The Truth is the Whole: Remembering Joshua Clover
A dear and recently departed UC Davis colleague
Joshua Clover was especially good at the Pub Quiz. Back when the English Department professor was living in Davis, he would sometimes come to Bistro 33 to write while sitting at the bar.
Amused (and perhaps a little perplexed) to see one of his Voorhies Hall colleagues hosting a trivia contest, the first time Joshua “participated” in the quiz he tried to catch my eye after every question, primarily to roll his eyes at me over how unbearably easy all my questions were.
Widely and deeply read, Joshua knew pop culture from his many years as a music writer for Spin Magazine, as well as the whole of world literature, current events, and the history of social and economic theory.
The next time I found Joshua at the bar late on a Monday evening, I insisted on adding the progressive firebrand to a team. And thereafter, any team he played on won the quiz, even back when a team called, coincidentally, “The Ice Cream Socialists” dominated the competition.
Soon after he was hired by the UC Davis English department as a poet to replace the retiring Sandra Gilbert, I visited Joshua’s office to welcome him and to talk about poetry. We were both studying at Boston University at the same time, him as an MFA student and I as an undergrad. I studied primarily with our more traditional professors, such as Sir Christopher Ricks, William Arrowsmith, and Roger Shattuck, while Joshua stuck close to the playful formalist George Starbuck.
Our most memorable shared professor at BU was Carolyn Williams, who had taught me a 20th century fiction and non-fiction class that had introduced me to J.D. Salinger (especially “For Esme, with Love and Squalor”), Maxine Hong Kingston (whom I later met on several occasions in California) and Zora Neale Hurston (whom I later taught).
As I was listing influential professors and came to the name Carolyn Williams, Joshua stopped me. Professor Williams had also had a transformational and inspiring effect on Joshua’s work as a poet and scholar. We all can recall teachers who have benefitted us significantly, and Joshua got a kick out of the fact that he and I could both point to the same scholar who helped to shape our lives and inspire our careers.
Joshua got a kick out of every audience who attended one of his book talks or readings. I just checked Amazon to confirm the date of his event for his second book, The Totality for Kids, and I was reminded that “You purchased this edition on April 8, 2006,” two days before the book was released on April 10. He was so amused by his own allusions during his reading on the fourth floor of Hart Hall at UC Davis that he couldn’t help but laugh in places, so we laughed with him. His poems were a torrent of cleverness.
My mom Mary Ternes visited Davis at the time of a Joshua reading, so we went. About halfway through the event, she volunteered that “I can’t tell when your poems start or end!” As I cringed down into my seat, Joshua responded with something like, “Mission Accomplished.” And then he and my mom shared a laugh.
I got to attend his book talks in 2004 for his book on The Matrix, in 2009 for his (non-fiction) book titled 1989: Bob Dylan Didn't Have This to Sing About, and in 2016 for his book Riot. Strike. Riot: The New Era of Uprisings. I got to host him for readings at Bistro 33 and, in 2015, for the release of his poetry book Red Epic. A hero to students because of his activism, Joshua always drew a crowd.
After the death of Joshua Clover this past Saturday, April 26th at the age of 62, his friends and former students shared their love and appreciation.
Megan Kaminski, a poet I had known as she was earning her MFA at UC Davis, wrote this: “Deeply sad to hear of Joshua’s untimely death. He was my grad advisor at UC Davis and became a friend. I am forever grateful for what he taught me about being a poet through his example: an expansive and fierce intellectual curiosity inextricably devoted to creating real change in the world. Lots of memories over the 20 years that I’ve known him, sharing this one from a reading we gave together at KU when I was a new Assistant Professor. RIP, Joshua.”
Another poet I knew at UC Davis, Wendy Trevino, wrote this:
“Joshua Clover was one of the - if not *the* - most important mentors I've ever had. He was also a comrade & loyal friend. I've learned so much from & with him over the years, I don't even know where to start. But this part of an email he sent me shortly after my first arrest (which he was there for) - I think about it a lot - more than anything b/c there is something really beautiful about it:
‘If we are reaching into history, I am still very fond of the very simple formula, 'the truth is the whole.' That's Hegel. Of course, I never will know the whole (which I admit makes me sad; that sadness is my hubris), but it remains very uncertain that because the whole is unknowable, one shouldn't try. 'The whole' is a kind of horizon, or limit. I am not so into giving up in the face of its great distance from us. I swim in that direction.’"
Someone posting under the name “Snax” wrote this on X: “[Joshua Clover’s] ideas have had a more powerful influence on me & the people closest to me than maybe anyone. He was a towering political & intellectual force. But he never stood above any of us; he stood alongside us & allowed himself to be transformed by struggle, with us. A true comrade.”
I’ve seen Joshua outside cafes in downtown Davis in recent years, often deep in conversation, such as with Kim Stanley Robinson. Even when engaged with others, he always made a point to acknowledge me as he saw me walking somewhere with Jukie, sharing a wave and the wry smile that he was known for. I will always think of that smile as I fondly remember our friendship. Whether in a poetry reading or at a pub quiz, Joshua displayed the same brilliance, mischief, and moral clarity. I admire Joshua Clover’s work as a poet and scholar, and I honor his fierce advocacy for the intellectual, political, and economic lives and rights of our students.
P.S. Three Wildcat trivia questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
1. The DC Comics superhero known as Wildcat was a long-time member of the JSA. What does JSA stand for?
2. The Grumman F4F Wildcat was an American Navy fighter plane that was used primarily during what war?
3. What Bob Dylan song, which was an even bigger hit for Jimi Hendrix, concludes with these lines: “Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl / Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl”?
P.P.S. Our next Poetry Night on May 1 at 7 PM will feature Oswaldo Vargas and Patrick Grizzle, President of the Sacramento Poetry Center! Oswaldo was proposed by one of our Pub Quiz regulars! Plan to join us on the roof (dress warmly) of the Natsoulas Gallery!
Oh no. I hadn't heard this news. Your post is beautiful. I'm moved. It's so sad.
A really wonderful remembrance. So inspiring.