>>My main concern was that the
>>definition of "Other" seemed mostly English-led -- events in London bulk
>>large in the historical imagination, activity in Glasgow perhaps less so.
>>JUDGING BY THE INTRODUCTION.
>>
>>I have added as forcefully as I can that I don't mind this slight bias
>>considering that an editor can't function without a particular point of view,
>>i.e., a bias.
>
>I concur in Doug's sense of this "Other" as predominantly English-led
>with, for me, Irish 'events' diminished by a similar trick of perspective
>(to maintain the spatial trope). I've already had a discussion along
>these lines backchannel with Ric, who demurs. Backchannel, because, not
>being myself counted one of this "Other", it might seem peevish in me to
>criticise. Perish the thought! I'm now frontchannel, just in case anyone
>might think there's no cavil from this side of the water.
>
>It's obviously a complex topic, with many angles of approach, but I
>incline (perhaps interestedly) to the notion that such particularity of
>point of view may at times be disabling: that events near the edges may
>seem (to be represented as) driven by events near the centre, that an
>other "Other" may be simplified in the service of a suspect coherence.
>
>While I'm pleased to see any anthologizing of Irish work outside the
>shadow of the Heaney/Boland epigones, a little more understanding of the
>Irish dynamic as distinct from the English would have pleased me even
>more.
>
>Trevor
>
Hi Trevor,
You might be amused to hear that in her talk at the Anglo-American pow wow
in London Edna Longley went on for nearly an hour hacking away at Pound and
Poundians for writing Yeats out of modernism. Apparently, Pound equals
"America" and it's Americans to blame for putting over a completely
worthless poetic on the world. When she was done, I asked her about the
existence of an "other" Irish poetry coming out of Brian Coffey etc. and
moving up into the present with folks like yourself, Catherine Walsh,
Maurice Scully, etc. One sentence in her reply I'll treasure always:
"These people are confused."
best,
Keith
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