On 6/12/04 1:21 AM, "Peter Riley" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I wonder how much "alternative" poetries , when they are reactive, might be
>> simply expressions of dissatisfaction against that noble Anglo-Saxon
>> tradition of anti-intellectualism, that contempt for complexity which ends
>> up distorting various realities, to all our detriment. That tradition is
>> certainly alive and well and thriving here.
>
> Well if weıre both talking about the same thing itıs a traditionı of no
> substantiality, a casual chat-poetry with very little antecedence before the
> 1970s. I donıt think we should attach remote ancestors to it. Though it
> also occurs to me that lyrical poetry is by its nature anti-intellectual, or
> turns aside from conceptual complexity in extrapolation from a moment or a
> condition, and we donıt object to that, in Audenıs plain ³songs² nor in
> madrigals... We donıt ask them questions. The poetry Iım thinking of isnıt
> lyrical and is a mis-use of the licence or immunity of a lyrical tradition
> for a debased formulation. (I take it you use the word nobleı
> sarcastically).
Yes, we're speaking of the same thing, though I was also thinking of a
broader phenomenon: a typical symptom, say, the scoffing at incomprehensible
"deconstruction" after the death of Derrida or the deriding of "academics"
as thin blooded know-nothings who have no experience of "real life". Maybe
England doesn't quite possess the huge animus against a perceived elite -
latte sipping chardonnay scoffing self indulgent "intellectuals" - that
exists here, but I do think it is in part, though it would probably be
denied, a colonial inheritance of British philistinism.
I hadn't thought of lyric poetry as inherently anti-intellectual. I'll chew
over that one, but my first thought is that I can't see, say, Blakes' Songs
as anti-intellectual. There are many kinds of complexity, and in lyric
poetry that is carried by juxtapositions and gaps rather than articulation.
All the best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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