Dear Scott,
Since David said, contra my remark, he was still engaged by Ashbery after
April Galleons, I take it I'm the 'you' in your posting. There was an
ambiguity in my line, however. When I said 'I loved Ashbery right up to
April Galleons, but then it just stopped working for me', I meant it was
around about April Galleons that I found myself to be no longer engaged.
When he said (in 'Posture of Unease')
But for all you I
Have neglected, ignored,
Left to stew in your own juices,
Not been that friend that is approaching,
I ask forgiveness, a song new like rain.
Please sing it to me.
I felt the 'open' interpretation of this as an address to the reader was
being played with in an uninteresting way -- I couldn't get many other
readings going, yet years of reading Ashbery had left me uncomfortable with
that one. I felt I'd been cried wolf to one more time, and I wasn't
interested in being cried wolf to yet again. I agree with you to a degree
about Flow Chart's merits, but then the Hotel just did it again.
I'll just reiterate I was an Ashbery fan of many years standing at this
point -- people may want to offer suggestions as to how this could have been
read, and I'll be glad to see some I didn't come up with that would make a
difference. I'm trying to describe an inner slump, a weariness equally
emotional and intellectual (and those funny bits in between, what are they
called again? aesthetic bumpy things...)
Best,
Bill H
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2000 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: John Ashbery
> But April Galleons as the last good book????
> How did you come to pick that one?
> It is exceedingly mannered, compared to its successors
> Flow Chart and Hotel Lautreamont. I think that Flow
> Chart is an amazing book, a real attempt by Ashes to
> break out of his solipsism...
>
>
> Cheers
> Scott
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