On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 12:48 AM, Judy Prince
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> And further, If folks disagree with Fred's opinion, let them go ahead and
> give theirs rather than 'red herring' us with 'isms'. If their opinion is
> given as artfully as Fred has given his, then I'm sure it will receive due
> attention.
>
I did, and without a whisper of ism anywhere. For the record, this is
what I wrote, re the Larkin'Lauterbach comparison:
It's a poem about the processes of
perception and being, and certainly not written without feeling. I've
read better poems along these lines, attempting to honestly delineate
the complex ephemerality of a moment - Ashbery comes to mind and even
more, Rilke - but I hardly think it's "really really really terrible",
nor does it strike me as that breathy kind of fake poetic Frederick
claims it demonstrates. It strikes me that while Lauterbach's poem is
about entering the specifics of a moment (eternity perhaps in
Spinoza's sense, ie some kind of immanence), Larkin's is about
transcendence, the absorption into a sublime whole. Totally different
poetic consciousnesses. Not sure that it's useful to use one to bash
the other.
Perhaps it was a dull and uninformative post, but it did, at least,
talk about the poem.
> Still further, and for Alison, the cannibal and ventilator quotes that
> Kasper contributed are neither racist nor sexist---though perhaps
> animalist---and they're hilarious.
>
Shorn of its context, which might perhaps be mitigating, the cannibal
quote is most certainly racist, if being racist is a term meaning
expressive of a racist attitude. It's the kind of thing I used to hear
from my mother's associates who campaigned for Apartheid. If it's
funny (I can't see how) that doesn't exclude it being racist.
xA
> Best,
>
> Judy
>
>
> 2008/10/7 Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 8:23 AM
>> Subject: Re: 2 poems
>>
>>
>> You know, the funny thing is that I could let Frederick's obvious
>>> sexism go by without a ruffle (and it's not for me to arbitrate,
>>> anyway) - but Kasper, this is a horrible and utterly racist quotation.
>>> And damn the accusations of PC, which are often just lazy defences of
>>> lazy bigotries.
>>>
>>>
>> For the record, I absolutely deny sexism, "obvious" or otherwise.
>> Including "sexist" intent in my original phrase "meaty masterpiece." The
>> kind of reasoning Barry Alpert showed in a) calling ME sexist because that
>> phrase struck HIM as sexist, as well as b) intimating that La Auerbach is
>> beyond attack because she has garnered po-biz and academic honors, is not to
>> be tolerated. But the bleating of a herd of PC-liberals is as little
>> susceptible to argument as a swarm of rightists. I will NOT get into an
>> IDIOTIC pseudo-controversy of this sort, which always results in someone
>> leaving the list in a self-righteous huff. I'll just go back to my usual
>> lurking state.
>>
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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