Ah, Camille! She knows there's nothing like a polemic!
Here's her latest, an intro to an essay which dissects 43 of the "world's
best poems". The lead in says: "A veteran of the vibrant 1960s poetry
scene, Camille Paglia argues that critics can no longer read, poets can no
longer write, and the unacknowledged legislators of our age are writing
advertising jingles for peanuts".
It all looks a little out of date to me (railings against theory and "the
triumph of ideology over art" and the "death of the author"), and she levels
the Tom Wolfe accusation that poets only write to impress other poets. Only
without Tom Wolfe's wit.
"Our most honoured poets are gifted and prolific, but we have come to
respect them for their intelligence, commitment and the body of their work.
They ceased focusing long ago on production of the powerful, distinctive,
self-contained poem. They have lost ambition and no longer believe they can
or should speak for their era. Elevating process over form, they treat their
poems like meandering diary entries and craft them for effect in live
readings rather than on the page. Arresting themes or images are proposed,
then dropped or left to dribble away. Or, in a sign of lack of confidence in
the reader or material, suggestive points are prosaically rephrased and
hammered into obviousness. Rote formulas are rampant - a lugubrious
victimology of accident, disease, and depression or a simplistic, ranting
politics (people good, government bad) that looks naive next to the incisive
writing about politics on today's op-ed pages. "
http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/03/10/bocam10
.xml&sSheet=/arts/2005/03/10/bomain.html
It's a long url so you might have to paste it into the browser.
(The peanuts seems accurate).
All the best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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