josephine,
the general public isn't inteersted in art or poetry, and that's why
the have the views you mention on the visual arts--the equivalent in poetry
is also 'realism' for content, and does it rhyme for form.
i'm not down on the general public, i mean its certainly more discriminating
and informed on matters that it is interested in.
and i think you are quite wrongly cynical and dispairing about the art
and poetry audiences; if you live in small places you can have the
impression that poets talk to poets, artists to artists, but in New York
say, there an extraordinary publics for both art forms. Even here in
Auckland i'm amazed at the diversity of them, and the extraordinary
knowledges they contribute to the events they attend.
wystan
-----Original Message-----
From: Printmaker [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, 19 July 2001 11:19 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: On Gioia ...
Stuart said
"Does this admittedly sad level of knowledge on my part, or
on the part of
other equally sad individuals, negatively affect the poem?
For me, it
does, because every time I see something that strikes me as
clearly wrong,
it undermines my confidence in the writer, and I wonder how
many other
mistakes there are in a given text that I don't recognise
through lack of
knowledge on my part."
I'd take this a little further and question who the writer
is writing for. As my reading progresses I am finding that
most contemporary poetry is as referential as contemporay
art. I can pick the references in the latter, but not the
former. So to me at least it seems that currently both
artists and poets are making works for their peers who are
equally knowledgeable in the media and its proponents rather
than for a general audience. They used to aim to please the
patron or the church, now they aim to please each other as
its their peers who sit the grants boards.
The two main artistic measures for the general public in
regards to art are whether the subject is well represented
(if its representational) or whether the colours match the
curtains (if its abstract) and they tend to just walk past
anything else completely baffled. What is the equivalent in
poetry?
Josephine
(busy with sonnets still)
