tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post6971181842135337537..comments2023-06-27T01:34:35.359-07:00Comments on Ted Burke LIKE IT OR NOT: An unfair take on Derek WalcottTED BURKEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16610296721891201100noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-39681372231033909512013-02-01T07:12:09.955-08:002013-02-01T07:12:09.955-08:00I respect your view that Walcott is "greatest...I respect your view that Walcott is "greatest poet who has ever written in the modern english language", but I do wish you'd made a cogent defense of his work rather than insist that awful things will happen to me if I don't change my view. This , perhaps unintentionally, equates Walcott's work with chain letters ie, "bad things will happen to you if you break the chain." Really, I don't disagree with the political/spiritual argument the poem makes; what sane person can disagree with peace, harmony, understanding between all races? No one, of course. My gripe is about a matter of style, not politics or philosophy. I simply think that Walcott overwrites much of the time and that his power is diminished by the surfeit of well placed qualifiers. Well placed or not, overworked metaphors cloud beauty. <br /><br />Peace.Ted Burkehttp://ted-burke.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-53756800548020795312013-01-31T17:48:32.500-08:002013-01-31T17:48:32.500-08:00Derek Walcott, is, quite simply, to me, the greate...Derek Walcott, is, quite simply, to me, the greatest poet who has ever written in the modern english languague. He is awe-inspiring, and this poem, in particualar, along with the ending IV to The Prodigal, bring me to tears. This poem is an epic and metaphor for the coming together of all the races, humanity, it is beautiful, if you can't see that, your life is going to take ominous turns. God is with me. Don't doubt what I tell you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-8024962543641304402008-07-06T11:10:00.000-07:002008-07-06T11:10:00.000-07:00Collins has more going for him than just terseness...Collins has more going for him than just terseness, and for someone who is not afraid of making sense in the most conventional meaning of the phrase he is surprisingly subtle. I don't make grandiose claims for him as a poet, though, and what I would recommend in his style to Walcott is his economy. My example is limited.<BR/><BR/>I'm well aware of Walcott's background, education and influences, and will admit that the premise of someone from Trinidad writing authentic poetry with a imperialist language, but he does, for me, over shoot his mark. This isn't something I decided after a cursory read; I've read him on and off since College, reacquainting myself with him after he garnered his Nobel, and come to the conclusion that although I know what he's trying to do, I think he over does it too often. <BR/><BR/>Fo I don't care for, and think the Committee could have made several stronger choices, based on a writer's actual art. It occurs to me that they too often shy away from aesthetic worth and measure a candidate by quirky means that are increasingly irrelevant to the current state of literature.TED BURKEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16610296721891201100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-3599478038160471582008-07-06T09:12:00.000-07:002008-07-06T09:12:00.000-07:00Unfortunately Collins' "terseness" seems to be his...Unfortunately Collins' "terseness" seems to be his strongest virtue. I find the actual content of his poems boringly pedestrian, and he writes for what is essentially an 8th grade reading level. He's as commercially successful as he is because he takes few risks and is accessible, so few are offended and fewer are puzzled.<BR/><BR/>While every poet has their vice, likening the word-drunk Walcott to Muzak is ridiculous-- he does take risks, both in the sense that his work takes on political reality of his life-- a classically educated Afro-Caribbean who immigrated to the UK and then to the USA, and also in language-- the dialect of the island of his birth co-exists on the same page as Shakespearian iambic pentameter. As a reader, I find his work very rewarding because it links the modern with the classics.<BR/><BR/>On to Fo: Your only citation against him is his politics. One thing that is important to remember is that the Nobel comittee, when it gave the prize to him did consider, wasn't necessarily his ideology-- but the fact that to stage the sort of political satires he did in Italy during the 1960s and '70s was a very brave thing to do since it could get one killed (in fact, his wife, the actress, now Senator, Franca Rame was abducted, raped and tortured by a group of off duty Military Police officers.) And yes, the Nobel prize does go for acts of literary bravery (see Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.) "Archangels Don't Play Pinball" might not be an important work of world literature, but "Accidental Death of an Anarchist", "Mistero Buffo," and "Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas" are.<BR/><BR/>Oh I had a great 4th. Thanks.Ian Thalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-30057300540101424902008-07-05T06:44:00.000-07:002008-07-05T06:44:00.000-07:00It depends on what sort of music one prefers, I gu...It depends on what sort of music one prefers, I guess, but following the analogy, I would think Walcott's melodies are a thick version of old school Muzak, a terrain of sound where the clearest compositions are turned into the muddiest kind of tonal impressionism. It all sounds that it should add up to something, but it does not, and I find myself agreeing with William Logan, a critic whom I think is too often mean for the sake of being so; in this case he has said that Walcott has never met a metaphor he didn't fall in love with. The habit of trying to make everything rich, full of texture and signifying reversals and poignant oppositions produces not music, but sludge. What Collins could offer Walcott is a certain terseness, a way to value the weight of a line balanced by other figurations he might be considering, and how to come to a point or, if not a point, a convincing place to end the poem. Dario Fo is mentioned solely for the example that the Nobel people are not infallible in their selections for Literature, as subjective a field as one can enter; Fo isn't that fantastic a writer either.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the note, Ian, and I hope you had a great 4th.TED BURKEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16610296721891201100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6531553.post-8908664022073878232008-07-05T05:46:00.000-07:002008-07-05T05:46:00.000-07:00Just to point out that I feel just the opposite: ...Just to point out that I feel just the opposite: Walcott offers richly detailed language with great attention to the musical qualities. The example you gave wasn't the strongest work however.<BR/><BR/>Billy Collins, on the other hand, struck me more as the author of a slightly more polished version of the free verse of bright teenage omphalloskeptics. His work does nothing for me.<BR/><BR/>I'm not sure why you bring Dario Fo into this. Whether one likes his politics or not, he is the most widely translated living playwright in the world today, who has also revived poetic and theatrical traditions of the late medieval and early modern eras as well as making his own unique contributions to theatre.Ian Thalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15348768867561450314noreply@blogger.com