Quote:
Originally posted by Sharon Passmore:
My goal is to make Art as powerful and prestigious a section of Eratosphere as the poetry. Towards that end, I am going to use the communal forums as much as possible. I am waiting for the time we can have a presence in Accomplished Members!
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Sharon -
Thanks for being so open with your thinking, because it makes it easier for me to respond that (a) I completely disagree with your intentions, and (b) that is why I was so quick to react when you posted on what I believe is generally treated as a Poetry Forum. (Possibly we should be having this discussion on General Topics, and if you want to extract and relocate, I have no problems.)
The Sphere is not, as I see it, a General Culture site. It is a dedicated Poetry site, and the best on the internet. Most importantly, it provides serious workshops where poets with a reasonable degree of accomplishment can post work for honest, professional criticism by their peers. The reason that it is so good is precisely because of that dedication. The Sphere is not a vanity site. If all you want to do is put up a poem for admiration and applause, you post elsewhere. I don't see a broader Sphere as doing anything but seriously weakening the present approach and focus.
Broadening the site to pay equal attention to Art sounds good, but the fact is that, over the years, the membership has shown little interest in the Art Forums. The much greater level of activity we now see on the Art Board is entirely due to photography, and (increasingly) focus on Photoshop tricks, and what (sorry) I regard as vanity posts.
I also want to point out how extremely narrow the interest base really is in this forum. I checked the "last twenty days" postings. A group of only seven members - yourself, Robert, Jerry, Kathy Gray, Leila, Inky and Sherri - accounhts for close to 90% of all threads and posts. There is intense interest and activity, but on the part of very, very few members. (And, of 22 posts, 19 were on various aspects of photography and generally led with a photo taken by the member, two displayed member's paintings, and one contained a link to a series of BBC lectures on painting and poetry, metaphor and image.)
Does this very narrow and limited indication of interest warrant making, "Art as powerful and prestigious a section of Eratosphere as the poetry"? I don't think so.
I don't have anything against art or artists. I've even married a few (serially). But I think the Eratosphere is a very special, very unique, haven for Poetry - and believe it should remain that way.
[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited April 18, 2004).]