 |
 |
g'day kent sorry but I don't really get what Perloff's pyramid has to do with slams. did she mean to say that the idea of a poetry slam is, ermmm, groundless and flimsy? do you think slams are avant-guard? i think, if poetry was a pyramid, then a real avant- guardist would be a crocodile in the Nile, allowed no where near the royals (dead or alive); or a broken statue in Akhenaton's deserted castle. Ali ---- Original Message ---- From: kent johnson Date: Fri 7/6/01 12:18 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: pyramids of poetry I picked up the new issue of Rain Taxi today, a small-press review magazine here in U.S. There's an interview there, by John Olson, with Marjorie Perloff. Along the way, Marjorie is asked her opinion on the slam poetry phenomenon, and she remarks, paraphrasing David Antin, that poetry is, well, like a pyramid, and all pyramids need a base, a bottom layer. I thought this a fascinating trope, not so much, really, for the barely veiled high-art condescension, but more becasue, if one thinks about it, there is the fact that A) the pyramids of old were built by slaves, and B) their purpose was to house the royal dead. So I guess if you are a successful avant-gardist, you get to be a mummy. Kent _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com