I could never make it as a slammin' poet because
there is no audience for my rage -- I hate everything and everybody. Paul makes a good point. Most slam poetry deliberately attempts to invoke a fraternity (against the various "fathers" of our culture) as a way of establishing initial audience identification BEFORE using purely narrative methods of producing audience sympathy. It's the old "Brothers and Sisters" trope. So if Job -- who's so angry he could die -- grabs the microphone, he has two basic options: The Job-Goebbels Effect: induce the audience to believe that panoptic hate is bluntly cool and a sign of intelligence; or The Job-Carlin Effect: try to make humor out of that panoptic hate. Otherwise the poet comes off (to borrow from Woody Allen) like an old guy carrying a shopping bag, with drool sliding down his chin, who stumbles into a deli screaming about socialism. Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html