Congratulations to Lawrence for his excellent - and indeed in the present
climate brave - statement on last week's events. I've no wish to talk down
the evidently genuine emotions we saw evidenced around the country - but I
watched/read in amazement as the media convoluted on itself like a klein
bottle - or one of those marine lifeforms which turn themselves inside out
- so that the same organisations which had been chasing/sneering the week
before were now po-faced and alledgedly griefstruck, and at the same time
whipping up, creating even, the kind of responses which we saw. Di had
stood accused of "manipulating the media" - but no-one, as far as I can
see, was writing about the manipulation which the media achieves, daily,
and which was to me so very evident throughtout last week.
It's an overwhelming instance of the kind of language use which I for one
want to distance myself from as far as possible, and which many of the
poets I respect are also allergic to. Not all have such concerns however -
in case you were in any doubt, check out the Saturday Guardian, with
"occasional poems" by Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy and Maya Angelou - all
falling into tabloid platitude-speak in order to get their unoriginal
soundbites down. When Pig Press issued a badge in the 80s which sd "Retake
the Language" it was, infact, in its naive way, directed towards this -
the need to move away from the modes of public speech which I saw/see as
generally discredited. I'm afraid it looks like an uphill struggle.
I'm with Comrade Upton on this - time to reach for my linguistic,
ideological, physical pruners.
Richard Caddel
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