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I think, Tim, the problem is in an idea of cultural management, capital 'c', capital 'm'. I was at a certain university the other week and an advert was being flashed up their new course in Arts Administration run jointly with the schools of Law and Business. Ominous, as the oracle says. On 26 March 2010 15:07, Tim Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Yes, exactly. And who is to blame for this? Can we put most of the blame on > the careerist Arts Council twits who know as much about poetry as I do about > opera, or does it go deeper, to those publishers who in taking a populist > and anti-elitist line got sucked into the capitalism. > > Brilliant picture you give there Dave - so depressingly familiar. I say > give a big Irish arse to the lot of 'em. > > Tim A. > > On 26 Mar 2010, at 14:08, Michael J. Maguire wrote: > > what inspiration.. a modern poet doesn't need a poem.. nor experience.. nor > craft.. nor soul, just connections, a platform, preferably hermetic, > commercial, or both.. ideologically reduced spatial traditionalist > constraint utterly optional.. > > > On 26 March 2010 13:37, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > >> I went to one of the most disturbing readings I have ever been to earlier >> this year: it was by a young Protestant Northern Irish poet who is very >> active over here. Not only during the evening did I discover that Colette >> Bryce and Julia Copus are 'great poets', a new fact in my mental >> organisation, but during the course of relentless name-dropping she never >> once mentioned Paulin, not once, even though she almost named the entire >> literary population of Ulster, but did tell us that although she works as a >> researcher for the Unionist Party on her summer breaks from uni it doesn't >> mean she supports them. Just a 'fan' I guess. That's what she is on >> Facebook: just a Fan of the North Down Young Unionist Association. She has >> about 12 published poems, several of which she told us she had assistance >> with and is heavily backed by the Arts Council. She is 'chief executive' of >> a 'non-profit making organisation' called PoetCasting, has appeared already >> on The Verb, will be doing things for the British Council. Her name is Alex >> Pryce, see www.alexpryce.com, and she appears to be the coming revenge of >> business-minded mediocrity on wasteful, inefficient, indigent, left-wing >> poetry. >> Oh, and she'd often rather do other things than write on Friday nights, >> other young poets, she confided in us, have this problem too. There was a >> guy from the Arts Council in the tiny audience who conratulated her on her >> 'already great achievements' and, I'm still trying to process this, it seems >> she won a literary award when she 16 before she had written any poems and >> had to do so promptly to fulfil the award, if I understood her rightly. >> As I said, it was a disturbing evening. Read in a voice of full Ulster >> flatness. >> >> On 26 March 2010 11:28, Robin Hamilton <[log in to unmask]>wrote: >> >>> Fair point about the Belfast Group, Mark. I'd agree it can be used a >>> bit too loosely (though it certainly existed), but still worth taking into >>> account, I think. I was a member of the next one down the line that Philip >>> Hobsbaum started in Glasgow in the sixties. >>> >>> (Incidentally, is anyone doing work on either the Belfast Group or the >>> entire sequence of Cambridge/London/Belfast/Glasgow that Philip was central >>> to?) >>> >>> I'd thought of mentioning Maedbh McGuckian too, but don't know her work >>> well enough to say how far it's bound up with the political situation in >>> Ireland then. >>> >>> Incidentally, wouldn't the Troubles be slightly anachronistic, or >>> ambiguous, as a term? I tend to associate it with an earlier period. But I >>> stand to be corrected on this. >>> >>> Robin >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> *From:* Mark McGahon <[log in to unmask]> >>> *To:* [log in to unmask] >>> *Sent:* Friday, March 26, 2010 11:09 AM >>> *Subject:* Re: Northern Irish Poets? >>> >>> Not trying to be too controversial, but I would be careful with any >>> reference to the 'Belfast Group' since several of the members, notably >>> Longley and Mahon don't profess that great an influence from it and rather >>> prefer to suggest that they happened to drop in once or twice. >>> >>> > Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:07:17 +0000 >>> > From: [log in to unmask] >>> > Subject: Re: Northern Irish Poets? >>> > To: [log in to unmask] >>> > >>> > The obvious name here would be Tom Paulin. He was born, I think, in >>> 1947, >>> > so that might make him Muldoon's generation, though I think Muldoon was >>> >>> > established as a poet a lot earlier. Much of Tom's work is deeply bound >>> up >>> > with the Troubles, right up to at least as late as _The Liberty Tree_. >>> > >>> > You might want to consider, with regard to the first generation, their >>> > involvement in the Belfast Group run by Philip Hobsbaum. Among other >>> > things, it was where catholic and protestant poets intersected (again, >>> I >>> > think). >>> > >>> > Luck with the PhD -- sounds good. >>> > >>> > Robin >>> > >>> > ************************************************* >>> > >>> > I'm writing a PhD on the connection between the Troubles and the genre >>> of >>> > Elegy in Northern Irish poetry. If the first generation of Northern >>> Irish >>> > 'Troubles' poets includes Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney and Derek >>> Mahon, >>> > and the second generation includes people like Ciaran Carson and Paul >>> > Muldoon, who might be the third generation? I'm looking at Colette >>> Bryce, >>> > Leontia Flynn, Sinead Morrissey... I would be very grateful for more >>> > suggestions. >>> > >>> > Thanks, >>> > >>> > Naomi >>> >>> ------------------------------ >>> Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. Get it now.<https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969> >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> David Bircumshaw >> "A window./Big enough to hold screams/ >> You say are poems" - DMeltzer >> Website and A Chide's Alphabet >> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk >> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html >> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw >> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave >> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/ >> > > > -- David Bircumshaw "A window./Big enough to hold screams/ You say are poems" - DMeltzer Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/