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Among the Intellectualoids
Poets and Capitalism
A mismatch made in democracy heaven.
(Page 2 of 2)
with delight at the persecution of the bourgeoisie, and of the bourgeois mentality. It is a rich reward for the degradation he felt when he had to be part of the middle class, and when there seemed to be no way out of the cycle of birth and death…Yet he is warm-hearted and good; he is a friend of mankind. Not mankind as it is, but as it should be.
While the poet later suffers because he realizes that this new order imposes painful aesthetic constraints, “the recompense for all pain is the certainty that one belongs to the new and conquering world, even though it is not nearly so comfortable and joyous a world as its propaganda would have one think.”
Some American poets may nourish exactly this hope, but I doubt most harbor such catastrophic dreams of the end of the current economic order. The fact is capitalism coupled with democracy, despite all the problems and potential pitfalls, offers the poet a greater opportunity to practice his craft to connect with his audience than most political systems of the past, and most poets recognize this. But in order for this connection to happen, poets must write for their audience rather than merely against them, connecting in love, not self-serving egotism.
John Burnside, this year’s winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, which was announced last month, reminds us of the importance of a poetry that engages the world (and its readers):
[P]oetry is important because it makes us think, it opens us up to wonder and the sometimes astonishing possibilities of language. It is, in its subtle yet powerful way, a discipline for reengaging with a world we take too much for granted.
About the Author
Micah Mattix is an assistant professor of literature at Houston Baptist University.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (45) | Leave a comment
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Hal G. P. Colebatch| 2.27.12 @ 8:19AM
The irony is that T. S. Eliot was a bank-manager and company direcor.
cuban pete| 2.27.12 @ 9:08AM
Wallace Stevens was the vice president of an insurance company.
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 9:54AM
"The irony is that T. S. Eliot was a bank-manager and company direcor."
All the more reason to refuse the funds.
Amiri Baraka shouldn't tirade against Jews but you can tirade against Islamics?
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 9:59AM
"All the more reason to refuse the funds."
I mean, refuse consideration.
Peppermint Tea| 2.27.12 @ 9:30AM
The role of the poet should be:
To paint with words such thoughts words cannot speak;
and thus enjoy the spiritual technique.
Their words need not be erudite;
Just give us William Shakespeare Lite.
Joe Gause| 2.27.12 @ 4:38PM
Right on, Peppermint!
Gary B| 2.27.12 @ 8:03PM
I second that.
Sertorius| 2.28.12 @ 2:51PM
Your little verse is marvelous. Did you write it yourself?
Ground Control| 2.27.12 @ 9:37AM
Poets are like songwriters. Just because someone can put words to rhyme and metre, does not mean what he has to say is of any significance, nor is this skill evidence of higher intelligence. The audience generally mistakes the form of poetry (and song) for substance. Poets hate capitalism because they don't understand the alternative, despite over 100 years of its history, much of it on film.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 2.27.12 @ 9:54AM
I can't stand reading poetry, I really can't, and after reading (or should I say attempting to read) this article, I realize that I can't read an article about poetry either (I completely zoned out in the middle of it)!! So if the Government is funding poetry (and they probably are), that's got to stop, and it's got to stop now!! This is just like art, or musicians, or dancing, these are pastimes and don't deserve one dollar of Taxpayer's money!! If you want to try to earn a living this way, good for you, but don't complain when you find yourself amongst the poor, and don't come asking me to pay for you to read a poem while your dancing about and playing your painted guitar!! Get a real job, and do this crap on your weekends!!
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 10:01AM
Yeah, bad ol' guvmint:
that is why an expensive govt. airport was named after the Gipper.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 2.27.12 @ 10:23AM
Ummm, what? Was that a poem or something Alan? I didn't get it (I zoned out in the middle again)!!
Jacob R| 2.27.12 @ 9:49PM
You're wielding your stupidity against us.
You must realize how ridiculous you sound when you try to ridicule poetry itself. What's next? Physics?
R is for Ridiculous| 2.27.12 @ 10:08PM
Any pansy could be a poet. You must Realize that includes even Ridiculous Retards such as you and Alan and Riff Raff and other commentators here who are effortless objects of Ridicule.
cuban pete| 2.27.12 @ 10:45AM
I flew out of Reagan last week. The statue at the entrance is magnificent.
To paraphrase the Steve Martin character in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles"- it would be great if you posts had a point. That would make them so much more interesting for the reader.
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 11:07AM
"I flew out of Reagan last week. The statue at the entrance is magnificent."
Was the magnificent (expensive) statue funded by private sources?
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 11:10AM
"I didn't get it (I zoned out in the middle again)"
Then do not drink this early in the day. You cons and your alcohol!
Ground Control| 2.27.12 @ 12:02PM
You libs and your LSD!
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 8:10PM
So we are all inebriants, eh?
Ground Control| 2.27.12 @ 12:09PM
You libs worship government like the the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf in the desert. They turned their backs on God and worshipped the Golden Calf because the calf was the creation of their own hands, in essence the Israelites worshipped their own egos, just like Democrats do through the creation of their own hands: government. And the bigger government is, the more it is to be worshipped. Idolater.
phil| 2.27.12 @ 4:37PM
God is a poet...
Riff Raff| 2.27.12 @ 7:45PM
Non sequitur.
Tom| 2.27.12 @ 11:54AM
When Robert Frost died, so did American poetry.
Ground Control| 2.27.12 @ 12:03PM
Old poets never die, they just walk away on little cat feet.
Franco| 2.27.12 @ 12:19PM
"In The Matter of Capital: Poetry and Crisis in the American Century (Harvard, 2011), Christopher Nealon explains that many 20th century poets -- particularly American -- have spoken out against capitalism because of their fear that capitalism causes cultural homogeneity and political and economic turmoil. "
Horseshit. "Many 20th century poets" have spoken out against capitalism because they resent having to go out and get a day job.
J.C.Eaton| 2.27.12 @ 12:22PM
I thought Mr. Burnsides little remark captured nicely, poetry's reason to have place at the artistic table. Great poetry makes us think deeply; teaches appreciation for wondrous use of language,and communicates in an innovative and provocative way. As exempliied by most of Shakespeare's stuff. Lesser poetry causes the same results to less satisfying degree. Virtually all contemporary poetry is and will remain: tedious and tendentious nonsense.Nonetheless, a capitalistic and reasonably free society facilitates its' production and it's there if ya want it.The squawkers in this column are just vexed because current consuers are are too sensible to want very much of it.
Richard| 2.27.12 @ 12:42PM
"Poetry" is merely stream of consciousness emoting of degenerate individuals--can you think of more disgusting individuals than Allen Ginsburg or Maya Angelou? "Howl" should be renamed "Foul--It is I".
Dave Williams| 2.27.12 @ 1:15PM
Poets are poets because they are defective at linear, logical thinking, and therefore ipso facto leftists. We should be grateful for their works, which can affect us as nothing else can; we should also be grateful that they were, are, and always will be a very small minority, unable to influence politics and policy in any meaningful way.
phil| 2.27.12 @ 1:26PM
I think you over generalize...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLT-1zpWEPU
Petronius| 2.27.12 @ 2:53PM
There are two types of poets aside from advertizing jingle writers. There's the English teacher who tries to find his/her "voice". And there are the Ginsbergs who employ it as a weapon against social conventions and behavioral standards they deplore, (P.J. O'Rourk's poopoo head shouters.) Their #1 gripe is always the same. Reality bites, and that hurts. BTDT. Long passed time to grow up. Coffee house slams won't pay the light bill.
phil| 2.27.12 @ 3:03PM
The fact that the prosaic, linear-thinking, propostion-oriented slice of society feels empowered to dis poetry merely because they are incapable of producing it or, perhaps, understanding it does not reduce it's power or impact. Some of you folks don't get out much.
Ground Control| 2.27.12 @ 3:24PM
This of course misses the point. It is not that some of us "dis" poetry because we can't produce it, it is that poets ascribe to themselves a position of superiority just because they can write poetry.
phil| 2.27.12 @ 4:01PM
This, of course, is the point. And I certainly regret your obvious insecurity. But poets don't write to make you feel insecure any more than you do to make them.
Ground Control| 2.27.12 @ 5:25PM
Attempting (feebly I might add) to psychoanalyze me by calling me "insecure" evades the issue by changing the subject. Saying it is "obvious" adds no support to your vacuous claim.
Avidyananda| 2.27.12 @ 5:40PM
I have long thought that I have seen many of the best minds of my generation (I was born in 1946) influenced by this strange, distorted man. I remember reading of a debate Ginsburg had with a former liberal who later became a major conservative intellectual..."We'll get you through your children!" Can anyone find this quote?
Alan Brooks| 2.27.12 @ 6:49PM
The Chinese got you, not your children!
The Chinese own your keisters- you are renters, not landlords.
Riff Raff| 2.27.12 @ 7:44PM
The Chinese bought Bill Clinton over 25 years ago. The rest just follows.
Slappy Roosevelt| 2.28.12 @ 9:03PM
I thought we were renting from the Japanese.
dcm| 2.27.12 @ 6:53PM
Poetry has very low barriers to entry: pen and paper. If you don't like the poets or poems out there, don't just whine about grab a pen and write odes to the wealth of nations.
POST American| 2.27.12 @ 10:59PM
IMPORTANT to remember,
back in ancient Greece, 'Play-dough'
himself stated poets would have to
be banned from his 'I-D--all'
EUGENIC society.
We are STILL dealing with play dough
and its ID---alls.
Surely, there's NO ONE out there
who would even dare make a ghost
of a case that culture (art, music,
literature, human society) has 'evolved'
since the foundations got into the business
of stealth degradation in the name of
'funk--shun--ality'.
Consider the ordinary middle class
man of a century ago ---he lived in a
literate society, a thriving and
multi-dimensional musical society
--and had a living body of
spiritual culture and poetry to relate to.
Our franchise slum, wampum and porn
society is 'better' than it was
a century ago? ---NO WAY.
You will notice every step of our
capstone contrived 'modernism'
has been about ---subtracting first
the spiritual element ---then the
gender --then the human itself.
We NOW inhabit a franchise slum
Skinner box with lots of sports n' porn
----and NO EXITs.
"Remember, B F Skinner put his OWN daughter
in a cage to study her ----and GOT AWAY WITH IT."
TRUE
The good news is, throughout history,
the ordinary, the good people ALWAYS
wake up to the 'age-enda' ---and then it's
hell to pay for the play dough boys.
-------------HUAC/ NUREMBERG 2012--------------
susan| 2.29.12 @ 2:11PM
love it!!!! this needed yo be said. Thank you.
Richard Baker| 2.28.12 @ 9:43PM
So these "poets" must obviously refuse the proceeds of the capitalist sales of their books of verse, correct?
Hw pellinen| 2.28.12 @ 10:24PM
No comments from poets or followers thereof from the former USSR? "Moloch" and forced conformity, they know a hell of a lot better than Ginsburg and his quasi-intellectual progeny. And they write better poetry.
POST American| 2.28.12 @ 10:48PM
---------------------FINAL WORD-----------------------
------------'FUNK--SHUN--ALLLL-'IT'---he'---------
NOW, consider, 1910 -----to 2012
How 'FUNK--SHUN--Abel' have the
cultural EUGENICS of Rockefeller/Ford/
Buffet/ Carnegie/ and Gates ----made you???
Better take a round of meds before you
answer.
We'll wait. . .
susan| 2.29.12 @ 2:08PM
OMG STFU Yyou freaks!! get a life and stop ranting about things you don't like on an article *about* those very things. Grow the fuck up.