Is it art or porn? Is this music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHKO3Cnh8Zg ? Is it more sureal or impressionist? We will always label and categorize for simplicity, ease of understanding, and organizing. How important is the label we place on things versus the substance they contain? In class last week, I felt we talked a lot about what was or wasn't a sonnet or poem, where it fit in, or how important it was to a particular movement. In the end, I felt we didn't really dive into how the poems made us feel or if they had any effect on us at all. I feel like those who call experimental poetry "lesser" poetry are made uncomfortable by something they can't understand. They can rely on past experience to point and nitpick why unconventional forms don't fit the criteria for past "great" poetry. To them poetry has been explained and defined already, and they've established schemas and thoughts allowing them to appreciate only poems that echoed classics rather than ones with an entirely different point of origin.
The argument of what is or isn't has already become obsolete in my opinion. We are exposed to so many conflicting thoughts, sounds, and ideas in our lifetime we have become more than familiar with ambiguity and unconventional thought. Some people will find experimental forms revolting and some will enjoy them. Art or poetry that obsesses over this war of definition is the only thing I personally find "inferior" as it seeks to shatter boundaries and mental models that were broken long ago or never really existed save for in the minds of some academics or critics. I am much more interested in reading or experiencing something new and interesting than listening to an artist complain about how the masses interpret his or her work. The concept that nothing new or original can be made is a prison we construct for ourselves out of fear of challenging what we have become reliant on. There's plenty left to discover.
-Brian Walker
I like how you brought up the question on how important a label is. Poetry is poetry but who is to say what poetry is? The guest speaker even had a hard time defining poetry and we all had different views on it ourselves. With that knowledge, why would anyone feel the right to label what is greater or lesser poetry simply because it is different? I agree that in today's society, we are exposed to so many view points and sounds, etc that labels are in a sense ridiculous and absurd. However, I argue that they aren't obsolete. They sadly do still exist and I think your closing paragraph even shows this. People will either hate or love experimental poetry but someone will always be there to put it into some category or argue over what category it belongs to.
ReplyDeleteJae Khoury
I say what is poetry ultimately, as the reader.
ReplyDeleteAs important as the author is, the reader is moreso, for their reaction is ultimately the reality of things.
You might write an epic poem, but it no one can make sense of it, it will be considered prose, or otherwise.
Effectiveness of communication is what counts in any writing piece. I sometimes wonder if perhaps that is what poetry is; the attempt to introduce art to communication.