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My feeling, having only read 20 or so pages, is the latter. But I'll get back to you when I finish it. Cheers, David >yeah, sanders does have his zany side. maybe I just like it because >we're contemporaries and I'm feeling nostalgic for the rev - that's >one of the reasons I posted it. also, to ask the question - is it >bio a tale of a country? or does it say more about Sanders? > >tom > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>David McCooey >To: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] >Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2001 5:23 PM >Subject: Re: biographical poetry > >Tom, > >thanks for sharing your thoughts on Sanders' Chekhov. As it happens, >I've just started reading it myself. I'm still getting used to the >whacky tone (of the Tzars - 'some were sane, some were bonkers', >that's a misquotation). I'm not sure if I'm meant to be laughing. >Chekhov hasn't appeared yet and I'm getting the feeling that all the >stuff about 'rev' (revolution) is something like nostalgia on >Sanders' part. I must admit, I can't take anyone altogether >seriously who claims to be a 'bard'. But maybe that says more about >my own middle-class, academic niceties (and I've never owned a Fugs >album). > >Cheers, > >David > > >>the recent discussion on biographical poetry inspired the following review >> >Chekhov > >Edward Sanders, Black Sparrow, 1995, $13.50 > > > > >Despite recent calls for a more active and participating role for >readers, there have been no specific clues to guide us in this >adventure. In reading a not-latest work by Edward Sanders, his >Chekhov, I see one way this might work. He engages me in a >conversation in poetry. > >Antin talks and Sanders engages in a conversation but "engages is an >off-putting description for Sanders' person next-door manner. >Revolution in 18th Century Europe and Russia is casually tossed on >the table before us as we sit at ease. As a conversation piece this >invites contemplation of revolutionary (here SDS) thinking in 20th >Century America. Marx, serfdom and czars in 19th Century Russia, >Belinsky, and even Turgenev are thrown in the mix. And we are off to >the races on the way with Chekhov the doctor out of poverty to >Chekhov the writer. > >As in any good conversation we are allowed to see the other's view >and even to sit in their place. What attracts me in this work as in >others is the chance to be where Sanders is and to want to write >from where he wrote this. I am allowed to act as he enacts. We are >enjoined, "Idti v narod (to the people)!" and then we learn how that >doesn't solve their problems or ours. > >There is a spirit of meditation or contemplation in Chekhov but it >is a spirit that is not just passive observation. We are invited >here not just to witness the sweep of revolution across Europe and >the steppes of Asia, not just to learn about the development of one >of our great writers (and doctors?), but to be with Chekhov as he >grows into the master, or at least to be with Sanders as he watches >the master develop from someone drawn to > >"The thrill of Grease Paint" > >as a way out of enthrallment to a harsh father in a harsh town on >the vast emptiness that was Russia, the thrill of the sound of a >Drumskin that beats through the text, that heralds the revolutions - > >"And then break down the old order of exploiters" > >that heralds the growth of a doctor, and lets us know how it feels >to be a master of stories of people conversing in the poetry of >living. > >Thomas Bell > > > > >tom bell > > > > >-- > >________________ >Dr David McCooey >Lecturer in Literary Studies >Honours Co-ordinator >School of Literary and Communication Studies >Deakin University >Geelong >Victoria >Australia 3217 > >ph: 61 3 5227 1331 >fax: 61 3 5227 2484 >[log in to unmask] -- ________________ Dr David McCooey Lecturer in Literary Studies Honours Co-ordinator School of Literary and Communication Studies Deakin University Geelong Victoria Australia 3217 ph: 61 3 5227 1331 fax: 61 3 5227 2484 [log in to unmask]