Oh Anny, I'm certainly not a 'working-class hero' (Lennon wasn't either, it
was bit rich, ha ha, coming from him) I don't ascribe moral superiority to
any social group, the working class can be just as narrow and prejudiced as
any other, what I do find painful is the human obsession with status, as
I've said before, I used to think poetry a place of innocence that was free
of such concerns, now I realise how wrong I was. It was almost my last
illusion. Doug Barbour said recently about how poetry can transcend
egotistic concerns, that was what I thought too, but now I feel I've been
following a will o'the wisp, an ignis fatuous (pun there, notice it?!)
I don't have any answers to this, unfortunately there aren't convenient
forests in Leicestershire where one can go and meditate under a tree for two
or more years, and the climate isn't very suitable to going barefoot with a
begging bowl for rice.
I'm afraid I do take these things to heart, they've happened too often, and
hit too close to home. It's rather like being surrounded by psychic
vampires, whatever you have they will steal from you, drop by drop.
Till there is nothing left to take.
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: "Anny Ballardini" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 7:57 PM
Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
oh jeeez david, we are all used and we are all 'working class heroes'
otherwise we would be on a 'tropical island (yes it is my riddle)' (and
we all use)
just don't let it get to you (that heart-breaking isn't good at all) and
grow out of it with mastery and style,
what can i send you this time?
oh yes, an old sepia colored carillon song, anny
> Well, Paul, I'm certainly 'working class' although I don't regard that as
a
> badge of inverted superiority, I'd love to escape it but I don't want to
be
> in any other class either. I just want out of status systems all round,
and
> that particularly applies to poetry, where I have had some of the most
> heart-breaking experiences, of people using me over and over again, your
> remark about the Arts Council is most apposite there, moral: don't trust
> anyone connected to it, they will exploit you, ruin your friendships, and
> spit you out afterwards, I speak from experience, and pain.
>
> Naow, I've never been to Zurich!
>
>
> 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: "paul murphy" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 2:15 AM
> Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
>
>
> I'd love for Hofmann to say, before a reading, 'listen everyone, basically
> I'm a pretentious swine, now we've got that over with, let's get on and
> enjoy ourselves.' And then let off a massive fart to signify that he too
> is a corporeal being, and not someone floating about in a haze of literary
> references, obscure vocabulary, and okay yah PCness. I think some take it
> too far the other way, and think that because they're very 'working class'
> that that makes them some kind of martyr to the cause. Most of the
working
> class people I know would love to escape their class, and don't want to
live
> in a ghetto or an estate - I know, I'm one of them. Most of these
flunkies
> hang around, you guessed it, Arts Councils - the curse of the drinking
> classes. Flann O'Brien was still a very fine writer, he might have
> floundered on the Continent, Joyce certainly did, but was bailed out by
his
> brother and various rich people, as Sylvia Beech. For ! all that, he
still
> loved to eat in the best restaurants, when he couldn't, basically afford
it.
> It's shit, isn't it, were he alive today he could dine in the best
> restaurants anywhere in the world, and much more. Perhaps he realised he
> was ahead of his time, and decided to live it up before he died. Have you
> been to the Fluntern cemetery in Zuerich?
>
>
>
> >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
and
> poetics
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> >Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 01:07:53 -0000
> >
> >Hi, Paul
> >
> >Michael Hofman is an interesting case, as I feel his prose translations
of
> >German writers are very fine, yet his poems, although skilful, remind me
of
> >dead frogs' legs twitching on a lab table. I do agree with you about the
> >benefit of the Continent to Irish writers, Flann O'Brien was possibly
> undone
> >by never leaving. Otherwise, with the literary scene, I am so pissed off
> >with it, it is full of creeps, and when people that you regard start get
> >sucked into that it brings in the clouds, everything seems wrong at
present
> >to me. Especially if, as in my case, you've unintentionally facilitated,
a
> >lovely administrative verb that, the very thing you hate.
> >
> >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: "paul murphy"
> >To:
> >Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 11:28 PM
> >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> >
> >
> >Hi, I was talking about the contrast between a writer like Michael
Hofmann,
> >who is all too aware of convention and literature and someone as
refreshing
> >as Fallon, or Kavanagh, or even Yeats, who was admittedly, much more
> >cosmopolitan than the others mentioned. That's what I thought you meant?
> >Ireland has either teetered backwards upon itself in a self-absorbed but
> >occassionally useful parochialism, but mostly Irish writers have looked
to
> >the Continent, and this is when Irish writing is at its best - when the
> best
> >elements of the parochial mix with more sophisticated patterns -so ,we
have
> >Joyce, Beckett - I love their work, it goes beyond mere appreciation of
> >literature,
> >
> >PM
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> > >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
> and
> >poetics
> > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > >Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 23:01:31 -0000
> > >
> > >Paul
> > >
> > >your question has me totally lost - yup, living in backwaters might
help
> in
> > >being unaware of conventions, but that wasn't what I was thinking
about.
> I
> > >want to be angry about the way poetry is now: fraud, deceit, theft,
lies
> >are
> > >its commonplaces, I don't want to complacently burble on about theory,
I
> > >want to say: THIS IS NOT RIGHT.
> > >
> > >Essentially, poetry, like all the other arts, like our culture in
> general,
> > >is corrupt, poetry is a very minor participant, coz there ain't all
that
> > >much money in it, but it happens, I know all too well about the users
and
> > >abusers that inhabit the scene, who feign and fake moral concern while
> > >really looking out for themselves alone, you just try being ripped off
by
> > >people on the scale I have, it is not a nice experience.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >David Bircumshaw
> > >
> > >Leicester, England
> > >
> > >Home Page
> > >
> > >A Chide's Alphabet
> > >
> > >Painting Without Numbers
> > >
> > >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
> > >----- Original Message -----
> > >From: "paul murphy"
> > >To:
> > >Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 10:34 PM
> > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > >
> > >
> > >you mean that it was written outside the conventions of what passed for
> > >literature in that period? For goodness sake, people living in
backwater
> > >Ireland are always going to be writing in the way you describe, simply
> > >because they don't know what the conventions of literature should be,
or
> >are
> > >probably reading writers who are at least 30 years out of date.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> > > >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
poetry
> >and
> > >poetics
> > > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > > >Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 19:52:48 -0000
> > > >
> > > >Doug
> > > >
> > > >I remember buying the very same out-of-date Padraic Fallon when I was
> >about
> > > >nineteen, I think. His poems struck me, very uneven but full of
> texture,
> >of
> > > >charges of rhythm and sound, very unlike the boring stuff that is
> mostly
> > > >produced today, they took risks, but when people are writing poems
not
> >from
> > > >an inner need but to an eye to grants, winning competitions, being
> >invited
> > > >to read, status in the the literary community, as it were, the result
> is
> > > >utter dullness. I could say more but I'd better not.
> > > >
> > > >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: "Douglas Clark"
> > > >To:
> > > >Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 4:39 PM
> > > >Subject: Padraic Fallon
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Just to say that I got the new Carcanet catalogue in this
> > > >morning and see that in Autumn 2003 they intend issuing a
> > > >new Padraic Fallon Selected POems to replace the out-of-print
> > > >book that I have. I think it is the only book in the catalogue
> > > >that I will buy as basically I part company with keeping
> > > >up-to-date with poetry.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >Douglas Clark, Bath, England mailto: [log in to unmask]
> > > >Lynx: Poetry from Bath ..........
> >http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdgdc/lynx.html
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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