>But Trevor, what has any of that fine disdain to do with money? As a
>spate in the history of straight-talk vs. fine-words it's all very well,
>there is of course a class structure to that supposed division though
>recently I'd suggest that has become a simulated class structure
>reflective more of institutional privileges than social ones. Stephen
>says that the big universities make cash from their high brows. Well
>perhaps, though decreasingly compared to US counterparts. But anyhow,
>this doesn't make it into the pockets (or unimpeded into the conscience)
>of those of us living here. The grounds of division are leisure, not
>money. I'm absolutely fucking skint, and anyone who suggests that my
>language is 'moneyed' because elaborate is thinking very idly indeed. The
>association must be discredited by real exigency, or it becomes the most
>pompous of reflex put-downs. Now, Toni Morrison's language -- THAT'S
>'moneyed'.
Keston,
Assuming, for the moment, that your mail isn't deliberate self-parody,
"what has any of that fine disdain to do with money?":
€ the hifalutin (and dull) streams of polysyllables
- "there is of course a class structure to that supposed division though
recently I'd suggest that has become a simulated class structure
reflective more of institutional privileges than social ones." (KS)
"I'm absolutely fucking skint, and anyone who suggests that my
language is 'moneyed' because elaborate is thinking very idly indeed."
(KS)
I note how your own register becomes less "elaborate" when it
comes to being "absolutely fucking skint". I also wonder whether I'm
intended to cede your point because of its elephantine phrasing. Just
for the record, I don't.
€ the air of inward-looking complacency
- of the various reviews of CCCP9 which I've read (your own included),
the only one actually to give me, as an outsider, any worthwhile
information as to what went on came from Harold Teichman in America;
the others conveyed the air of a small group sitting round a campfire
singing familiar songs and warming their hands on their own importance
- and what is the theme of this thread but your invitation to the list to give
their views on "Cambridge poetry"? I see no such narcissism from
London, Dublin or sundry other centres, nor do I hear it from those
poets based in Cambridge who do not, apparently, need to class themselves
as "Cambridge poets"
- Sutherland (25/5/99): "Do you really *imagine* that any 'highly
educated' poet is so remote from mankind that he or she never comes
into contact, negotiates with, enjoys the company of and agrees and
disagrees with people who have a cursory and undeveloped interest in poetry?"
Beckett, again: "he had seen people smile and he thought he understood how
it was done"
€ the trotting out of theory for dressage rather than use
does the notion of conspicuous consumption of cultural capital makes sense
to you?
In an attempt to switch the focus from "Cambridge poetry" (since, despite my
earnest desire to learn more about what was transacted at CCCP9, this exchange
seems unlikely to enlighten me further) let me attach a brief but instructive
anecdote I just received, about the dangers of using too much apparatus:
"A 22-year-old Reston man was found dead yesterday after he
tried to use occy straps (stretchy little ropes with hooks on
each end) to bungee jump off a 70-foot railroad trestle,
police said.
Fairfax County police said Eric A. Barcia, a fast-food
worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an
end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at
Lake Accotink Park. He jumped and hit the pavement. Warren
Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think
Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby.
"The length of the cord he had assembled was greater than the
distance between the trestle and the ground," Carmichael
said. Police say the apparent cause of death was "major
trauma." An autopsy is scheduled for later in the week."
Cheers,
Trevor
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Sound Eye - Irish Poetry & the Universe of Writing
http://indigo.ie/~tjac/sound_eye_index.htm
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