Dear Peter
Thanks so much for your posting and the link to Don Paterson's Lecture. Have
printed it out and ---
Wow, basically he plays off Modernism against postmodernism and we end up
with the centre - Don Paterson Public Relations (ME).
Of course I can be very wrong but like the contemporary jazz club I relaxed
in tonight, where the musicians swung people towards their beds, reckon
that's Don's structure.. Don Paterson is happy with Jazz is in its place -
not the real Sophia Town, Lawrence Ferlinghetti's jazz poems, The Beats,
Surrealism, Expressionism, Brecht and any notion of fusion or cross-over.
Just London town jazz. Paterson the big iamb poet.
And if anyone heard the 'Start the Week' interview with him, well let's get
back to Tolkein. Paterson is desperate for tradition - a catch all
tradition. Anyone who uses the term "recrudescent virginity" has a problem!
Against Paterson, give me the populists. Give me Benjamin Zephaniah, give me
June binta Breeze, give me Merle Collins, give me rap Asian star JC 007,
give me Adrian Mitchell, give me Atilla the Stockbroker, give me, give me
Desmond Johnson, give me everyone who is dysfuctional. Give me the jazz of
poetry, not the quietitude of fossils.
Best wishes, Rupert
PS - Goodness, I'm now forming a soft spot for John Hegley...
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