[lit-ideas] Re: Anyone here know Andrea Gibson?

  • From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 12:09:01 -0400

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

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