Too many pork pies are, of course, notoriously bad for one, especially if digested with Heidegger instead of salt and mustard. Yeah,
I thought the Grauniad subs had their wicked paws printed rather heavily on the abridgement, phooey to them. Paterson's piece
rehearses, I guess, yet again, the familiar map of current British poetry being divided between populists on the one hand, nasty
avant-gardeists on the other, and yet again the, what shall one call them, poets-to-be-taken-seriously, the professionals, the
'circuit' on yet another hand. This strange three-handed creature emerges again and again in polemics and seems to spend its days in
a dance with its feet sunk in mud during which each of the three hands vainly attempts to break the wrists of the other two.
After three readings I can't help feel that in many senses the lecture is, well, Silly rather than Pernicious. Being instructed in
such Mysteries of the Craft as consonance (well, I never, is that what 'real' poets do?) as well as having the notion of a Really
Offended plumber-poet wandering about in my thoughts I do derive a strong sense of Paterson talking to a self-elected in-crowd
(those poets at the back). I agree that there is a distinct air of economic interests in this Guild. Perhaps we should all apply to
Hiram Abif for membership. Shake a leg.
Meantime I shall leave Dr W.C.Williams' practice, as if he is a good poet I cannot trust in his medical advice, and am cancelling my
insurance with Wallace Stevens. While next time anyone tells me a joke I shall demand to inspect their Stand-Up Comedians card.
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Spectare's Web, A Chide's Alphabet
& Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 9:53 PM
Subject: Re: don paterson's lecture
Thanks Simon - those subs at the Guardian really did hack it about, didn't
they? Oh, and the eternal search for a headline...
It's certainly more interesting in its full version. It seems to have a lot
of Heidegger in it. However, his insistence on the strangeness of the thing
in itself seems a bit odd when put next to his derogation of Prynne, as one
thing that Prynne's poetry does (for me anyway) is make objects very strange
indeed - pork pies, say, removed from a familiarising and desensitising web
of language to exist in all their alien thingness. Perhaps Paterson means
that one can have too much of a good thing.
The idea of Guilds just makes me think of Terry Pratchett, which is perhaps
where such an idea belongs, stripped of mystique and revealed in all its
economic pragmatism.
Best
A
On 10/11/04 4:23 AM, "Simon Smith" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> just to say: the full text of Don Paterson's lecture is available at the
> Poetry Library web site: http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/news/poetryscene/?
> id=20
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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