It's an incredibly useful anthology, for all that Prynne isn't in it,
and the British/Irish anthology I most consult. Precisely for the
reasons set out below.
Of course, if the amazon reviews are snarky, you can always just write
your own reviews.
http://stalinsmoustache.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/on-writing-your-own-amazon-customer-review/
xA
On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 10:49 PM, David Lace <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Cris,
>
> As an addendum to my previous response to this, according to its
> Amazon product description (presumably written by its publisher or
> editor) the anthology claims to challenge ‘received accounts of modern
> and contemporary British and Irish poetry’ by including perceived
> underrepresented postmodern poets who have ‘never before been
> represented in this type of collection’.
>
> The type of collection it is, is presumably a canon representing one
> as ‘it features ample selections from canonical poets including W.H.
> Auden, Basil Bunting, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney,’ etc. The anthology
> also claims to provide ‘an unprecedented, inclusive portrait of the
> century's poetry in Britain and Ireland’.
>
> Also, its annotator N. Dorwood, says in his Amazon review of it that it
> is ‘a landmark book’, and Tony Frazer says, in his Amazon review, it ‘is
> significant precisely because it cuts across existing preconceptions of
> what is important in 20th Century British and Irish Poetry’.
>
> So it’s not setting out to be as unassuming as you suggest.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 09:15:48 -0500, cris cheek
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>every anthology is incomplete
>>
>>
>>
>>any pretension to completion must be viewed with derision
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>the Tuma anthology was just a slice, cut from particular angles in
>>particular lights, intended to spark discussion
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>;=)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>cris
>>
>>
>>
>>ps thanks for the direct quotation Peter.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>On Feb 2, 2010, at 9:02 AM, David Lace wrote:
>>
>>> I agree. His absense, however unavoidable, does make the
> anthology
>>> look incomplete.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 13:28:08 +0000, JAMIE MCK
>>> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> It's very heartening to see this statement of solidarity, and I only
>>> wish it had been more widely circulated.
>>> Even if, as Giles said, for the grandees of the press it might have
>>> had
>>> little significance, for the purposes of the anthology and its readers
>>> Prynne's absence was a resounding one.
>>> The rhetoric doesn't seem to me so much Churchillian as
> scrupulously
>>> considered - in both passages that Peter quotes. It would be good
> to
>>> see the whole letter.
>>> Jamie
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, 2 February, 2010 9:53:01
>>> Subject: Re: Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>>> Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
>>>
>>> JHP circulated a letter to a senior editor at OUP (NY) at the time,
>>> explaining his reasons for not wishing to be in the anthology. He
>>> spoke
>>> first of his dislike of educational anthologies as such, "because
>>> of the
>>> enrollment of a poet's work into a teaching apparatus" [i.e., a
>>> programmed presentation] which "must interfere with a vital aspect
> of
>>> personally free reading and discovery...." He went on:
>>>
>>> "But overriding each and every such consideration in this case is the
>>> aspect that this book is to be published by Oxford University Press. I
>>> know very well that the American branch of this imprint is
>>> virtually an
>>> independent operation, but it carries and trades under an illustrious
>>> name. That name must now in the field of contemporary British
> poetry
>>> and its publication by considered infamous."....
>>>
>>> PR
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2 Feb 2010, at 09:26, GILES GOODLAND wrote:
>>> I very much doubt that can be true. I have been in meetings with
>>> senior
>>> OUP staff who have never even heard of Bloodaxe or Carcanet.
> Whether
>>> Prynne appeared in an anthology or not, would not appear on their
>>> radar--a fact which I am sure Prynne would foresee.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> From: John Goodby <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Sent: Tuesday, 2 February, 2010 9:19:56
>>> Subject: Re: Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>>> Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
>>>
>>> Wasn't Jeremy Prynne's refusal to be included something to do with
> the
>>> fact that Oxford UP, the publishers of the anthology, had recently
>>> abolished their poetry list en bloc? I was under the impression
>>> that it
>>> was a protest against their act of vandalism.
>>>
>>> All best,
>>>
>>> JOhn
>>> ---- Geraldine Monk <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>> In any case this is a very old review written almost as soon as the
>>> book was out. I wonder David (hello) if you are misreading 2001
> for
>>> 2010?
>>>> G.
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: cris cheek
>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>> Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 10:40 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>>> Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> In fact there's a mention of it at the end of Tuma's intro to the
>>> Anthology itself.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> xx
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> cris
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Feb 1, 2010, at 4:06 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Yes, Cris, that's it ...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 1 February 2010 20:03, cris cheek <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi David,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> that is my understanding of what happened too. In fact i
>>> remember being told that there had been extensive correspondence
>>> trying to persuade Jeremy to have his work represented but that
> Jeremy
>>> had said (at that time) that he was tired of anthologies . . . or
>>> something along those lines.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> xxx
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> cris
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Feb 1, 2010, at 2:54 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I might be wrong on this, but I vaguely recall Keith Tuma
>>>> (then
>>> on this list) saying that Prynne declined an invitation for inclusion.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 1 February 2010 14:26, David Lace <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Provocative Amazon customer review of Keith Tuma's
>>> Anthology of
>>>> Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry (Paperback)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Quote:
>>>>
>>>> "This isn't "critical pluralism". It's an attempt to
>>>> canonize a
>>> postmodern
>>>> clique by juxtaposing their work with the likes of Seamus
>>> Heaney.
>>>>
>>>> Moreover, it isn't even a believeable anthology from a
>>> postmodern
>>>> standpoint. Where's J. H. Prynne? Excluding him is like
>>>> leaving
>>> John
>>>> Ashbery out of an anthology of modern American poetry."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anthology-Twentieth-Century-
>>>> British-
>>> Irish-
>>>> Poetry/dp/019512894X
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> 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
>>>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>>> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
>>>> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> 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
>>>> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
>>>> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
>>>> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> ---------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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