti here is doing quite a lot with just this passage. He seems to neglect the use of commas, which could definitely be a result of his freedom of words theory, and therefore the words (adjectives in the lighthouse adjective and nouns in the following explaination) seem to be strung together. Like the 'sky sea mountains' are actually one entity rather than three seperate nouns. The words in the adjective itself don't have any commas, which make all those words seem like one entity as well. This creates a visual product of this effect. Since this stream of words isn't interrupted by commas, it is like the stream of light that comes out of a lighthouses guiding ships to the shores. Since the lighthouse adjectives is only, at this point coined and named by him, he attempts to explain it afterwards, and by his explaination, the reader starts to understand that these adjectives describe the nouns around it. The words he uses without any kind of punctuation really bring on a certain stream-of-conciousness pulse as he spews out how important these adjectives are.

Another thing about lighthouse adjectives, not only here, but in __Zang Tumb Tuuum__ is the impression that at first glance, these words have nothing to do with each other, but once it's read over a little more carefully these words have something to do with nouns within the text. These adjectives, **//(GREEDY SALTY PURPLE FANTASTIC INEVITABLE SLOPING IMPODERABLE FRAGILE DANCING MAGNETIC)//** are interconectted in a way, though the 'purple' may throw some people off. Purple can be just a color, or it could be a feeling, it could be a sight, it could be a sunset. For that matter, these whole adjectives could describe a sunset, the sea, or a state of being. For this section, and the frequent references to the sea salt and the sea make me think that all of these this though not exclusively, directly apply to the sea and add to the imagery of the sea. Marinetti too, could be all of these things, considering 'salty' as another word for bitter or disagreeable (Marinetti could be considered both of these things), purple as feelings of power: the groundedness of blue with all the excitement of red, it was a royal color, and the rest of the adjectives as just personality traits.

The very end of this quote, ending with "...the superiority of my poetry over all others stop," has a double meaning. This section was led into by Marinetti saying how everyone is everything and vise versa, and how the lighthouse adjectives are also in him and everything else. Because he uses this technique, and because it illuminates not only everything mentioned in the paragraph, but him as well, he is saying here that his poetry is above all others. He ends the thought with the word 'stop'. Stop could mean like the ending of a telegram, where one would say 'stop' in order to signal they stopped talking, and/or stop meaning all other poets just stop in light of his superiority. the double meaning and double uses of his words and techniques show the thought he put into something as, at first glance, free flowing as words in freedom.

**~*~**
"**//(INSENSIBLE DAILY ORDERLY METHODICAL SILKY STUFFED METALLIC TREMBLING CUT-OFF PACKED UP POLISHED NEW)//** ignition of a sailing ship" is the next lighthouse adjectives that shows up. This one, like the ones before and after it, have no real punctuation, and in the original text, had huge gaps starting to emerge starting after 'silky', till there was a large portion of line between the end of the adjective, and the word 'ignition'. Visiually, this adjective seems to reach a little further into the text, encompassing a greater expanse, and also, at the same time because of the distance between the words puts a lot less cohesiveness with the words. They look like they are all their own little adjective islands. It's also interesting, in this one there the words 'cut-off' are still packaged together as one, but 'packed up', which are normally associated as one past tense verb are split up so it's read 'packed' and 'up'. When it's separated like this the mind has a harder time associating the two words together, and so think of something as packed, and then up somewhere. This one also has contradicting statements in it; whatever it is describing is insensible, which means without sense or feeling, crazy, but this thing is also methodical and orderly, meaning it has a structure and order.

Judging from what is around it, this adjective has sailing references, which can lead one to the assumption that these adjectives can be applied to a boat's engine, or man-made things. Man-made things, while they are supposed to have an order and a daily use, are sometimes insensible because when they malfunction, and no one knows whats wrong with it, or how one particular part malfunctioned, that's the insensible part. Ship's engines can be cut off, as well as packed, up, and new. The nouns that follow this include a kerosene lamp, lampshades, a carpet, and a "circle of solitude serenity family"; which can be a circle of either solitude, serenity, or family, which can be described as any and all of the above adjectives.

**~*~**
"= 3 fans about the mountains of Calabria //**(AZZZZZZURRRRRRE SLOW INDULGENT SKEPTICAL)**// Debris of Messina in the straits earthquake of walls-mud feeling the sea as a sum of different weights,".

The Calabria mountains are found in the southern Italian Peninsula of Italy (the toe of the boot) and they are in the region of Calabria. Starting from the lighthouse adjective, 'azure' is a shade of blue. The way it's spread out, with Marinetti stretching out the consonant sounds of the word, make the word itself look like long, blue range that stretches across the page, and that's what the Mountains are. Looking at the picture to the right, the sky is this stunning shade of azure, and the trees as well as the mountains in the background give it this overall blue appearance. The mountains can not only be looked at as azure, but also slow and indulgent because of how stoic mountains are. They just stay there gazing over the rest of the land and sea, taking everything in and indulging in it, but also judging the people places and activities that are going on under it's watchful gaze; which is why the mountains can also be called skeptical. There was a line break, but since lighthouse adjectives are all encompassing, it covers the 'Debris of Messina in the straits' as well. Messina rests at the tip of Sicily, which is right up against the Calabria Mountains, and also experienced an earthquake in 1908, wrecking everything. Marinetti published __Zang Tumb Tuuum__ in 1912, and he might have been in Italy around the time of the earthquake to see the destruction. The earthquake is then mentioned in the next line, and the 'walls-mud' brings to mind the picture of walls made of mud, but also of walls meeting the mud, and in the sense of the earthquake, that's exactly what happened. Looking at the words that are separated by a hyphen, it looks more like 'walls+mud' than one word, 'wall-mud'. The earthquake really embodies adjectives because of the color of the area (azure), and the motions of the earthquake. The sea also can be all of these things and also the 'sum of different weights': the weight being the actual weight of the mountains, the weight of the debris from the earthquake, the weight of the people, and the weight of the history of that area.

This section has a lot of fragmentation in it, because of how the lines are broken up and how he would describe something before mentioning what that thing actually is (example "the earthquake") and also a lot of metonymy. Some of the most clear examples of metonymy ware found when he says the name of the mountains and then includes the lighthouse adjectives. It is metonymy because anyone who has lived or been there would know the association of blue to the mountains, and through looking at the pictures a reader can also make that association. Another example would be when he talks about the debris and then mentions an earthquake. Debris brings about images of an earthquake or natural disasters, which is what happened with the earthquake.

**~*~**
"...tumult of 800 electric lights //**(BRANDISHED FURIOUS RABID)**// shaken by 20 different densities of wind current..."

Brandished means to wave something, could be a weapon, threateningly or with excitement. This brings to mind the picture of a flag and someone waving it as a signal that victory was upon them. However, here it ius used to describe the 800 lights, and with the use of the word 'tumult' it's easy to see how that would happen. It then goes on to talk a densities of wind current, which could be said as to mean how hard the wind blows and when it blows that hard, but it takes with it, which could be any number of things that would be brandishing, furious and rabid, especially in a wind storm. This part seems to extend a little farther to talk about the moon and a train sliding away from ferries, but after that a giant 'MESSINA' appears in large bold letters and the lighthouse adjective seems to dissappear then.

=Lighthouse Adjectives and Other Authors=

While Marinetti was the main purveyor of Lighthouse Adjectives, there are times that adjectives are used in "lighthouse-y" ways in the works of other authors.

Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein uses a form of lighthouse adjective in her work //Tender Buttons//, but the form really isn't in the way that Marinetti would have put it. The way //Tender Buttons// is put together, it has titles, and then a poem or prose (with Stein you never really know) that follows, and then the cycle starts over again. She uses language in a contextual meaning way, in which brings the reader to a feeling about the text without understanding what the text said, because she doesn't use language in the way we'd think. but within sections, she'll use colors and sounds in a lighthouse type way. In "A Piece of Coffee", in //Tender Buttons// she starts the fourth paragraph with "The sight" and continues that 's' sound all throughout that paragraph, and as soon as she line breaks into the next paragraph, the 's' alliteration is gone. So like a lighthouse stream of light, it floods into existence on a particular adjective and bleeps out of existence again. What makes this different from Marinetti is that he uses actual words that can make some sort of picture together and uses that to shed light on surrounding nouns, but Stein uses sounds and colors and other things besides actual words. She also uses a theme of numbers throughout some sections, and that would be the lighthouse, or she would use colors as a feeling of the section, sentence, or phrase.

Lorine Niedecker
In Lorine Niedecker's "Lake Superior" is a unit which could be called a lighthouse noun phrase:

//(The long// //canoes)// "Birch Bark and white Seder for the ribs"

The fact that the words "The long canoes" are isolated (note that they are also justified to the right in the original formatting) and that they are above the rest of the piece immediately puts them on the kind of pedestal that the lighthouse adjectives are in Marinetti. They are also cohesive as a unit, partially due to the parenthesis, which is a nice touch in light of the chosen format for lighthouse adjectives, as well. Most importantly, they function in much the same way: "the long canoes" applies to everything in the following lines. A twist in this particular example is that it is also true of the reverse: all of the following lines (the base of the lighthouse, as it were) reflect back on (hold up) the lighthouse noun phrase.

Furthermore, "Lake Superior" as not just a title, but as a phrase, could also act like a lighthouse noun phrase: almost every section beneath it makes some mention of water, and most of those which do not have a connection through metonymy. In the first section, under the influence of "Lake Superior" blood suggests a body of water (a river). In a similar process, the mention of Radisson suggests the ocean, as he is a French explorer and the sign of the cross suggests missionaries and colonists, also from over the sea.However, the best example of how "Lake Superior" can work as a lighthouse noun phrase is on page 234:

"Ruby of corundum lapis lazuli from changing limestone glow-apricot red-brown carnelian sard

Greek named Exodus-antique kicked up in America's Northwest you have been in my mind between my toes agate"

While this section could also be a demonstration of how earth/rock projects and perpetuates themselves onto the rest of the work, it also brings in water. Limestone, as a sedimentary rock, is typically deposited by bodies of water in layers. It also happens to be easily dissolved in water. It is also significant that this section ends with agate, a type of crystal formation commonly associated with beaches.

Only "//Wild Pigeon//" (235) and "The smooth black stone" (236) lack any reference to water. It could be argued that the reference to "true source park" suggests a state park or nature reserve and therefore also suggests a body of water. However, other than the potentiality of Pigeons flying over a body of water there isn't much to suggest the association in "//Wild Pigeon,"// except by grace of the title/lighthouse phrase itself: "Lake Superior" projects its lake- or wateriness onto "//Wild Pigeon//."

=External Resources=

=References=

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