Hi Michael,
I don't think there's any disagreement here. You're not setting up an a
priori ban on anecdote or story - you're aware of how it might be used
productively, and equally aware that it could damagingly limit the
"energies" - I like that - of a poem. Likewise poems that end up with some
trite consolatory sigh or would-be poignant pay-off are or should be as
repugnant to any poetic practice.
Jamie
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Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 5:10 PM
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Subject: Re: the avant garde vs. the lyrical:the telephone book
Hi Jamie,
I agree with most of what you said, but I don't quite agree that "anecdote"
is just a dismissive word for "story", though it certainly has come to carry
a certain pejorative connotation in certain people's mouths including maybe
my own.
But anyway, I give "anecdote" a somewhat more specific meaning than that. I
see it as connoting something like what a friend of acquaintance would
confide during the course of a normal conversation. Typically a rather
skeletal narrative, perhaps little more than something noticed or felt, and
often containing a quick payoff in the form of a poignant moment, a sense of
wonder, a reflection of "life's like that", etc. "Strange fits of passion
have I known" could be termed anecdotal; "The Ruined Cottage" could not.
And in mentioning the former I hope I can say that I don't object to
anecdote per se. I don't even object to it being habitual in some poets'
practices. But I think sometimes there's a risk of it ejecting other
potential interests or energies from the poetry.
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