Dave, and in fact everyone. It really excites me to see everyone discussing
so intensely and I am very sorry for my silence. I have been working in and
out of the country and on top of that my laptop exploded! Hence my silence.
But when it is a sensible hour I will be reading everything properly and
getting back to you.
But for the mean time, thank you and please carry on discussion because you
are teaching me so much about the array of perceptions out there. And also,
that I am not the only one with this on the brain.
Will be back soon.
Deborah
On 22 October 2011 17:07, Roger Day <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> absolutely bang on, Dave. Particularly the last para
>
> On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 7:07 AM, David Bircumshaw <
> [log in to unmask]
> > wrote:
>
> > I've been following with interest the discussion that followed from
> > Deborah's post and I am still balked at her initial question of how do
> you
> > 'quantify quality' in 'spoken word'. I have visions of point-scoring, as
> in
> > ski-jumping, high board diving. Or ice-skating. While, too, if I assume
> > that
> > 'spoken word artists' and 'performance poets' are, for the purposes
> > of*poetry
> > *, the same thing, what comes to mind is that in the best the poetry is
> > only
> > part of the act, it is really 'acts' we are talking about, so I don't see
> > how the act can be evaluated or 'quantified' for 'quality' ('7.5? No,
> 6.0')
> > without accepting that poetry is a part but not all of the material.
> >
> > My own experience has been that the best spoken word artists have really
> > been comic acts that use poetry as a hinge. As such, the most useful way
> to
> > see them is in comparison with other acts, with poetry or not. If,
> though,
> > one insists that they be 'judged' or, better word, 'rated' by their
> poetry,
> > then surely the claim is that they are 'poetry', not 'spoken word', and
> > must
> > be treated as such, so that comparisons are invited with other 'poems'.
> >
> > It isn't, of course, that there is anywhere an agreed standard on this
> > invidious, noise-screening necessity, though there tends to be a
> > (simmering)
> > consensus (kind of) about poets who have had the good manners to be dead
> > for
> > a while, partly because the factions and alliances they fought among have
> > also gone (permanently) underground.
> >
> > Where I do get difficulty is when I find performance poetry or spoken
> word
> > being simultaneously presented as a) something that cannot be judged by
> the
> > standards of 'page poetry' while being b) somehow superior to the
> aforesaid
> > and c) worthy of being given the cultural role of the latter now
> considered
> > predeceased and living dead.
> >
> > best
> >
> > Dave
> >
> >
> > On 21 October 2011 00:02, POETRYETC automatic digest system <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > > There are 15 messages totaling 1202 lines in this issue.
> > >
> > > Topics of the day:
> > >
> > > 1. Landscape: Towards Mitcham Junction from the south (5)
> > > 2. Spoken Word (7)
> > > 3. Periglis from the sea wall round The Meadow, low tide (3)
> > >
> > > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > David Joseph Bircumshaw
> > "The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe
> is
> > that none of it has tried to contact us."
> > - Calvin & Hobbes
> > 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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