My own understanding of what Mr Sutherland wrote is that he is taking the
world as it is, rather than as one might wish it to be, and that one should
not take as a given statements such as "...as poetry is inherent au natural
within language...the potential for
poetry is within all."
And by the "real politics" of this I assume Mr Sutherland means that there
is presumably a motive for suggesting that reality is other than experience
presents it to us.
As Mark states below, humanistic inclusivity is a belief (or dogma if you
prefer). It is not a self-evident truth. As with the hereafter, it might be
nice to believe, but that does not make it true.
Paul
Mark wrote:
I'm not sure what's meant by 'real' here - does it suggest that the apparent
politics of humanistic inclusivity and belief in a universal right to (and
potential ability in) all forms of expression are self-deluding? I'm more
inclined to worry over the politics of not believing that everyone is a)
capable of using language to explore their understanding of the world and b)
capable of organising that language to create something called a poem, given
the many definitions of that. What is it that is at stake, that is
threatened
by the point David makes?
best,
Mark
K.M. Sutherland wrote:
I'm not sure this is so uncontroversial, or even how it could be; perhaps
David you could expand a little on both of these claims, and on their
supposed relation? Would it follow, even if poetry were part of the
'nature' of language (though the point might be empty: where -else- could
poetry be "inherent"? You'd have to go back to Spinoza, Schlegel), that
everyone who uses language could potentially achieve some use of -this
part- of it? Or is this a claim more appealing than likely, and in any
case very abstruse?
What I really find contestable is not the point David makes here,
but rather the desire which seems to lead people to want to make it:
the desire to assume that everyone might possibly be capable
not only of recognizing a special -condition- of language, but also of
organizing that recognition in a special linguistic -practice- (i.e.,
writing poetry). What are the real politics of this desire? What are its
demographics, its history?
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