On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, Alison wrote...
>I can see your point, Peter - look how the star of poetry has waned in
>the former Soviet Union under the new free enterprise "freedoms" - but
>there's a complacency in this I just wanted to protest. Is it _really_
>harder to write poetry in a place where you're not going to get shot for
>it? I don't buy it.
Yes, you're right Alison - it's complete blocks isn't it? (I wrote
something else, but my spell-checker insists that "blocks" is what I
meant.)
If I were to make a somewhat dishonest response, I'd say that I was
being ironic in my original assertion.
A less dishonest response would be that I was attempting to see what a
justification for writing effective poetry in a "free" society would
look like, and to see if it would fly. It doesn't.
I agree with David that poetry doesn't have to have the aim of social
(or some other form of) change.
I agree with Mark that I'm oversimplifying. I can only plead that it was
deliberate.
And I'd agree with Ali that censorship isn't the answer. It's an odd
paradox though, isn't it. That censorship *can* empower poetry, but one
would never actually advocate censoring it. I'd point out though that I
said that censorship encourage poetry to thrive, not poets to thrive. It
does dreadful things to poets.
Best,
--
Peter
http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/
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