you're right, but i'm comparing great artists and thinkers with great
artists and thinkers, and not one general mentality with another.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: "incapacity"
>but i can't help seeing latin-american and portugese-speaking culture as
relatively provincial<
we all live in barnyard provinces, Anna, the Emperor's whereabouts are
hushed
2003/1/1 Ana Olinto <[log in to unmask]>
> the really universal brazilian poets appeared only after
> modernism, and the best ones are manuel bandeira,
> carlos drummond and joão cabral.
> there are others, such as jorge de lima.
> i don't know about pre-modern hispano-american poetry,
> but i suspect it's not truly universal (i'm not saying it's not
> good).
> i know one poetic masterpiece by octavio paz, pasado en
> claro, and i think borges had a finer understanding of the
> world than most european intellectuals.
> the official avant-garde from brazil, which comes from
> the hiper-metropolitan são paulo, coudn't be more lacking
> in sensitivity. they might be like contemporary bourgouis
> anglo-saxon avant-garde, but worse. they mecanically
> produce alliterations, visual tipographic games and
> other technical poetic effects and they have also formed
> a horrible school of translators, giving us terrible versions
> of homer, etc. the former brazilian poetry translators were
> also generally bad, but for the opposite reason: lack of
> freedom and vivacity. usually the best poetry translators
> in portugese come from portugal, but i usually prefer
> well-chosen anglo-saxon translators for their modernity.
> yet, we have had recently superb novels translators here
> (the french, the russian), fine unpretentious sensitive men.
> i worship some portugese language classics, such as
> camões, padre antônio vieira, machado de assis and the
> three poets mentioned above, but i can't help seeing
> both latin-american and portugese-speaking culture as
> relatively provincial.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 2:03 PM
> Subject: Re: "incapacity"
>
>
>
> Ana:
>
> I simply don't recognize your account of Latin
> American poetry. Going back to at least the
> modernismo of the late 19th century the major
> poets have been in incessant dialogue with
> European practice. How could it have been
> otherwise, when so many have spent large parts of
> their lives in Europe? You might want to look at Jason Weiss'
>
> The Lights of Home: A Century of Latin American
> Writers in Paris. And also Echavarren, Kozer and
> Sefami's seminal anthology of the neobarroco,
> Medusario. Muestra de poesia latinoamericana.
>
> Best,
>
> Mark
>
> At 10:49 PM 12/31/2002, you wrote:
>
>> i think perhaps it's a cultural question, a question of habit.
>> latin americans are thaught not to be too cosmopolitan.
>> i think joão cabral was the only great brazilian poet who
>> was fully aware of french and anglo-saxon modernism,
>> and most people criticized this finest soul for being too
>> interested in strange cultures.
>> of course paz and borges were open and cosmopolitan.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Randolph Healy" <
>> [log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 8:14 AM
>> Subject: Re: "incapacity"
>>
>>
>> Hi Ana,
>>>
>>> when you talk of people's lack of intelligence and incapacity to
>>> understand, do you include yourself, or are you a different kind of
>>> entity?
>>>
>>> best
>>>
>>> Randolph
>>>
>>> 2003/1/1 Ana Olinto <[log in to unmask]>
>>>
>>>> people just TALK about cosmopolitism, but lack of intelligence
>>>> means incapacity to UNDERSTAND - and not incapacity
>>>> merely to be interested in - another way of thinking.
>>>>
>>>
--
David Bircumshaw
"A window./Big enough to hold screams/
You say are poems" - DMeltzer
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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