Many interesting responses to Keith's note and my reaction -- it's as late
for me as for anyone, but I'll say quickly a few things --
Stephen -- I don't agree that eclecticism is evidence of a mature society;
of a -late- society maybe. That correlation, implying incidentally a
reputable kind of identity politics, seems not to have been credibly
demonstrated. Perhaps you (or someone) could describe how this maturity
comes to appear, preferably with some reference to the ways in which those
commercial bodies interested to make it appear have proceeded to advertise
its viability. Neither can I prefer so notionally some 'uneducated'
reader for her assumed greater enthusiasm and commitment; perhaps as you
say this is because I write (and poets I admire write) the kind of verse
which such a test-case person is unlikely ever to be sympathic with. But
this is a hermeneutic circle etc.
I agree Keith that context goes only so far in determining how a poem is
apprehended, but I imagine I'd say that it goes a good deal further than
you would. Perhaps not, but our tones suggest this. I'm quite willing to
be convinced that I don't really have much compassion for the consumer -as
consumer-, and would welcome your reasons for disbelieving my statement on
that account.
Cris, Ric -- I suppose we differ significantly in how we choose to
understand the politics of social obscurity. I don't believe that
anything is hindered by the relatively innocuous position of my poems in
the market, other than the establishment of a field of critical reception
which any attention to recent history would suggest is presently most
unlikely anyhow. I do want to produce poems that are materially
affective, and that evidently consider this their objective and to some
extent their first purpose inalienably. But I want to do this patiently.
That is, without imagining that commercial miscegenation is necessarily
the negotiating ground for marginalized commitment. Much of society is a
straightforward shriek to the effect that I'm precious and exclusionary,
pejorative appeals to the archaic sanctus of the Academy and my position
in it are of course of notable relevance but hardly advance either of our
positions. I feel I'm an academic quite by accident. Why did you decide
not to stay on at Cambridge Cris?
The configuration of our current audience on this list is crucial to my
point -- again, a matter of context. Who are we speaking to here. Of
course I'm not berating Sinead or anyone who makes similar choices. I'm
stating an antipathy on a discussion list so that Keith's interesting post
can be discussed with reference to reactive views. These views are my
own, but are unforgettably of no material gravity; I have no access to the
money that makes any such decision, and am interested (as you are) in the
diversity of prospects that might become apparent through unsolicited and
sectional advice. Perhaps we can explore a little less cursorily the
sociology of our differences.
Given your position Cris, to which of course I have no objections to make,
I can't see how you could be so bothered by mine. Ric's view is
different in that he says that we -ought- to admire a range of work,
implying a schedule of probity and circumspection. I disagree; that we
ought to be aware of it, ok. But admire? How can this not be mere
prejudice? it's a simple disagreement: I don't think that your
attitude towards 'range' in poetry is at all expressive or indicative of
your attitude toward politics, and I shall never wish to infer the latter
from the former. I believe that the importance of the latter should
disqualify it from being the object of so conspicuous and proliferated an
inference. You may not wish to imply this connection, but I (at least)
can't help but fancy it's there. Stephen's naming of a mature society
goes further to attest this.
I suppose I'm unwilling to call a society mature which, though it may
witness an uward trend in wide-ranging anthologies, still permits its
government to perpetrate idiotic military disaster.
More tomorrow -- k
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