tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post6007182685983650595..comments2024-01-19T21:33:09.716+00:00Comments on E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK: War, poetryEYEWEARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01900801847916951522noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-83088204419291526922007-09-12T12:04:00.000+01:002007-09-12T12:04:00.000+01:00The essay in question was not all about your antho...The essay in question was not all about your anthology. It is mentioned in passing to make a larger point. I wasn’t writing a book review. I have plenty of disagreements with Charles Bernstein, which I don’t go into in the essay either. As for ‘cultural capital’, you mention in your post how the anthology was put together ‘in a week’. If you put together an anthology of contemporary poetry ‘in a week’ for instant release you might hope to make a splash at the time, but you’re hardly going to have assembled a piece of work designed to last. It's of its time, and intentionally so. And no I don’t see poetry as a community of ‘shared goals’, because I don’t have your goals or anyone else’s, I only have my own. The only ways in poetry are separate ways. Nor do I see poetry as a horse race. I’m simply telling you to steer by your own lights and not feel that someone like Don Paterson (or me, even) is stopping you believing in what you believe in, and acting and writing on that basis.<BR/><BR/>DWputhwuthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05606399161863289851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-6490282892623297042007-09-12T11:48:00.000+01:002007-09-12T11:48:00.000+01:00David, your reply is disengenuous tosh, and you kn...David, your reply is disengenuous tosh, and you know it. Your "opinion" was expressed in an apparently serious academic review of current trends in contemporary responses to war. It was published by no less than Oxford University Press. While you might not want to admit it, there is such a thing as cultural capital - and major Irish critics writing in books published by OUP have it. Playing the who, l'il ol me card doesn't cut it here. I wouldn't have minded such an opinion so cheaply expressed on the net, or a small magazine, but you chose to lazily record a rather biased viewpoint in a canonical place. To deny that critical evaluation is problematic, and often politically-motivated, is naive, at best. Further, why have you not answered the question: why did you not try to, before castigating the anthology, at least, briefly, describe its (factual) merits. No reader of your half=page or so discussion would be able to learn that leading poets like Harsent or Hacker, let alone Bernstein or O'Brien, are in my anthology - your article suggests, with total inaccuracy, that it is a collection of amateur non-entities. That's nearly a lie, and is certainly inaccurate. I am not sure Oxford University Press paid you to be so inaccurate. It is unprofessional. As for "backing the other horse" - that trope reveals how you - and others - envision poetry - not as a community of shared goals, but as a horse-race. Horse races have been known to be fixed, and they sometimes shoot horses.EYEWEARhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01900801847916951522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13726943.post-19541085073075299392007-09-12T11:36:00.000+01:002007-09-12T11:36:00.000+01:00In interest to your question about who I might be ...In interest to your question about who I might be to dismiss your work, the answer is – No one in particular. I’ve never thought my opinion counts for more than anyone else’s. Agree or disagree, it’s not holy writ. And in answer to your point about changing ‘how things are done’, you give your own answer – new presses and ezines are doing just that, you say. If you think I’m wrong about that anthology or that Paterson’s poetry quota is so disastrous, then back the other horse and believe enough in what you’re doing to keep on keeping on without the imprimatur of people you disagree with anyway.<BR/><BR/>DWputhwuthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05606399161863289851noreply@blogger.com