Hi Tm
I think you misread me, Tim, and my apologies for the venom remark, although
to be fair there was a bit of it in your post about Andrew Motion. I don't
know whether you clicked on the link I posted, which led to quite an article
on Tim Henman as the archetypal middle class Englishman. And talked about
how he said that he never read books.
My (rather uninteresting, I admit) point was that people like Tim Henman -
and there are lots of them in the UK - will barely read Hegley, let alone
Michael Haslam. And if they ever encounter Haslam's poetry, or anyone else
you care to name, they will hate it, no matter who publishes it or who says
nice things about it. It's not merely the "mechanisms" of poetry in the UK
or anywhere else. I'm not going to fret that it happens, but that's me; to
write poetry at all is to go against the grain, and, without getting all
touchy feely about it - I have my own loathings, after all - I would rather
spend my time doing other things. I kind of agree with Jarry, who said
that Paris contained about fifty intelligent people. And do you really
think Hegley "gets away with it"? With who? Tim Henman, maybe. How much
does that matter?
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
Blogs: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com http://alisoncroggon.blogspot.com
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