A Review of Guy Davenport's Objects on a Table: Harmonious Disarray in Art and Literature
Deron Bauman

Beautiful sentences, leaps of thought, and wonderful absurdities conjoin in Guy Davenport's Objects on a Table: Harmonious Disarray in Art and Literature.
Extending from musings on the bust as significant in the verbal still lives of Sherlock Holmes to the meaningful cataloging of books in Poe; from the exquisitely masterful description of apple and pear by Thoreau to the last moments of Nietzsche's lucidity; Davenport follows through on his aim set forth in the opening essay of the book to document the expansive occurrences of still life as staple in art and literature throughout the histories of both.
Perhaps it is the ubiquity of still life that renders possible the discoveries and insights made evident in Davenport's musings.
Or, perhaps, as Davenport himself asserts "when the skeptical student in the back of the room asks if Keats knew this, and intended it, we must say no, but that language knew it for him, and carried the meaning as genes pass on information from organism to organism."
For those interested in the leaps and bounds of literary and artistic connections made possible only by the love of each and both, enjoy the beauty of intelligence inherent in both the sentences and design of this well crafted book.

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