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> Sometimes the changes in syntax and layout are >for shock tactics --but they simply do not shock anymore, it was shocking in >the early part of this century, but no longer. That novelty has gone. Yes. Like the constant attempts to repeat Dada. So what remains after the novelty wears off? This is what interests me: in many cases novelty is all there is, and the whole things evaporates. And in other cases, the novelty evaporates and leaves a residue that speaks beyond the occasion of its making. The only indicator on that is, I believe, feeling (a word, for me, intimately related to aesthetic - and not the sentimental, which is the failure or absence of feeling). Feeling seems to be what people are afraid of. For good reasons, I guess, since feeling includes pain, grief, loss and other unpleasantness. I don't believe feeling is the sole province of either "simple" or "complex" poetry. I've read alleged popsicle poetry with feeling and other examples that seem as dry as a dead fish, and so on and so forth. This is why I dislike the idea of schools. > > >Then it must be something to do with the theory? We have been told that >poetry is ahead of science --I won't comment on that -- but I can tell you >for sure that it is way behind the current theories --many of which now have >returned to the "self". You misunderstand my quoting "Science is too slow" (Rimbaud - a poet, not a theorist), which, in the context, is a reference to theory. >ii.theory used to prop up poetry that is weak --should at least be up to >date -- but perhaps one should consider writing without theory? Is that too >difficult? Is it something to do with the employment situation -- poets need >to keep a foot in the door of literary or cultural criticism? I don't really care about theory, but I like talking about poetry. Sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it isn't. Poetry that can't exist without theory has handed over its autonomy, but that's for those poets to worry about. >Lighten up. Don't you get my jokes? Best Alison Alison Croggon PO Box 186 Newport VIC 3015 Australia Masthead Online: http://www.masthead.com.au Home Page: http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/bronte/338 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%