tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16351851.post3454227338614425304..comments2023-05-06T09:46:55.242-04:00Comments on Birthdays of Poets: Reading Ashbery: Part TwoAndrew Christhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05594635340533410244noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16351851.post-67522632171270034182009-06-25T13:53:02.275-04:002009-06-25T13:53:02.275-04:00Interesting to find a common tendency in Ashbery&#...Interesting to find a common tendency in Ashbery's and in Yeats' poetry.<br /><br />I agree, about "imputing direct biographical inferences from Ashbery's poetry." If you're referring to my speculation about Frank O'Hara and Ashbery getting an idea from Pasternak, I didn't make that up myself. I got that from David Herd's book "John Ashbery and American Poetry" and yes, I should reference that better. I tried to keep it clear as to what Shoptaw says in his book and what my own ideas are, but I may have overstepped my bounds somewhere. Care to clarify?Andrew Christhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05594635340533410244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16351851.post-88649711041631272452009-06-25T12:16:31.321-04:002009-06-25T12:16:31.321-04:00Mr. Christ:
I would be very cautious in imputing ...Mr. Christ:<br /><br />I would be very cautious in imputing direct biographical inferences from Ashbery's poems. <br /><br />Ashbery tells us very little, really, about the facts of his existence in his work. He's a brilliant mimic, not only of the habitual ways in which a wide variety of feelings and thoughts are expressed, but of the expedient frivolity with which such constructions are posed. Much of it is camp humor, and should be taken as such.<br /><br />That's one of Ashbery's most frustrating post-Modern aspects: The sense that nothing really matters, that all subject-matter is just material. Harold Bloom rightly associates this tendency with Yeats, and in that sense Ashbery is like Yeats. The Irish poet fiddles with Irish history and myth, often with very little sense of more than a generalized, bland nationalism, while Ashbery talks about all the things you might casually think while riding the subway across town. Both are just using subject-matter as a convenience, and studiously avoid specific autobiographical detail. <br /><br />You could read Ashbery's whole oeuvre--end to end--and not know anything at all about the man or the times during which he lived.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16351851.post-21069927028665470772009-06-22T10:59:46.966-04:002009-06-22T10:59:46.966-04:00Thanks so much for that link!Thanks so much for that link!Andrew Christhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05594635340533410244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16351851.post-20351713317917363472009-06-22T08:59:03.935-04:002009-06-22T08:59:03.935-04:00Here's a better link - Click here.Here's a better link - <a href="http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?file=/home/pnreview/public_html/members/pnr165/articles/165ar04.txt" rel="nofollow">Click here.</a><br>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16351851.post-9768456487130488722009-06-22T08:57:41.078-04:002009-06-22T08:57:41.078-04:00Reminds me of this:
http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi...Reminds me of this:<br /><br />http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?file=/home/pnreview/public_html/members/pnr165/articles/165ar04.txtAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com