Mean
Poetry for Poetry Haters: The Northville Review
It is very timely that during Mean Week, The Northville Review‘s Poetry for Poetry Haters issue has gone live. Northville editor Erin Fitzgerald interviewed the issue’s guest editor Whitney Freemesser who explains why she hates poetry.
Why do you hate poetry?
I don’t like frou-frou OH SO DEEP descriptions of things. If something is black, say it is black. Don’t say it’s inky jet ebony.
As people who received a rejection slip for this issue discovered, you do actually like some poetry. The example we gave out was Richard Brautigan’s At the California Institute of Technology. Can you talk a little bit about why you do like this poem, and maybe name some others?
I like it because it’s simple and not overwrought with emotion. We don’t have to listen to lines and lines of the same sentiment repeated thirteen different ways. As for other poems that I like, I like most of Brautigan’s work. Also, there’s a poetry anthology called “Pictures That Storm Inside My Head”, edited by Richard Peck. I like the title poem from that one, though I don’t remember who wrote it.
Do you think that eliminating repetitive and overwrought elements might be the key to getting people to actually like poetry?
Well, it would make ME like poetry a lot more. But I’m not the usual poetry audience. I don’t have the time/energy/patience to listen to it. It’s like listening to my son try to tell a story – it takes him a few tries to get started, so he’ll repeat the same phrase over and over – and I just want to yell “GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!” And then it’ll turn out to be something about Wii Sports Resort or Phineas and Ferb.
Read more of this interview here and enjoy poetry from Ryan Bradley, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Howie Good and Daniel Romo.
I think I love Whitney Freemesser.
I think I love Whitney Freemesser.
for the love of god, give me the credit for that photo! I must know who owns that
for the love of god, give me the credit for that photo! I must know who owns that
really?
and she just wants to yell GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!
speaks for itself yeah?
really?
and she just wants to yell GET TO THE POINT ALREADY!
speaks for itself yeah?
inky jet ebony!
inky jet ebony!
“I don’t like frou-frou OH SO DEEP descriptions of things.”
do people only do that in poetry? sounds like she dislikes bad writing, not just poetry.
“I don’t like frou-frou OH SO DEEP descriptions of things.”
do people only do that in poetry? sounds like she dislikes bad writing, not just poetry.
i think she’s the type to like the color purple.
not the book or the movie but the color
i mean regal blue
i think she’s the type to like the color purple.
not the book or the movie but the color
i mean regal blue
Yeah, it really sounds like she hasn’t read much poetry. Plenty of poets just say “black.” The only ones who might say “inky jet ebony” are 15-year-olds, or 55-year-olds who write like 15-year-olds.
Yeah, it really sounds like she hasn’t read much poetry. Plenty of poets just say “black.” The only ones who might say “inky jet ebony” are 15-year-olds, or 55-year-olds who write like 15-year-olds.
I, too, dislike it.
I, too, dislike it.
nice –
it seems that one word comments are verboten. i could not post the word ‘nice’
nice –
it seems that one word comments are verboten. i could not post the word ‘nice’
She “doesn’t have the time/energy/patience to listen to it.” What’s implied in her whole nothing of a discourse is that she doesn’t have the time/energy/patience to read it either. Somehow she still managed to choose some worthy poems in spite of her lack of “time/energy/patience.”
And also, being a father who has a daughter who will circle around things, who will tirelessly repeat things, who teaches me how much texture, color, beauty there is in language, in stories, I feel sorry for her child.
She “doesn’t have the time/energy/patience to listen to it.” What’s implied in her whole nothing of a discourse is that she doesn’t have the time/energy/patience to read it either. Somehow she still managed to choose some worthy poems in spite of her lack of “time/energy/patience.”
And also, being a father who has a daughter who will circle around things, who will tirelessly repeat things, who teaches me how much texture, color, beauty there is in language, in stories, I feel sorry for her child.
I’ve met the child in question. You have nothing to worry about.
I’ve met the child in question. You have nothing to worry about.
is it possible to agree with this person’s sentiment while hating the way the present it?
is it possible to agree with this person’s sentiment while hating the way the present it?
sorry — i mean “the way *they* present it”
sorry — i mean “the way *they* present it”
I really enjoyed this issue and the interview! I also don’t care for much poetry.
I really enjoyed this issue and the interview! I also don’t care for much poetry.
Gombrowicz gave a speech about this at a poetry conference no less. I think it’s called “Against Poets.”
Gombrowicz gave a speech about this at a poetry conference no less. I think it’s called “Against Poets.”
So, here’s the thing. I don’t mind if someone doesn’t like poetry. Not everybody likes everything, and that’s fine. But with a lot of people, they’re basing their opinion, “I don’t like poetry”, on a handful of poems and poets they’ve come across. It just doesn’t make sense to come to a conclusive judgment about an entire genre based on just a few examples.
It’s like this: it’s like a person who has never eaten candy before—any kind of candy at all—who samples one of each flavor of Jolly Rancher, doesn’t like any of them, and concludes, “I don’t like candy.” Little do they know that even though each Jolly Rancher is slightly different, there are entire classes of candy totally unlike Jolly Ranchers. Chocolate candies, soft candies, sweet candies, chewy candies, crumbly candies, sticky candies…. And they’ll never know, because they thought that with their small experience with Jolly Ranchers, their experience of Candy was complete.
When I took an intro creative writing course in college, we used this awful (to me) anthology, The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, edited by J.D. McClatchy. I was bored by the whole thing, and I said, “I don’t like poetry.” A couple years later I started discovering poets that were nothing like those in the anthology. Kenneth Koch, for one. And then I said, “hey, I do like poetry, just not the conventional, mainstreamy kind they were making us read in class. What’s this “New York School”? Aha! Today is a happy day.”
So, here’s the thing. I don’t mind if someone doesn’t like poetry. Not everybody likes everything, and that’s fine. But with a lot of people, they’re basing their opinion, “I don’t like poetry”, on a handful of poems and poets they’ve come across. It just doesn’t make sense to come to a conclusive judgment about an entire genre based on just a few examples.
It’s like this: it’s like a person who has never eaten candy before—any kind of candy at all—who samples one of each flavor of Jolly Rancher, doesn’t like any of them, and concludes, “I don’t like candy.” Little do they know that even though each Jolly Rancher is slightly different, there are entire classes of candy totally unlike Jolly Ranchers. Chocolate candies, soft candies, sweet candies, chewy candies, crumbly candies, sticky candies…. And they’ll never know, because they thought that with their small experience with Jolly Ranchers, their experience of Candy was complete.
When I took an intro creative writing course in college, we used this awful (to me) anthology, The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, edited by J.D. McClatchy. I was bored by the whole thing, and I said, “I don’t like poetry.” A couple years later I started discovering poets that were nothing like those in the anthology. Kenneth Koch, for one. And then I said, “hey, I do like poetry, just not the conventional, mainstreamy kind they were making us read in class. What’s this “New York School”? Aha! Today is a happy day.”
His anthology of “World Poetry” is waaaaay better.
His anthology of “World Poetry” is waaaaay better.
I agree with you say here, John.
I love the way “children” of all ages talk – tots, teenagers, young adults. Hipsters even. Gangstas, cholos, gossip girls, Oakland ESL-ers, SF Muni fightas, etc etc etc.
Maurice Sendak. A Perfect Day for Bananafish. “My mother is a fish.”
I agree with you say here, John.
I love the way “children” of all ages talk – tots, teenagers, young adults. Hipsters even. Gangstas, cholos, gossip girls, Oakland ESL-ers, SF Muni fightas, etc etc etc.
Maurice Sendak. A Perfect Day for Bananafish. “My mother is a fish.”
…with _what_ you say…
…with _what_ you say…
that bitch be stupid.
that bitch be stupid.
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