So I read multiple accounts of a study showing that while Americans are reading more fiction than we did a while back, we are reading less poetry. Each of the articles seemed somewhat perplexed by this finding and offered various reasons for possible decline in poetry readership.
Oddly, the articles seemed to attribute the rise in novel reading to Oprah. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I believe Oprah has been a big champion of Maya Angelou. Perhaps I am wrong about this, but if Oprah's Midas touch makes Americans want to read mediocre fiction she approves of, shouldn't it also make them want to read decent poems she likes?
Oprah aside, the various reasons for no love being lost on poetry were as follows:
1) We ruin poetry for people by teaching "classic" poems to high schoolers.
2) Poetry is inaccessible. (by which they mean too "hard" to read, not too hard to locate)
3) Most poetry is bad.
Point 3 seemed particularly valid to me. I think a majority of people believe they can write a poem, but a very very small minority believe they can write a novel. As such, lots of people write really really crappy poems, but far fewer people write entire novels that are terrible. Not to say there are not lots of terrible novels out there, but I bet a straw poll would show that way more Americans have written a poem at some point than written a novel. With the internet it seems even easier to publish really crappy poems. I think that was previously the realm of high school literary mags and chapbooks, but now anyone can post lousy material to a pretty broad audience. I've trolled at some poetry websites and found the general quality of submissions to be pretty terrible. This seems sort of like people looking at a Mondrian or a Pollock and thinking "hell, I could paint that" but not thinking the same thing about the Sistine Chapel.
Maybe that leads to a point about how we teach poetry. I'm not sure that teaching Shelley to high schoolers ruins poetry for them. I think Dickinson gets taught pretty universally to American teens and she's about as accessible as you can get. I guess I understand point 1 to be that we start kids on poems that are too "hard." Which sort of dovetails with point 2, no? I think this is a straw man. We don't start kids on sonnets, we start them on Seuss and Silverstein. Earliest exposure to poetry is to very accessible and age appropriate material. I don't really see how graduating to Keats in high school would be more alienating that graduating from Clifford in grade school to Fitzgerald in high school. Apparently this doesn't ruin novels for people, at least per the results of the study, so it seems a thin argument to make for ruining poetry.
Also, I think maybe inaccessibility is an issue, though physically, not intellectually. Ever tried to pick up some poetry at the airport to read on the plane? I haven't really found Simic next to Grisham on the shelf. We market novels in more of an eye candy and impulse buy kind of way. You have to go looking for poetry. Say what you will about Amazon and online book shopping, they strip away the serendipity of the brick and mortar book store. If I go into a shop I can go to the poetry section and browse and read a poem here or there and find a volume that seems worth my time. You can't really do the same online. I think poetry sales relied on serendipitous purchases far more than novels did and have been hurt by the web stores far more.
I think all of this is a bit sad since it likely means even less decent work will get published. That's a shame. I thought the inauguration would have been a nice way to get some positive press for poets, but I think Elizabeth Alexander was a pretty lame choice and she produced a dreadful poem for the occasion. Honestly, I think it is a good thing that this NEA study rated so much ink today. That's more press than poetry usually gets in the mainstream media in a year all in one day.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Decision!
Well, the offers are in, negotiations have occurred, and we have a decision. We are moving to Maryland next year! I am crossing my fingers that this will be a permanent move for us and we can really put some roots down. Now the fun of arranging a multi-state move begins. Luckily we know the area really well so house hunting is much easier than it ever has been with our other moves.
Cora's excited to go back to Maryland and get back to the beach. Scott is excited to get back to fresh crab cakes. I am excited to get back somewhere less flat, more scenic, and closer to water. Schatzi is excited to get back to Lake Artemesia and riding shotgun all over town. Daphne has no clue what is going on, but she is a total fish so I imagine she'll enjoy the beach and the great UMD pools as well. Also, I love DC so getting back to the city will be great.
Cora's all signed up for school next year and I started the ball rolling on setting up a Daisy Scout troop for her class. Now I need to start looking for a little part-time library work, but I think I have something that is a good possibility there too. All in all, things really couldn't have ended up much better for me and the girls. I'm hoping the job ends up being really good for Scott too.
Cora's excited to go back to Maryland and get back to the beach. Scott is excited to get back to fresh crab cakes. I am excited to get back somewhere less flat, more scenic, and closer to water. Schatzi is excited to get back to Lake Artemesia and riding shotgun all over town. Daphne has no clue what is going on, but she is a total fish so I imagine she'll enjoy the beach and the great UMD pools as well. Also, I love DC so getting back to the city will be great.
Cora's all signed up for school next year and I started the ball rolling on setting up a Daisy Scout troop for her class. Now I need to start looking for a little part-time library work, but I think I have something that is a good possibility there too. All in all, things really couldn't have ended up much better for me and the girls. I'm hoping the job ends up being really good for Scott too.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Decisions and finicky babies
Scott will be getting back from Maryland late tonight and he was told he will hear from them on Tuesday. The contract from South Africa should get to us this week too so it looks like it will be decision time in the Jackson household. That feels pretty darn good.
Another decision has also been made. Cora will be going to Holy Redeemer next year if we are in Maryland. Scott visited both potential schools and it was Holy Redeemer by a nose. Scott also scoped out some potential apartments for us and we have become acutely aware of what a great deal we had with our old place in Hyattsville. The dip in the housing market certainly does not seem to have brought down rental prices in the DC area. The dip in the housing market unfortunately has brought down housing prices in Champaign, though not as badly as elsewhere, so it is not the best time to be selling a house, but it is what it is.
In yet another illustration of how very different Daphne is personality-wise from Cora (this may seem obvious but it is somewhat startling because they look exactly alike), I discovered that she is incredibly particular about pacifiers. She's chewed a couple into flattened submission this week (top teeth coming in made her a chompy monster) so I picked up some spares at Meijer. They didn't have her size in the Nuk brand she uses, so I got her the correct size in the Mam pacifiers.
She hates them. Won't even use them. Pacifier goes in mouth, she makes a face of total disapproval, spits it out and then throws it behind her. Obviously I don't use a pacifier, but they really don't seem all that different to me. Peanut's having none of it though. I guess they will go in the trash because you can't really give a used pacifier to someone else who might use it.
But boy it drove home how very different these girls are. Cora was an infinitely flexible and tolerant baby. She just went along with whatever with a smile. Peanut has opinions. About everything. A sock is on slightly askew and she can't nap. A pacifier isn't up to her standards and it will never be used. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as she grows up. One of the issues Cora has had at school is letting some of the other children run over her. She doesn't object because she doesn't want to upset anyone. She seems to be appropriately bossy with her little sister, though she does let Daphne pull her hair and pinch her and doesn't tell her no because she thinks Daphne is enjoying herself.
Another decision has also been made. Cora will be going to Holy Redeemer next year if we are in Maryland. Scott visited both potential schools and it was Holy Redeemer by a nose. Scott also scoped out some potential apartments for us and we have become acutely aware of what a great deal we had with our old place in Hyattsville. The dip in the housing market certainly does not seem to have brought down rental prices in the DC area. The dip in the housing market unfortunately has brought down housing prices in Champaign, though not as badly as elsewhere, so it is not the best time to be selling a house, but it is what it is.
In yet another illustration of how very different Daphne is personality-wise from Cora (this may seem obvious but it is somewhat startling because they look exactly alike), I discovered that she is incredibly particular about pacifiers. She's chewed a couple into flattened submission this week (top teeth coming in made her a chompy monster) so I picked up some spares at Meijer. They didn't have her size in the Nuk brand she uses, so I got her the correct size in the Mam pacifiers.
She hates them. Won't even use them. Pacifier goes in mouth, she makes a face of total disapproval, spits it out and then throws it behind her. Obviously I don't use a pacifier, but they really don't seem all that different to me. Peanut's having none of it though. I guess they will go in the trash because you can't really give a used pacifier to someone else who might use it.
But boy it drove home how very different these girls are. Cora was an infinitely flexible and tolerant baby. She just went along with whatever with a smile. Peanut has opinions. About everything. A sock is on slightly askew and she can't nap. A pacifier isn't up to her standards and it will never be used. It will be interesting to see how this pans out as she grows up. One of the issues Cora has had at school is letting some of the other children run over her. She doesn't object because she doesn't want to upset anyone. She seems to be appropriately bossy with her little sister, though she does let Daphne pull her hair and pinch her and doesn't tell her no because she thinks Daphne is enjoying herself.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Spring Cleaning
It looks like Spring may be arriving in Champaign. I think we may hit 60 today, though the gale force winds are kind of putting a damper on enjoying the weather. Scott is in College Park interviewing with CASL (cross fingers) and I am longing for the DC area, which is quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth in Spring. Right now they are predicting peak bloom for the cherry blossoms from April 3-9. This picture doesn't do it justice. It looks like the world is covered in cotton candy and snow but it is actually flowers everywhere. Anyways, I miss Maryland and I'm hopeful...
South Africa is sending the contract documents via courier, so we should know better what we are dealing with in terms of that offer very soon. I hope we will know where we are heading in the next couple of weeks. It will be good just to know.
I just finished reading Roberto Bolano's 2666. I'm not done processing yet, but this is an important book. How important is what I'm having a hard time judging. I am fairly confident it is the best novel I've read that's been written after 1980. That may not sound like it is saying a lot if you know about my distaste for most recent literature, but there have been some bright points in the last 3 decades, so it isn't a hollow compliment. By best I mean it is best as judged by a combination of writing and importance, not that it has been my favorite read. It is not a happy or light read at all, though it does read really fast for being roughly the same size as War and Peace.
Most of the critical reviews I've seen have been almost fawning. I think this is partly due to the author being dead. I think the tone might be a little more measured if the author was living. The book isn't without flaws, though I suppose that gets mitigated by the fact that this work was in draft when Bolano died.
My trouble in judging the book is coming from a combination of the style of the book itself and the author's death. So the book is actually 5 books revolving around a central location, Santa Teresa (which is a thinly veiled Ciudad Juarez). The place unifies the work, but the place itself is not really the point. While the book seems pretty place-driven, much like Under the Volcano and One Hundred Years of Solitude, which really seem to be the parents of 2666 in many ways, I don't really think the place is much other than a stand in for what the author is really focusing on. Bolano doesn't attack his central theme directly, nor does he ever explicitly articulate it. Reading the books is like examining from a distance the concentric circles that ripple in water after an object is thrown in. Part of my dilemma in judging this book is that all we have are the circles so we have to guess what it was that was thrown in. That is easy enough -- death. But I'm not positive whether it was death as a boulder and the ripples are tsunami sized or whether it was death as a pebble. I think most of the reviews I've read have taken it on faith that Bolano threw a boulder here, but I think that is because of some assumed insight or intimacy with the topic because he was dying as he wrote. I'm not really sure the book itself bears that out. I'm struggling to see what is new here, what is different, what is unique and important about whatever it was Bolano threw in. I'm not sure I'm there yet. The book bears rereading and regardless of whether it was a boulder or a pebble, this book is masterfully done and important in the canon of great works I think. I haven't decided whether it goes in my top 100 ever though. Still on the fence on that one. At any rate, I recommend it. And I'd love to chat about it with anyone else who reads it.
South Africa is sending the contract documents via courier, so we should know better what we are dealing with in terms of that offer very soon. I hope we will know where we are heading in the next couple of weeks. It will be good just to know.
I just finished reading Roberto Bolano's 2666. I'm not done processing yet, but this is an important book. How important is what I'm having a hard time judging. I am fairly confident it is the best novel I've read that's been written after 1980. That may not sound like it is saying a lot if you know about my distaste for most recent literature, but there have been some bright points in the last 3 decades, so it isn't a hollow compliment. By best I mean it is best as judged by a combination of writing and importance, not that it has been my favorite read. It is not a happy or light read at all, though it does read really fast for being roughly the same size as War and Peace.
Most of the critical reviews I've seen have been almost fawning. I think this is partly due to the author being dead. I think the tone might be a little more measured if the author was living. The book isn't without flaws, though I suppose that gets mitigated by the fact that this work was in draft when Bolano died.
My trouble in judging the book is coming from a combination of the style of the book itself and the author's death. So the book is actually 5 books revolving around a central location, Santa Teresa (which is a thinly veiled Ciudad Juarez). The place unifies the work, but the place itself is not really the point. While the book seems pretty place-driven, much like Under the Volcano and One Hundred Years of Solitude, which really seem to be the parents of 2666 in many ways, I don't really think the place is much other than a stand in for what the author is really focusing on. Bolano doesn't attack his central theme directly, nor does he ever explicitly articulate it. Reading the books is like examining from a distance the concentric circles that ripple in water after an object is thrown in. Part of my dilemma in judging this book is that all we have are the circles so we have to guess what it was that was thrown in. That is easy enough -- death. But I'm not positive whether it was death as a boulder and the ripples are tsunami sized or whether it was death as a pebble. I think most of the reviews I've read have taken it on faith that Bolano threw a boulder here, but I think that is because of some assumed insight or intimacy with the topic because he was dying as he wrote. I'm not really sure the book itself bears that out. I'm struggling to see what is new here, what is different, what is unique and important about whatever it was Bolano threw in. I'm not sure I'm there yet. The book bears rereading and regardless of whether it was a boulder or a pebble, this book is masterfully done and important in the canon of great works I think. I haven't decided whether it goes in my top 100 ever though. Still on the fence on that one. At any rate, I recommend it. And I'd love to chat about it with anyone else who reads it.
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