07-13-2016, 04:31 PM
At work, all my colleagues are atheist, economically conservative, socially liberal. It's boring, because there's no one to make fun of.
Likewise, it's boring if we all agree on obvious things. So I'll be contrarian.
Wordsworth said that poetry was 'passion recollected when calm' or something to that effect. But when was the last time you read Wordsworth. Had he been reading 'Tintern Abbey' on the TV today, we'd turn the volume down and say rude things*. No one reads him. I'd rather read Angus Grigg of the AFR, and that's stooping really low. Reading Wordsworth is certain to get your IQ down, milk to curdle, old age homes to lose residents. He's that boring. That's what happens when you recollect passion when calm.
On the other hand, look at Dylan Thomas. He practically didn't edit anything, which is why his poems make no sense but are wonderful. I have no proof that he edited nothing, but I get the feeling that all edits were superficial. He sort of wrote 'em poems and moved on to the next drink.
In Stephen Hawking's time, say his biographers, studying for your exams was looked down upon in Oxford. You either cracked them without preparation because you were that good, or you flunked. Similarly, with poetry, if you don't get it right first time round, you should be shamed like Cirsei Lannister, or just reconcile yourself to the existence of a mediocre hack (where art thou, Salieri?)
*George Harrison, A Hard Day's Night.
Likewise, it's boring if we all agree on obvious things. So I'll be contrarian.
Wordsworth said that poetry was 'passion recollected when calm' or something to that effect. But when was the last time you read Wordsworth. Had he been reading 'Tintern Abbey' on the TV today, we'd turn the volume down and say rude things*. No one reads him. I'd rather read Angus Grigg of the AFR, and that's stooping really low. Reading Wordsworth is certain to get your IQ down, milk to curdle, old age homes to lose residents. He's that boring. That's what happens when you recollect passion when calm.
On the other hand, look at Dylan Thomas. He practically didn't edit anything, which is why his poems make no sense but are wonderful. I have no proof that he edited nothing, but I get the feeling that all edits were superficial. He sort of wrote 'em poems and moved on to the next drink.
In Stephen Hawking's time, say his biographers, studying for your exams was looked down upon in Oxford. You either cracked them without preparation because you were that good, or you flunked. Similarly, with poetry, if you don't get it right first time round, you should be shamed like Cirsei Lannister, or just reconcile yourself to the existence of a mediocre hack (where art thou, Salieri?)
*George Harrison, A Hard Day's Night.
~ I think I just quoted myself - Achebe