Tim (and others), wouldn’t the whole avant/mainstream definition confusion thing be solved by simply defining “mainstream” as widely read and easily understandable poetry that follows conventional grammatical and lexical rules; and “avantgarde” as not being like this.
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Tim Allen wrote:
OK then, would the situation re Watts/McNish be any different if there was no such thing as the avant or innovative or whatever? I think the answer is a whopping big NO. This whole issue has got nothing to do with the avants as such, it's a problem for the main strands in current UK poetry. The fact that I have for a long time detected its problem with 'class' and 'anti-intelectualism' can be completely cut off from my practice. So if there is a mapping to be done then this Watts/McNish issue maps it.
Cheers
Tim
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