Thread: Perloff
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Unread 05-03-2012, 01:58 PM
W.F. Lantry's Avatar
W.F. Lantry W.F. Lantry is offline
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Sam,

She makes a few good points: "Formal choices are never without ideological implications." And she's right about there being no fixed canon: ask 10 poets who the great ones are, and you'll get eleven answers.

The anti-Dove stuff is pointless, as a commenter points out, a Murdoch owned publishing house owns the rights to Ginsberg and Plath, and was incredibly intransigent. She's still in love with the Asbery-O'Hara corridor, which seems pretty depopulated at this point. It's a little odd hearing her, of all people, complaining about "the culture of prizes, professorships, and political correctness."

I'm not a conceptualist, but I'm not hopped up against it, either. If she likes that stuff, good for her. But John Cage was big in the 50's and 60's, so it's hard to argue for his role in the present avant-garde. Dos Passos, who seldom gets enough credit for conceptualism, was way before that. Erasing Waldheim may be an interesting exercise, but not one that interests me personally. Bernstein's doing ballads these days? Who knew? Gizzi sounds like fun.

In the end, I'm left wondering about the burden of the essay. Poetry should be bricolage? Who could argue with that? No-one since Du Bellay. Maybe it's a general rant, saying "here's what I see as wrong, and here's the solution"? She's made some fine contributions over the years, but I'm not sure this is the ground-breaking essay people are saying it is...

Best,

Bill
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