When Talking About Poetry Online Goes Very Wrong

Miller, Wayne. "When Talking About Poetry Online Goes Very Wrong," LItHub.com,  february 8, 2021. https://lithub.com/when-talking-about-poetry-online-goes-very-wrong/?fbclid=IwAR3szGGqqwbNcxj2B8nGEbv0oa4tJ9GNp0KQ3C2FZFMXmgRIsjORjin0NVw

For three years of college I organized my schedule so that each day after lunch I could go to the library for an hour and read one new book of poetry pulled more or less at random off the poetry section shelf. The world I entered there (and never really left) was a “small back room” inside the library, inside the university, inside the town, inside the country. It was occupied by me and a bunch of poets—some famous—that no one really knew about, and it hummed for me with invisible promise.

COMMENT

Nowadays, Miller edits the poetry journal "Copper Nickel."   The article is a defense of poetry journals over self-publication on social media platforms.  The essence of his argument is, a publication with a small, self-selected niche audience is a better place for writers to experiment than the sometimes vicious  public platform of the Internet. Here's how Miller describes the role of literary journals:

I’ve been editing literary magazines for twenty years, and something that strikes me when I’m reading through submissions is how often really good poets submit work that’s not (or not yet) successful. All poets treat submitting to literary journals with different levels of provisionality, but it’s consistently true that as a magazine editor I get to read failing poems by excellent poets—poems that will never make their way into the poets’ books. Some poems published in magazines—even high-profile ones—don’t make their ways into poets’ books; or if the poems do, they appear in significantly revised versions.

My point is that the work of literary magazines is simultaneously appreciative, critical, collaborative, and provisional. When a new issue of a magazine is out in the world, we often say: “Did you see what So-and-So is working on? I can’t wait to see the book!”

 

Inside the List

 Elisabeth Egan. Inside the List. [Angie Thomas].  New York Times Book Review, February 7, 2021, p.20.

     Suddenly, my editor texts to tell me that Dr. Jill Biden shouted me out at the American Library Association midwinter conference!  She said she just bought 'The Hate U Give."
     Thomas consulted social media, where she'd been tagged by teachers and librarians and was able to see a video clip of the moment.  She said, "What shocked be was, this novel about a 16-year-old girl dealing with police brutality found its way into the hands of the first lady of the United States.   Had you told little Angie that 20-something years ago, she wouldn't have believed she wrote something that made it that far-- that this little Black girl in Mississippi whose family sometimes didn't know if they would have food would have a book in the White House."

COMMENT

     Teachers and librarians have the ability to promote worthy books.  In this issue of the NYT Book Review, "The Hate U Give" is #4 on the Children's Best Sellers list, with 204 weeks on the list.   Clearly, Thomas' book  already made a huge impact even before Dr. Jill Biden mentioned it in her keynote.  Still, the knowledge that the first lady has read the book offers a hopeful chance that it's message might result in actual social change. 

David Byrne: ‘I’m able to talk in a social group now – not retreat into a corner’

David Lynsky,  "David Byrne: ‘I’m able to talk in a social group now – not retreat into a corner’ Guardian March 4, 2018 [online] https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/04/david-byrne-i-am-able-to-talk-in-a-social-group-now-american-utopia

4. Knock-on effects of culture
We in the arts and humanities often complain that our work is undervalued, at least in terms of being beneficial to society compared to the Stem disciplines. Finally we have some proof, and the effects are somewhat unexpected. A recent study by the Social Impact of the Arts Project at the University of Pennsylvania showed that when libraries and other cultural institutions are placed in the boroughs around New York, there are surprising knock-on effects:

a. The kids’ test scores go up
b. Spousal abuse goes down
c. Obesity goes down
d. The crime rate goes down

Things that might seem to be unrelated are actually connected. To lower crime, maybe we don’t need more prisons or stiffer sentencing; part of the solution might be to build a library.

COMMENT

Musician David Byrne thinks that five reasons to be cheerful are renewable energy, prison reform, bicycles, libraries, and de-criminalization of drugs.   The "knock off effect" of having a library in the community has been noted in other articles. 

Attacked by a 'Superspreader' of Online Smears

Kashmir Hill, "Attacked by a 'Superspreader' of Online Smears," New York Times, January 31,  2021 p. A1 -.

     The next year, Mr. Caplan hired a private investigator to trail Ms. Atas, because she refused to say where she lived or how she accessed the internet.  Mr. Caplan wanted that information in order to obtain evidence for his lawsuit.
    One evening in June 2018, the investigator followed Ms. Atas as she left court got on a subway and then boarded a bus.  

     At 7:30p.m., Ms, Atas entered a pubic library at the University of Toronto.  she spent the next few hours at a computer, according to the investigator's written report and photos that he took surreptitiously  Then she rode a bus to a homeless shelter.  (Ms. Atas denied that she stayed in the shelter.)
     In response to subpoenas, Pinterest, Facebook and WordPress, the blogging site, had provided Mr. Caplan with metadata about the abusive posts.  Some had originated from computer at the University of Toronto. Suddenly that made sense.

COMMENT

In this story a disgruntled ex employee uses public library computers to harass people online.  The story describes the difficulty of tracking and stopping internet trolls.  The attacker was using anonymous public computers to cover her tracks and was only caught by a private investigator.

Best American Poetry 2020

 David Lehman, "Foreword" in The Best American Poetry, 2020. 2020. p xiii,

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are the two nineteenth-century poets who continue to exert the greatest influence on contemporary poetry.  In 2019, the bicentennial of Whitman's birth was celebrated with exhibitions devoted to the poet at the New York Public Library the Morgan Library, and the Grolier Club in New York City. 

COMMENT

      Libraries host many kinds of displays, but particularly celebrating writers.

America Needs its Girls

 Samantha Hunt, "America Needs it's Girls".  New York Times.  24, 20201, p. SR8.

In our flag I will look fo the national parks, the public libraries, the artists and innovaters, the land where my dead beloveds are buried, the tiny but tremendous mutual aid society my town put together in the pandemic, my daughers' underpaid teachers and coaches, the trees and rivers and children.  I will not forget the genocide greed, hatred, and tremendous inequality in our flag.  I won't be blind to my nation's faults.

 COMMENT

     The public library makes the list of good things promised by the American Flag, along with public lands, and opportunities for education.  The opposite of these public goods is inequlity,  self-interest and prejudice.  The article describes a new  appreciation for American values that the flag represents after the expulsion of Trump from office. This vision is contrasted with the flag waving fake "patriotism" of the political right, specifically associated in the article with belligerant young men in pickup trucks who deliberately tailgate and intimidate other drivers.  After Biden won the election, the daughter declares "Mom, we can hang the flag again!"

Inequality was Never so Visible as in 2020

Emily Badger. Inequality was Never so Visible as in 2020.  What did we Learn? New York Times, December 29, 2020. B3.

Americans also stopped broadly sharing libraries, movie theaters, train stations and public school classrooms, the spaces that sill created common experience in increasingly unequal communities. Even the D.M.S., with its cross-section of life in a single room, wasn't that any more. 

 COMMENT

     Libraries are a place where people from different socio-economic classes can mingle on an equal basis. The article describes how COVID has shut down such interactions so that some people are in a privileged bubble while others are doing low-paid, insecure work to deliver goods and services to the privileged.