On Wed, 12 Jul 2000 07:52:54 +0100, David wrote:

> Members on this list and
>informed readers elsewhere  will recognise the politics behind the judgement
>and be able to form their own opinion/adapt their own strategy.

- yeah but... what worries me, David, is that whilst WE'RE all so
sussed up, it has to be said that, out there in the big world (which
Peter Riley so appropriately urged us to stick our heads up into a few
posts back) there are still two or three people who are neither (a)
members of this list nor (b) informed readers (No! Surely not! Another
Caddel exaggeration, surely?).

Over the years, without (I hope) becoming a bore, I've been taking
some trouble to put the odd bit of Denise Riley / Ken Edwards /
Geraldine Monk / etc in the paths of such innocents when the occasion
arose: often I got ridiculed for it, sometimes the results were along
the lines of, I can't see myself teaching this to the 4th form (which
in itself shows an interesting approach to the utility of poetry), but
sometimes the response is enthusiastic and (subsequently) committed.
ALWAYS it's accompanied by:

Why haven't I heard of this stuff before?

Now, these are NOT illiterate people, these are folk who sometimes go
into bookshops and actually move units. And their question is valid.
They point to a dimension of poetry in these islands which has been
airbrushed at many levels, and if the "stupidity" of the JXCs of this
world is winked at, will continue to be airbrushed. How will your
attitude of honourable detatchment help them?

> Politics of
>whatever hue has, in my view, been pretty bad for poetries in recent years.
>We shouldn't buy into any of it. 

- I have to say I'm shocked at the immorality of the relatively-young
these days. Without finding ANYTHING to defend in current politics,
the act of turning ones back on it is precisely how it is allowed to
be so. The last time I can recall the "don't buy into it" line having
so much currency was in 1979, and Thatcher did very nicely out of it.
Can I suggest that for "We shouldn't buy into any of it" we substitute
"We shouldn't wash our hands of it"? 

>[A final point on politics, I've always wondered about the politics and
>indeed the sociology of lurking on discussion lists like this. It's a bit
>creepy really. And strange that a medium which is supposed to aid
>communication allows/encourages people to behave in ways they wouldn't out
>in the 'real' world.]

- Oh, for heavens sake: may I suggest that to turn one's ire/irony on
a de-cloaking lurker who has the temerity to disagree with ones own
view is a bit low.

And let's hear it for lurkers anyway: where I come from it's thought
to be good, not to say common, sense to keep your trap shut till
you've something to say.

RC


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