On Thu, 6 Mar 1997, kaa45 wrote some ring shout poems, then wrote:
> how come the issue is about what anthology and not about teaching how to
> facture...
> meanwhile i really do find anthologies a difficult orangery
> doesn't anyone else?...
> i have only found them useful as retrospective - a matter of referral
> AFTER initial discoveries have been experienced - but then i don't teach
> poetry...
> the difficulty in obtaining obscure presses?
> well what perpetuates obscurity?
> now is the actual stuff of poetry in the anthology?
> i would guess that ranges of balances and interruptions are necessary
> you may find cull-ections useful, but surely poetry isn't just about
> reproductions
- ah, got me, allen... I guess my liking for anthologies IS at a low point
at present... and as with so many things, it depends what you use 'em for.
Out there I know that folks do actually use them (hear the librarian),
both in classes and out of 'em (don't believe everything a big publisher
tells you about sales...). Jeez, I hope they don't use them on their own!
It does annoy me when an anthology doesn't tell me where to go for more...
For me no single anthology ever does quite what it's supposed to do, (or
what its publisher's blurb says it's supposed to) but I've got to say that
when I'm NOT jaundiced I like the way bits of someone elses selections
jangle together, and I like the way different "readings" jangle too. But,
if people - teachers, readers or "the tribe" - try to read 'em as "time
capsules" ("all you need to know about the metaphysical poets"!) - well,
they have their mediocre rewards. In other words, I guess I hope people
who use anthologies in teaching realise that they're pretty ordinary
containers, but that they have some potentials as performing space -
providing the editor keeps out of the way...
more of this later, if anyone's still interested...
RC
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