>From: Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask], "[log in to unmask]"
><[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Narrative etc.
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 09:57:30 -0500
>
>I think I agree with you about "silence" and the lack of respect for it;
>hence my remarks about Graham. As I've indicated, I feel that narrative
>poetry as a genre should be brought to the cultural foreground and more
>fully articulated in criticism. One reason I feel this way is that my
>talent is for this genre. Another is my dislike for the narcissism of
>much contemporary lyric.
If Graham isn't to your taste--fine. But how could you possibly imply that
she has no respect for silence and is "narcissistic"? This is absolutely
contrary to the case. But there seems to have been a discussion of her work
before I began subscribing, so maybe you don't want to rehash it; I don't
have the time or energy these days to engage in a very involved conversation
about anything on a listserve, anyway. I'm just floored, though.
To answer Frederick's question, very belatedly, I think that "linearity" as
it's been discussed here in terms of narrative resides at a relatively
macro-level of structure, i.e. plot, and that to refer to the emotional and
syntactical, etc. sequentiality of poetry as "narrative" is to widen the
scope of the term beyond recognition or usefulness. Certainly some
"Language" poets see it as equally--dangerous? constricting? even
oppressive? I'm not sure, at the moment, if it's a matter of degree or kind.
Maybe it's both, Moebius-like: we take it one way to the Nth degree and end
up on the other side?? I'm just spouting off the top of my head here....
This would bring me back to my previous proposition, that maybe they're of
different styles/structures, "masculine" and "feminine." Of course, the
opposite claim can always be made, as with the coding of abstraction as
masculine. I'm not sure whether or not we can say that either is the case
simply or definitively.
Tod
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