 |
 |
Now you musn't shut up, Lawrence, it would be the kind of absence that would make me nervous, and unconfident of my furniture, or the awkwardness of things. > I was last there about 18 months ago, wandering around Pembroke and > hinterland and got a *very strong sense of its difference... give it time That's good, Pembroke being traditionally so Anglicized. But I was thinking of a) the utter of unotherness of industrial South Wales these days, that is it has a popular culture that is largely just as much sub-American as England's and b) literary Wales has lost its identity, there are a lot of 'Anglo-Welsh' poets aren't there who write flat mainstreamy kind of stuff (Peter Finch might not like that statement but he's just one guy) but even more so Welsh literary culture now may be one of the least distinct in Europe: the Thomases are dead, Saunders Lewis and the London-Welsh David Jones too. I gather there's some kind of kick still in the North, but no really strong voice. Wales 'reads' to me like a culture that has truly collapsed under a colonial weight. One only has to look to Scotland for contrast. N.B. I'd LOVE to be proved wrong on this, I really would. david b ----- Original Message ----- From: Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 5:45 PM Subject: Re: A caution > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "david.bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: 06 February 2001 13:40 > Subject: Re: A caution > > > | Hence the inverted commas, my dear Lawrence, > > oh > once more i'll just shut up! > > > though I'd tend to say, in > | literary and other terms, despite devolution, that Wales _ was _ a > country. > | I have some faint hopes still for Gwynedd tho'. > > after saying > I *used to be there all the time - 20, 30 years ago, in me yoof... > > I was last there about 18 months ago, wandering around Pembroke and > hinterland and got a *very strong sense of its difference... give it time > > L