Thursday, May 04, 2006

not a poem or a plug.

"if you care about a particular political, social, or ethical dimension then what does it mean to be doing work that exists in rather an exotic form that most people don’t have access to? I tend to think the primary reason they don’t find it accessible is the training they’ve received, the pedagogy, and that training for instance in how to read need not be so restrictive that it makes people fear anything they can’t immediately make sense of. This is how the unintelligible becomes the ground of political bashing—what is not immediately understandable is automatically classified as dangerously alien"
Joan Retallack, interviewed by Redell Olsen

So how does this change, then? Should it change? This is the biggest issue for me with reguard to experimental poetics, and also something I have to resist when reading...that urge to skim over and think 'what can I get from this?'.

1 comment:

Addison Lande said...

hmm..i have no definite answers, but the poetry/prose/art that have been the biggest smacks to my head (in a very positive way) have been rather "out there"

for music this is a bit different for me, but my background in that area is also rooted in experimental/punk/fucked-up.

sometimes i've received these head-smacks from art rooted in popular culture but these smacks were always received during analysis from what might be considered a weirdo/"alienated" perspective..

due to my brain and my tendencies i find myself in this position.. these strange exotic forms are often how i deal with being seen as "exotic/other" by others. or just feeling "crazy" even if it's my natural tendencies(??) in question.