At 2:08 AM -0500 12/1/2002, Candice Ward wrote:
>All the "smearing" would seem to be Alison's, and in service of the
>anti-Americanism she would proudly claim, going by this post. I think it's
>all shameful myself, and I deeply resent her subjecting this list and
>another to these repeated and deceptive uses of the media to stir up bad
>feelings among people who gather here from different countries to share
>poetry--a passion and a topic from which we're diverted and distracted again
>and again by personal and political agendas that have no place here. I'd
>like to reiterate David's call for an amnesty among us, and this time I hope
>even Alison will put aside her issues for the sake of poetry.

Candice, as a total misrepresentation of my intentions of posting a
comment on the controversy about John Adams, you couldn't have done
better.  We differ in the weight we put on things - the events which
you treat with dismissive scorn deeply trouble me.  It's hard to
ignore their context, which are the new and sweeping anti-terrorism
laws and the political rhetoric which says "those who are not for us
are against us", and I think it is not only very difficult but
disingenuous to argue that these contexts have nothing to do with the
decisions not to stage a particular work about a currently sensitive
topic.  Arts companies, and particularly opera companies, which are
both very expensive to run and tend to be deeply conservative
institutions, will take great care not to offend the ruling powers.
(I have had a couple of operas staged myself, and I speak from
experience).  The retreat from art which is difficult, which
questions, which perhaps offends, art that takes risks, to art that
merely entertains or maintains the status quo, is an all-to-easy easy
one for such companies to take.  I personally do not see that as
desirable.  Or democratic.

Klinghoffer has always been staged more in Europe than in America,
where it has had very few productions.  It takes literally years to
arrange an opera production, so his current European tour is hardly a
result of his more controversial nature since September 11.  The
comment that his career has taken off because of his
controversialising is snide indeed.

I also don't believe that poetry is insulated from the other arts.
In fact, I should hate to think it was: what a sad situation!  I
think of poetry as one of many interconnected activities, all of
which I do, in fact, deeply love; and my concerns speak out of that
love.  As for politics: whether we like it or not, it's around us.  I
can't see that it "has no place here".  And I do not have a
simplistic view about the relationships between politics and art.

My comment about racism arose from bafflement.  I can't see how
criticism of the US government equates to a hatred of the American
people, which seems to be the claim here.  I am not being hostile to
you, but you certainly are being hostile to me.  Does that mean I can
claim you are being anti-Australian?

A
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Alison Croggon

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