Kent: I had frankly forgotten the details, including who was involved. I
would have stated things differently if I had remembered--it's a very old
story.
I was a member for a few years before these events. There were flame wars
before, and some after. My sense was and is that in this particular one
permanent damage was done. But probably as great a problem for those who
had been mainstays ( I was never one--I saw myself as an interested
outsider; as such, I learned a great deal) was that enough non-Brits, a
good many not particularly interested in British poetry, had joined to
change the focus of the list. Douglas Oliver's death didn't help,
either--to my mind he was the list's moral compass.
I have no interest in fighting old wars, and I think they're beside the
point. I do wonder how a Brit list could defend itself from being
overwhelmed by even the best-behaved of the rest of us.
Mark
At 03:57 PM 5/13/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>As one of the Americans Mark is no doubt referring to, I would like
>to say I disagree with his somewhat simplistic diagnosis. Yes,
>there was a little flame war that took place, but it was one that
>many people took part in (including Mark).
>
>Yes, the flames were variously and multinationally fanned... And,
>too, as I think Mark will soon remember, if he goes to check the
>Brit-po archives, the list went on for months and months (and then
>more months)-- and quite vibrantly and aggressively, long after
>Jacques Debrot and I were sent packing to the straight-jacket room
>deep in the basement of the Center for Lacanian Studies at the
>Ecole Normale. In fact, numerous flame wars seemed to take place
>at British and Irish Poets (even in the bad Americans' absentia!),
>and numerous personages, who only a brief time before had been
>so indignant about Yank boorishness and brutishness, seemed to
>leap into those new fires with considerable atavistic delight. (Yes, I
>occasionally did read the archives for a while, because I really liked
>the intelligence that could be found on Brit-po.)
>
>So let's not revive that old squabble with transparently arrogant
>Imperial histories for 7th graders a la Stephen Ambrose. If the
>Poles and the Ukrainians can live in harmony after what happened
>in WWII, how silly to think that poets on a list must hold grudges. I
>say listen to what Mairead is saying: If Brit-po has had a fainting
>spell, just give it some salts and smack it with a riding crop.
>
>Pax poeticus
>
>Kent
>
>Kent
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