tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post5212754847103639661..comments2023-04-10T14:29:56.153+01:00Comments on Raw Light: poetry & opinion since 2005: Anecdotal Evidence: `Humor, Imagination, and Manners'Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-29398058404407367312008-08-16T18:44:00.000+01:002008-08-16T18:44:00.000+01:00Also I've never forgiven him for failing to includ...Also I've never forgiven him for failing to include a single work in a Celtic language in his list at the back of The Western Canon. In terms of aesthetic grandeur, I think I would swap e.g the novels of John Crowley and Stevie Smith (both of whom I like but think are minor) for The Mabinogion, The Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Sorely MacLean and Dafydd ap Gwilym, as four representatives of an entire civilisation. Not much to ask.Bohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333815636018847583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-32534594000128476132008-08-16T18:39:00.000+01:002008-08-16T18:39:00.000+01:00Yes, it's like listening to a tedious old uncle so...Yes, it's like listening to a tedious old uncle sometimes - he has favourite words which get overused. 'Gnostic' is one.Bohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333815636018847583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-47995482416573305682008-08-15T16:53:00.000+01:002008-08-15T16:53:00.000+01:00Dot? That's Dotty to you, my girl.I think Eliot's ...Dot? That's Dotty to you, my girl.<BR/><BR/>I think Eliot's very witty indeed ... I'll often be reading something of his in the evenings while Steve's on the other sofa, devouring some worthy television programme about genetics or humanism etc., when I'll suddenly thow back my head with an eldritch shriek of laughter. <BR/><BR/>Dear old Harold Bloom could do with a touch of that wit. His prose is astonishingly shiny and complex, like the inside of a Swiss watch, but boy ... it can be a bit dry at times, you know? A bit like chewing on rubber.Jane Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15590668593487445482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-88377487497172442802008-08-15T16:40:00.000+01:002008-08-15T16:40:00.000+01:00I'm with Dot. But I'm not sure criticism ever real...I'm with Dot. But I'm not sure criticism ever really went away; I've always loved reading it, ever since I was about 14. Most of it, 99% of it, is duller than a jackass, of course. That's why it's so exciting to find something you can actually read.<BR/><BR/>Clearly old Tom was not in the business of telling jokes, but I think one difference between him and many of today's leaden careerists is the seriousness with which they take <I>themselves</I>; he had worked all his life as well as writing, whereas the university system which so famously dominates (esp.) US poetry today really has fostered a sort of ivory tower sensibility, which mitigates completely against a sense of humour, I feel. Anyway, you know Eliot had one: he wrote The Waste Land. It's even better than just being funny: it's called <I>wit</I>.Ms Baroquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01836227454899083962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-28726873959470384722008-08-15T13:37:00.000+01:002008-08-15T13:37:00.000+01:00Yes, and that's almost certainly why Eliot's criti...Yes, and that's almost certainly why Eliot's criticism is still so readable and useful for practitioners as well as consumers of poetry. He knew his onions!Jane Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15590668593487445482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-21701174342821630702008-08-15T11:37:00.000+01:002008-08-15T11:37:00.000+01:00Sounds good. Criticism from a poet is often more i...Sounds good. Criticism from a poet is often more interesting than from a mere academic, with exceptions on either side.<BR/>xxBohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333815636018847583noreply@blogger.com