So are you going to tell me a 'meditation on death' doesn't sound pretentious already?
why would that be pretentious? death is something we all have to deal with.
― Treeship, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:19 (nine years ago) link
besides mine was better tbh
― local eire man (darraghmac), Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:31 (nine years ago) link
I don't think it's the "death" bit that's pretentious here, treesh.
problem is death's been approached innumerable times before (because it's both mundane and unique), by many people - you're going to need to bring some chops to justify that title to avoid bathos.
it can make what comes look vapid, as I think this poem is - dull lines, mawkish truisms or just truisms. he wrote one about fading mental capacity and no longer being the centre of attention, which is better I think, tho his line never exactly sings.
― Fizzles, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:37 (nine years ago) link
Yes its the 'meditation' that I picked on. Bit allergic to anything deacribed as such.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:43 (nine years ago) link
i find the james poem pretty staid in its sentimentality. i don't think a ponderous tone equals meaningfulness.
― lex pretend, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:51 (nine years ago) link
in terms of recent works by minor white male poets looking at death, I liked Hugo Williams' Dialysis poems more.
― woof, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 11:57 (nine years ago) link
i thought its strength was its willingness to risk cliche for the purpose of honesty. i have some personal associations with the imagery too. it's not the kind of poem designed to blow people away but it feels true.
― Treeship, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 12:42 (nine years ago) link
...
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Wednesday, 15 October 2014 12:43 (nine years ago) link
ach, fine, it's your aesthetic i guess
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Wednesday, 15 October 2014 12:44 (nine years ago) link
now a thread in which ilmers review a pome
― local eire man (darraghmac), Wednesday, 15 October 2014 13:09 (nine years ago) link
it's what clive james would have wanted
― woof, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 13:14 (nine years ago) link
i met clive davis back in may. i didn't know it was him at the time.
― Treeship, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 14:59 (nine years ago) link
i sat and watched some Cardinal Burns last night, too tired to go to bed, and now i hate Robert Webb just a shade less
― Chimp Arsons, Wednesday, 15 October 2014 16:34 (nine years ago) link
Clive Davis vs Clive James
― deej loaf (D-40), Wednesday, 15 October 2014 20:22 (nine years ago) link
Arista had an awesome logo
― Terrific ribbon, Moe (stevie), Thursday, 16 October 2014 09:14 (nine years ago) link
James/Davis/Dunn/Tyldesley/of India poll needed
― woof, Thursday, 16 October 2014 09:19 (nine years ago) link
Dunn, obvs
― Terrific ribbon, Moe (stevie), Thursday, 16 October 2014 09:59 (nine years ago) link
Anderson/Sinclair/Owen/Stafford Smith
― john wahey (NickB), Thursday, 16 October 2014 10:12 (nine years ago) link
Still Dunn.
― Terrific ribbon, Moe (stevie), Thursday, 16 October 2014 10:15 (nine years ago) link
sounds like a dunn deal
― john wahey (NickB), Thursday, 16 October 2014 10:25 (nine years ago) link
http://www.cbgxtra.com/blogs/beautiful-balloons/clive-by-mcgill-and-poelsma
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 16 October 2014 11:00 (nine years ago) link
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n20/michael-hofmann/splashing-through-the-puddles
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 16 October 2014 11:07 (nine years ago) link
Its a bumper issue of Great White maleness: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n20/owen-hatherley/who-will-stop-them
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 16 October 2014 11:11 (nine years ago) link
Been watching lots of Simon Munnery recently and this is one of many I liked..
"If a million monkeys were given a million typewriters, eventually one of them might produce the complete works of Shakespeare but to reach it would it be worth wading through four hundred copies of "Money" by Martin Amis?"
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 17 October 2014 16:48 (nine years ago) link
man that review of the new amis is really brutal. loled tho cuz i read time's arrow and the gulag one but i had no idea he'd written another fastidious little novel set pompously against the midnight of the century. cmon man.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 17 October 2014 21:36 (nine years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Sunday, 16 November 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Monday, 17 November 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link
brilliant results tbh
― lex pretend, Monday, 17 November 2014 09:11 (nine years ago) link
Parsons was robbed.
― Matt DC, Monday, 17 November 2014 10:36 (nine years ago) link
Dylan Jones suffering bigtime from FPTP voting system.
― intelligent, expressive males within the greater metropolitan (Bananaman Begins), Monday, 17 November 2014 10:45 (nine years ago) link
i tried to read the grayson perry lead article (in fairness, i should probably get past the first few 100 words before commenting) but his glee seemed more about the act than the actual message. i.e. i wasnt entirely sure he actually believed what he was trying to say or if he just liked the apparent 'naughtiness' (i was going to say radicalness but naughtiness/outrageousness seems to fit the tone better). but then i just thought that if a white male hadnt written this piece, no one at the NS would probably have cared that much.
― StillAdvance, Monday, 17 November 2014 10:49 (nine years ago) link
AA Gill on the politics of the suit are you fucking kidding me
― paolo, Monday, 17 November 2014 19:15 (nine years ago) link
@georgegallowayDon't miss my show tonight on @talkRADIO with John Pilger Peter Hitchens Peter Oborne and Julian Assange. 7pm. Mother of all Talkshows.
― Matt DC, Friday, 8 July 2016 10:20 (eight years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FAei7reXMAkf3NY?format=jpg&name=900x900
couldn't this shit make it up
― calzino, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:28 (two years ago) link
he's just thinking bout how he could make the planet earth bald
― calzino, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:30 (two years ago) link
I mean, I guess Webb is kind of a lightweight when compared to the full on tossitude of Parsons and Amis and Gill and Botton and Fry. But give him 20, 30 years and I'm sure he'll get there.
― Jacques Lacan let me rock u; let me rock u, Jacques Lacan (Branwell with an N), Saturday, 11 October 2014 21:52 (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink
beat the spread by a good 15 years
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:33 (two years ago) link
Only ONE vote for Matthew Parris, ILX I am not angry with you, just very disappointed.
― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:38 (two years ago) link
anyway this is a great nostalgia trip back to a long bygone age where these threads would attract a host of disingenuous "what's wrong with Scumbag X?" posts
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:39 (two years ago) link
"He's got the whole world, in his hands.. he's got the whole world.. in his hands.."
― Andy the Grasshopper, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:42 (two years ago) link
"Not the biggest Baddiel fan but "snivelling 'liberal' apologist for ladbantz bollocks" was his schtick 20 years ago, not now."
yes he's somehow been even almost worse than he was then, but he did stop doing blackface tbf
― calzino, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 21:50 (two years ago) link
I'm amused that I didn't even know who Matthew Parris was at the time of this poll. Happier days of ignorant bliss! Bragg is a wanker but I still consider In Our Time a decent program and I guarantee whichever cunt replaces him when he succumbs to dementia will be a thousand times worse than him.
― calzino, Wednesday, 29 September 2021 22:17 (two years ago) link
Was gonna say, Webb and Baddiel would have gotten way more votes this time 'round.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 30 September 2021 10:09 (two years ago) link
And Alain de Botton way less.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Thursday, 30 September 2021 10:30 (two years ago) link
Did everyone forget who Will Self was?
― Mark G, Thursday, 30 September 2021 10:35 (two years ago) link
45 years ago today (4 November 1977), the New Statesman published this article about divisions in the Communist Party of Great Britain. It is the first written use that I have found of the term ‘tankie’ to describe someone who (uncritically) supported the Soviet Union. pic.twitter.com/plCY3gk9Ge— Evan Smith (@evansmithhist) November 4, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 4 November 2022 12:05 (one year ago) link
This is a very … peculiar framing, but I do wonder where all the Statesman’s sugar daddy money has gone. The magazine’s professional irritants (and Will Lloyd, who commissions the worst of them) can’t be that expensive to run. pic.twitter.com/gLn4cK157g— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) November 18, 2023
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 18 November 2023 15:14 (ten months ago) link