Hi Tim,
well you ask the question. How indeed can the reflexive be by rote? It
can't. So the spectre you suspect is a mirage. Being reflexive is
something one more often than not does on one's own - as a writer -
unless one is collaborative in which cases there is often a
conversation between personal and interpersonal reflexivities surely.
What the academic environment does do is to encourage reflexivity to be
more mediated within the consciousness of a poet and even at times to
try (though it can only try) to insist upon that. I don't see that as a
bad thing per se. Given that consciousness is another very awkward word
that a lot of work is being done on as i write.
I see much of the work of colleges as being driven by asking questions
that generate resistance. Again I see that as positive. There have
always been lots of not very interesting poets and there will continue
to be. From a given group of arts students, historians, writers,
philosophers, chemists &c very few will go on to make any impact upon
their field of enthusiasm, don't you think. So, why the problem
specifically with artists and poets? So, there is a lot of mediocre
competency about. That's no bad thing - or is it?
love and love
cris
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