To me it isn't a question of where a poet has been published, but how they live their lives, and/or what they stand for, and that pretty much covers most of what I appreciate in the culture. That's why I don't hate the Levis ad with the Bukowski poem, or disregard anyone who figures out a way to make a dollar doing something creative, even if that dollar comes from The New Yorker, Paramount Pictures or the Beijing Olympics.
It's a personal thing with me, and people who teach writing or poetry or film making or anything else by parroting a lot of boundaries and rules and accepted methodology all rub me the wrong way. If it's a character flaw on my part, it's one I've learned to accept. I need some dirt on my lettuce, and a life of academia isn't exactly the best place to acquire any kind of grit. Or an interesting personality, or anything at all that interests me on an artistic level. It's a safe road, and the safe road only takes you to the mall or the capitol building.
There is a built-in condescension in that academic poetry that makes me want to stuff it back down the writer's throat. And when they reinforce that condescension by making comments denigrating anything that isn't academic or "intelligent," I only want to stuff their work and their words back down their throats further and with considerably more force. They aren't my people, and I think their art - all of it - is shit.
That can be based on their comments or my observations without reading, seeing or otherwise consuming any of their shit. I don't see how that is invalid in any way. I don't have to watch Spiderman on Broadway or whatever it's called to know I'm going to profoundly hate it with every molecule of my being. In the same way that I know I will probably like certain other things because they are in a realm or done by a person that I already know I enjoy. Isn't that human nature? Are we not men?
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Now I just read back what I typed and I don't know if it makes any sense in the grand scheme of things. I can think of arguments against myself (not uncommon, I'm afraid). But I suppose I'll hit "Post Reply" anyway, if for no other reason than to maintain my status as a loudmouth.