I am certainly deeply troubled by the "vocational" restructuring (the term
>has often seemed ironic to me) that is happening in universities here. I
>can't see it as anything but intellectual vandalism. However, a friend of
>mine, an academic himself, remarked some years ago that poetry being
thrown
>out of university could be the best thing that could happen to it. He was
>only half joking.
Well, I'd guess it depends on what 'an academic" is, which is a second cousin to
that insult heard in some circles of being an 'intellectual'. Neoconservatives like
Bob Novak talk about the 'fringe element' of 'some academic, intellectual,
artistic types at some universities," and I suppose it bothers me to hear the ease
with which poets adopt certain rhetorics so that one group may denigrate the
other by calling them "academic' poets. I've heard a few writers say that
teaching full time in a MFA program is like being "eaten alive" but that can be
heard elsewhere, as when Ahkamatova described translation as 'eating one's
own brain.' I think of "academic" as requiring endless meetings, all sorts of
administrative paperwork, critical and scholarly publication, peer review, the
labyrinth of tenure, and it does often effect any poetry one might write, so one
doesn't write it, or it becomes, consciously or not, written toward a certain style
of academic and 'serious' poetry acceptability. On the other hand, I am and
know a number of poets who teach at universities or colleges and yet while they
are 'academics' in the sense of working at an institution, none of this pertains. It
doesn't, for instance, pertain to me. I have one class one day of the week for
three hours with about ten students and it's just a delight, reading and talking
about poetry, of all sorts. And that's it, three introductory meetings when I got
here, and otherwise I see only those colleagues with whom I've become friends,
other poets that I meet for lunch and we talk about all sorts of things but little
to do with the university. And so it's hardly a devitalizing experience. Of course I
haven't had an 'academic career' either, having spent twelve years raising goats
for instance, and so this is just a random and perhaps temporary 'residency.' But
I do know poets attached to various universities, and it seems to me that they
just go on writing their poetry as they would have anyway. I can't imagine, for
instance, that Doug who's attached to a Canadian university is a devitalized poet
as a result. If someone feels that way, as your friend seems to have, then it's
probably time to leave rather than wishing to be thrown out. But even then, I am
reluctant to believe that anything, whether poetry or astrophysics, benefits from
exclusion from the university or any other realm. Well, this arguing among poets
about what to get rid of, whether we should get poetry booted from universities,
or booted from funding by organizations because their reasons may be less
than pure, etc, seems to me somewhat ridiculous. I keep thinking of two people
starving on a desert island, amusing themselves by thinking up imaginary
dishes, and then getting into arguments over which ingredients to eliminate.
Best,
Rebecca
---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:22:18 +1100
>From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: down with the down with poetry crowd
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>On 21/1/05 3:53 PM, "Rebecca Seiferle" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> I'd been thinking that it
>> was not so great that various universities here are planning on cutting
>> astrophysics, theoretical math, linguistics, ancient and classical languages,
>> and
>> a number of arts programs, including some related to poetry, and it's just a
>> loss
>> and driven by the bottom line of covering one's losses.
>
>I am certainly deeply troubled by the "vocational" restructuring (the term
>has often seemed ironic to me) that is happening in universities here. I
>can't see it as anything but intellectual vandalism. However, a friend of
>mine, an academic himself, remarked some years ago that poetry being
thrown
>out of university could be the best thing that could happen to it. He was
>only half joking.
>
>Best
>
>A
>
>Alison Croggon
>
>Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
>Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
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