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Does poetry matter in the 21st century?
Results so far:
| No | 28% | 1095 votes | Total: 3924 votes | |
| Yes | 72% | 2829 votes |
No
by Perry Hotter
Created on: July 28, 2007
As one who has indulged in this noble and ancient art, I would love to give a decisive and resounding yes to this question, and even though Nietzsche stated that "Art is more important than truth," I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with the latter: the truth is that poetry is an art form, and no art form will be significant in the 21st century, except art forms that can be directly bled by the technical world, and integrated into it in a fashion that promotes the ideology of history as technical progress.
Surely most, if not all people, whether they be just spiritual or monotheistic-ally inclined, would assert religion (or spirituality) has an infinitely greater importance to them than any art form. Yet note, that in today's "mega-church " environment (mega-Churches themselves form for economic survival), many churches have become more like complex social services with everything from singles groups to political activities. They help people function in the increasingly disorienting milieu of accelerating technical change where no decade is like its predecessor, by maintaining some facade of a place with integrity and transcendence above the fray. Sure Jesus Christ is invoked; but what of it? I see, and continue to see for the future, a tediously moralistic view where the church continues to come down on every issue from stem cells to poverty in very narrow, "black and white" terms. In other words, it has followed to the letter the same divisiveness and buzz-word simplicity of todays media-centric political battles. Certainly people continue to be saved, but the devil is more than happy to let salvation become another "personal improvement" line.
Why this prolonged interjection about the decrepit state of our spiritual world? Because poetry is first and foremost a testament of man's spirit; most of the great spiritual truths have come to us in the form of poetry: from the Upanishads to the Suwar (plural of Sura). Mr. Dylan, "the voice of a generation," was named after a famous poet, and two of the greatest European voices to stand against the dangers of the collectivized spirit, were Miloscz and Herbert, both members of that most Catholic of nations Poland (technically Miloscz is Lithuanian). Even the declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg address are suffused with beautiful poetry that has echoed the cry of freedom and dignity for different generations of humans,yet...
Ours is a deeply quantitative society: our children's school performance increasingly relies on testing MEASURES; the sports that we watch is overwhelmed by statistics from salaries to RBIs;the entire economy dances and sways to the Federal Reserves interest rate pronouncement; nothing escapes number, from the amount of genes we have mapped, to the amount of marriages we are likely to have. A society as complex as this, while not being able to eliminate subjectivity altogether, has rendered it an epiphenomenon of the sidelines of the numeric Zeitgeist, because increasing efficiency means ever greater slavery to a clock which is the faceless icon and metaphor of quantity itself.
The century will be thick with upheavals, predictions dashed and, hopefully, the worst cataclysms averted. Poetry will survive as it always have: within the souls of those whose gardens are tended not by the corporate reaper, but by the hoe of individual conscience and sensitivities, which in this global wonderland requiring increasing standardization for cross cultural efficiency, will make it a shadow of a former world whose caster has melded with the boots...
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Yes
by Nathan Breck
Created on: July 23, 2007
It is preposterous to assume that poetry will not matter "in the 21st century". Everything matters, people. Everything matters. The length of a sewing needle matters. The depth of a poem matters. The number of casualties in Iraq matters. Forgive me callousness in lumping the three together, I do not presume to try to assess the value of each. I merely state that, in fact, they matter.
But it is easy to take the cop-out here, and stopat "everything matters", isn't it? It's an easily defensible position, one that a good reasonable moderate should be content with. But I cannot be. As I am not content with a cliff until I have jumped or climbed it, I am not content with an arguement until I have argued it.
Poetry, specifically, matters. Possibly more than the length of a sewing needle,possibly less than the casualties in Iraq. Then again, maybe it matters more. Throughout history, it is the artist (the poet), the philosopher, and the hero who have driven humankind to action. It is this triumvate of inspiration which has put the fire into the people who fought passionately in the wars that were really wars, and not "operations". It was the poet, the philosopher, and the hero who powered the American revolution, and the French revolution, and all the revolutions.
But even here I have another opportunity to stay at my position, hold the defensive line at "Poetry matters", and remain safe. Again, I cast caution to the winds in the name of pursuing the courageous concept up to, and possibly over, the precipice, into the cool, waiting water below.
Not only will poetry in general matter, postmodern poetry will matter. New poetry will matter. I do not know who the great versifying heralds of the 21st century will be, but I aspire to be among their number, and I know others do as well. Poetry from out of the sometimes misty, sometimes shameful, and sometimes glorious, past will always be there for us to lean upon when we seek support. But when we seek to move,when action is the word on the wind, when revolution is in the air, the new poems will be sung, chanted, recited, rapped, or whatever.
Yes, everything matters. Yes, poetry matters. Yes, postmodern poetry matters. And now I take the final suicidal leap of all, and trust to be caught in the safety net of paradox:
Very poor postmodern poetry matters
The great beauty of poetry is that the great poems tell you about a thing other than themselves, they tell you about their subject, their ideal they are signs or symbols of. But the prime virtue of poor poetry is this: it tells you about the author. The great literature of the world is the literature which managed to escape it's author (aye, and it's reader) and truly BE a transcendental signifier: a sign of something else, something very real, something so often indescribable. But the virtue of poor poetry (and all poor literature) is this: that is tells you about the author, the origin culture, the people. It reveals, in striking, colorful, exaggerated, flamboyant language the commonest, plainest, most shared experiences of a society.
And therein lies the truth of why poetry matters, why uncouth postmodern poetry matters: because it is an artifact of it's times, and all artifacts touch what is around them, and create ripples. If by some miracle of chance the ripples react in tandem to each other, they will not be ripples: they will be a revolution.
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