Hello David

yeah, that's certainly ok by me, I love the furtherance of discussion. Many
of the mails I post are 'off the cuff' and at times I find myself
disagreeing with them too (!) but, despite whatever clumsiness there might
be in my post, I do feel that it is edging towards an articulation of how
things are.

My home address is [log in to unmask] by the way

Best

Dave



David Bircumshaw

Leicester, England

Home Page

A Chide's Alphabet

Painting Without Numbers

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Howard & Kim Pieters" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 8:25 PM
Subject: Request for David Bircumshaw & Henry Gould


My apologies to other list members but, foolishly, I have not filed Dave and
Henry's personal e-mail addresses.

This coming Saturday I have been invited to record for National Radio (our
modest equivalentat of the BBC) an overview on the nature of literary
politics in New Zealand, with particular reference to the relationship
between academic courses/writing schools and publication/career advancement.
I want to place my comments in an international context and would like, if
permission is forthcoming from David and Henry, to quote with due
acknowledgement the following excerpts from recent posts here:

David Bircumshaw: 'My take on this is slightly different, I'm not concerned
about reception, and criticism is something I delight in, it shows
engagement after all, what bugs me is the sense of being in a waste, in a
literary culture that precludes difference, where the concerns are not for
poetry but perceptions of status. It saddens me, and no simple account can
describe it all: there are good poets out there who are actually into the
'system' as well as hacks. But the balloons, oh yes, that describes it
exactly, not just my feeling about my own work but also what happens to that
of others, one can look at one culture or another and find governing sets of
conventions that condition what is accepted and what is not. The story
varies according to where it is told but the deadening force of sameness
operates throughout. This is the ground of my despair. In England, for
instance, it is largely the anecdotal, the self-centred obsession with the
commonplace, that broadcasts a message akin to 'we are trivial and proud of
it'. Largely I say because there issomething resembling an avant-garde, but
even there yet another set of rules obtain.'

Henry Gould: 'But ultimately it seems to me that the best approach is a sort
of professional attitude.  By professional I don't mean "careerist". A
professional cares so much about the profession or the vocation that the ego
part becomes irrelevant.  This is complicated in the case of poetry because
it's an activity that is a contradictory amalgam of  "winning
rhetoric" and public performance on the one hand, and the often intentional
distance and solitude involved in writing.  Actually it's an ideal that
remains just that for the most part, regardless of the profession.  But it's
a necessary factor.'

- I am also interested in thoughts from other list members as to this issue
as it pertains to your local/national/international experience.

David Howard