On 14 Apr 2010, at 15:27, Uche Ogbuji wrote:
> Of course I've heard of a lot of stories of political ferment in
> the 60s, but it's still very hard for me to conceptualize how it
> might have
> translated so directly to prosody/anti-prosody.
I don't think translate is the right word - it was all of one. It
wasn't a simple matter of feeling rebellious and then going to write
some rebellious poetry, for example, it was more a case of writing
rebellious poetry and then realising what you had done and being able
to relate it to other activities of the self and those around you.
These things take their forms in actuals - music, art, fashion, sexual
activity etc.
I was only in my mid teens in the mid 60's. i've had a lot of time to
think about it since.
> Having been born well after
> the 60s that period is legend to me, and I guess I'm learning that
> some of
> the reality was even more demented than the legend.
Legends are superficial, visual, - journalistic comment takes these
specular manifestations and deliberately mistakes them for what was
going on, to avoid dealing with the substance.
>
> Where I first got very heavily involved in poetry, in Nigeria, the
> dominant
> dispute (even then becoming dated) was over Négritude, and how to
> reconcile
> colonial with traditional "modes of thought", which was in those
> cases as
> much a nonce term as ever.
nonce term? ???????
>
>
> Right now I'm in Boulder, Colorado, where apparently the Beat poets
> laid
> down their bequests. It is certainly a hippie town, and that is
> part of its
> charm, and from what I've been able to stomach of the local poetry
> culture,
> I wonder about the correlation between the overall town culture, and
> the
> slovenly self-indulgence I suffer through at so many poetry
> readings, but
> I'm not inclined to push any such correlation very far, as you can
> tell.
Now this is interesting Uche. The 'slovenly self-indulgence' you have
to suffer at so many poetry readings. I know exactly what you are
talking about and the phrase you use is perfect. So what is this
'slovenly self-indulgence'?
Any answers out there?
Tim A.
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