I am sorry - not really - but my mind is polluted with horrifying pictures and stories Gaza. If this - what we now can so easily see in the mass media - is not close to genocidal ('genocide prep' or 'preface' maybe) what is it?? Is it related to language? Is it related to the breakdown of any conceivable grammar that could 'hyphenate' the two subjects, Gaza & Israel? When you don't like another group's sentences, does that give you permisson to contain, starve and then destroy them, institutions, persons et al? And somehow propose that these atrocities will also destroy the language and acts against this occupation. Indeed, it takes real bad acts of grammar to come up with such 'wishful' thinking.
The silence across this country (this and most other poetry lists for that matter) I find real disturbing, particularly in the case of the USA, where we are principal financiers and providers of 'diplomtic' support for the implementation of these horrors.
A silence that is so ironic in proportion to the enormous sense of elation that has gathered in this country to celebrate not only our first black president, but liberation from 8 years from fraudulent and corrupt leadership that has brought nothing but a national experience of suffocation and loss on practically every imaginable level.
I know 'outrage' is often considered 'too hot' and dismissed from the post-modern lexicon.
But to express it here in a constructive way seems crucial. I suspect I am not alone in wanting ways to compel this new President - unlike Bush - to refuse to condone and support this barbarism in our name.
I appreciate anybody else's thoughts on this.
Stephen Vincent
--- On Mon, 1/19/09, Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Inverted commas and such
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, January 19, 2009, 4:26 PM
"Learn grammar and punctuation and get your spelling right" is the
advice I give to the charming young aspiring writers who ask me for
"writing tips" or whatever it is an author is supposed to dispense.
It's probably a bit disappointing for them, but it's absolutely true
that it's crucial. Actually, it was the one thing I advised my kids on
too, when they demanded feedback (emphasis on "demand") on their
stories and poems. It's also, I figure, the only thing I have a right
to advise young people on! As an adult it's far too easy to squash
beautiful impulses...the rest is best left alone until they've begun
to sort out what it is they want to do.
Bill Burroughs' advice was pretty good: "learn to type".
xA
On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Douglas Barbour
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Well, I generally think so too, caleb, & rant a lot myself....
Northrup frye
> is ony one who has made that same connection....
>
> Doug
> On 18-Jan-09, at 4:51 PM, Caleb Cluff wrote:
>
>> Grammar and punctuation are necessary for forming clear thought. I can
>> brook
>> no argument that says otherwise. Break the rules if you want, but know
>> them
>> first.
>>
>> </rant>
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
>
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> Oh, goddamnit, we forgot the silent prayer.
>
> Dwight D, Eisenhower
> [at a cabinet meeting]
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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