tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post3815051798702067331..comments2024-01-08T11:39:44.389+00:00Comments on hanged man perspectives: Let's Get Visceral...NJPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03342734256280681569noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-83703838969321454662010-11-01T22:24:20.640+00:002010-11-01T22:24:20.640+00:00Sorry, truly, to be pedantic! 'Eliot' - on...Sorry, truly, to be pedantic! 'Eliot' - one 'l'! It's funny, I pointed this out in relation to Sibylle Baier's excellent song, 'Says Eliott' [sic] on a YouTube post recently; it generated an interesting debate.<br />I have read the article you mention and, though I am sympathetic to it as a polemic, I disagree on the whole with what is being said about Eliot's (and Auden's) influence. There is an exciting new current within contemporary poetry which is calling for something like a renaissance; a shift away from what appears to be a dominance of the banal and/or 'domestic' preoccupations of much recently published poetry. It's a hot debate, and Paul Stubbs's comments in this essay flesh out that position. I am in broad sympathy with that way of thinking, though happy also that a kind of 'lesser', if you like, poetry coexists with that which is working harder to address more substantial matters.<br />I would like to mount a defense of Eliot at some point when I have time. I can't bear to see him maligned; he was a gifted poet and a charitable editor.<br />Thanks for your question, Sue, and for your own blog, which I have looked at recently.NJPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03342734256280681569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-29651564401295569762010-11-01T17:29:01.001+00:002010-11-01T17:29:01.001+00:00In googling Ex Nihilo I came upon this article by ...In googling Ex Nihilo I came upon this article by Paul Stubbs.<br /><br />http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/paul-stubbs-mirage-of-poetic-evolution-in-britain-since-eliot/<br /><br />I am sure you have read it...interesting to me in regard to Elliot and his influence on British poetry. I am not particularly educated in poetry per se but got interested in Elliot through your influence. Wonder what you think of this article?Ravenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00809489834235529273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-26145936885963126392010-10-29T12:02:46.818+01:002010-10-29T12:02:46.818+01:00Thanks for the compliment and for your comments. T...Thanks for the compliment and for your comments. The inspiration to write on this occasion is entirely down to Paul Stubbs's poem, which I urge you to read. It is not confined to Christian references; there are also, e.g., ancient Egyptian religious allusions. The gel for the matter of religious reference is, I think, the eschatological, and, in this respect, the crucifixion of the 'Son of God' is an astonishing and wide-ranging reference point, incorporating, as it does, the matter of human history and psychology. But I would not wish to define/fix/confine PS's writing in any way: to nail it to any cross, so to speak! There are an abundance of Christian reference points, it is true, and I suspect we would all begin to recover our religious sensibilty/impulse from whichever tradition we are coming out of. 'God' however is a fairly universal symbol, I'm sure you'd agree; though once again, there's an inherent danger in such debate, as it shifts attention from the matter of the poem. I urge you to buy a copy and discover for yourself!NJPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03342734256280681569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4534076742744899388.post-14378924805662314402010-10-28T23:47:44.294+01:002010-10-28T23:47:44.294+01:00Another marvellous text on this blog - I wish ther...Another marvellous text on this blog - I wish there were more! I haven't read the poem (and, based on what you have written, look forward to doing so), but one thing I wonder about is whether religion is being equated here with Christianity. After all, Calvary is not just any religious reference or symbol, but a specifically Christian one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com