Points. Prynne is not popular. His works are not readily available. His
writings are not accessible. How does he change society? Is this some form
of esoterical joke? The Slam poet on the other hand reaches a wide audience
and has thousands of people throughout the US turning up to listen to his
poetry and to read their own poetry. Who has a greater impact upon society?
It is like the church -- Prynne belongs to that Anglo-Catholic tradition of
cloistering oneself away and writing reflective poetry -- while the Slam
poet is more of the evangelical type. Of course now, one has to ask who does
one like? Because that is what it boils down to. Liking this or that poet. A
matter of taste. And I see a form of inverted cultural snobbery at play --
people like poets who are refined but write poetry that might be vaguely
seen as being committed to reform or reflect a "social awareness". They
like librarians and university lecturers because they have something in
common --they share values and a common epistemological framework. So Slam
is despised and Prynne revered. The innovative avante-garde poets enter the
portals of popularity through the canon --because like-minded critics and
academics support them. If you wish to change things you do not write about
stones or geological faultlines in the psyche, you write directly and
explicitly in a language that is understood by many people. Fanon, Marx and
Lincoln all were capable of writing in a register that could move the
multitudes. Benjamin's impact is negligible -- I like his writings, but he
had virtually no impact upon society and his level of actual engagement was
very limited. I didn't by the way say that those on the list should write in
simple language -- I was just stating what seems to me to be a home truth
(Pravda) --if you wish to communicate to many people and excite
change --then you must use the language of the people. Look at the
difference between Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine? It turned on style. But
that is not to say you cannot develop tropes that can touch upon deeper
issues. In the New Testament the use of parables is an example of where the
authors sought to explain difficult religious concepts in a language that
could be understood. The use of the allegorical form has a similar function.
Tropes and allegories born from ordinary experiences.
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