Erminia, you quoted Pinter - Oh Superman - to substantiate your argument.
You miss the point: "We must pay attention to what is being done in our
name." Pinter refers to the language of politics - high politics - not
poetry per se. His questioning of language does not refer to literary
criticism and the internalisation of language and theory, but how 'language'
can disempower the multitude. Yet you read his text as if internal to your
theoretical concerns. Surely, 'Theory' is former 'Practice?' What you seem
to do - like many post-modernists - is to entirely internalise debate, so we
end up with a 'theory of a theory,' without the intervention of practice.
Pinter, from Oh Superman 1990 - whatever his alleged past - has
increasingly strived to intervene in the world out there - the messy human
world. The hardest thing any poet, writer, artist can do is to place their
work in that messy old world. The easy bit is to wrap oneself up in the
institution of the 'word.' Pinter, now not a young man, stood up among two
million people at Hyde Park and ranted against the "language" of our masters
of Feb 15 - choosing his words carefully - the words of ordinary people.
***
Having returned to the list after two weeks out, it's pretty obvious Alison
C is addressing the world - the living world - the body and mind - not
playing 'word.'
Back in 1977, Allen Ginsberg and a brilliant line up of poets read and
performed to/with an audience of 1,000 in the Cambridge Corn Exchange. He
was not the best poet that night, but his mantra is in me still when theory
seems to cascade beyond purpose - 'live as you live, breath as you breath,
walk as you walk, think as you think...' Can't we?
***
I also wonder what poets do between emails? Today I read 'Fifty Yards of
Lowestoft High Street' at Aylsham Town Hall, Norfolk to an audience of 40 -
went down a storm - and not the usual suspects.
Rupert Mallin
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