Let It Bleed

[Veronique]

" In fact, the
case is open, as are all the cases that were, before, closed."

For the people who can't see beyond their noses the "case is closed" for them, I was not saying this in regards to poetry.I was saying it about closed minded people. As with any other art form, their are subtleties that generally take talent, study and time to comprehend. These subtleties tend to be below the level of consciousness of most people, but they are in most regards what separates the great from the good. Humans, by their nature tend to disbelieve that which they can't readily apprehend, the most belligerent posit that because they cannot apprehend it, it in fact does not exists. For them that ends the discussion, i.e. "case closed".

"I do not hold with those who believe a line
of poetry says more than a half page of prose."

Then I would assume you also hold with those who see no difference between a play and a painting. Some would suggest that if the painting were of sufficient quality one could study it for the duration of a play and come away more enlightened than the playgoers, despite the fact the painting takes up far less "space" than does the manuscript of the play, not to mention the overall production. But of course this must be wrong, as space has to be the determining judge of quality, and a half a page is a half a page regardless if it is Coleridge or the readers digest, they must surely be more or less equivalent.

That all art can achieve the same end is not up for debate here. I was not claiming one form as being superior over another. A well written novel can more gently move a person along so that it is not until the end the person realizes he understands something that he had not even previously considered.

There are also those who purposefully misconstrue what is written simply so they may take exception to it; thus allowing them a forum in which to pontificate, which is of course just another form of belligerent closed-mindedness, giving ample illustration of the difference between argument and simple contradiction.

Dale

Hi Dale,

I attended in 1958 the Air War College at Montomery.
There we were given the Miller's Analogy test. I'm
sure you have taken it.

What can we make of your comment

"Then I would assume you also hold with those who
see no difference between a play and a painting."

Ok, is this how it would go?

A line of poetry is to a half page of poetry
as a play is to a -----------------.

If an officer replied .."a painting," he probably
would be sent off to Greenland for the rest of his
enlistment.

Maybe this illustration misses the mark. I miss
a lot of marks.

My 'feel' comment avoided what I ought to have said.

I remember some cognitive poetics research that
suggested the brain processes nouns in one location
and verbs in another. In poetry verbs often become
nouns and nouns verbs--anthimeria. (Shakerseare
practised it in every play) The brain, in that micro-
second, 'confuses' and the owner of the brain 'feels'
something going on.

Poetry does other stuff too-- lots of stuff prose
doesn't do. One might suggest the brain is more
active when its owner is reading poetry. This cog-
nition alert, also for that micro-second, leads
to a 'feeling.'

... that what is read is poetry and not prose.

The 'better' poetry.

Of course writers of prose also employ anthimeria,
but I agree with you that poetry 'does' more than
prose --- but it may not 'say.' more.

The definition of a prose essay is a piece of
writing that talks about what the reader already
knows-- poetry too ('but not so well expressed')

We are not far apart.

I appreciate the 'feeling;' you. the understand-
ing. I feel it's a poem in the whole; you in the
hierarchy of parts intentionaly written.

I think cognitive poetics is misnamed. Of course,
I understand only a fraction of the idea. I have
a 'feeling' what is called cognitive poetics is
more Sanskrit poetics-- both, though, deal in sym-
pathic reader reactions, to the tropes, to the
schemes, to the assembly.

I honor your allegiance to this thing called poetry.

V
(unedited)