Jamie's not being cheap Tim, he's being funny. I
thought Sean calling Ben silly and stupid and likening him to a buffoon was
a bit cheap and rather disrespectful. I'm sorry to see Sean deploying this
tactic
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 1:08 PM
Subject: Re: Blake in Cambridge
Sorry Jamie, but I think that's a bit cheap. The argument
between Ben and Sean, which I admit has its funny side, is in fact a real one.
Both are writers who have a view of poetry as being a radical tool and if you
see poetry as being a possible radical tool then you are going to have such
arguments, however silly they might appear to those who just don't get that.
That political radicalism used to be an important source of much of the
British avant garde's particular texture and force, and it lives on in poets
like Bonney, however much bourgeois aesthetics and the American influences
have cooled it down over recent years.
Cheers
Tim A.
On 1 Jul 2012, at 17:32, Jamie McKendrick wrote:
Good game - can anyone play? To outradical the
opponent with illuminating references to Finnegans Wake and adjust
readings of Blake to the shifting exigencies of domestic politics between
2010-2012. Perhaps the SWP and the Cambridge English Dept could go halves on
the
trophy.