Neil Astley's rhetoric and stereotype loaded fulminations are unsurprisingly unsurprising, the real beef seems to be that he and
+his+ gang are upset about the changed editorship of Poetry Review. I don't, btw, have any objections to projects like his Staying
Alive, I regard such as the Survivors project as admirable, but how can one take seriously the views of someone who, when displaying
a fine insensitivity to language in deploying the 'grassroots level' banality, that phrase so beloved of politicos, quotes as an
example of 'grassroots' opinion a Nottingham LDO, Cathy Grindrod:
> Cathy Grindrod introduced herself to the Poetry Review editors as someone
who has 'worked every day for the past five years in Literature
Development, running projects, organising poetry festivals, teaching
poetry workshops and courses to readers and writers of all levels and
specialising in developing people's awareness of and engagement with
poetry'. <
Now I would be fascinated to know how the very small level of literary activity that goes on in Nottingham or any other comparable
East Mids area could possibly occupy one full-time 'every day' for five years (what - 365 days a year?) even if Cathy herself was
personally in charge of every single event. My own observations at 'grassroot level' (yes, I am one such, I know this because my
friends keep telling me I'm a sod) in Leicester the LDO's that come and go have minimal involvement with most of the literary
activity, indeed, all the regular poetry gigs I know of here have either no or next to no support from the LDO's. Astley's views of
the 'grassroots' are like a New Labour Minister visiting a chippie.
As for his quoting Les Murray:
>Poetry has been captured by a class which
prohibits the positive. They see themselves as in perpetual rebellion
against society, and it's a rather sour, radical rebellion. <
I love the notion of Motion, Padel, Armitage, Maxwell, Greenlaw etc as nasty and mean radicals.
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Spectare's Web, A Chide's Alphabet
& Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
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