I always think these types of opposition are silly, especially beyond
the context in which someone says them e.g. Graves. We have to keep
redefining the words to fit something that isn't there in the first
place. Craft - Technique - these can mean exactly the same thing in
some contexts, nowhere near any real differences. Of course we can
play the game, but it will always grow tired in the end as its trivial
nature gradually reveals itself.
Back in the late 70's and into the 80's there was a lot of talk about
'craft' in British poetry. And most of the poetry it was talking about
was the dull stuff, but ooo, it had 'craft'. There are rather
transparent ideologies behind this - the idea of poetry being homely
and traditional and natural etc - it's that old middle-class nostalgia
for an imagined past again - the good British craftsman writing in the
workshop downstairs while the bad madman romantic wastes away up in
the garret with his indecipherable scribble etc.
Of the two words, 'technique' is the least problematic - we can
recognize a technique in most arts. But 'craft'... thinking harder
about it I don't think I know what it means anyway.
Tim A.
On 20 Jun 2009, at 16:03, Douglas Barbour wrote:
> Hmmnn, I remain confused, mostly because I think artists tend to
> play on/with both. How do Yeats's poems not demonstrate 'craft' as
> so defined, as well as 'technique'?
>
> I mean, under these terms, I'd want to go with craft, but at what
> point does imitation become the real thing?
>
> And, can anyone achieve what I'd call great technique without some
> dedication to craft?
>
> Just wondering....
>
> Doug
> On 19-Jun-09, at 5:17 PM, Jon Corelis wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure how much I agree with Graves' remarks, but I think I see
>> what he's getting at: craft shapes inspiration; technique imitates
>> it.
>
> Douglas Barbour
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>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
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> Latest books:
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> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> I know everything. One has to,
> to write decently.
>
> Henry James
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