this looks like an interesting read at first, but soon dissolves into an
anti-polemicist polemic. which is what gets me.
I find myself agreeing in principle, vaguely, with some of Astley's points
on elitism; but at the same time I agree, for instance, with the reviewers
of those three books (in section 22) talking about the covers -- nauseating.
(for one thing, why is Daisy Goodwin's name so prominent on the cover of the
middle one if she's just edited it? seems like trick lighting, to make her
seem like an Author)
and I actually DO think there's a difference between "selling and selling
out" -- I've not yet come to grips with promoting poetry really, and I can
certainly see the value & necessity of being somewhat inclusive rather than
extremely exclusive; as long as there's an integrity to the writing itself
that has less to do with readers than Astley would like & absolutely nothing
to do with making the poetry sell.
oh shucks.
I wonder why there's always such a fracas about poetry & its readers, who
they should or shouldn't be. people who like poetry will read it! and since
new readers are likely to start from classics anyway, what's the whole SELL
IT deal about exactly? is there some new breed of poetry that is gasping to
be born, a kind of 'current-only' movement that wants new readers to start
with the writing of their own age? I can't make it out. that's the thing
about gangwars, probably; the causes & motivations soon distort or vanish.
but hey I don't know what I'm talking about :)
KS
2008/5/28 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>:
> Here's a good example of one side of the gang-warfare that discussion
> of current British poetry often amounts to. I'm not posting this link
> in a simple mood of look at this and descry it as the other faction
> implied in the piece is just as polemic.
>
> As someone once said, a plague on both ...
>
> http://www.stanzapoetry.org/stanza06_archive/lecture.htm
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
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