You recall correctly Dom. And nice post mate!
(I love 'accusing a liver of sympathising with toxins'!)
Best
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dominic Fox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:29 AM
Subject: Re: Local Poetic Culture
> one critic has accused him of projecting a kind of right-wing agenda
That would be Sean O'Shem, if I recall correctly. Nice bit of
leftier-than-thou posturing there. He more or less calls Reading a
crypto-Thatcherite; which is a little like accusing one's liver of
sympathising with the toxins it processes.
Here's an interesting fact for readers of Geoffrey Hill's _The Triumph
of Love_. The three critics with whom he remonstrates periodically
throughout the work are Croker, MacSikker and Sean O'Shem. Shem the
Penman is identifiable as Sean O'Brien thanks to the fondness of both
for the word "factitious". MacSikker *might* be Lothian MacKinnon,
although if so I don't know where the sense of insult originated. But
Croker? Well, it turns out that John Wilson Croker was the author of
the anonymous review of _Endymion_ that did for Keats (according to
Shelley's _Adonais_, which lays the blame for the poet's fatal
inflammation squarely at the critics' door).
Dominic
On 2/6/06, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> A few further discriminations, Rebecca:
>
> recently I wrote lauding a reading by people who'd survived the mental
> health system, praising it for their courage to find some expression
despite
> their lack of articulacy. Again I posted a poem a while back by a friend
of
> mine who suffers from cerebral palsy and illness which, although it does
> diminish her ability to conceptualise, does affect the language centre of
> the brain and thereby the ability to put concepts into words. In both
> instances, although the result is not 'poetry' it is something that is
> humanly authentic and, in my book, worthy of support.
>
> But the balancing act in discrimination is to differentiate such from the
> inanity of consumer culture in which poetry becomes rhyming doggerel
> presided over by the Muse of Christmas cards.
>
> The work of the English poet Peter Reading is an interesting example of a
> writer embattled in the clash of his aesthetic with the
anti-intellectualism
> of popular culture: this puts some odd strains on his writing (for
example,
> one critic has accused him of projecting a kind of right-wing agenda,
> although the poet is most certainly not so)
>
> Best
>
> dave
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rebecca Seiferle" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 4:06 AM
> Subject: Re: Local Poetic Culture
>
>
> > Ok, Dave, call me a skeptic, but this is getting a bit far-fetched,
Dodo,
> and all,
> > maybe I've been on the internet too long but this being 'skinned' sounds
a
> bit
> > like playing the 'they're (could just as easily be 'he' or 'she', not to
> discriminate
> > among pronouns) after me' to the hilt, and, well, does this K. Barry
> _exist_? and
> > what 'local' poetic culture? you mean this small village where they like
> to eats
> > birds?
> >
> > Well, sorry, if I'm not taking this seriously enough. But I like dodos,
> who says
> > they're extinct?
> >
> > best,
> >
> > Rebecca
> >
> > ---- Original message ----
> > >Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 23:45:34 -0000
> > >From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Subject: Local Poetic Culture
> > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > >
> > >Slightly recovered here now, as matters have now risen to the level of
> > >apparent death-threats to me, or at least being 'cut up' or 'bled' or
> > >'skinned' by persons unknown. I might re-iterate that behind all this
was
> my
> > >lack of veneration for a local poet, who, I must add, was in now way
> > >directly responsible for what developed, and is from all reports quite
> > >appalled by it all, but my original crime, which has now been
compounded
> > >from talking too loud without respect to ruining a drug-dealer's pitch
> and
> > >trade in our dear arts centre, hence the alleged threats (if real)
> > >
> > >but here's an example of the maestro's work, for not liking which
> > >sufficiently I have been hit, threatened, insulted, barred, vilified
and
> > >generally trod upon:
> > >
> > >The Dodo
> > >
> > >It's sad the dodo is extinct
> > >when once the creature winked and blinked
> > >and in a manner so succinct;
> > >
> > >on that far-off Mauritius isle
> > >the sailors treated dodos vile -
> > >were only out to make a pile
> > >
> > >they introduced domestic pets
> > >and caught the dodo in their nets,
> > >on its survival hedged their bets
> > >
> > >and, growing grossly overweight -
> > >its diet got in such a state -
> > >ship's crews ate dodos off a plate!
> > >
> > >With quaint physique it might have filled
> > >the place of some bright bird that trilled
> > >of slimmer, more athletic build
> > >
> > >but that was not to be the case -
> > >odd beaks and feet, and funny face,
> > >it's disappeared without a trace!
> > >
> > >from 'Building New Bridges'
> > >
> > >copyright K. Berry 2000.
> > >
> > >
> > >best
> > >
> > >Dave
>
--
Shall we be pure or impure? Today
we shall be very pure. It must always
be possible to contain
impurities in a pure way.
--Tarmo Uustalu and Varmo Vene
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