Point Two - Poetry: The Paradox of Its Irrelevancy in a Capitalist World
Eric remarks, "Poetry is less important now in academic literary work than it has been for probably 600 years." He then goes on to note that probably 90 percent of the English undergrad curriculum is not devoted to poetry and to lament the difficulty of getting a book of poetry these days.
I agree with his assessment of the relative lack of interest in poetry nowadays, at least in colleges and universities and by other sources of power and wealth. But I wonder why.
I wonder why poetry books tend not to be published as often and don't sell well, the two phenomena being linked. Let's just assume we live in a consumeristic, capitalist world. (I don't know why people would think that we live in a "post-capitalist" world, but I'm willing to be enlightened.)
To me, that would mean that people should read poetry simply on the basis of poetry's relatively short length vis-a-vis other forms of art and literature like novels, non-fiction, drama, film, or even short stories. People have less time nowadays. They are out to make a buck. Logically, I would have assumed, people would turn to poetry. Poetry is quick, fast-paced, New Age. Poetry takes much less time to read than short stories or novels. (Of course, I'm excluding long poems and epics.)
There are many reasons, but I'd like to focus on the problem of individualism in poetry. Poetry's success on the blogosphere is no surprise, given the medium's suitability to shorter works. But a problem is that there appear to be more writers of poetry than readers of poetry, and relatedly, there appears to be too much apathetic individualism among poets and poetry-lovers. We do have to go out there and convince people poetry is worthwhile, sell your work, push harder for bookstores to carry more books of poetry and poetry magazines, and push harder for poetry to be taught K-12 and undergrad. (Short note: I've done so in the past, and needless to say, anti-poetry folks have pushed back...HARD against me. I will discuss it more later on this blog, but this is just a disclaimer for the kiddies who shouldn't try this at home.)
I agree with his assessment of the relative lack of interest in poetry nowadays, at least in colleges and universities and by other sources of power and wealth. But I wonder why.
I wonder why poetry books tend not to be published as often and don't sell well, the two phenomena being linked. Let's just assume we live in a consumeristic, capitalist world. (I don't know why people would think that we live in a "post-capitalist" world, but I'm willing to be enlightened.)
To me, that would mean that people should read poetry simply on the basis of poetry's relatively short length vis-a-vis other forms of art and literature like novels, non-fiction, drama, film, or even short stories. People have less time nowadays. They are out to make a buck. Logically, I would have assumed, people would turn to poetry. Poetry is quick, fast-paced, New Age. Poetry takes much less time to read than short stories or novels. (Of course, I'm excluding long poems and epics.)
There are many reasons, but I'd like to focus on the problem of individualism in poetry. Poetry's success on the blogosphere is no surprise, given the medium's suitability to shorter works. But a problem is that there appear to be more writers of poetry than readers of poetry, and relatedly, there appears to be too much apathetic individualism among poets and poetry-lovers. We do have to go out there and convince people poetry is worthwhile, sell your work, push harder for bookstores to carry more books of poetry and poetry magazines, and push harder for poetry to be taught K-12 and undergrad. (Short note: I've done so in the past, and needless to say, anti-poetry folks have pushed back...HARD against me. I will discuss it more later on this blog, but this is just a disclaimer for the kiddies who shouldn't try this at home.)
posted by Roger Pao at 11:36 PM
2 Comments:
Neil hit the nail on its head. Poetry is complex. The simplest poetry (whatever that may be) is complex. It requires thinking, that forgotten “event” of modern society. But do not worry in excess. Poetry shall never die. It will just seem like it: this coma.
Alberto
More to write later, but I just want to say that Neil raises a great point about poetry's complexity.
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