Here's another thing I took from that book of Richard Hugo's I'm reading (The Triggering Town).
Poem Tips: Don't Communicate
He made a comment that made me really think. He said that when writing (poetry was in view here), "Don't Communicate."
That sounds so counter-intuitive. Shouldn't we want to communicate? Hugo is not talking about poorly written abstract work. The point he is making is that when language exists for the sole purpose of conveying information that language is dying. Information takes precendence over the words themselves. He relates this to how we listen to stories on the News. Once we've been told about the ________ (fire, traffic, weather, etc) the words become unimportant. By understanding the words of the news article, by getting used to reading on a surface level we deaden the language. We get so used to limiting language to an information transfer that it can affect our own writing.
Hugo: "The relationship of the words to the subject must weaken and the relationship of the words to the writer (you) must take on strength."
When I read bad poetry. Let me emphasize further, when I read my own bad poetry. One of the reasons that it is bad is becuase I'm wasting precious words explaining things in a pedestrian non-interesting way.
The words are more important than the subject conveyed. We must watch out for the tendency to merely pass on information
I'll try to keep posting these points from various books I read that make sense to me. Hopefully, it will be helpful to think on.
Poem Tips: Don't Communicate
He made a comment that made me really think. He said that when writing (poetry was in view here), "Don't Communicate."
That sounds so counter-intuitive. Shouldn't we want to communicate? Hugo is not talking about poorly written abstract work. The point he is making is that when language exists for the sole purpose of conveying information that language is dying. Information takes precendence over the words themselves. He relates this to how we listen to stories on the News. Once we've been told about the ________ (fire, traffic, weather, etc) the words become unimportant. By understanding the words of the news article, by getting used to reading on a surface level we deaden the language. We get so used to limiting language to an information transfer that it can affect our own writing.
Hugo: "The relationship of the words to the subject must weaken and the relationship of the words to the writer (you) must take on strength."
When I read bad poetry. Let me emphasize further, when I read my own bad poetry. One of the reasons that it is bad is becuase I'm wasting precious words explaining things in a pedestrian non-interesting way.
The words are more important than the subject conveyed. We must watch out for the tendency to merely pass on information
I'll try to keep posting these points from various books I read that make sense to me. Hopefully, it will be helpful to think on.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson