Chris separates readers from writers - but if we're talking about an initial
target of 200 copies, couldn't that be entirely a practising poet
readership?
what these readers want is what those writers "need" to have and to catch up
with?
>From: Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Talking in Greek
>Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 15:43:21 +0100
>
>"Readers" strike me as an even more amorphous body than "poets". Where are
>they? How do you speak to them?
>
>I think there might be 4 kinds of readers--
>
>a) A writer's core readership who are genuinely interested and faithful.
>b) Contextual readers who buy you because they think you are part of some
>scene or movement or climate...
>c) People who buy books at a reading, or because of a college syllabus, and
>may later regret it.
>d) A surprising possibility of people right outside those categories, who
>may not even be interested in contemporary poetry at all, but who will in
>some connection or other obtain your book and be very interested in it and
>enjoy it.
>
>I personally have come across category (d) in /remote cousins who've got
>to
>hear about me /people who live in a house I once occupied and in which I
>wrote /People interested in Eastern Europe who get the prose book then go
>on to the poetry / An artist looking for texts for an artist's book /
>Neighbour's uncles...
>
>Readers seem to me a much more open and available group than you'd expect
>considering how much contemporary poetry tells them to go away.
>
>PR
>
>
>
>
>From: Chris Hamilton-Emery <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Chris Hamilton-Emery <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Sun, 6 May 2007 23:44:04 +0100
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Talking in Greek
>
>
>Oh dear, I hope I wasn't proposing some kind of détente amongst post-avant
>or non-avant communities, Melissa. I do think the binary opposition is a
>bit
>hackneyed, but I'd not deprive anyone from taking pot shots at each other.
>I
>just think we need to be a bit more accurate about how many fronts have
>opened up in the war, and that the war might better be understood as total
>conflict. Much of the debate on non-avant and post-avant obscures the
>enormous range of literatures available to us. If we're going to scrap,
>let's scrap on a grand scale, not just let the institutionally radical
>elite
>poke fun at the hamster cage of prize cultures. I'm sure we recognize such
>caricatures.
>
>I doubt any such conflict resolution could be established, really. Heavens,
>many poets I deal with have plenty of poison for their peers, that's just a
>feature of any industry. No, I'm merely concerned about gaining access to a
>broader picture of the scene and, to some extent, to understand how such
>scenes are financed. The latter isn't of much interest to most folk here.
>If
>readers aren't paying for literature I'd argue that we've got something
>closer to propaganda. Understanding that gives us a clearer picture of how
>literatures are created and who is in power. Patronage and advocacy are
>always fascinating in the arts. Privilege, too. Those three things may well
>be seen as the bedrock of a community, a community of exclusion.
>
>To be frank, I think it's much more interesting to talk to communities of
>readers, where poetry has to be finally understood, if poetry is to be
>considered an art of transmission. Most debates about poetry are purely
>shop
>talk and if we want the truth, we'd better go and ask the readers, not the
>writers. But for now, I do want to hear about what's emerging on the scene,
>and writers do provide a fascinating picture there. We might contrast it
>with what readers think is happening. But one step at a time.
>
>
>
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