tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post116491413557069443..comments2024-03-18T16:55:31.971+00:00Comments on This Space: A generous instinctStephen Mitchelmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1164971810713885782006-12-01T11:16:00.000+00:002006-12-01T11:16:00.000+00:00Hi Steve, MarkApologies if I seemed bombastic in m...Hi Steve, Mark<BR/><BR/>Apologies if I seemed bombastic in my last comment, no offense was meant to either of you, and of course you're perfectly entitled to reproduce a quote you deem to have some value. Mark, you're right that the Picador list is small, I should have clarified that by 'one of the biggest' I meant one whose publications enjoy more than their fair share of reviews, publicity etc when contrasted with the output of more adventurous houses, and that this is thanks to a populist, lowest-common-denominator philosophy and the backing of a large firm like Macmillan. <BR/><BR/>If you're interested, btw, I highly recommend www.archiveofthenow.com - a collection of readings by a diverse range of the best poets writing in our isles. <BR/><BR/>Sorry for banging on so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1164969480026725572006-12-01T10:38:00.000+00:002006-12-01T10:38:00.000+00:00Hi Steve, hi "anonymous",Steve -- thanks for the l...Hi Steve, hi "anonymous",<BR/><BR/>Steve -- thanks for the link to my residence at the Poetry Foundation.<BR/><BR/>Paterson is the poetry editor for Picador (they are a decent publisher, but their poetry list is pretty small these days) and he certainly does seem to be very conservative. His Picador list is very dull, too, but I quoted him -- like I'm sure you did Steve -- because the relationship and tensions between a writer and their work is a fascinating subject. And I think he most certainly does have a point here with regard to poetry and performance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1164961292410511022006-12-01T08:21:00.000+00:002006-12-01T08:21:00.000+00:00Well I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition! I've...Well I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition! <BR/><BR/>I've not read anything by Paterson but his comments seem worth repeating when most broadsheet coverage is Plath v Hughes or Roger McGough v "the purists". <BR/><BR/>So whose voices does the volume need turning up on?Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1164935814674903962006-12-01T01:16:00.000+00:002006-12-01T01:16:00.000+00:00Hi Steve. I've long appreciated your uncompromisin...Hi Steve. I've long appreciated your uncompromising stance towards literature and those forms of writing which attempt to pass for literature. But I have to say that in quoting without comment a poet whose work reads like a versified Nick Hornby you're giving undue heed to someone whose voice is already bruited too widely. Paterson is an aesthetically ultra-conservative mandarin whose fear of those whom he broadly tars with the epithet 'postmoderns' is only a problem for the rest of us because of his position as editor of one of the biggest poetry lists in Britain. Turning the volume down on his pronouncements would be a considerable act of justice towards those forms of poetry which are not born of a desire to please the 'average' broadsheet reader. Anyway keep up the good work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-1164933995858033342006-12-01T00:46:00.000+00:002006-12-01T00:46:00.000+00:00forges an unnaturally close relationship between y...<I>forges an unnaturally close relationship between you and the work</I><BR/><BR/>mmmh, sure make me think that's why I don't like reading my own work, but what would naturally close be?<BR/><BR/>religion is suggested, and then... poetry as the secular religion without the religious piety and cant, just the rites and performances...<BR/><BR/>I think its called sport.meikahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05890962242664851062noreply@blogger.com