I realise, Pat, that I may be so accused. In Australia we talk of the Tall Poppy Syndrome, whereby success is tolerated, even encouraged, until a certain popular tipping point when many lop the poppy head and move into critiques of the formerly admirable one. My critique here is hardly radical. I did like The Beatles and The Sopranos when I finally got round to them. Maybe I do have a contrary streak but I also like to think I am discerning. And much of what passes for popular taste bewilders as much as offends me. Talkback radio and gutter press, with or without nipples, exposes (ahem) whenever I see it, a feeling that I am only an outrider in the human race. I eat. But what's with all this competitive stuff in the kitchen and shows where apparently you get involved by voting people out or off or something? Weird, weird, yet apparently just what a lot of people want to do, how they want to spend their time.
My opinions do shift. I once liked reading Haruki Murakami novels, The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, After the Quake, even Norwegian Wood. But after reading his account of being a driven long distance runner, subsequent books failed to engage me. Maybe he lost his fabulist bug, maybe as the rest of the world got onto 1984 and the Three Colour one, I examined what I liked about his writing. I like to think he's just not as good a writer now and what others like about him now is Murakami lite.
I'm Offshooting again. I will have another go at a more considered poem on the subject another time.
Cheers,
Bill
> On 21 Jan 2015, at 8:56 pm, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Hey you old snobs 'popular' is that at dirty word? Must confess to enjoying the Da Vinci Thingy!I seem to remember reading an old Bertrand Russell about having as many enthusiasm as possible -even perhaps including such Kitschy mass hysteria stuff as 'poetry' Prynne dogs cats old buildings etc
> hey one of our popular cultural delights has just bitten the dust Sun 'Page three girls' which seemed to be adverts about breast feeding?my transport café will never be the same
> Just been saddened seeing 'Spirit of 45' how did it all get to todays disaster back to the 1930s
> Well enough hackles raised cheers P old popster
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill Wootton
> Sent: 21 January 2015 07:00
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Offshooting
>
> Thanks Max, Andrew, Doug, Barry.
>
> Barry, I had thought to examine more seriously what passes for public approbation. Maybe another time. I take your point. Could the public get it right sometimes, even by accident? My first effort was set out in tercet form and concluded:
>
> Floating with the current
> provides false momentum.
> Celebrate tributariness.
>
> But when I looked again, I found a sort of rhyme in the beginning so went the jolly couplet route, recalling dimly, advice from you, Doug, that if you start with a particular feature, best not to drop it without good cause. Andrew, I was happy with reno's/predisposed. Max, I meant that beforehand and even after the fact, I'm still unpersuaded by the merits of such shows. Perhaps it does clunk a bit. The Morry, Max was a front-wheel drive Morris 1100. And it seemed insular to choose either of the then locally manufactured majors. The Morry was almost exotic as I shunted it into the drive-in at Bulleen.
>
> Re 'mission statement', I see redundancy already. Run, Max. Perhaps junk Strunk and admit to being a White man?
>
> Cheers,
> Bill
>
>
>
>> On 21 Jan 2015, at 9:02 am, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> If I say I enjoy this, Bill, and I do, it s partly because I used to
>> write light verse like this a lot.
>>
>> (Then, I may seem to be implying,
>> I grew out of it!)(except I didn t)
>>
>> Funny how some examples are world-wide matters, others rather local.
>> I have to say the only front-drive car I m aware of is the VW beetle,
>> but some time, let me know if Morry = Morris (hardly an abbreviation).
>> (and wasn t it your instinct to choose the MORE insular?)
>>
>> This may lead to a competition -
>> I bet I missed more mainstream stuff than you - The Godfather, now,
>> one day I will catch up with it.
>> The Labor Party line is the quirkiest - I know of at least three LPs
>> that have gone to seed, or lost their whatever, but this was part of
>> their converging on the centre, I think.
>> Oh, I see, so you found another leftwing party? but aren t naming it
>> neither post isn t clicking for me.
>>
>> best for now from Max in Seattle
>>
>> (where the life-writing group I joined examined everyone s
>> two-sentence mission statement in detail, in turn, mine last, the
>> longest, and I had to let them take it part, rewrite it, junk most of
>> it, so that it ended up as pinched and flat as their own efforts. Our
>> tutor swears by Strunk&White.)
>>
>>
>>> On Jan 21, 2015, at 7:29 AM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Offshooting
>>>
>>> Veer clear of the middle is my mantra.
>>> When mates downed Coke, I sipped Fanta.
>>>
>>> Beatles favourites: John or Paul?
>>> I went George; Love is all.
>>>
>>> No Ford or Holden my first car.
>>> A front-drive Morry - less insular.
>>>
>>> Football? Cricket? Too mainstream.
>>> Joined the junior volleyball team.
>>>
>>> Don't watch The Wire or Game of Thrones.
>>> Even The Sopranos got postponed.
>>>
>>> Still yet to put myself through Jaws
>>> or submit to Star Wars' laser sword.
>>>
>>> The Da Vinci Code I will not read.
>>> And The Labor Party has gone to seed.
>>>
>>> To cooking shows and housing reno's
>>> I'm neither post nor pre-disposed.
>>>
>>> Though they'll ever be defeated,
>>> I support amendments at stopwork meetings.
>>>
>>> Radio with ads, and all that talkback:
>>> how, oh how, can this attract?
>>>
>>> I'm not averse to fellow feeling
>>> but popular taste just leaves me reeling.
>>>
>>> bw
>
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