Beloved all,
Crumbs! Very amusing indeed [chortle] to come back from a few days with the
blinds down, and find us hereabouts o'er-plimsoll with Heaney natter.
Revolting but good for a laugh.
I might belatedly lob in these from whichever side I'm on - "left", probably,
though that seems rather adventurous given the topic: like betting on one or
other of two dead cats in a dog race.
1. I thought John Kearns's very useful remark about the easiness of teaching /
learning Heaney might have advanced us further than it appears to have, on the
whole. No one's mentioned the hugely, luridly pernicious influence on the
totality of British poetry reception of Heaney and Hughes's frightful 'Rattle
Bag' anthology, and whatever the ludicrous sequel from a couple of years ago
was called. ('The Barrel Bottom'?) Out of which, many other thoughts spool,
about 'education' and self-improvement and anthologisation. But for the sake
of keeping the airways free I shan't elaborate unless anyone wants to prod,
backchannel or otherwise.
2. The South Bank Show Awards were barometrically very instructive, I thought,
and pleasingly thorough in their way. I mean Beowulf (which I've read, thanks)
was clearly the best book of last year in *exactly* the same way that
Shakespeare In Love was the best film and Summerfolk the best stage
production. As for the Whitbread, I should have thought Harry Potter would in
many ways have been the right choice, and Beowulf shouldn't even have won the
poetry award. But I haven't read Harry Potter so perhaps I shouldn't comment.
3. I've started to nearly like some of Ted Hughes's poetry since he died.
Maybe Seamus will do the *really* populist thing ere long and suffocate
unexpectedly in some dismal bog, or have his head terminally flushed down one,
or something. ...Actually I think I'd like Seamus a lot more if he were a
transvestite.
4. Peter wrote:
>>>Well at least he doesn't indulge polemics and go around chucking mud at
other poets any more, except implicitly in basically self-vaunting essays and
lectures. That's an improvement.
Really? (Interesting that Heaney rhymes with Ovalteenie.) This reminds me of
the Parker / Benchley exchange that followed the death of Calvin Coolidge (was
it?), and of which the final line is seldom quoted - "How could they tell?"
"He had an erection."
I like my poets soil-hurling. Heaney would no longer know what to do with a
spade, clearly: perhaps that's why he's forgotten what a pen's for, too.
Actually come to think of it, Dorothy Parker was a vastly better poet than
Seamus Heaney and a more interesting critic than most of us.
Fuck it, I'm off down the pub. Coming?
Chris xx
------------------------------------------------
Chris Goode
Director, _signal to noise_
24 Newport Road
London E10 6PJ
U.K.
+44 181 556 4492
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"Yes, my real name is Jordan. I just thought that Taylor would bring out the
color of my eyes." - Taylor Hanson
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