I don't know why I haven't posted to TDE in a while. For some reason I feel more comfortable posting my poems about pig-people and angst-ridden ventriloquist dummies to Metrical.

Rose,
Do you think that the problem is less about form than about content?
Janet

Neither, exactly. More that in TDE you're supposed to post "polished" poems, so when I've posted there it's been stuff I felt somewhat confident about. When I have no idea how something's going to go over, I post in Metrical rather than risk the humiliation of being told it's not deep end material.

Funny, I sort of do the opposite. I post poems I want a thoughtful response to because I'm not certain, to TDE. I post poems I just want to share, not necessarily less polished--often more--to Metrical. I welcome crits on both.

I do think we tended to favour vanilla a little occasionally, mind you that's not necessarily always bad. I think we self-edit our material for TDE and that may be more our doing than anything else. Jax is an honorable exception.

I don't think it's necessarily more honest or profound to write about the dark side, but it's obligatory to have a place for it.

Nor, as you've noticed, do I think a delightful bauble is a thing to despise.

We want the lot!

Janet

PS Rose,
The two poems you mentioned are among the most polished poems I've read anywhere for some time. What's "polished"?
Sometimes I fear that "polished" can be code for "translated".



[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited November 16, 2006).]

So, from what you say, Rose and Janet, I gather that the attraction of Metrical is its looser, lighter atmosphere.

As you say, Rose, a place where you feel freer to test less conventional poems without the burden of high expectation, which can lead to that commonly heard charge of "not Deep End material".

Fair enough.

But how does this account for the apparent preference for Metrical?

Why does it seem that more people than ever before are looking for "crit-lite", rather than "industrial strength" reviews?

As I said, I remember when it used to be the other way around.

Mark, it's just momentum. People want to be where others are. It's a party, we've been hanging in one room, conversation is dying down. So we check out the next room. No big preference for one room or another. We'll probably go back to the other room at some point. (The party may last all night -- though we might need phytoplankton after that!)

All in all, I think you're overthinking this one. Someone thought General Talk was dying down, then Terese got suspended, then all hell broke loose. One week cannot predict the next. TDE will be just fine.

What Daniel said. Godawmighty, what a navel-gazing fuss about nothing.

On the other hand - what if the silence over at TDE signals some kind of Marxist, deconstructionist, post-modernist, freedom-hating, Germaine-Greer's-left-tit-sucking takeover? Today, The Deep End, tomorrow those cretinous bastards will lay waste to the entire Sphere. Should we consider going to Code Orange, and bringing in some heavily armed "contractors" from the Blackstone Group to replace the Mods? Just temporarily, of course, until order is restored.



[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited November 17, 2006).]

Daniel,

Yes, your explanation seems very reasonable.

Like tidal-flow patterns changing.

I only mentioned it because it seemed to be so marked a difference in the activity, and I wondered why.

Michael,

when we have threads discussing breakfast menus, I don't think this thread has much chance of winning the "navel-gazing" prize.

And no, I don't think the situation requires just drastic measures as you suggest.

Not yet, anyway.

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/smile.gif

Why? It's too late now, the election is over. To maximize the effect, you have to do it before, not after, so everyone feels tough and macho when you're doing it. Don't you remember Propaganda-101?

Robert Meyer

I have just reclaimed TDE for light poetry you orotund pontificators.
Janet