Re: [acornlive] Bankrupt Figure of Speech

Liam Ronan (acornlive@dublinwriters.org)
Fri, 28 Apr 2000 20:45:54 +0100 

Are these bats getting fatter and you're updating the list, Chris? Or is
this the second time I've seen this? ...If you will allow me to fiddle  tad
with your poem...

Ripening bats
falling duskily.
Plump!

(kidding)...
Your friend
-Liam Ronan-

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Neenan" <chneena@tin.it>
To: <acornlive@dublinwriters.org>
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 8:25 PM
Subject: R: [acornlive] Bankrupt Figure of Speech


> plump bats
> ripening
> falling
> into dusk
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Lean Ni Chuilleanain <lnc@avernus.net>
> To: <acornlive@dublinwriters.org>
> Sent: Friday, April 28, 2000 1:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [acornlive] Bankrupt Figure of Speech
>
>
> > In the matter of the batlike attributes of plums (or the plumlike
> > attributes of bats), the following observations spring to mind:
> >
> > I agree with Linda McInnis that the anecdote alluded to in the original
> > post, if it happened as described in the magazine, would suggest that Ms
> > Ackerman was an unusually articulate child.
> >
> > I have nothing against similes, although (like any verbal device)
they're
> a
> > pain if inappropriately or ostentatiously used. I can see where bringing
> > bats into a statement about plums could be very effective in a piece of
> > writing - and if one chooses to do that by way of a simile, what of it?
> >
> > This discussion reminds me of Wallace Stevens's conviction that poetry
> > should consider "not ideas about the thing, but the thing itself"; and
> also
> > of William Carlos Williams's belief that (if I don't misrepresent him) a
> > poem should be a discrete object in the world rather than merely a
> > signifier for something else. I think notions like this are helpful and
> > useful insofar as they permit literature to develop. However, they must
be
> > viewed as opinions, not laws or yardsticks. When they start being
> > prescriptive it's time to ditch them.
> >
> > As you may imagine, I'm wary of the statement made by John Palcewski in
> the
> > original post that "similes are essentially bankrupt as a figure of
> speech,
> > by now totally useless and ineffective". I don't think that's a
defensible
> > position. Writers, in my not very humble opinion, are at liberty to use
> > language in whatever way they feel does the job. It would take a lot to
> > convince me that there is no instance of a useful and effective simile
in
> > modern literature.
> >
> > beannacht,
> > Léan
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > lnc@avernus.net
> > Lean Ni Chuilleanain
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Time and space are modes by which
> > we think, not conditions in which
> > we live. -- A. Einstein
> >
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