the fix
do we insist
or should we
that
a straightforward narrative is
better
because it is
easier to understand?
what's the opposite?
or maybe that
an insistence that the abstract
is inferior because
it's not consistent
with understanding?
(as if all writing weren't
abstract)
I must be missing something in this - a hole in my logik - I'm
positive that's true that I am missing somethink
I'm tired of that poem about picking tomatoes)
the danger in your argument in favor of making the poem easier for
the audience very much resembles Thomas Higginson's rationale when
revising/regularizing "normalizing" Emily Dickinson's poems after
her death to make them more accessible for readers
he meant well but ruined the poems
what would we have if everything were "fixed" so that readers or
listeners could avoid confusion
communication in the poem might deviate from the intent no matter
how skilled the maker
words say what they will despite us
posted by Stephen @ 3:38 PM
1 Comments:
At 6:09 AM,
Ann L.M. Barrett said…
Hi Steve, hi Monica!
Steve, this is so true.
The insistence, especially in a workshop environment, that my writing be organized (logikal), linear even, is an idea I have ultimately rejected, but I am still off-balance and bedraggled from trying so hard yet unsucessfully to comply. My efforts at poetry since service in a workshop environment too often resemble soldiers--clean-cut lines of words arranged according to some standard that is not my own and striving to defend an "ideal" imposed upon me despite my most patriotic vote to the contrary.
This is perhaps a political issue, or a symptom of such. It seems to me fear drives this urge toward logic, fear manifesting itself in a total lack of, and actually militant shunning of imagination.
Alas ...
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