Comments on: Here Are Two Things You Could Be Reading

By: tamiadestiney

tamiadestiney — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:08:38 +0000

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By: Spencer Gordon

Spencer Gordon — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:52:18 +0000

Hey Jake,

I appreciate your post about my review of Thran’s book. I regret talking so much about a cultural moment or the position the book seems to take up in our field of production. Such talk can get whipped up, drunk and stupid. I think I celebrated the book too much, was too hyperbolic with my praise. I also regret that (along with Lista’s and Latosik’s writing) the review contributed to what you believe are hipster identifiers and insider knowledge.

I’d like to ask you how hipster identifiers and insider knowledge are being used in this review, and what those terms mean, exactly, but I think I can guess. Nevertheless, I think you’re on to something here that we are all guilty of, and that is talking about what a book could mean or stand for rather than what the poems in the book are actually expressing and achieving. Maybe this isn’t a bad thing. We’re not actually expected to read Kenneth Goldsmith, but we’re expected to be fluent or aware of his conceptual audacity. More or less.

Poets gain reputations beyond their work. I think angela rawlings introduced Thran at the Scream in High Park as some sort of FUTURE of Canadian poetry. I think he wore big clunky hipster glasses and A Tribe Called Quest t-shirt. Makes people start sorting him out, placing him in a specific context, position versus opposition. These signifiers may not seem valuable to a critic of poetry, but perhaps they should be … or will increasingly be ..

Just talkin’ back.

By: Kevin C

Kevin C — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:50:17 +0000

Completely agree about Russell’s somwhatoblivious, typically entitled (my opinion) attitude towards getting paid or not. If I’d waited to get paid to write critical pieces/reviews/ commentary when I was 21 I’d still be waiting. I’ve worked for a number of years with some pretty gifted writers coming out of the Ryerson Grad journalism program, and many of them are still waiting to get paid for their writing, much of which is a lot better than what I was doing when I was 21. I still do piles of work in the cultural sector for nothing or next to it, because that’s what we all have to do (as you’re doing here — splendidly IMO) or we won’t really have a culture to do it in. Maybe writing about ties and Lulu Lemon and dinner parties is different. He’s defending shrinking turf, I get it. But don’t tell the rest of us what we want for our words. The best of mine have been more or less free, most of the time.

By: voxpopulism

voxpopulism — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 23:19:37 +0000

Heh, well noted, Heather. I got the impression you liked it, too.

By: Heather Cadsby

Heather Cadsby — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:29:30 +0000

Jake, just to clarify, I like Earworm. I wasn’t responding to that, but rather taking off from your phrase “cult support”.

By: voxpopulism

voxpopulism — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:38:34 +0000

Hi Heather,

Gosh, I hope not. If only because it’s so hard already to find credible (and willing) critics at any age. Seems like limiting by generation would make that even tougher.

What you’re worrying about is a form of provincialism, really. The mutually protective blanket of a group of artists wrapping themselves up in some socially-adopted “community”. It’s a legit fear, maybe. Some books promote it without meaning to. I don’t think I’ve seen a review of Earworm written by anyone under the age of 35 yet, though the back cover has blurbers who are older, I think. It’s to balance, because taste does tend to trend demographically in big ways and small ways, and those trends become a sort of shorthand that encourages potential readers on one side of them, and discourages those on the other.

I hope a wide swath of people are reading Earworm, though, as I think it’s really great. And while many of the cultural motifs are contemporary (or less contemporary: see Pink Floyd) the deeper of theme and music is broader. Lots to like for fans of Hughes or Transtromer, maybe Carson even, there.

By: Heather Cadsby

Heather Cadsby — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:21:17 +0000

Jake, you say “cult support”. It’s a point worth exploring. We all need the applause of our own generation. But it can be a narrow band of significance and a possibly exaggerated sense of worth. I may be a really really good poet but it won’t be just because of declarations by my age peers. If I’m under 30, is there a creditable critic over 50 for my work? And vice versa?

By: david m.

david m. — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:20:55 +0000

Smith does not seem to realize that most writing does not fit into the narrow strip of culture that generates enough money for it to trickle down into paid work.

The result of his advocacy would silence a much wider contribution to culture.

His argument is not accurate in claiming that it is a generational divide, and he does not produce writing that is commensurate with the kind of sage fountain of wisdom that he is claiming as his right.

At the end, this is one of the few honest things he has ever written:

“I don’t care so much about the young people’s careers, I care about mine”

I do not see any generational caretaking or wisdom in this.

I only see the basest variety of public culture where people expect to be applauded for a lack of integrity that willfully declares its power through entitlement and arrogance.

(For the record, Russel Smith has never worked the crime desk, nor has he ever challenged his own coverage of stylists in any corner of the fashion industry.)