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I was walking around the Tate Modern on Sunday and it struck me how difficult it was for "commited" art to really work as art; it seemed to reduce itself to slogans. It was also therefore reducing the politics to slogans; surely the opposite of what is should be doing. Doesn't mean of course that politics should be kept out of art, but it should at least try to reach the complications and the depths of whatever it's talking about. Great stuff by Denise Riley and Douglas Oliver spring to mind. But still, often the greatest political art is the least obviously political - Celan, Beckett etc. I'm not explaining this very well; my mind is full of this stuff at the moment and it's not very well ordered at the moment. I could probably have a better go at it after Xmas (though I couldn't guarantee it). Cheers, Jon >From: "Geraldine Monk" <[log in to unmask]> >To: "Jon Clay" <[log in to unmask]>, <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Re: Re: Alisons Poem >Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:35:17 -0000 > >Jon, >I totally agree. Its very wimpishness as a consumer commodity and refusal >to sell anything gives it a subversion power. It also knocks the spots of >any poetry that tries to be didactic. Didactic poetry misses the point, >misses the boat, misses the subversion and therefore misses the whole eerie >beauty of 'uselessness'. >G. >-----Original Message----- >From: Jon Clay <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 01:47 >Subject: Re: Alisons Poem > > > >I think I may have something to this effct before, but I'm of the opinion > >that sometimes at least one of the purposes of poetry, and art in >general, > >is to be "useless" as one kind of resistance to the instrumental >rationality > >that characterises all forms of captialism, including state and fascist > >capitalism. And uselessness would include not "making sense". It's quite >an > >important thing to say in the not-saying about How The World Is. > > > >Cheers, > > > >Jon > > > > > >>While writing this poem, I had a very strong desire not to make > >>"sense" of it: quite suddenly I feel trammelled by the surrounding > >>imperatives for Important Poetry which says Important Things about > >>How The World Is. Not that I think this particular poem is not born > >>out of what is happening worldwise as well as inwardly; but there are > >>many kinds of censorship, and self censorship not the least. > >> > >>Best > >> > >>Alison > >>-- > >> > >> > >>Alison Croggon > >> > >>Home page > >>http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/ > >>Masthead > >>http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/ > > > > > >_________________________________________________________________ > >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at >http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp > > > _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com