tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post1200306751591189602..comments2023-10-12T01:57:21.311-07:00Comments on Litterbug: Alan Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04600883215748277587noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-72289029876459306572009-04-18T06:35:00.000-07:002009-04-18T06:35:00.000-07:00Interesting point, Alan - I can see the religion a...Interesting point, Alan - I can see the religion analogy very clearly. Perhaps I shouldn't be so reticent about commenting on or "describing" the scenes I just missed - after all, it worked for the evangelists. Although I'm pretty sure that Jeremy Prynne does actually exist... ;-)Aidan Semmenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06557740419796502719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-16470363979960187162009-04-18T04:32:00.000-07:002009-04-18T04:32:00.000-07:00Aidan, you say "I always felt like a semi-detached...Aidan, you say "I always felt like a semi-detached latecomer to the Cambridge 'scene'". "Scenes" often seem to have one or more revered 'elders', or hark back to an ideal when the group was formed. Not unlike religions in a way.Alan Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600883215748277587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-80545843070287872122009-04-17T06:39:00.000-07:002009-04-17T06:39:00.000-07:00Fascinating article by Peter Riley, which stirs al...Fascinating article by Peter Riley, which stirs all sorts of memories and conflicting feelings for me. I actually never knew of the Sparty Lea gathering - in either Barry's or Peter's versions (and I'm much more inclined to believe Peter than Barry, on this or anything else) - but at one time or another I've known, or at least met, most of the <I>dramatis personae</I>. (Bizarrely, and irrelevantly, I also had a friend, with no poetry connection, who later lived at Sparty Lea, which is a tiny and cut-off place.)<br />When you consider Peter's piece as a commentary on the whole notion of a "scene" it does make you wonder (none too hard) about what Prynne and MacSweeney were each up to. Barry and the Pickards certainly worked very hard to build up the notion of a "northern scene" - which I came to very late and never felt part of. Similarly, despite my co-editorship of Perfect Bound and my year as chairman of the Cambridge Poetry Society (hon pres JH Prynne), I always felt like a semi-detached latecomer to the Cambridge "scene": which may, of course, say more about me than anyone else...Aidan Semmenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06557740419796502719noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-42105649765360658092009-04-14T13:55:00.000-07:002009-04-14T13:55:00.000-07:00to me
his shifts without any warning
wer...to me<br />his shifts without any warning<br /> were (are) pure/magic...<br /><br />what is it that Yeats said:<br /><br />"don't be a magician, be magic"<br /><br /><br />(I suppose) writing poetry demands an unconscious mastery of the language....as (my) Stone Girl implores/implies/insists upon,,<br /><br />that, almost prelinguistic feel/posture that...<br /><br />well you finish this<br /><br />it s stopped raining so<br />I am gonna walk up to the county lickher store and buy a pint-or-six of Black Sheep.Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-30683941538577803232009-04-14T13:20:00.000-07:002009-04-14T13:20:00.000-07:00Ed: so you've met The Mighty Prynne? He has develo...Ed: so you've met The Mighty Prynne? He has developed a mystique over here due to his refusal to read in public or to have his picture published. Of course he was a follower of Olson's in his early days. I like you description of his work - "his "P O W" of the line and the language... almost like he was painting on the page..." which is maybe an impression got from hearing rather than reading? We had a discussion of Prynne a while ago, click <A HREF="http://alan-baker.blogspot.com/search/label/J.H.%20Prynne" REL="nofollow">here</A> (you have to start reading from the bottom).<br /><br />"Mostly talking about girls" chimes with Aidan Semmens and MacSweeney mostly talking about football.<br /><br />John, I love the story about Berrigan's membership cards: truth is, I'd have bought one, as I like the idea of being part of a "scene".Alan Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04600883215748277587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-91371045162666959832009-04-13T12:43:00.000-07:002009-04-13T12:43:00.000-07:00hey..y'all Brits know Jeremy Prynne? of course yo...hey..<BR/><BR/>y'all Brits know Jeremy Prynne? <BR/><BR/>of course you do!<BR/><BR/>he was around here (U of Md and D.c. for a time long about 1965 or 66 or 67<BR/><BR/>read some things via Rudd Flemming's invite to our "poetry" scene<BR/><BR/><BR/>then on my jaunt around <BR/>Yerup/Greece/Hingeland 1968-1971 I just had to "pop" in on campuses of Oxford and Cambridge... two entirely different "animals" he (J.Prynne was teaching at one of them<BR/><BR/>so,<BR/><BR/>I getz "back" and get into Hopkins and who should/did<BR/>"show-up" Jeremy this time via Eliott Coleman's invite.. <BR/><BR/>talked a bit about Charles Olson (and many other 'vant guard s) and<BR/><BR/>well "obscurity" etc..<BR/><BR/>never did I find JP's writing "obscure" what I seem to recall was his "P O W" of the line and the language... <BR/><BR/>almost like he was painting on the page...<BR/><BR/>at least in (my) mind<BR/><BR/>but, this is from memory...<BR/><BR/>where I confuse specific dates in time and place with eras in decades of periodocities<BR/><BR/><BR/>but, bottom line: in those daze we mostly talked of the girls around town..and sometimes to/with them.Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-17006242400027276992009-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:002009-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00square quotes = scare quotes etc.Oh, and one mroe ...square quotes = scare quotes etc.<BR/><BR/>Oh, and one mroe thing re scenes: Ted Berrigan use to offer "New York School" membership cards to anyone who would give him money. Apparently he had no takers. I dunno why. (I mean, it would be so cool to have a membership card signed by TB saying I was a member of the NY School.<BR/><BR/>Maybe we "Clots of Rubbish", if you accept the label, ought to offer membership cards ...<BR/><BR/>someday someone cd sell em on ebay and retire ...John B-Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01041221232768939991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364661476588393868.post-34891397621995261872009-04-13T11:21:00.000-07:002009-04-13T11:21:00.000-07:00Alan-- I suspect that for some, "scenes" are just ...Alan-- I suspect that for some, "scenes" are just normal life, y'know ... and then there are those for whom normal life includes career building, so they name their scenes, Imagism, Vorticism, etc. Career building probably isn't fair. Maybe it's better to say they want to be in history, to influence it ... Of course I'm in a good mood today ... are you in a scene? am !? I mean, I know you, I've been in touch with some of your people, you with some of mine (every word here needs square quotes of course) ... but does that constitute a scene? Maybe we should give it a name ... I've just been struck by a line by Lisa Robertson: "clots of rubbish washed up on shore become us." Maybe we're the "Clots of Rubbish" scene ...John B-Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01041221232768939991noreply@blogger.com