 |
 |
I don't think that anything could frighten Adam into silence. He's not just talking about knee-jerk experimentalism--he's coming from a very mainstream position. Of course there's a lot of very bad experimental poetry, but that hardly dominates the poetry world, which is overwhelmingly mainstream, and mostly pretty ghastly. You wouldn't know that from this tiny essay. At 08:11 PM 8/28/2010, you wrote: >Oh I find that a very unfair comment Mark. He >may make some iffy points but I also thought he >made some very good points - very good indeed - >and I didn't pick up on any kind of resentment >just a sort of frustration with where poetry is >now. What's wrong with that? Shouldn't we >always be striving for poetry to be more and to >do more and asking how that can be >achieved? He's not happy with what's happening >in the poetry world and I actually agree with >many of his points - there is so much so-called >'experimental' poetry about at the moment that >is very much a sameness and if 'experimentation >itself is an aim then it's a rather weird one to >be honest. Much experimentation really has >become meaningless through convention born maybe >from poetry as a 'subject' rather than poetry as >'vocation'. I don't really have time to argue >this as it's late and I've work to do but I >really just needed to say I think it a great >pity that any opinion expressed that is not a >mirror image of ones own is shot down and >cynically dismissed as 'resentful' instead of >responded to in a thoughtful and constructive >way. It really does make people frightened of >opening their gobs - and that is a very dangerous place to be. > >G. >----- Original Message ----- >From: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>Mark Weiss >To: ><mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] >Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2010 12:15 AM >Subject: Re: "The Conspiracy Against Poems" by >Adam Fieled at The Argotist Online > >And that's the least of it. He seems not to lnow >much of anything beyond his resentments. > >At 06:07 PM 8/28/2010, you wrote: >>Adam Fieled: 'There is no historical evidence >>to suggest that during the Romantic era, >>something called “Poetics” existed.' >> >>Oh yeah? >> >>http://books.google.com/books?id=uiggAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover >> >> >>David Latane >>http://www.standmagazine.org (Stand Magazine, Leeds) >> >>--- On Sat, 8/28/10, Jeffrey Side <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>From: Jeffrey Side <[log in to unmask]> >>Subject: "The Conspiracy Against Poems" by Adam >>Fieled at The Argotist Online >>To: [log in to unmask] >>Date: Saturday, August 28, 2010, 9:46 AM >>"The Conspiracy Against Poems" by Adam Fieled at The Argotist Online >> >><http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Fieled%20essay%205.htm>http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Fieled%20essay%205.htm >> >> >> >>Excerpts: >>“There is no historical evidence to suggest >>that during the Romantic era, something called >>“Poetics” existed. At the time, Wordsworth >>and Coleridge, both identifiable as “Lake” >>poets, initiated investigations of a >>theoretical nature, centered on poetry. These >>investigations were one of Coleridge’s >>métiers; Wordsworth rarely identified himself >>as something other than a poet. The >>controversies that surrounded Wordsworth, from >>the publication of Lyrical Ballads forwards, >>were centered jointly on his poems and the >>theories that buttressed them. Why is it that >>in 2010, a majority of poets, particularly >>those toiling in experimental milieus, seem >>both more grounded in and more stimulated by >>theories than by the poems they bolster? What >>is this nebulous entity, “poetics,” and how >>has it sapped the life out of what it is meant >>to serve? The chief weakness of the pursuit of >>“poetics,” as I see it, is that it puts >>premiums on two red herringsnovelties and >>political correctness. “Poetics,” as >>practiced by the bolder American universities, >>wants to investigate the newest of the new, >>anything (striated, of course, within the taut >>bounds of political correctness) that has not >>been done before. But practicing “poetics” >>creates and perpetuates its own kind of >>romantic ideologyan unthinking and uncritical >>belief in one’s sellf-representations as >>planted firmly in the new, fresh, and bold.” >> >>“Poets weaned on poetics never quite >>reconcile themselves to the reality that poems >>spun out of flimsy theoretical material cannot >>have any great or striking impact, either in >>the long or the short term. All this movement >>towards theory and concept is mirrored in other >>art forms; but as the post-modern impulse ages, >>it may be seen that when taken to an extreme, >>as it has been in experimental poetry, it >>creates such an aura of rapid obsolescence >>around new poetry that one wonders why new poems are being written at all.” >>“Simply put, poetics is mainly a construct >>established and put into propulsive motion by >>white, middle-class academics; and as >>multiculturalism has emerged as a subsidiary >>branch of post-modernism, a sense of guilt >>moves participants not only towards the outré >>but towards anything ethnic or deviant. The >>problem with poetics generally is that there is >>little quality control. The conceit of >>post-modern poetics is that there is no such >>thing as “quality”; quality is a teetering >>edifice erected by hegemonic white males to >>reinforce a master narrative patched up against invasion.” >>“Generations are now beginning to emerge who >>have been weaned on these approaches. The >>upshot is that poets have been formed who >>respond to theory first, poems second. If poems >>are a subsidiary branch of theories, then >>poetry as an endeavor has become so bastardized >>and decadent that it has ceased to be itself.” >> >> >> >><http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Fieled%20essay%205.htm>http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Fieled%20essay%205.htm >> >> >> > > > >New from Chax Press: Mark Weiss, As Landscape. >$16. Order from http://www.chax.org/poets/weiss.htm > > >"What a beautiful set of circumstances! What a >lovely concatenation of particulars. Here is the >poet alive in every sense of the word, and >through every one of his senses. Instead of >missing a beat or a part, Weiss fragments are >like Chekhovs short storiesthe more that gets >left out, the more they seem to contain One can >hear echoes from all the various >ancestors...[but] the voice, at its center, its >core, is pure Mark Weiss. His use of the >fragment is both elegant and bafflingly clear, a >pure musical threnody[it] opens a window, not >only into a mind, but a person, a personality, >this human figure at the emotional center of the poem." > >M.G. Stephens, in Jacket. >http://jacketmagazine.com/40/r-weiss-rb-stephens.shtml New from Chax Press: Mark Weiss, As Landscape. $16. Order from http://www.chax.org/poets/weiss.htm "What a beautiful set of circumstances! What a lovely concatenation of particulars. Here is the poet alive in every sense of the word, and through every one of his senses. Instead of missing a beat or a part, Weiss fragments are like Chekhovs short storiesthe more that gets left out, the more they seem to contain One can hear echoes from all the various ancestors...[but] the voice, at its center, its core, is pure Mark Weiss. His use of the fragment is both elegant and bafflingly clear, a pure musical threnody[it] opens a window, not only into a mind, but a person, a personality, this human figure at the emotional center of the poem." M.G. Stephens, in Jacket. http://jacketmagazine.com/40/r-weiss-rb-stephens.shtml