David, last week, according to The Sun, Republicans were just a bunch of bearded nutters who hide at the back of the pub, this week they're contenders. Remember, a week is a long time in politics. People want..well, er...entertainment? No, what people want is nonsense. They (are made to think they want) nonsense about private education, phoney nostalgia in a never never land that never was, a bit, well, er...like Britain. Write crap like HP, even shift the name about (KP?) and make up some drivel and it will be marketed. No one wants reality except when it peers out of the carpet that it's been swept under. Recently someone suggested that this latest, shameful lunacy in Afghanistan was like the US retaliation to Pearl Harbour. I said something about the 15% of the Iraqi people who have been turned to mush, my interlocuter couldn't answer and then left my company for good. It never occured to hi!
m that he might read a more balanced selection of our worthy and worthless newspapers to get some more perspectives, some more truths. Bad terrorists kill good, innocent people, bad Afghans have to get their faces smashed in. Any other statement is also an act of terror. The whole world is slowly being mashed beneath dualism, beneath the chariot wheels that have seemingly whirred up and down our lanes since the day of the invention of the wheel. The war was like 2 bald men fighting over a comb.
Anyway, tonight I played a wargame and my Hittites beat the Egyptians. We had many chariot wheels, no comb to fight over. (have you heard of this hobby in the Frog and Duckling or whatever gin scented pub you happen to frequent?)
>From: "david.bircumshaw" <
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>Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and poetics <
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>To:
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>Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
>Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 14:37:42 -0000
>
>Hello Paul
>
>not all my experiences of literature have been negative either, but what I'm
>so aware of are elements in the current situation, plus too, I am sad to
>say, what has gone on before. Have you ever heard of Alfred Williams? He
>wasn't a very good poet, but no worse than some of his contemporaries,
>people like Blunden for instance, but his big crime was to be lower class
>and be a poet. A railway clerk from Swindon. He killed himself. There is a
>vile passage in Ben Jonson where he vilifies the 'Water Poet', the aforesaid
>was a Thames bargee who gained some celebrity for his verses, Jonson and his
>fellow 'professionals' hated him for just existing. And of course there is
>Clare, who was taken up and spat out on a grand scale.
>
>I don't think that a shift to the novel would be much good, certainly not in
>England, where it has become the most bourgeois of all art forms, I don't
>see me as writing Aga-sagas or fantasy novels that extol the virtues of
>private education, a la Harry Potter.
>
>Best
>
>Dave
>
>
>
>
>David Bircumshaw
>
>Leicester, England
>
>Home Page
>
>A Chide's Alphabet
>
>Painting Without Numbers
>
>http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "paul murphy" <
[log in to unmask]>
>To: <
[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 11:07 AM
>Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
>
>
>my experiences of literature haven't all been so negative. there are
>cynical manipulators in all walks of life, literature has more prestige than
>some others, and only in the eyes of a narrow elite. cut the Arts Council
>out if the experience has been so bad, if you need them then move into
>another genre, write novels. I learnt that a slight shift in emphasis can
>clear up many problems, some of them created by moi, of course.
>
>
>
> >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
>poetics
> >To:
[log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> >Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 02:50:17 -0000
> >
> >Well, Paul, I'm certainly 'working class' although I don't regard that as a
> >badge of inverted superiority, I'd love to escape it but I don't want to be
> >in any other class either. I just want out of status systems all round, and
> >that particularly applies to poetry, where I have had some of the most
> >heart-breaking experiences, of people using me over and over again, your
> >remark about the Arts Council is most apposite there, moral: don't trust
> >anyone connected to it, they will exploit you, ruin your friendships, and
> >spit you out afterwards, I speak from experience, and pain.
> >
> >Naow, I've never been to Zurich!
> >
> >
> >Best
> >
> >
> >Dave
> >
> >
> >
> >David Bircumshaw
> >
> >Leicester, England
> >
> >Home Page
> >
> >A Chide's Alphabet
> >
> >Painting Without Numbers
> >
> >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "paul murphy"
> >To:
> >Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 2:15 AM
> >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> >
> >
> >I'd love for Hofmann to say, before a reading, 'listen everyone, basically
> >I'm a pretentious swine, now we've got that over with, let's get on and
> >enjoy ourselves.' And then let off a massive fart to signify that he too
> >is a corporeal being, and not someone floating about in a haze of literary
> >references, obscure vocabulary, and okay yah PCness. I think some take it
> >too far the other way, and think that because they're very 'working class'
> >that that makes them some kind of martyr to the cause. Most of the working
> >class people I know would love to escape their class, and don't want to
>live
> >in a ghetto or an estate - I know, I'm one of them. Most of these flunkies
> >hang around, you guessed it, Arts Councils - the curse of the drinking
> >classes. Flann O'Brien was still a very fine writer, he might have
> >floundered on the Continent, Joyce certainly did, but was bailed out by his
> >brother and various rich people, as Sylvia Beech. For ! all that, he still
> >loved to eat in the best restaurants, when he couldn't, basically afford
>it.
> >It's shit, isn't it, were he alive today he could dine in the best
> >restaurants anywhere in the world, and much more. Perhaps he realised he
> >was ahead of his time, and decided to live it up before he died. Have you
> >been to the Fluntern cemetery in Zuerich?
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> > >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
>and
> >poetics
> > >To:
[log in to unmask]
> > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > >Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 01:07:53 -0000
> > >
> > >Hi, Paul
> > >
> > >Michael Hofman is an interesting case, as I feel his prose translations
>of
> > >German writers are very fine, yet his poems, although skilful, remind me
>of
> > >dead frogs' legs twitching on a lab table. I do agree with you about the
> > >benefit of the Continent to Irish writers, Flann O'Brien was possibly
> >undone
> > >by never leaving. Otherwise, with the literary scene, I am so pissed off
> > >with it, it is full of creeps, and when people that you regard start get
> > >sucked into that it brings in the clouds, everything seems wrong at
>present
> > >to me. Especially if, as in my case, you've unintentionally facilitated,
>a
> > >lovely administrative verb that, the very thing you hate.
> > >
> > >Best
> > >
> > >Dave
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >David Bircumshaw
> > >
> > >Leicester, England
> > >
> > >Home Page
> > >
> > >A Chide's Alphabet
> > >
> > >Painting Without Numbers
> > >
> > >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
> > >----- Original Message -----
> > >From: "paul murphy"
> > >To:
> > >Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 11:28 PM
> > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > >
> > >
> > >Hi, I was talking about the contrast between a writer like Michael
>Hofmann,
> > >who is all too aware of convention and literature and someone as
>refreshing
> > >as Fallon, or Kavanagh, or even Yeats, who was admittedly, much more
> > >cosmopolitan than the others mentioned. That's what I thought you meant?
> > >Ireland has either teetered backwards upon itself in a self-absorbed but
> > >occassionally useful parochialism, but mostly Irish writers have looked
>to
> > >the Continent, and this is when Irish writing is at its best - when the
> >best
> > >elements of the parochial mix with more sophisticated patterns -so ,we
>have
> > >Joyce, Beckett - I love their work, it goes beyond mere appreciation of
> > >literature,
> > >
> > >PM
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> > > >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
> >and
> > >poetics
> > > >To:
[log in to unmask]
> > > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > > >Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 23:01:31 -0000
> > > >
> > > >Paul
> > > >
> > > >your question has me totally lost - yup, living in backwaters might
>help
> >in
> > > >being unaware of conventions, but that wasn't what I was thinking
>about.
> >I
> > > >want to be angry about the way poetry is now: fraud, deceit, theft,
>lies
> > >are
> > > >its commonplaces, I don't want to complacently burble on about theory,
>I
> > > >want to say: THIS IS NOT RIGHT.
> > > >
> > > >Essentially, poetry, like all the other arts, like our culture in
> >general,
> > > >is corrupt, poetry is a very minor participant, coz there ain't all
>that
> > > >much money in it, but it happens, I know all too well about the users
>and
> > > >abusers that inhabit the scene, who feign and fake moral concern while
> > > >really looking out for themselves alone, you just try being ripped off
>by
> > > >people on the scale I have, it is not a nice experience.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >David Bircumshaw
> > > >
> > > >Leicester, England
> > > >
> > > >Home Page
> > > >
> > > >A Chide's Alphabet
> > > >
> > > >Painting Without Numbers
> > > >
> > > >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
> > > >----- Original Message -----
> > > >From: "paul murphy"
> > > >To:
> > > >Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 10:34 PM
> > > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >you mean that it was written outside the conventions of what passed for
> > > >literature in that period? For goodness sake, people living in
>backwater
> > > >Ireland are always going to be writing in the way you describe, simply
> > > >because they don't know what the conventions of literature should be,
>or
> > >are
> > > >probably reading writers who are at least 30 years out of date.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > >From: "david.bircumshaw"
> > > > >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
>poetry
> > >and
> > > >poetics
> > > > >To:
[log in to unmask]
> > > > >Subject: Re: Padraic Fallon
> > > > >Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 19:52:48 -0000
> > > > >
> > > > >Doug
> > > > >
> > > > >I remember buying the very same out-of-date Padraic Fallon when I was
> > >about
> > > > >nineteen, I think. His poems struck me, very uneven but full of
> >texture,
> > >of
> > > > >charges of rhythm and sound, very unlike the boring stuff that is
> >mostly
> > > > >produced today, they took risks, but when people are writing poems
>not
> > >from
> > > > >an inner need but to an eye to grants, winning competitions, being
> > >invited
> > > > >to read, status in the the literary community, as it were, the result
> >is
> > > > >utter dullness. I could say more but I'd better not.
> > > > >
> > > > >Best
> > > > >
> > > > >Dave
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >David Bircumshaw
> > > > >
> > > > >Leicester, England
> > > > >
> > > > >Home Page
> > > > >
> > > > >A Chide's Alphabet
> > > > >
> > > > >Painting Without Numbers
> > > > >
> > > > >http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
> > > > >----- Original Message -----
> > > > >From: "Douglas Clark"
> > > > >To:
> > > > >Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 4:39 PM
> > > > >Subject: Padraic Fallon
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >Just to say that I got the new Carcanet catalogue in this
> > > > >morning and see that in Autumn 2003 they intend issuing a
> > > > >new Padraic Fallon Selected POems to replace the out-of-print
> > > > >book that I have. I think it is the only book in the catalogue
> > > > >that I will buy as basically I part company with keeping
> > > > >up-to-date with poetry.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >Douglas Clark, Bath, England mailto:
[log in to unmask]
> > > > >Lynx: Poetry from Bath ..........
> > >http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdgdc/lynx.html
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
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