> Interesting points, Knut. I must admit that when I saw those
> anthologies by the other editor he mentioned on display in one of the
> big bookstores in downtown London, I looked at them & was kind of
> appalled; for many of the reasons given in the LRB review he
> lambastes. I think it's the themed content that bothered me, although
> I also really didn't see any problem if people who don't usually read
> poetry pick them up. But there won't be many of those who will go out
> & buy books by the individual authors, & especially not by those often
> very interesting writers who will never appear in such anthologies. So
> I like the attitude you say works there in Norway.

On the other hand, I can't really think that any writer would wish to
have fewer readers than s/he has (which in many poets' cases is not
very many). Even for just one poem that makes it into such an anthology
(although how does any of them know if his or her poem gets read; maybe
it's just the really Big names). I did browze through the anthology on,
well I guess it was, infidelity. There were a few good light ones by
late 20th century poets I had mostly not heard of (I'm Canadian, so
don't know all the British poets), but nothing to make me, who does
read poetry, rush off to get their books...

And I do think that suggesting poetry is only 'about' learning how to
deal with either your love, lovers, or domestic life, etc, seems to me
to really limit its imaginative possibilities, for both writers &
readers....

But wotthehell, archie, i say, wotthehell....

Doug


> The quotes in the Guardian all seem very diplomatic and well-balanced,
> with the exception of George Szirtes and Kate Rhodes, which is kind of
> disappointing given the polemic nature of his talk ;) But most of the
> quotes also miss the main point. He wasn't speaking against a
> particular branch of poetry -- neither academic ivory-tower-ness nor
> post-modern inaccessibility in themselves -- he was speaking against a
> very specific group of individuals whom he dramatically dubbed "the
> poetry police." He may well be right about them, his arguments were
> compelling for one not so well-versed in the names and politics of
> British poetry, but he left an unfortunate afterimage of the enemies of
> poetry being synonymous with the enemies of Neal Astley.
>
> What was interesting about it for me was not so much the name-calling
> but the issue that cropped up of marketing. According to Astley the
> "Being/Staying Alive" anthologies met a fair amount of criticism not
> for their content, which most everyone seemed to think was pretty good,
> but for their packaging and marketing. He didn't see the point of this;
> for him, as long as the poetry is good enough you should be free to
> market it as heavily and popularly as you like. This caught my
> interest, because here in Norway marketing is in many ways seen as the
> big bad wolf of the publishing world. The book clubs have, for
> instance, taken a lot of market shares from bookshops through clever
> and agressive marketing. Agents are also virtually non-exsistent, as
> anything which contributes to a "blockbuster" type culture (where the
> already-succesful authors simply garner more success for themselves) is
> seen as a way of squeezing out less popular but equally worthy
> literature. E.g., selling a book through clever marketing is an
> implicit attack on those books that don't benefit from clever
> marketing.
>
> Astley's argument was that marketing will increase readership for the
> anthologies, and will in turn increase sales of the poets featured in
> the anthologies along with other poets (presumably from the same
> publishing house). I can see his point and its criticisms; without
> seeing actual sales numbers it's hard to say who's right. Any other
> list members have thoughts on this?
>
> --Knut
>
>


Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E5 Canada
(780) 436 3320
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm

Hand and mind
and heart one
ground to walk on,
field to plough.

        Robert Creeley