[New-Poetry] Poetry Foundation Letter

[Chris Lott]

On Jan 31, 2008 6:44 PM, Jason Quackenbush <jfq at myuw.net> wrote:
> this is where I think ron silliman has been very
> insightful in his critiques of the "school of quietude." it's not so
> much an aesthetic as it is an unwillingness to see the existence of
> other aesthetics. What's at issue here isn't equal representation,
> but the acknowledgment of diversity and of the validity of the
> fringes.

Ron Silliman's insight would be more productive if he didn't lump
everyone who doesn't agree with him on which of those diverse groups
are personally interesting and compelling into one big group. Most of
the time, Silliman's arguing against a very convenient strawman... by
the very virtue of the places that Silliman finds the people he wasts
to engage it is obvious that they shouldn't be hist target.

I'm quite well aware of the diversity, and I appreciate Ron and Bob
and others who have helped me find my way there. I recognize the
validity of these forms even if most of them are not compelling to me.
But I'm not some outlier amongst those who happen to still find life
in the more mainstream and traditional kind of writing and I doubt
Collins, Hall, Levine, etc are either.

What bugs me about some of the commentators that adopt the relatively
useless SOQ categories is that what underlies their argument seems to
be an inability to believe that anyone could really *see* the art they
prefer and just not *like* it. It has to be that those people are
intellectually deficient, unable to appreciate innovation, not reading
hard enough, not willing to be up to a challenge, etc... there's no
room for *aesthetic* diversity in that space... all the air has been
sucked out of the room in favor of a *political* hegemony that's
ultimately no better than the 80s style academic mainstream diversity
that may as well not exist anymore considering the lack of vitality in
those institutions. That battle was won, the fires have been lit and
burn bright in so many other places, why waste so much time and breath
repeatedly stamping on the embers and all the bystanders in between?

c
-- 
Chris Lott