No Information Here.

In the mid-twentieth century a literary movement known as New Criticism became extremely popular. It tried to consider works, mainly poems, as self-contained and aimed for objective, even scientific, study. It was built mainly on the work of John Crowe Ransom, three-time winner of the Poet With A Rock Star Name Award, and was also influenced by T.S. Eliot who believed poetry and its study must be impersonal. This included disregarding the biographical and historical context of a work, and it’s understandable why that would be appealing. Most of what we think we know about some of the world’s greatest authors, such as Homer, Shakespeare, or Anonymous—author of both Beowulf and that limerick about the guy from Nantucket—is really based on guesses, and they’re not always educated guesses. Taking the biography out of the picture removes that guesswork and instead focuses the guesswork on the text itself.

And yet it also seems obvious that taking historical and biographical context away removes a lot of what can be said about a text. If you didn’t know anything about Emily Dickinson what could you say about Because I Could Not Stop For Death? It’s got an ABAB rhyme scheme and can be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose Of Texas” and that’s about it.

The reason I’m pondering all this is because sometimes it’s really hard to know what to say about graffiti which is often so anonymous it’s not even attributable to Anonymous. Even when it’s a piece I really, really like, one that has bold colors and a striking design, what can I say? Well, it’s got bold colors and a striking design and it can’t be sung to the tune of “The Yellow Rose Of Texas”, and that’s about it.

Well, that, and I like it.

 

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6 Comments

  1. Red

    Generally I leave poetry as I find it… somewhere else. I’m bad with symbolism for the simple reason that, to quote that one dude, “sometimes a fence is just a fence.”

    The ones I like tell stories. Like Shakespeare or that one dude.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      A high school English teacher almost completely ruined poetry for me when she told me it was a lofty pursuit that required years of study to understand. Then I went to college and learned that, while it’s fine to know all the symbolism and stuff, it’s just as enjoyable if it’s treated like music. Of course the music I like best also tells a story.

      Reply
  2. Ann Koplow

    I know there’s always information here.Thanks, Chris.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      It’s nice to know that even when I have no information I can still provide information.

      Reply
  3. Arionis

    It’s got a rhythm and you can dance to it?

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      Well, there’s the saying that writing about art is like dancing about architecture, and every time I hear that I think, hey, I wouldn’t mind seeing some dancing about architecture.

      Reply

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