tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83923751899084745.post6036495954222987641..comments2023-12-04T09:59:55.778-08:00Comments on the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica: Hoo-Rae!Steven Famahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09886207582824520804noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83923751899084745.post-41340879761415864182010-04-13T21:56:11.687-07:002010-04-13T21:56:11.687-07:00Thanks Richard, for stopping by. Very interesting...Thanks Richard, for stopping by. Very interesting thought on Antigua, and interesting too to hear of your "take" on the poem just coming to it, especially (being from New Zealand) without the Americanized cultural perspectives.<br /><br />Via Google books, you can get a limited preview of Armantrout's <i>Versed</i> -- it might give you a better idea of the kind of poetry it includes. <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=q-sJSDvR-UYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=armantrout+versed&hl=en&ei=IErFS6W7FYSONvuP4YkO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-preview-link&resnum=1&ved=0CDsQuwUwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">Click here to check it out!</a>Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83923751899084745.post-56037734411937826782010-04-13T01:50:33.002-07:002010-04-13T01:50:33.002-07:00Hi. I've known Armantrout's poetry for som...Hi. I've known Armantrout's poetry for some time but I haven't been a big fan, although I like her "languagy" operations and here relatively minimalist poems.<br /><br />I think you have done great job here of exposition on this poem. I didn't know the song, or the salesman (it's not out her on N.Z. TV), but if I had had to think about the poem (and I am lazy like many readers), but of course I should have, I might have got more "into" this poem - but,at first sight, I wasn't "hooked" - and I would perhaps have reached similar conclusions. <br /><br />And - your exposition is remarkable and has helped me to become more enthusiastic about this book / writer - I may purchase it now.<br /><br />There is another layer to the Fallujah - Antigua connection - I didn't know until I saw this but on Wiki(!!) I read that the place indeed has - while it is a tourist destination etc - in fact rather a dark past of slavery and Indians and slaves being burnt to death for rebelling and there's even a connection with Lord Nelson and the United States - Nelson saw Americans as "victims" of their rebellion against the British Empire etc!! Anyway, there is this, or these extra layer(s) or aspect. <br /><br />But the poem can be read also almost on its own. Or "straight off the page"... <br /><br />This poem could well be overlooked by many readers...as with lot of poems lie this one is looking for "insight", or wit, or maybe "magic" from the poem's construct...but in fact once gets this kind of analysis "under one's belt" so to speak, the poem does still work. Even without it the lines have a slight Ashberic zaniness...I mean slightly zany. A very different poet who also won the Pulitzer (as did...forget , a poet who is more like Armantrout).<br /><br />But if anything gets a Pulitzer that is a pretty sure sign it is good, or is likely to be good or interesting or of value. <br /><br />I don't think it matters whether she works in factory or is an academic... My congratulations to her!Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83923751899084745.post-91918804200537305892009-11-15T18:29:16.974-08:002009-11-15T18:29:16.974-08:00Hi Conrad,
Thanks for the comment, which I appre...Hi Conrad, <br /><br />Thanks for the comment, which I appreciate you leaving even though we (obviously) think and feel differently about "New."<br /><br />I'm not sure, especially these days, if I know what can be said, as a general matter, about "university press" poetry. Maybe a better way to put is that I LOVE a lot of university press poetry, and that there is a lot of different kinds of such poetry, given books such as:<br /><br />-- Juliana Spahr, <i>this connection of everyone with lungs</i> (Univ. of California)<br /><br />-- Rachel Loden, <i>Dick of the Dead</i> (Boise State's Ahsahta Press)<br /><br />-- Clayton Eshleman, <i>Juniper Fuse</i> (Wesleyan)<br /><br />-- the four titles Armantrout's has published by Wesleyan<br /><br />-- Ron Silliman, <i>the Alphabet</i> (Alabama)<br /><br />(this to name just those university press poetry titles that catch my eye right now as I swivel in my chair).<br /><br />And for what it's worth, and I respect your point of view, but I felt nothing "ersatz" when I heard "New" or Armantrout's other poems Friday night, or when I read them again this weekend. This may be a matter of differences in what we prefer as poetry. I enjoy the wild and wooly, yes, but I also have a high place in my heart and mind for the well-made, and don't think such art (be it poetry or (for example) Bruce Conner's highly-edited collage films, or his intricate inkblot drawings) strips out authentic emotion or insight.Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83923751899084745.post-47161728652606961392009-11-15T15:41:26.114-08:002009-11-15T15:41:26.114-08:00Steven,
thanks for the invitation to respond. I&#...Steven,<br /><br />thanks for the invitation to respond. I'm not too impressed with this, being too much of what Susan Sontag used to call "revenge of the intellect on art". Too didactic, fashionably current post-postmodernist theory, et al Or whatever it is. I've never been impressed with University Press poetry, and this is why.<br /><br />In particular, verses too clichéd,or almost purposely camp as if the "Fallujah<br />is the new Antigua" (among others) is artwork instead of verse. The Honda line leaves me cold. Or maybe the contrasting pics you've provided provoked my last comment. I dunno.<br /><br />Is this what's getting awards these days? Ersatz (University Press) poetry; ersatz sensibility.<br /><br />I normally agree with your critiques but not this time (nor when you praised Bök, another poet who wins way more awards than he deserves)Conrad DiDiodatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312831623791642286noreply@blogger.com