Comments on: Welsh Poetry, Psychogeography & EcoPoetics

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:17:55 +0000

Forest, re “how people want to define themselves and how they come to be defined can vary of course” — inarguably true. Perhaps the most optimistic view of that process is that it produces multiple, overlapping definitions, and thus somehow more meanings; I would suggest that the word “Situationism” hasn’t only taken on a life, but taken on a meaning that the Situationists might disavow or even contest. So that’s a gain, somehow, in what can be done with words. But it’s also a risk that the usage might mislead about the very thing it seems to refer to. I know, I know, this problem is endless — look what’s become of “Luddite.” I guess I wished only to say that I think we gain by holding onto the word’s use and the history of its misuse both. Best.
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By: Jane_says

Jane_says — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:24:21 +0000

Not an academic- how many people still read Welsh?
If it is not translated, the poetry remains a curiosity, a rebel. Unread.
Maybe it’s good, or perhaps, the poetry is poor and hiding?
Perhaps this refusal to translate is just cyhoeddusrwydd?
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By: Don Share

Don Share — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:41:02 +0000

Some younger poets remain interested in the infamous cynghanedd!
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By: Kent Johnson

Kent Johnson — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 12:40:07 +0000

The richest, most impossibly complex prosody in Western poetry is Welsh. The intricacy and esotericism can be mind-boggling.
I’m curious if any of these younger poets are working within some of those forms, even “translucinating” them, as you have it. Is the recovery of formal traditions an element of that “reluctance to appear in English translation”?
Kent
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By: Forrest Gander

Forrest Gander — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 10:07:39 +0000

Thanks Jane. You make a good point, although how people want to define themselves and how they come to be defined can vary of course. And particularly in relation to psychology (and psychogeography), the word Situationism has taken on a life. But in light of your point, I’m going back in to make a change.
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By: jane

jane — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:46:36 +0000

Forrest,
thanks for the post on this topic. For what it’s worth, as either a pedantic textual note or an actual political claim: the SI aggressively rejected the term “Situationism,” as they claimed to be committed only to practice and not to an ideological program. And I think this is probably fair, more than when many folks casually disparage “-isms” and present themselves as postideological. The SI certainly had articulated and highly politicized ideas as well as actions, but they offered no positive program, took no joiners, and endeavored to have no participation in “politics” as such. I think their commitment to negation gives them the right — the cred — to refuse the “-ism” in this case. As my friend Annie sez:
solid, j
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