It is well-tempered of Cris to take it so well that I replied as I did
publicly to a backchannel comment. If I had had the wit to notice it was
backchannel I wouldnt have misheard the tone and then my style wld have
been different. MY misunderstanding. Yet as Cris intimates we know each
other well enough that after a brief clubbing about my head with a Sub
Voicive poster he'll have forgiven me. I hope.
But it DOES – all of _it_ need to be ventilated. So thanks, Cris, for yr
Sat morning.
My Saturday pm or part of it.
I am extremely glad that Cris and Sianed are performing at SVP on 28th Oct
- i had been trying to find a slot they could fill for some time - and hope
without irony that many people turn up. I wanted to get them in before they
hit middle age you see
<<It is, as anybody who heard me do something similar at
the first SubVoicive Colloquium>>
I remember it. There was stuff I was happy with. Stuff I wasn't though
memory begins to fail as to details.
<<Can i admit that i don't have much to offer by way of solutions - but
can ask hopefully positively provocative questions.>>
I think that was where I was coming from, Cris. I have less faith in
cunning than cris and tend to go a bit jeremiah ish (or esque, I'm not
sure) when I get cross. Undoubtedly utopian / distopian
I am with cris over reaction to work wch is spatialised – that was what
happened at SVP Tuesday to some extent, I think. I had stressed the fact
that something off the page was happening.
(On the other hand, a while back there was a big turnout for Funkhouser,
Glazier and Rosenberg – due in no small part but how large a part I don't
know to the promotional efforts of John Cayley. John was there this
Tuesday.) Not all the poor turnouts, and they are fewer as time passes, are
_experimental_ gigs but they do tend to be.
There can be other factors of course – couple of years back Mr Johnson
booked Ed Dorn in London to clash with SVP
<<Ok, so noone else feels the way i do on this? It's the best we can
muster? It's what we know? It's the way we like it? That's fine.>>
I agree. With this expanded – bluntly clearer statement of _ethos_ - fine
_Defensiveness doesn't really help._
agreed agreed to a degree. some defensiveness is ok I think inasmuch as one
should stand up for what one does and oppose put downs for the sake of put
downs – and they are around, but I don't mean cris
saying there's no problem is silly. There is always a problem. (Johan de
Wit in his new mainstream booklet has _if there is a person there is a
problem_ wch he tells me is a quote from stalin – 1.10 p incl p & p –
that's the booklet not stalin)
_It lessens the appetite for honest critique._ yes
_Every now and again i get told a story, about a young poet or curious
reader... feels locked out._ yes... it happens
_Surely Lawrence it is a utopian agenda to suggest that a point can be
reached at which issues of gender are not crucial in respect of poets and
audiences - languages. Correction distopia._ YES!
One has to keep questioning basic things like programming - who is being
asked - i ask for suggestions from a bunch of people in an effort to
undermine prejudices / whatever... and I certainly do count heads in gender
terms though without a quota
AND YES TO THE NEXT FEW PARAS TOO
By the way, as you mentioned Nicholas Johnson he says I am ripping off
poets because I won't give him £100 for his activities...So if you see me
with a big scarlet R on my shirt you'll understand
SECOND POETRY TRACTOR DRIVER: Well then, Comrade, I agree with much of what
you have said and I for one wish to continue the revolution. How shall we
be proactive?
(End of scene 2)
L
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|