Dooley's New Book Out With Others, verbatim

Salt Book Launch: Matthew Sweeney, Padraig Rooney and Tim Dooley

Date:Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Venue: The Betsey Trotwood Pub, 56 Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell, London EC1R 3BL

6.30pm for 7pm start / Free

Come and join celebrated Salt author's Matthew Sweeney, Padraig Rooney and Tim Dooley as they launch their new books in London. We will be in the upstairs bar.

For more information on the venue please do check out their website: http://www.thebetsey.com/

Penned in the Margins Event

Date: Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Venue: Aubin & Wills 188 Westbourne Grove W11 2RH

7pm / free

Penned in the Margins presents

Tim Dooley

George Ttoouli

Julia Bird

Hannah Walker

at Aubin & Wills. Nearest tube: Westbourne Park / Notting Hill Gate

Refreshments provided.

Please RSVP to info@pennedinthemargins.co .uk

Please do visit the Penned in the Margins website: http://www.pennedinthemargins.co.uk/

Comments

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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