commenting v. reading and then commenting

[annaswirls]

You mean I can't make my "bake until an inserted prick comes out clean" joke?

if it comes out clean you are doing something wrong



ewopper, very good points!

 

[My Erotic Trail]

After reading this I have to say to the true poet, criticism of their work; though painful can be used to springboard them on to another work. My advice to the poet is, if it's going to change the impact or meaning of the work don't change anything, remember criticism is not absolute it's just one person's viewpoint of your work. You also have to take in consideration some people are just critical in nature and they're going to go over your work with a fine tooth comb and they are going to find something if it's no more than the fact that you used a comma where you should have used a semi colon.
remain true to your work if a change must be made make sure it's what you want... after all you are the author

I always recall;

The 'famed' critics of the day coined Mark Twain as being nothing more than an illiterate childrens book writer. I am so glad Samuel did not listen to those critics or we would not have the classics that we do today, his books read by both teens and adults to this day. So I agree, dont listen to them, but listen to your heart and take what you can use from their words if anything and go on. They are not the publishers of books or the trend setters for poetry, simply members of lit with an opinion, nice or not, and remember there are no professional poets <grin

 

[anniebug's man]

I'm not sure what that means, but I like it a lot. Cheers, A & AB's M.

It refers to the making of cakes. Being european I tend to use fruit in my cakes. She says: why did you fuck up a perfectly wonderful chocolate cake with fruit (i.e. cherries). It has taken a life of it's own, and now signifies a disgreement on the contents of our life

BTW I love fucking things up with fruit. It makes for the sweet tart, or a tart sweet...ah what the hell I am not sure what I am cooking here

 

[twelveoone]

Let me repost here my note placed elsewhere on Internet. It was with me for months, it is a result of years of observing several poetic Internet lists. I wonder what is your experience and how you feel about the issue. In particular, do you recall skipping yourself the reading stage on occasions, and getting into the critic's gear right away.

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commenting v. reading and then commenting


The natural idea that the poems should be read, that they should be given a chance and enjoyed, is long gone on the Internet. Instead of reading poems, the Internauts, who know their ABC (or AB or A) about poetry and not more, comment on poems -- they just comment, criticise, suggest modifications... It doesn't occur to them that a poem can be worth coming back to it over a long time.

The overwhelming majority of poems posted on the Internet are indeed poor. Then the shallow, routine, even mechanical comments by the ABC-experts possibly make some sense (or do they?). It is a very limited situation. Certainly one cannot assist a strong poem by commenting on it without reading it first, truly reading, trying to reflect on it. The mechanical critical attitude blinds the critic to poetry. The whole participation exercise of the ABC expert is then meaningless.

Wlod

Most of what is posted here, is not strong, thus I am baffled by your arguement. I am baffled by your seeming advocation of a holistic approach, when you seem to rely on an ABC and giving you the benefit of the doubt DEF approach in your comments.

A if a word is misspelled without an apparent reason it is misspelled
B if the grammar or syntax is wrong without an apparent reason it is wrong
C if someone uses a cliche without it having a secondary purpose it's a cliche, and thus boring
These people perform a valuable service, at least I think so, for me anyway.

D,E,F is where we start to get into the subjective area, the recognition of technique, the determination of skill, (all those thing they mention in a poetry dictionary) this starts becoming value judgement. Recognition of those patterns, why they are broken, etc. There are some good people here that can do this, they are not meaningless. It points to possible weaknesses, the authour has to defend his choices. I know this is incomprehensiable to a certain class of people here. Too bad.

Let's go beyond that, I've seen your writing, get to the question of why it works, why it doesn't. Then the "holistic" approach comes in. More aptly the synchronicity of the component parts. The viewing of such is usually coloured by a theory. Theory "works" in a specified set of circumstances. Falls apart in others (think gravity here).
Pathetic?
What do you advocate, tell me.