who to follow >>>> what to despise what to wear >>>> when to wear it when to ask >>>> where to ask it where to buy >>>> 'n' who to care? how to follow >>>> why to cringe why to cry >>>> who to sneeze at who to kill >>>> what to do it with what to bring >>>> 'n' when to bring it? when to die >>>> where to do it where to dress >>>> how to care how to suck >>>> why to paste it why to lie >>>> 'n' who to spit on? who to shoot >>>> what to forget what to pout >>>> when to evacuate when to shiver >>>> where to radiate where to sing >>>> 'n' how to dance? how to levitate >>>> why to 'k' why to lead >>>> (cf. "who to follow" ...
I appreciate that you can find the place between irony and full immersion.
That’s an interesting comment, Ryan … care to elaborate?
Hi David,
Sorry for the late response.
So what did I mean – by immersion I mean the sense from this poem, and other poems of yours I’ve read, that you are in there in the language of ‘modern society’. You use it comfortably and it doesn’t ring false. The irony is the playfulness with how you use or the other side of expression you bring out. This brings me back to the point about immersion and why the poem finds a place between these points. Irony sometimes implies aloofness, superiority. That tone doesn’t come across in this poem because of the engagement with the language and what it ‘represents’. Sorry if this sounds too theory 101.
Hello Ryan,
no need to apologise – conversation in this medium is necessarily stilted, and sort of ‘out of time’, if you know what I mean. Thanks for your very kind words, I have to admit I find irony to be a double-edged sword a lot of the time, as I face this constant internal struggle between trying to be funny and trying to be serious. When serious wins out, I often feel that the irony has failed, whereas if funny wins out, then the irony has actually disappeared. So maybe that’s similar to the immersion you speak of … but I don’t know. Personally, I feel trapped in Theory 101 most of the time, and always read theorists with baited breath, as it were, hoping for a shard of brilliance that will illuminate the chaos in which I operate. I blame Catholicism for that! Thanks again for your comment.