Jeffrey Side wrote:
> Desmond, I don’t think it a claim that is of such magnitude. Try as I have, I haven’t found anything as innovative as these works, the nearest I’ve come is Kerouac’s use of chain words, which influenced the first parts of Ginsberg’s Howl.
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> Of course, I’m not claiming that The Waste Land and Finnegans Wake have not been influential, just that nothing since has been as paradigm shifting in poetry. Of course, I speak only of the current situation. I don’t rule out the possibility of equally paradigm-shifting poetry occurring in the future.
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Concrete poetry was as important an innovation as The Waste Land, so
what if the academics disdain it and the visual poetry that has followed
out of it. There is also minimalist poetry, sound poetry, cyber poetry,
language poetry, my own mathematical poetry and I'm sure I've missed
some. I would agree that nothing the beats did was particularly
innovative. I would also agree that I've mentioned nothing that didn't
have roots in previous poetry--like Herbert and Stein, as well as Pound
and Joyce, but all innovations have roots in the past.
--Bob G.
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