One of the big dangers is definitely the codification of practice, and
I am with Jeff on this. This has happened to some extent with 'avant
garde' poetry in the States and it has certainly happened to art here
in the art colleges - they do not set good examples. Once the products
of creativity get into that loop it is very difficult for them to
disentangle. We all want good teachers and good teaching but all too
often good teachers and good teaching get lost in the systems and
bureaucracies with their other demands and agendas. The need to get a
'qualification' or certain letters after your name has in the past not
been the same as the need to create originally. You need freedom and
focus. At times this has been given by creative people living and
working together - the typical artistic group or milieu or movement.
And sometimes of course in glorious isolation from any such thing.
Cases of such things coming from formally organised higher ed
institutions are rare - Black Mountain would be one of those rarities.
I'm not being romantic about this, I think I am being realistic.
Individuals, such as Robert Sheppard or whoever, are able to fight
against codification, but systems and organisations cannot. Or at
least, they cannot within the context of modern capitalist society.
Tim A.
On 22 Oct 2009, at 15:01, Jeffrey Side wrote:
> Sean, I'm not against academic journals if they are about the study of
> poetry rather than concentrating on how it should be written etc.
> And I
> get the feeling that this journal may lead to this, having read some
> of
> Robert‚s theories on practice. Only time will tell, however.
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