consider John Everett Millais, the founder of the pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood, and 'Bubbles'. Or any pre-Raphaelite painting.
Sentimentality seems to drip from their pores yet stay just the right
side of kitsch.
Roger
On 10/25/07, Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Sentimentality is difficult to define. But I know it when I see it. (I think!)
> To me it means an expression of emotion that is very obvious. Where the
> reader is being told what to feel.
> It can also be emotional cliche, where, for example you say 'heart'
> because you think everyone knows what that means, when your writing
> might be more powerful if you found a more original word. IMO.
>
> As to 'classism'.
>
> We just had a very interesting poetry festival here where, to my mind, you
> could clearly see the two 'camps' of what I will call, for want of better
> words, highbrow vs lowbrow poetry.
>
> Highbrow being a style of poetics and presentation that is concerned
> with language & form ahead of content & communication.
>
> Lowbrow, where the content & communication with an audience is more
> important.
>
> I have a foot in both camps, trying to create work where both factors
> are in balance. Ken's work seems to have the same idea, as does most
> of the art I really like, including many of the poems we see on this list.
>
> Not all highbrow practitioners are stuffy or academic,
> and not all lowbrow practitioners are ranting performance poets,
> although those might be the images some of them unfortunately
> have of each other.
>
> Where people get lazy, there is sentimentality in the work of both camps.
> There are interesting and boring poems coming out of both, too.
>
> Janet
>
> > Ken, you just don't like that I'm a professor. That's your problem, not
> > mine. I quoted a workable standard definition of sentimentality. Why not
> > respond to that.
> >
> > jd
> >
> > On 10/24/07, Kenneth Wolman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > >
> > > andrew burke wrote:
> > > > I define sentimentality as the over-abundant expression of sentiment.
> > > And
> > > > sentiment as a mental feeling or emotion, often with connotations of
> > > > clingingness. Clear as mud, Ken?
> > > >
> > > > Andrew
> > > >
> > >
> > > I am blessedly past the point of nodding my head and pretending I know
> > > what's going on. I don't. Am I alone in sensing a kind of classism
> > > (bad pun) here?--those who work in the academic environment vs. (yes,
> > > versus) those who don't? The assumptions of shared languages seem to
> > > break along those lines. Mud is good for the complexion, they say, but
> > > the dog don't hunt here.
>
--
My Stuff: http://www.badstep.net/
"In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
Roman Proverb
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