I noticed the death of nursery rhymes when my kids were small. Adults
don't sing them in pre-school any more. But as soon as they got to
school, the same scatalogical rhymes came back that we sang when we
were kids. Oral culture still seems to function quite well.
xA
On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 9:51 AM, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> There was an article in the NY Times recently about the death of child
> culture, at least among the middle class. When I was a kid we played outside
> without adult supervision. Now parents make playdates for their kids and
> send them to afterschool play groups, and endless hours of solitary time is
> fed to the computer. It wasn't until I'd been in the house I rented in San
> Diego for seven years, when I was invited to a neighbor's barbecue, that I
> realized that children actually lived on the block.
>
> At 06:38 PM 3/31/2010, you wrote:
>>
>> How interesting Mark: I didn't realise that the world the Opie's describe
>> crossed the Atlantic outside areas that can be thought of as traditionally
>> British influenced. I wonder how well it survives now with international
>> consumer culture?
>> I get close to tears often here as I see the day by day dismantling of
>> what
>> the Atlee government did, a destruction actively sought by many in the
>> current Labour party: while Obama tries to introduce health reform in the
>> US
>> here local health trusts are being forced to put the running of a fixed
>> proportion of GP's surgeries out to tender, which auctions are invariably
>> being awarded to US health care firms, which immediately begin to
>> cherry-pick patients and treatments; and as the homeless increase a system
>> of 'bidding' is being piloted for council and social housing properties,
>> wherein prospective 'customers' have to 'sell' their 'worthiness' for
>> housing.
>>
>> On 31 March 2010 21:43, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> > I think as with anyone it all forms a mind.
>> >
>> > I'm profoundly interested in human behavior and in the transmission of
>> > culture (small c). That there has been a separate child culture in most
>> > places and most times, transmitted from child to child and largely
>> > forgotten
>> > by those same children as adults, is pretty amazing. In the case of the
>> > Opies' studies, it was especially interesting to me how much of what had
>> > been a British urban children's culture made its way into my mostly
>> > Eastern
>> > European and Italian neighborhood.
>> >
>> > I'm one chapter away from finishing the London. Earlier today on the
>> > subway
>> > I almost burst into tears while reading it. What he describes in 1902
>> > was
>> > pretty much the state of things from the beginning of the eighteenth
>> > century
>> > until reforms early in the twentieth century and finally the Labour govt
>> > of
>> > 1944-48. There should be an altar to Clement Attlee on every
>> > streetcorner in
>> > Britain. It was also true of New York in the same period, the New York
>> > my
>> > family migrated to. And it remains the state of much of the world's
>> > population, including the homeless sleeping on the streets of New York.
>> >
>> > How can these awarenesses not have an effect on one's writing?
>> >
>> >
>> > At 04:16 PM 3/31/2010, you wrote:
>> >
>> >> People of the Abyss - yes!
>> >> give us a report on yr reading, Mark.
>> >> That and John Barleycorn stay in my mind and call me one day to reread.
>> >>
>> >> Max
>> >>
>> >> As for the Left Forum, I presume you haven't been attending it.
>> >>
>> >> And where did the Opies' books lead you...?
>> >>
>> >> (None of which is strictly poetryetc stuff, but...)
>> >>
>> >> Quoting Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>:
>> >>
>> >> > If by choice you mean somehow piques your interest, sure. Nobody
>> >> > forces me to open a given book. But it's not just poetry in the
>> >> > curriculum. For instance, I'm reading an early book of Jack London's,
>> >> > The People of the Abyss, which I'd never heard of, because Trevor
>> >> > Joyce is going out with a sociologist who was presenting at The Left
>> >> > Forum and we arranged to meet in the book section there, where it
>> >> > caught my eye. Or the Opies' wonderful series of books on the
>> >> > folklore of childhood, which were lying around the house of a
>> >> > folklorist friend of mine who said "worth reading." etc. Out of all
>> >> > of which one improvises a world thus far.
>> >> >
>> >> > This is very different from reading within a specialization and
>> >> > forming one's poetic therefrom.
>> >> >
>> >> > Best,
>> >> >
>> >> > Mark
>> >> >
>> >> > At 11:33 AM 3/31/2010, you wrote:
>> >> > >But for the writer, Mark, 'accidental on purpose'?
>> >> > >
>> >> > >I mean, along the way, many of those 'serendipitous readings' come
>> >> > >about by choice. I found a copy of Olson's The Maximus Poems (Jargon
>> >> > >24) in a small bookstore in Halifax, say, & the dedication to 'the
>> >> > >figure of outside' led me to Creeley? Etc? Which is partly true,
>> >> > >although, of course, I & my writing friends had already 'found' The
>> >> > >New American Poetry, but that lucky 'find' was a kind of choice, it
>> >> > >rather than some of the other anthologies around at the time, which
>> >> > >didnt offer the same important goods.
>> >> > >
>> >> > >Doug
>> >> > >On 31-Mar-10, at 8:16 AM, Mark Weiss wrote:
>> >> > >
>> >> > >>Armand Schwerner called it the "accidental curriculum."
>> >> > >
>> >> > >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
>> >> > >
>> >> > > The secret
>> >> > >
>> >> > >which got lost neither hides
>> >> > >nor reveals itself, it shows forth
>> >> > >
>> >> > >tokens.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > Charles Olson
>> >> >
>> >> > Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University
>> >> > of California Press).
>> >> > http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>> >> >
>> >> > "Not since the 1982 publication of Paul Auster's Random House Book of
>> >> > Twentieth Century French Poetry has a bilingual anthology so
>> >> > effectively broadened the sense of poetic terrain outside the United
>> >> > States and also created a superb collection of foreign poems in
>> >> > English. There is nothing else like it." John Palattella in The
>> >> > Nation
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
>> >>
>> >
>> > Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University of
>> > California Press).
>> > http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>> >
>> > "Not since the 1982 publication of Paul Auster's Random House Book of
>> > Twentieth Century French Poetry has a bilingual anthology so effectively
>> > broadened the sense of poetic terrain outside the United States and also
>> > created a superb collection of foreign poems in English. There is
>> > nothing
>> > else like it." John Palattella in The Nation
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> 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/
>
> Announcing The Whole Island: Six Decades of Cuban Poetry (University of
> California Press).
> http://go.ucpress.edu/WholeIsland
>
> "Not since the 1982 publication of Paul Auster's Random House Book of
> Twentieth Century French Poetry has a bilingual anthology so effectively
> broadened the sense of poetic terrain outside the United States and also
> created a superb collection of foreign poems in English. There is nothing
> else like it." John Palattella in The Nation
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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