Come on Jess, stop exaggerating - I wasn't talking about precious
wallflowers. OK, I'll exaggerate myself - what about if the poet is
DEAD - and they often are of course.
Anyway I think enough has been said on this one except to say, with
regard to magazine editing, that I cannot recall poets who appeared in
Terrible Work buying up quantities of the issue to sell to their
friends and at readings etc. A handful took a handful - and that's
about it. And I didn't really expect anything else. I know it is
different with books......
Cheers (and hoping all is tickety-boo with you - wherever you are -
are you still in Japan?)
Tim A.
On 7 Jul 2011, at 04:38, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> I had to laugh at Tim's description of a poet (young or old) cut off
> from any understanding of any world but their own, orbiting out
> there at
> the farthest trembling tether of their inspiration and then being
> asked
> to do anything other than hand their precious works from out of the
> clouds to the eager hands of a publisher ready, willing, and perfectly
> able to do it all for the new comet flashing across the heavens. I
> know
> that Tim did Terrible Work for years and so has an understanding of
> these things, but I'm almost certain that he didn't handle the budding
> geniuses in quite the manner he suggests. (If he did, he'd probably
> make a great OB-GYN and should consider the career change.)
>
> Helping with the process of publication is not asking anyone to be or
> become an extrovert, Tim, it's just introducing them to the realities
> of alternative press. We do ask for help with ahadada books, but that
> help can take many forms, from placing our books in their local
> university library to type-setting and web work.
>
> I don't think that's ever driven a genius away, especially if they
> know
> that we believe in what they do. On the other hand, it's gotten rid
> of
> a scad of prima donnas.
>
> Jess
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