tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20502279.post1898056092940842922..comments2023-11-03T03:33:00.860-07:00Comments on Jennifer Bartlett, Poet: The Poetics of IdentityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20502279.post-86907473889818328932007-06-16T19:29:00.000-07:002007-06-16T19:29:00.000-07:00Why identity? Why not identities?Why identity? Why not identities?John B-Rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01041221232768939991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20502279.post-67178736089634077892007-06-11T09:25:00.000-07:002007-06-11T09:25:00.000-07:00Thank you both for your comments.Sean, I think you...Thank you both for your comments.<BR/><BR/>Sean, I think you have a good point. It's hard to get one's complete point across in a blog. I guess it's a matter of personal taste. I like work that transends one's personal experience, rather than relies upon it. I think that in the age of the memoir and a landscape of political correctness it it too easy to rely on your own differentness to sell work. <BR/><BR/>I would be curious to hear from people who have reaf Julian Weiss's book, and what she had in mind...Jennifer Bartletthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931457867406555423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20502279.post-89938582779416586442007-06-09T20:52:00.000-07:002007-06-09T20:52:00.000-07:00Hi, thanks for this commentary which I stumbled ac...Hi, thanks for this commentary which I stumbled across. This is certainly worthy of commentary and reflection. You mention Tory Dent which I think is instructive. I think you misunderstand her work. While it is in the context of her illness I think it very much transcends her illness as well -- this is obviously a subjective opinion. Milosz also said that poetry should be written from the trenches, that if it's not meaningful to someone who is facing death, it's not worth writing in the first place. That's what Dent does. I also don't think she ever got a "university job" or sold her illness per se. I remember one quote where she said she didn't consider an audience at all, which is I think the best and most productive way to write. At the end of the day you do the best you can with your writing, tear it out of your heart, try to make it as meaningful and true as you can, everyone makes individual choices about the extent to which aspects of their life come into it. But it is obviously going to reflect the circumstances of your life. How the work is marketed or received is not entirely up to you. I would be careful about scolding others for the choices they make in addressing their own misfortunes. Usually the complaint that one should stop making one's illness a topic of work is born from a desire to not listen. But illness and death are profound topics that deserve a much wider listening than the generally get in our culture.roughguides@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15899589085978074620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20502279.post-32774089917886308202007-06-04T10:14:00.000-07:002007-06-04T10:14:00.000-07:00I agree that the quality of the work has to be pri...I agree that the quality of the work has to be primary, but I think that if you live in a situation in which you are constantly reminded of your "identity", then there's something dishonest about failing to address it directly at least some of the time. While I understand the distaste for marketing one's own otherness, it's a fine line between avoiding that and hiding from oneself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com