*Death to Reviews II*
Are poets necessarily home alone?
Get the whole story right now on
Tympan {click here}
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A Critical Departure; and a Critical Full Disclosure
The most recent edition of
rhubarg is susan {click here}
announced the departure from blogland
by an excellent blogger, Simon DeDeo,
which seems to have triggered
quite a bit of soul-searching
among some of the most active
literary bloggers. The general
consensus appears to be that
more reviewing is needed; even,
according to Jordan Davis,
to the point of creating a
"review of record." I've stated here
and elsewhere why I think this
approach is not the most effective:
I agree poets are capable of
writng very useful and interesting
critical essays about poetics and poetry.
I am quite dubious about the
notion of "reviews" by poets.
Reviews present themselves as a
form of crtiical reception by means of
objective judgements.
Poets are unavoidably biased in
regards to their peers, in fact, very
or even extremely biased. They are also
quite capable of brilliant,
even ingenius modes of
presenting their biases as objective
and inevitable. In my view, a better
way to go would be to work together
on a weblog that offers reviews,
presented as such, by invited non-poet
readers of contemporary and other poetry,
such as scholars, academics, fiction writers
or artists, for example; the blog
might also include essays about
poetics, poetry-or anything else-
by poets presented as such:
appreciations or persuasive critiques by
peers about peers, acknowledged
as such, but differentiated from the
"reviews"- written, hopefully, by
commentators who are not
actively involved and engaged with
a poetry career and a circle of poets.
In any case, ::fait accompli::
will continue to
present our thoughts and
opinions concerning art and
poetry for what they are: ideas
and reflections about writing
offered by an actively
engaged poet and artist, who
harbors no illusions about
enjoying a lifetime of innumerable
valued long term and new
friendships and acquaintanceships
among poets and artists;
these, of course, include
connections with particular
schools of poetry, perhaps,
now, even blogging!
We do not blush or apologize
for our many affections and loyalties
here at: :fait accompli:: , and we will
continue to enjoy working hard
at remaining as open
as possible to as much
writing and art,
new and old, as is possible
both by friends and strangers.
