>> From Tracy:
>>
>> To go over some earlier points:
>>
>> I still believe it's no one else's business (unless you are
>> the person contracting him to read) what Andrew Motion asks
>> as a fee. To build on that & go on to insult him personally
>> (tho' I know whoever it was later said they meant the
>> "professorial greed" as a generalised comment) seems to me
>> outrageous.
Apart from the fact that the basic question should be - to whom are the
organisers of readings responsible? - there are other considerations
where people like Andrew Motion are concerned. If I remember correctly
there was much talk of a poetry mafia operating in Britain during the
late 80's and early 90's. There were even articles in national
newspapers. Those outside the mafia asserted that there was a cosy
coterie of poets, reviwers, academics, and publishers' editors who were
often old school chums. These people were the reviewers who reviewed each
other, the editors who published each other, and the academics who tied
it all together. In other words they were hogging all resources and
opportunities and saw it as their duty to prevent those who were not "of
a certain sensibility" from having a voice. Of course it was all denied
by those same poets, reviewers, etc.
As one of the barbarians at the gate - I was (am still) unpublished and
organised a venue in a pub where anyone could just walk in off the
street and recite/perform - I was criticised quite heavily by various
top doggies in the poetry world (not personally, you understand - the
quality of the kind of writing which they dismissed so casually was
unknown to them) by being lumped in with the various "nutters, failed
revolutionaries and also-rans" from which it was their duty to protect
the "public".
Since this "mafia" - and Andrew motion qualified as member of this group
by being poet, reviewer, editor _and_ academic - seemed to set out to
stifle all voices which did not come from their own circle despite their
ignorance of these other voices, I decided to take a similar "personal"
interest in affecting their progress in any small way that presented
itself but mainly by telling the truth, strongly and sweetly. So I guess
that Motion's reading fees are my business.
regards,
krumm
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