[meme] I am channeling the spirit of Ani DiFranco

[vanitashaze]

1. Poetry recitation today. I'd forgotten how much I love voice work. Not just singing, but speaking, hearing your voice fill the room just as it fills your throat; the indentations of it, crests and waves. The way it breaks on the last note, just a little, and how crowd-speaking is not that different from music. At the end there is a moment, always: a vacuum space that lingers as the words roar away, that sudden and dizzying lack of gravity. I who whisper in my sleep, I who sing to empty streets - I see the shock in their faces and I think, don't you know the power that throbs beneath the skin?

2.cozyup!
You know you want to.

ETA: You know what I really want for Christmas? More icon space. Gack.

Comments

I sing somethimes for the war that I fight...

[magelight.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you've got something you enjoy so much. 'Specially since secondary school basically sucks. What poem did you read?

We never had anything like that at any of my schools. But I know what you mean about the way the words flow out of you; the energy of it, the passion or the sadness you can put into whatever it is you're reading. I tend to read things aloud to myself for that reason. Books, or favourite quotes or poems that I keep in my paper journal.

ETA: You know what I really want for Christmas? More icon space. Gack.

Snap. I change mine almost as often as I change my socks.

Re: I sing somethimes for the war that I fight...

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

'Specially since secondary school basically sucks.

That it DOES. I read "Conversation" (http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/poem.html?id=171246), which is simply a beautiful, haunting piece composed by one of my favorite living poets, Ai (née Florence Anthony). It was kind of a shock to learn that she's still alive, actually, and teaching at the University of - Michigan? Some Midwestern state; I'm so used to thinking of poets and poetry as a vehicle of the past. "All poets are dead."

(The two pieces on the Poetry Out Loud website remind me of Pan's Labyrinth. There's something very del Toro-esque about them.)

I would change mine too, but then all my back posts are solid walls of whatever icon I'm using as my "default". Call me an aesthetic perfectionist, but it drives me insane.

Re: I sing somethimes for the war that I fight...

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

You know, whenever I read something dedicated to Robert Lowell, I always reflect that it's nice that someone whom even his friends thought was an asshole can inspire good poetry - and even by other people who might well think the same thing about him.

I'm so used to thinking of poets and poetry as a vehicle of the past. "All poets are dead."

Yeah, I think this is something secondary school tends to encourage - while extremely admirable in many ways, my own IB English education wasn't very inspired with respect to poetry.

Re: I sing somethimes for the war that I fight...

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Ah, but assholes have so much more to confess, and when they write confessional poems, that's certainly a good thing!

Yeah, I think this is something secondary school tends to encourage - while extremely admirable in many ways, my own IB English education wasn't very inspired with respect to poetry.

Once I was talking to this woman in my writing class - a guest speaker, poetess from Israel - and that came up, and she explained how in Israel, every schoolchild learns poetry like they do songs; you could stop anyone on the street, she said, and ask them about poetry, and the discussion would go on for hours, because in the Israeli culture death is a daily part of life, and it's natural that poetry would follow. They have more respect for it.

In a sense, I think American culture has always been lacking when it comes to sacred stories, because the vast majority of cultural influences in Northern America are invasive species, capitalistic ones at that, and America has always been happy to substitute shiny quick-fixes for cultural identity - to identify with abstracts like justice and freedom because, unlike the Native Americans here before*, we lack that more weighty blood-and-history born tie to the land we inhabit. That's not just a product of our mostly Anglo-Saxon traditions, either; even the English had their sagas and bards, their Beowulf. And we've tried, we certainly have, but we've not been here long enough get any sort of poetry-depth.


*I say before not because I believe that they're "died out" or vanished, but rather because thanks to the erosion of culture and lack of the power they once commanded, the Native Americans that are today are - like it or not - fundamentally changed from what they once were.

every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

the vast majority of cultural influences in Northern America are invasive species, capitalistic ones at that, and America has always been happy to substitute shiny quick-fixes for cultural identity - to identify with abstracts like justice and freedom [...]

And we've tried, we certainly have, but we've not been here long enough get any sort of poetry-depth.

I certainly agree about the fetishization of breakfast cereal -style icons passing for "justice" and "freedom." However, I think I've been guilty of a false generalization - I don't know enough about secondary schools in other countries to support my claim with evidence from outside the States. While the plural of anecdote is emphatically not data, I have connections with a lot of people who went through secondary education in Asia; as far as I can tell, those individuals don't feel much more for poetry than the university students I talked to a few weeks ago, who told me they didn't want to do their project on Aemilia Lanyer because they "don't like poetry." I am never going to be in a position to evaluate any number of things with respect to authenticity, but I'm wary of drawing a correlation between how long a white-dominated national culture has been around these parts and the depth of culture - including but not limited to poetry - available to us in today's white-dominated culture. (Whether or not that white-dominated culture today is actually a fiction propagated and fostered by mass media.) I guess I'd want to veer away from that type of essentializing authenticity with respect to poetry or the other arts, since I don't think it does justice to the artists - those who lived before us and those who are producing art now - and the richness of what's available to us here, despite the problems we continue to have in getting all that to a large-scale responsive/participatory audience.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Okay, first, fetishization of breakfast cereal? Had me laughing so hard.

While it is true that I have not much data from other countries either... historically, I think, you could definite make the case for poetry appreciation, especially from Asia - before Mao, before WWII, before (and even into) colonization, before the start of globalization and modernization. So perhaps time is not to blame as much as industrialization, something that the US has definitely excelled at far longer than most, barring the UK. Not that the so-called "information age" is too much better things, as sterilized as it is.

All of this is not to say that the contributions of poets that have come before, or that are still around, are meaningless; in fact, they hold more meaning in a society that does not always value them as it should. The problem - if a problem truly exists, and I'm not just ranting in a vacuum - exists in the areas that are not art-full,

Then again, it is true that it's a human fallible for every generation to simultaneously think they are the best and worst of all of it, to bemoan slouching towards Bethlehem even as they crow they're soaring towards the stars of liberty, justice, tolerance, etc. And I suppose I'm guilty of that just as much as anyone. Perhaps more so.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Okay, first, fetishization of breakfast cereal? Had me laughing so hard.

My job here is done! Hee.

historically, I think, you could definite make the case for poetry appreciation, especially from Asia - before Mao, before WWII, before (and even into) colonization, before the start of globalization and modernization.

Sure, hell yeah. And yes, I think you can make a case (and many have) for what you're saying in the rest of your comment. I agree that the problem is real and significant.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Which brings us to: what do to about it? Culture is more or less one giant stampede - it's pretty damn hard to turn that herd around once it's gotten started - and, well, like all other causes, it's just so much easier to hang around like-minded people. To be honest, that was probably why I got started in the fanfiction community (as much as I cringe at the words), or at least a certain segment of it; where I hang, everyone's down with the poetry to an insane degree. In fact, I spend most of my time feeling like an undereducated boor. It's a nice change.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

About thirty seconds after I posted my previous comment in this thread, I realized I don't even know if I agree with myself about a correlation between industrialization and popular devaluation of poetry. Go figure. As a general statement: even though real change always requires collective action, I truly believe it has to begin with the individual choosing to act - choosing to take on responsibility for action, choosing to make responsible decisions in one's daily life. I'd say this is true for cultural change as well. By developing habits of self-awareness and vigilant self-examination with respect to how we select and process our cultural intake, by making responsible choices with respect to who and what we choose to support and entertain, and by encouraging those habits in others, I really do think that we as individuals can exert a real and positive influence on the people whose lives we cross as we move through our own lives - even if some or many of those we encounter reject it, resist it, don't consciously register it right away or maybe ever. And I haven't even touched on participation in public campaigns like the promotion of the British short story (despite the mixed success of those attempts). The cultural forces we might want to subvert, divert, or overcome may seem both vast and difficult to pin down - like some Biblical leviathan - but if my somewhat misspent youth has been worth anything, it's at least underscored the importance of educating myself and others, in that it's a lifelong process which exacts action from us every day. I've reluctantly come to understand that I have an incorrigible relationship with education, despite disillusionment and disappointment over the years. I believe in vigilant critical thinking, and I even believe in our society's ability - although that potential is not yet even close to being realized - to produce vigilant thinkers and artists who keep pushing themselves to apply those critical faculties to the fullest possible extent. So I think it does matter what you do in your daily life to promote what's important to you and educate others about it - whether it's poetry or something else. And I think that an individual's participation in that on a community level matters, too.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

So you are of the Margaret Mead school of thought, then?

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Hopefully with lower levels of essentialism / cultural ethnocentrism!

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

So Margaret Mead with a touch of Wade Davis. Rock on.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

I've read only a little Davis, but he seems like an interesting guy. Minus the grave-robbing and iffy science, I'm for it?

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Damn, you are just never satisfied. (Good for you!)

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

I suspect that's why they call me contrary L.! ... heh.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

...It seems wrong to follow such a long and impassioned speech with these inane questions, but what exactly is the "British short story"? I'm curious.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Hey, they're not inane! I was specifically thinking of what's now called the BBC National Short Story Award (http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/nssp/). You can read some of the award winners and other shorts (http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/stories/); I don't have a clear memory of any of the ones I looked at last year, but I recall enjoying Jackie Kay's 'My Daughter, The Fox' (http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/stories/index.php4?storyid=10) well enough. I'm glad you reminded me of the site, since there are new stories up now.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Huh. The British are hardly the only ones who hold national story contests, though; Americans are just as guilty. Nor do they stop at short stories. There's now an ad campaign to put poems written by local schoolchildren on DC public transport. I believe the most common one I've seen yet is "The Cat". For a fourth-grader, it's not bad, but it does rather lack the depth that I am accustomed to.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely true, of course. I think the BBC one stuck with me because of how it bills itself as the largest award for a single short story in the world. I recall the first time I encountered it at the old site, saveourshortstory.org.uk.

I haven't taken public transportation in DC for ages - huh! Now that's something to look out for next time.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Save the short story? Since when is the short story an endangered species? Because as anyone who's ever edited a high school literary magazine can assure you, it's not.

All the more power to you if you do. Though, interestingly enough, I was not aware you were located in the area.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

Since when is the short story an endangered species? Because as anyone who's ever edited a high school literary magazine can assure you, it's not.

Ahaha, but that's like saying poetry isn't neglected in the public eye, on the basis that a university literary review gets poetry submissions even if many are of questionable quality! Bad creative writing of all stripes is rife whenever you open the gates! I think the intention, as usual, is to raise public awareness and create incentive for production of better stuff via the monetary bounty.

Which is why I haven't been riding DC public transportation lately! But when I went there in past years, I did take the Metro just about every time. I'd be a little more likely to go for taxis now, depending.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

That is all true, yes. I just wish that the literary community was more accepting of short stories that do not fit the common mold, or hell, were just interesting. Most of the 'endorsed' short stories I've read have been... well, about as boring as wallpaper. Wallpaper that's beige.

Really? At least with the Metro, you have less chance of getting fleeced, or mowing down innocent pedestrians, or switching lanes at 150 mph. And there's peoplewatching, which in a city like DC is really rather great sport.

Re: every tool is a weapon if you hold it right

[ticketsonmyself.livejournal.com]

What authors of short stories have you read and disliked (or liked)? I'm sure I have some recommendations up my sleeve, of which at least a few are guaranteed not to be boring.

I took the Metro to the Library of Congress almost every weekday for several months - that mostly turned out fine. I'm thinking more of the late-night vomit and unwanted attention, which would tip me toward hailing a taxi.

Re: I sing somethimes for the war that I fight...

[magelight.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to read that a couple more times before it really sinks in and I can get the rhythm of it but at first glance, it's lovely and sad.

Huh. Yes. Living poets are a bit surreal.

Call me an aesthetic perfectionist, but it drives me insane.

I don't like it either but I HAVE to upload new pieces of pretty. My attention span is just that short.

Re: I sing somethimes for the war that I fight...

[vanitashaze.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes. We are the Dorys of the world.

Yes, yes. I'm actually rather surprised they had it, because Ai is nothing if not controversial and they made such a huge effort to stay away from controversy - when controversy is basically the nature of poetry - that it would be funny if it weren't so sad. Like, they had Allen Ginsberg, but it was "A Supermarket in California" instead of "America" (♥) or "Howl". (Which are way too long to memorize and read but still. Grrr.)