Tim, I’m sure we have numerous differences of taste and of interest,
perhaps also of loyalty to poets who have been important to us and continue to
be. That’s inevitable and as it should be.
I’m not blaming you for an interest in literary history, but I don’t see
why we have to trace these differences back to an event that I knew nothing of
at the time and have little interest in now.
I assure you this has nothing to do with any pretence of
‘neutrality’ on my part.
In my twenties, I did visit the Poetry Society premises in Earl’s
Court a few times and always found it an alien, slightly intimidating
experience. I remember having a good talk with James Berry, a few weird
exchanges with Eddie Linden, and an illuminating chat with John Heath-Stubbs
(about space travel in Spenser). None of these figures, I’d guess, were
‘insiders’ or the official face of the Poetry Society, but they were all at
least welcoming.
Best,
Jamie
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2017 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: Larkin, Heaney, listpeak
A
legacy is just that, a legacy, it doesn't go away. There is no 'pressing duty'
but there is a situation that we live in, live through. Our differences are part
of it. And it wasn't me who brought history into the mix this time, it was
already in the thread.
On 17 Sep 2017, at 16:23, Jamie McKendrick wrote:
How much
we still are, or should still be, embroiled in this legacy is open to
question. 1977 – forty years ago – is the date of that fracas in the Poetry
Society. I was 22 at the time, and though I’d visited the place once by then,
I confess I knew nothing about this conflict at the time, and now it seems
even more remote to me. I can see why it has importance in the annals of these
disputes but I can’t feel any pressing duty to ‘deal with’ it
now.