I'm not sure it *was* said that Veronica Forrest-Thomson was "a conservative
poet" [N1], more that her criticism (though reference seems to have been
mainly to articles *about* it, rather than to _Poetic Artifice_ itself) was
conservative, in that it reflected or paralleled I.A.Richards in _Practical
Criticism_ -- itself a stupendously dubious assertion on a variety of
levels. It might be possible to say that _Poetic Artifice_ reflects her
critical position before she encountered the work of Barthes and others --
was that in the course of a series of seminars she attended in London in the
early seventies? -- but I don't know enough in this area to say.
But yes, to agree with what I think Peter is suggesting, the statement,
"Veronica Forrest-Thomson is a conservative poet" corresponds roughly in its
degree of meaningfulness to the statement, "The present king of France is
bald".
Mind you, I've finally cracked. In the background to this discussion I've
been off-and-on trying to find my copy of her Collected that Anthony edited,
with an utter lack of success [N2], and rather than subject myself to more
frustration, I'm going to solve *that* particular problem by brute force and
order another copy.
Robin
[N1] Though it may have been -- I confess that I haven't given all comments
on this thread the same degree of attention.
[N2] This is partly because a few months ago, my bookshelves attempted to
assassinate me by pealing off the wall and looming over me. I hastily
stripped most of the books out and piled them on the floor, V F-T's
Collected among them, and haven't since managed to retrieve it. I have, in
the course of this discussion, managed to find _Poetic Artifice_ among the
rubble, but that's not the same thing.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Riley
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2013 1:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "Multiple Registers, Intertextuality and Boundaries of
Interpretation in Veronica Forrest-Thompson"
Before it became a completely futile discussion about whether reading
is subjective or objective (it is of course both) this thread was
about Veronica Forrest Thompson, and somebody's statement that she was
"a conservative poet". To me this is meaningless and not discussable,
so I don't think there is any point in either going back or going on,
and staying where we are would be masochistic.
PR
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