tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post111385091368128233..comments2023-08-04T04:41:39.813-07:00Comments on Of Looking At A Blackbird: Essential Reading?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113929997260894632005-04-19T09:59:00.000-07:002005-04-19T09:59:00.000-07:00Well, sure, it would be counter-productive for Emi...Well, sure, it would be counter-productive for Emily and Walt to compromise--it would be like those recycled paints they get by mixing everything in that's around--a sort of dull beige. But that isn't to say that you can't pick up a Dickinson poem and appreciate it and a minute later pick up a Whitman poem and appreciate that.<BR/><BR/>What I do think is harmful is not to read what's there--to say this is my kind of thing and that is not and not read it. But maybe I'm not getting the discussion still.Diane K. Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03204316534769002428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113923387364861092005-04-19T08:09:00.000-07:002005-04-19T08:09:00.000-07:00Hmm, looking back on my comment, I think I totally...Hmm, looking back on my comment, I think I totally failed to respond to your question, Diane, about "what the discussion is about." I guess what I'm really wondering is to what extent "open-mindedness" is a good thing and at what point it becomes self-destructive. I imagine it this way: Would it have been a good thing or a bad thing if, in 1860, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson had sat down together at a workshop in Iowa City (conducted by, say, Emerson) and tried to learn from each other? Would they have learned or would they have ruined each other as poets?Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13471547669854013234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113920754931753252005-04-19T07:25:00.000-07:002005-04-19T07:25:00.000-07:00Hi, Diane, it might be a better world if more peop...Hi, Diane, it might be a better world if more people were like you, but I'm not sure they are. Don't you think most poets do have a knee-jerk negative reaction to whatever kind of poetry it is they can't stand? "I hate that 'academic' crap" (e.g. anything that makes allusions to Greek gods) or "I hate that 'spoken word' crap" or "I hate that 'abstract incoherent' crap" (i.e. the entire world of 'experimental' poetry) or "I hate that 'sentimental' crap" (i.e. the entire world of mainstream American poetry) or "I hate that 'formalist' crap" or .... It makes sense that the "avant-garde" would be particularly aggressive, because they need to hack down the giants of the past to make room for themselves. The "deep image" poets of the 1960s were pretty ruthless about attacking poets like, say, Elizabeth Bishop (as "shallow image poets," I guess), and they were attacked in their turn.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13471547669854013234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113888036009790012005-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:002005-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:00Guys, guys, can we get another analogy here? I've ...Guys, guys, can we get another analogy here? I've heard of Shostakovich, but I don't know if I heard him. I mean, I haven't a clue what a Shotakovich piece sounds like. And I never heard of the Pixies. So I'm an ignoramus when it comes to music. Can we get back to poetry?<BR/><BR/>I still don't know what the discussion is about. I for one like individual poets, even individual poems, not whole schools wholesale. And I suspect most people are like me.Diane K. Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03204316534769002428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113878914187019952005-04-18T19:48:00.000-07:002005-04-18T19:48:00.000-07:00That definitely makes sense, but I wonder if the a...That definitely makes sense, but I wonder if the analogy is not so much to Shostakovich as to, uh, the Beatles, say. Pixies fans may not like the Beatles but they've heard of the Beatles. Lyn Hejinian fans may not like Galway Kinnell but they've heard of Galway Kinnell, and would probably say they're all too familiar with "that kind" of poetry. I'm not sure it's true that Kinnell fans are any more open to Hejinian than Hejinian fans are to Kinnell, but maybe so. <BR/><BR/>Maybe there are two kinds of poets: opinionated and non-opinionated, and maybe the "avant-garde" tends to be opinionated. Keats talked about how he felt like a chameleon, without any opinions of his own.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13471547669854013234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113871748051392692005-04-18T17:49:00.000-07:002005-04-18T17:49:00.000-07:00Yes. Of course Shostakovich fans are more likely t...Yes. Of course Shostakovich fans are more likely to be open to the Pixies than vice versa. I don't know how I can prove this but statitistically speaking this seems like a no brainer. <BR/><BR/>I'd bet I could easily find 50 Pixies fans to put in a room that have never heard of Shostakovich. But I'd bet I'd be hard pressed to find 50 Shostakovich fans that have never heard of the Pixies. <BR/><BR/>True? Or am I skewed here?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10883109611318399183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113858190117857712005-04-18T14:03:00.000-07:002005-04-18T14:03:00.000-07:00Yeah but he's arguing that Shostakovich fans are m...Yeah but he's arguing that Shostakovich fans are more likely to be open to the Pixies than Pixies fans to Shostakovich (or maybe it's the reverse--I'm getting confused). I know nothing about the fisticuffs, though.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13471547669854013234noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11779531.post-1113855793991646402005-04-18T13:23:00.000-07:002005-04-18T13:23:00.000-07:00It's all pretty understandable.I'd bet very few fo...It's all pretty understandable.<BR/><BR/>I'd bet very few folks love Shostakovich and the Pixies. <BR/><BR/>Though I'd rather have learned more about the post that Silliman took down. Apparently there was a drink spilling fisticuffs at some poetry reading in SF. I know now more though I wish I did. I'd love to hear the gossip if anyone knows anything.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10883109611318399183noreply@blogger.com