The term `Cambridge poet` is, of course, a straw man/woman. What`s
wrong anyway with being a straw man/woman? I myself have been a
straw man/woman for a number of years and would vehemently resist any
overt or covert privileging of the left hand term in the
animate/inanimate binary. Of course, Keston`s tired old invocation
of the Worzel Gummidge paradigm is blind to the recent and
overwhelming increase in number and influence of a whole host
of Aunt Sallies, which is really
where it`s at at this stage in the game.
If people think that the debate on L=&c. and related topics is worth
pursuing then I think Robert`s timely post offers a valuable
pointer to how it might proceed, not as a suggested path at a
crossroads, but the only route out of the cul de sac ( it involves an
initial going over of old ground and then we change direction).
Robert, I think, implies that we should all define our terms and
stick to specifics (to avoid this interminable anxiety over
labelling, over-labelling...there`s a sentence in Prynne`s
astonishing letter to McCaffery about how identification and taxonomy
are the principal activities in a morgue). Might it be a good idea
to group-discuss one essay, and "Artifice of Absorption" would
probably be the most likely to have been read by those interested,
tho` other suggestions would be welcome -
in an attempt to establish how it might confirm or refute each stated
position..? Would we all have time to do this, given that we`re all
supposed to be working?
robin
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