Scott,
Can I suggest that this is your idea of how poetry functions and what
position it takes. Not all poetry is political. Yours is a point of view
that can be applied to pretty much anything.
By your logic the coffee I am drinking is inherently political due it being:
"born out of a place in a set of social
relations, and therefore serves an interest(s) which
defines itself in terms of its place in those
relations"
I also find your interpretation of the Tibetan upper-class language is very
interesting, coming from someone publishing a web magazine. How many of
those poor, slaves have ready access to your poetry?
Have you considered the politcal statement your magazine makes?
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Scott Hamilton
Sent: Friday, 4 August 2000 2:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Politics IN poetry
All the discussion of poetry and politics the Dalai
Lama sucks posting seems to have initiated treats
politics as an OPTIONAL EXTRA for poets - it's like,
'should I include political comment in my work'.
I think that Qs about political comment - is it
possible to write a good sestina about Tony Blair, is
Mayakovsky more sensitive than Yevtushenko to the
needs of poetry etc etc are fundamentally RED
HERRINGS.
Arguing about whether poetry SHOULD be political is
like arguing whether art should be sociological - of
course it bloody well already is, itnever fell from
the sky! A better Q is: should art be looked at
sociologically, should the political commitments of
poems and poets, the political commitments underlying
a fair deal of aesthetic experience, be examined?
I would argue that every poem is political because
every poem is born out of a place in a set of social
relations, and therefore serves an interest(s) which
defines itself in terms of its place in those
relations. Hence a sensible Q might be: what place do
the 6th Dalai Lama's poems come from in Tibetan social
relations, what interests and conflicts are built into
their very existence, let alone their aesthetic
appeal? An obvious start to answering this Q is a
recognition of the fact that the guy is writing in a
language WHOSE VERY EXISTENCE is predicated on a
feudal set of social relations - it's a language which
only the upper classes can understand, it's a language
in which masters obscure their secrets from slaves...
Cheers
Scott
=====
"Why is it not possible for me to doubt that I have never been on the moon?
And how
could I try to doubt it? First and foremost, the supposition that perhaps I
have
been there would strike me as idle. Nothing would follow from it, nothing
be
explained by it. It would not tie in with anything in my life...
Philosophical
problems occur when language goes on holiday. We must not separate ideas
from life,
we must not be misled by the appearances of sentences: we must investigate
the
application of words in individual language-games" - Ludwig
Wittgenstein
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