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" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
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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