Dont' you think, then, Chris, that it makes any sense now to speak of a
plurality of markets rather than one big market called "poetry"?
I mean I, for one, feel fairly sure that I am not in competition with Tony
Harrison. Or if I am, then I might as well chuck in the sponge because the
whole enterprise has obviously been a dismal failure. Similarly I would
think Charles Olson didn't consider himself in competition with Don Marquis,
or Gerard Manley Hopkins with Christina Rossetti? So if, say, Carol Ann
Duffy sells 20,000 and I sell 200, that's of no more concern to me than that
a book called A History of Manchester United Football Club sells 20,000 and
I sell 200.
Who was it who stood up at that Oxford conference and said "JH Prynne hasn't
sold 3000 copies as I have" meaning he had succeeded where Prynne had
failed? If we are all cast into one market I suppose we'd have to agree
with him, which would be depressing.
Peter
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