"He was speaking about how poems come and go but none seem to make an impression. Lucy Sante framed this somewhat differently when she asked, 'Was "Howl" the last poem to hit the world with the impact of news and grip it with the tenacity of a pop song?'"
Writes Dwight Garner in the first paragraph of a NYT review of a new poetry book... which I, tellingly, failed to become interested in. The first sentence of the last paragraph of the review is: "This is a young person’s book." Well, then. Who was "Howl" for?
याची सदस्यत्व घ्या:
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा (Atom)
पोस्ट्स
१६ टिप्पण्या:
I just discovered the Grateful Dead song, "Truckin'." I know, I know, how could I be so out of it. I sometimes listen to a local FM station operated by Six Nations people on their reserve, specifically from a "dispersed rural community" called Oshweken. The DJ said something like "this is an oldie, but here goes," and played "Truckin'."
1970. Jerry Garcia, older than the boomers, was 28. The song was a true collaboration among four people, a mix of boomers and pre-boomers. I think the lyrics hold up as poetry. The narrative voice is of someone who is still on the road, and can't really give it up. The famous repeated line "what a long strange trip it's been" has a valedictory feel, as if these guys have already been on the road for 50 years.
What makes "Howl" poetry? Because Ginsberg said it was? Seems like prose to me.
When I was in college, I was quite impressed with the Beat poets, especially Ginsburg and “Howl.” Then I met most of them in San Francisco and Woodstock. Some of the crappiest, most slovenly, abusive people I’ve ever met. Obscenely shitty personal hygiene. The crudest possible personal manners. I have been completely cured of wanting to read their shit or to encounter them personally.
Was "Howl" the last poem to hit the world with the impact of news and grip it with the tenacity of a pop song?'
Why aren't pop songs poetry?
One of the nice things about being a cartoonist for The New Yorker is you can be reasonably sure people actually read your captions.
Rap is effectively nothing but poetry.
My sister, a Russian literature scholar, defined poetry as that which cannot be translated. She gave the example of a 19th Russian poem narrated by a mother at the bedside of her sick child, who is resentful of being trapped when she wants to go out to a party. The final line of the poem is: "I want balls! Give me balls!"
I had the same reaction, but from afar. You could see it in the images, hear it in their interviews. These were fairly disgusting people.
Personally, for my beat/poetry fix, I'll just put on some Tom Waits and listen to those lyrics.
Poetry set to music apparently doesn't count as true poetry, an obvious "no true Scotsman" fallacy of argument. I pull from Wikipedia: The 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (born 1941) for having created new poetic expressions.
The market for poetry was taken over by popular songs. Poetry was then bailed out by school literature departments, who proceeded to make it even less popular.
In order to appreciate great poetry you have to be educated. And most people today aren't. They also live in a world of video and sound. They aren't into to "reading". Of course, poetry was meant to heard in the olden days.
As for Howl, I cant think of a mediocre poem that's become more famous. It has a great beginning and then peters out. Ginsberg just got lucky. He latched on to more talented people and then got one best selling poem.
You have to wonder why the Nobel Prize Lit Committee kept giving prizes to Poets nobody has read. Brodsky, GLuck, come to mind. Maybe that's why they gave it to Dylan. "Finally, someone the average person has heard of".
Trying to like "Howl" was too much work, and I never bothered.
Hold back the edges of your gowns, Ladies, we are going through hell.
The reason why poetry has ceased to make an impact since Howl is because of Bob Dylan and pop music after he hit the stage. Music adds a dimension to lyrics that can't be recreated in the minds of most people.
With a name like Koethe, young John was fated -- damned -- to be a poet.
Koethe and Killer would make a great German rap group.
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा