Riposts
Two strong responses today to Peter Campion's essay in the June issue of Poetry. Seth takes Campion to task for "run[ning] afoul of common sense as well as, if I may venture so far as to say it, common decency," while Josh Corey writes, "his attack is presented within the pages of the best-endowed literary magazine on Earth. The result comes off as an unseemly attack on the have-nots by a have." Interesting reading both.
My own take, relevant or irrelevant as it may be, is that Campion profoundly misunderstands the medium he endeavors to critique, and thus appears both ill-mannered and mean-spirited in his approach.
Comments
I think sometimes people w/o blogs are threatened by them, as if they are in some ways authoritative because there's text on a screen?
I tend to read blogs informally, because I write one, & I know how informal it is!
Not sure what Josh means by the breaching of the publication wall, though. I mean I do, but I guess it's all in how you read it, as you said.
Posted by: Laura | June 13, 2005 12:27 AM
Laura, I think Josh was talking about poets who record, on their blogs, their attempts to breach the wall of print publication. Campion calls this narcissism, whereas many bloggers might simply call it chit-chat. I agree with you. I read blogs informally. It seems to me there's a spectrum involved: at one pole, conversationalists; at the opposite pole, essay writers. Most bloggers seems to fall somewhere on this spectrum, with perhaps a greater emphasis on conversation. I read Campion's quotes as snatches of overheard conversation, and his use of them as something akin to quoting what one might overhear between two poets at a dinner party. Kinda crass.
Posted by: Ginger | June 13, 2005 12:51 PM
"I read Campion's quotes as snatches of overheard conversation, and his use of them as something akin to quoting what one might overhear between two poets at a dinner party. Kinda crass."
And a bit ironic, no? He's masking his chit-chatty gossip in the guise of a serious essay, while criticizing people who mask their seriousness with chit-chat and gossip.
That's too rich for my blood.
Posted by: A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz | June 13, 2005 03:03 PM
Ah, "narcissistic recording of..." breaching the wall. I mis-read. It was late, late, late.
I agree with Josh, tho, that it's honest to talk about publication.... Not sure what that argument was about, it demystifies it, puts the emphasis on the "book" as a book w/ or w/o readers (here's what's in my drawer, here's what out in the world, the origin is the same, etc).
But to talk about breaching a wall in public could get one in trouble. I guess the repercussions here are Poetry.
Posted by: Laura | June 13, 2005 03:47 PM