Tough times for elitists Andrew O’Hagan reviews Poems To Last A Lifetime (ed. Daisy Goodwin)
These are tough times for elitists. Display will always win out over privacy, as if seriousness was [sic] boring, as if contemplation was excluding, as if understatement was underhand, and as if difficulty represented a kind of dishonesty. In this climate, the ‘democratisation’ of poetry is just another phoney enterprise, like Open Government, a sop to that element in the national atmosphere which says inclusion is everything. Poetry is often difficult, and its difficulty is part of the richness of what we have; it is a crime to make the unobvious obvious, an act of vandalism to render it trite, like turning Mozart into ringtones while calling attention to its improving qualities. Some people, of course, will call that democracy, but what does it leave you with? An increased audience for Mozart? A bigger sale for new volumes of poetry? No, I'm afraid not. Poetry sales haven't budged in the UK for years, though ‘old favourites’ are taking up more and more space in the bookshops, at the expense of new poets.The London Review of Books 4 Nov 2004 Posted by SJT at January 22, 2005 03:35 PM
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.5jt.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/104
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Tough times for elitists:
» online casino from online casino
debt consolidation loans [Read More]
Tracked on March 5, 2006 03:29 AM
» Payday Loans from Payday Loans
No Fax Payday Loans , No Fax payday Loans, Payday Loan, Payday Loans [Read More]
Tracked on April 22, 2006 02:18 PM
» personal loans from personal loans
personal loans personal loans [Read More]
Tracked on May 11, 2006 10:27 AM
» Personal Loans from Personal Loans
Easy online Personal Loans application, Personal Loan personal loan [Read More]
Tracked on May 24, 2006 11:07 PM
» Free Ringtones from Free Ringtones
Free Ringtones [Read More]
Tracked on May 29, 2006 12:48 PM
» Merry monarch from Merry monarch
payday loans cash advance [Read More]
Tracked on June 12, 2006 06:22 PM
» payday loans,personal loans from payday loans,personal loans
payday loans personal loans [Read More]
Tracked on June 30, 2006 07:27 PM
» Cingular Ringtone from Cingular Ringtone
Ringtone Ringtones Finacial Services Loans [Read More]
Tracked on August 9, 2006 04:25 PM
» Free Music from Free Music
Free Ringtones, Download Ringtones, Free Ringtones, Download MP3 Ringtones, [Read More]
Tracked on September 10, 2006 01:54 PM
» low cost health insurance from low cost health insurance
health insurance [Read More]
Tracked on November 1, 2006 06:36 PM
» christmas gifts from christmas gifts
is a niceblog. [Read More]
Tracked on November 11, 2006 05:31 PM
» Sprint Ringtones from Sprint Ringtones
Verizon Ringtones , Ringtones, Payday Loan up to $ 1500, Payday Loans [Read More]
Tracked on November 16, 2006 10:05 PM
» christmas stockings from christmas stockings
christmas gifts is a christmas gifts blog. [Read More]
Tracked on November 18, 2006 05:06 PM
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)