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Martin, I've heard it said more than once that Washington DC is a place where bureaucrats presiding over artists and writers thrive, though artists and writers don't. It's rare when the bureaucratic language describing why so and so won this or that award is convincing as a critical evaluation. I can think of only one artist who became a bureaucrat in Wash DC for a period and continued to advance his aesthetic and make intriguing art: Jim Melchert. Dana Gioia, chairman of the national endowment of the arts under W, admitted that his bureaucratic activity during the last six years prevented him from composing even one poem. He hopes that his bureaucratic endeavors for the Aspen Foundation will allow him more time for his own writing. I've yet to have a conversation with any writer who benefitted from Gioia's tenure, though they exist and could be labelled "a bureaucrat's examples". How do you think those "essays in response" hold up in comparison to "literary criticism"? Barry On Wed, 4 Feb 2009 12:33:20 -0000, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >Martin ah! That explaining! >Cheers P > >-----Original Message----- >From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On >Behalf Of Martin Dolan >Sent: 04 February 2009 11:21 >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Snap - The Bureaucrat as Critic > >Each day they are sent to us: instances >of pain, worked examples of life pressing >unbearably down, noted in due form >submitted for judgement. > >By design every story is stripped back >to a wall of facts, rough and unplastered; >what cannot be diagnosed by doctors >must not and will not count. > >This is what we ask of everyone >who makes a claim on us: describe the instant >when a life changed, describe without feeling >and without adjectives > >that lyric moment, then send it to us. >Each day these moments come and we must look >must sift and scrutinise these shapes of fact >and judge their consequence. > >But that is not enough. The law demands >that we explain ourselves and what we've done. >There is no form that this can take but prose: >our essay in response.