Bill's post reminds us once more - were we to need it - of the things the
list can't do: it can't argue towards a conclusion, can't even argue
comprehensively or in a structured way. It can't SOLVE anything. It
doesn't cohere, because (I'm happy to say) the individual voices on it
don't cohere. And, as he says, it's only as good as the prejudices we all
bring to it. Anyone who expects otherwise will be disappointed. In this it
doesn't differ from any other discussion channel. All I can say is, rather
than knock the pony cos it isn't a train, maybe we could start the year by
seeing how far the the beast will take us, if we let it.
And by recalling Val Raworth's words to Harwood and Raworth, audible
across the room in the Poetry Society as they stepped up to read: "Keep
it short, boys!"... more than one person has remarked to me recently that
we seem "to have lost the art of the postcard".
RC
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