Yes, Alison, it is absolutely true that the Muse tradition has had sexist
implications, but my object in that poem, which I think reasonably
successful (you I'm sure know yourself how it can be difficult to keep up
with oneself when writing a lot!) was to strip down to primitive layers of
psychology, not endorsing them, but neither asking questions of them, but
opening them out. That was the idea anyway!
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2003 2:05 AM
Subject: Re: the poem itself
At 12:19 PM +0100 4/9/03, david.bircumshaw wrote:
>as I recall I prefaced the posting of 'The Cloud' with a statement that is
>was connected with my interest in a language of psychological
>disintegration, it is a work of fiction in effect.
Just a small point: questions of gender enter into works of fiction,
as much as anything else. Also, I'd like to shift the discussion
from a sense that anyone is being "accused", which I don't believe
was Rebecca's intent in the first place, to something more analytical.
At 12:19 PM +0100 4/9/03, david.bircumshaw wrote:
>'The Cloud' is also about a broken relationship with a
>Muse, not a sex object
This is perhaps the real point. There was as I recall a long
discussion a couple of years ago about the concept of the Muse, and
the difficulties women have with that concept: it is traditionally
sexist and has a long and dishonourable tradition of being used to
argue that women can't be Poets; except if, like Elizabeth Barrett,
they are physically weak, or if, like George Sand, they are
masculinised women in drag. I can give you a trillion examples, if
you want them; it's fair to comment that this poem picks up on that
tradition of the Muse without including any sense that it is
problematic in this way. The Muse is very often a sex object in a
poem; the two are implicitly conflated into an erotic relationship,
and the Muse often personifies this eroticism, as in fact you do
here; but you work the metaphor, as Rebecca points out, in a
traditional way which doesn't question these (sexist) traditions.
Eroticism is a very important aspect of poetry, I believe, and I am
not arguing against that; I just think it is more complex than that.
Best
A
--
Alison Croggon
Editor
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Home page
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