> Is it possible that the rise in interest in poetry readings is
directly related in a decline in >the habit of actually reading the
stuff yourself. Could readings be the lazy way out for >the audience?
Come on, interpret this hard stuff for me, I can't be bothered doing it
for >myself!
There's something in this but the relation can't be that direct: most
people who don't read poetry don't go to poetry readings. The lazy way
out is to stay at home in front of the telly isn't it? Having said that,
thinking of reading series I've organised I can think of many regulars
who never bought books at readings, and who came along for the evening
out, to see friends, to hear the poets (not all performance or 'oral' by
any means) and interact with the work (I think you get more out reading
a book, but you can get something else out of listening - different
understandings, different pleasures). There is sometimes a slight hint
of acquiring culture, or the air of culture, without putting in the
effort to fully engage with it. But Lord knows audiences at poetry
readings are hard enough to acquire without putting down the people who
do come.
(It occurs to me now, about to press send, that there's a link between
poetry readings and the desire to be read to as we were, if lucky, as
children. That the poetry reading might not be a lazy place but a safe
one, where the words are externalised before we receive them, rather
than the interior, enclosed process of reading in your head. Just a
thought.)
best,
Mark
--
Mark Robinson
Programme Director, Arts & Humanities
Centre for Lifelong Learning
32 Old Elvet
Durham
DH1 3HN
England
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