Belatedly caught up with this (and thanks Lucy for your post). Tim,
you don't think the "celebration of English identity" and the hauling
in of the multicultural straw dummy is suspect? At a distance, it
reads like the bullshit nationalist rhetoric that here ends up getting
people bashed. Enough to raise a few flags for me.
Is it poets who make these myths, or, as in Peter's example, the
publicists/mediating persons who occasionally get in there and write
about them, and, as my journalistic colleagues used to say, "never let
the facts get in the way of a good story"?
I share Armstrong's admiration for Brecht and a certain impatience
with the inward-looking nature of poetry culture. But certainly the
guy has a few chips on his shoulders, and I'm not sure it's Bunting's
fault. I don't share his distaste, though it's true that Bunting, in
common with a lot of poets, could be uncomfortably misogynist. Like
Mark, I feel there is something yukky about bashing another poet to
promote your own verse.
xA
On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 3:58 AM, Tim Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is an important piece, whatever our particular take on Bunting might
> be. I agree with Mark that Peter Riley's response to the Hall programme and
> the problems arising from it was a pretty fair one. The myth making around
> that scene has been an irritant to many of us and in my opinion it has
> actually helped damage the reputation of MacSweeney, instead of promoting
> it. I have never shared the Brit avant garde's enthusiasm for and elevation
> of Bunting - his work does very little for me, and that famous 'recording'
> even less - the problem is that I really like the work of most of those who
> say they are influenced by him, with the exception of Pickard, who failed on
> so many levels to live up to his early promise. I have to say that I really
> object to Keith Armstrong's treating of MacSweeney and Pickard in parallel,
> there is just no comparison, quality wise, between the two. Barry's work had
> its faults but they become pretty meaningless when judged against his
> brilliance.
>
> There is a circumstantial reason for Bunting being pounced on as an icon by
> some sections of the Brit avant garde: he could directly link regional
> English oppositional poetry to the heritage of high modernism. I think there
> was a certain desperation in that, but nevertheless his notion of the music
> of poetry, which went against the grain of the way Brit mainstream poetry
> was heading ever since WW2, found a genuine constituency, and that is where
> I think any discussion of his poetry and how it differs becomes important.
>
> Tim A.
>
> On 20 Dec 2009, at 18:13, David Lace wrote:
>
>> "NORTH EAST POETRY: DEBUNKING SOME MYTHS" by Keith Armstrong
>> (Discussion of Bunting and other North East poets as overrated)
>>
>> http://www.pennilesspress.co.uk/annexe/north_east_poetry.htm
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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