Yes, I'm quite in sympathy with this distinction, for which reason - however
priveleged I know it is to receive them - I've always been fairly ginger
about commissions. I have refused some, accepted others - but a basic
resistance to having the "subject" dictated to me almost always makes me
uncomfortable. At least at the outset. I think theis is temperamental rather
than being evidence of aesthetic scruple.
On the last couple of occasions, I have tried - and not merely for
financial reasons - just to get on with it, and have been grateful to have
been pushed or inched in a direction I might not have chosen, without
feeling I'm doing what I don't want to.
That said, I'm still very unsure about this notion of "assignment" as a
distinguishing factor between the two kinds of poetry we're discussing.
Best,
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Allen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2010 10:40 AM
Subject: Assignments
> What is 'assignment' writing? Is it an assignment when assigned to you by
> someone else but not an assignment when you have assigned it yourself?
>
> I had an argument with a friend who could not understand why I had a
> problem with writing to an assignment. I tried to explain to him how I
> had no objection if someone else could do it but that I simply couldn't -
> well yes, I could, but I know the result would be brittle and not much to
> my liking - I know this because I have done it before. "But", he said,
> "these days most of what you write is in long sequences which have a
> large degree of pre-determination, so what's the difference?" Well the
> difference is of course that these are things which I have assigned to
> myself, out of some deep personal need, even if I don't really know what
> that need is.
>
> I bring this up because I think there has been some misunderstanding on
> the Argotist tag about notions of determinacy.
>
> Tim A.
|