Sunday, July 25, 2004

what revolution is that?

I agree that there aint no revolution on the Poetics list. that list is more like a cocktail party at which pointless fisticuffs provide the only excitement. but what revolution is there, now? define it. some poetry revolutionaries that come to mind for me: Pound, Olson, Stein, Dickinson, Whitman. if a revolution exists now, what monolith is being taken on, and who indeed are the revolutionaries. gee, it's really a rather corny concept, more a generational intake of breath than a battle. the names I cited provided a shift, at least as I see it, and I've learned from them. lots of writers interest and excite me, but I wouldn't tag them revolutionaries. Proust, for instance, is so sui generis, that I wouldn't think anyone could choose him as a revolutionary leader. tho I can think of 3 books that have been compared to Remembrance: by Anthony Powell, Robert Musil and Truman Capote. Powell's 12-ology is only superficially like Remembrance, a very long fictionalized memoir. I haven't read Musil yet. Capote is a larf. I mean omigawd, he's just lost in that Hollywood artist crap (crap I highly recommend reading, for laughing purposes). anyway, how about a revolution in which poets get paid. or not. who cares, really.

No comments: