Because I don't have twitter,

[aliseadae]

I'll post my thoughts as I read what I could of #zinechat here. Commentary welcome, though people with Twitter may have discussed this enough.

Accessible? To whom? Does anyone expect stories to be accessible? What does accessible mean anyways?

I think there should be a place dedicated to reviews of speculative poetry. A format that might work well is that of a main blog with reviews of specific poems and then a comments section so that there can be discussion of these poems.

I quite like the quote "I would like to see specpoets being daring, gorgeous, different, unafraid, abandon cliche and tweeness, embrace something more." from Catherynne Valente.

Re sharing poetry with others, when I was a camp counselor I would share Amal El-Mohtar's (tithenai) Song for An Ancient City with campers in my class (creative writing) and they generally loved it.

I agree that there should be more markets but I'm not entirely certain what I would like to see more of, what sort of markets I would like to see.

I liked reading over this conversation a lot and I might have to get twitter before the next one! (There should be a next one!)

Another snippet, tangential from this one that came to mind just now, is that my mother's co-worker's daughter apparently also enjoys following blogs of writers and writing her own work. I'd like to talk to her. She reminds me of myself a few years ago (there were a lot of parallels when my mom was describing this).

Anyways. I've also had my first day of class this semester. I am looking forward to this class! I am beginning to think I enjoy doing research, particularly research in museums, based on my reactions to class and class assignments.

Comments

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

when I was a camp counselor I would share Amal El-Mohtar's ([info]tithenai) Song for An Ancient City with campers in my class (creative writing) and they generally loved it.

*flaiiiiils*

[aliseadae]

*grin*

I liked sharing it! I'd tell them that they could google to find it online, too. I liked to give them writing exercises but also to share lots of things with them but I only really could share whatever I had time to print offline on the office printer.

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

Stone Telling does reviews of speculative poetry. There was quite a lot of controversy in the SFPA surrounding reviews, so people tend to be wary. I would love to see and do more, but I also want to pay my reviewers 15$ a column, and we got no donations despite a donation plea. So it's complicated.

Thanks a lot for this - it is awesome to see such a comprehensive reaction/response.

[aliseadae]

Yes! I like the reviews quite a bit! I shall think about donating (I'd like to but I am a poor college student but that doesn't mean I have /no/ money, just that a lot of it goes to textbooks).

I'm glad you like it!

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

This wasn't to say that YOU need to donate, it's that when I budgeted I did not budget for nonfiction. I thought we'd be able to collect 60$ a quarter for these. :/

[aliseadae]

Mm. I didn't think you meant that, but I tend to gloss over the donation section of websites I like and I can afford to give a little bit and I like Stone Telling so why not?

[marworth.livejournal.com]

I realize it's not entirely on topic here, though I do love poetry, I say yay for you for not having a twitter. The number of things that are wrong with it are so many that I can't even begin to list them. I once heard a quote, that was quite witty and I'm about to butcher it, but it talked about how people can have great ideas that should be shared with the world, and ended with "but they can't all be gems" or something to that extent. Point is twitter is evil, of the level that robbie can never have one.

[aliseadae]

Well, I think that the poetry discussion event that I was referring to worked quite well on twitter. I like the way that there was a discussion in real time that anyone (well, with a twitter account) could join. I didn't like that it was hard to to see the whole discussion if you were jumping in later. I figure twitter likely has its merits but it is certainly not for everyone.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I have had something poking at the back of my head since I read this, and I think it's this:

While I am in complete sympathy with Cat wanting to see more, better, different, wilder speculative poetry, I also wonder how useful it is to say so. "Reject cliches" is something of a cliche itself. Almost nobody writes poetry (or fiction, or plays, or...) thinking, "Now I will use cliches! Cliches all over the place! Cliches for everyone!" Cliched art doesn't come from people not realizing that cliches are not optimal. It comes from not recognizing how their own work fails to depart from well-established ruts. And some incredibly cliched work can come from people who are making the most conscious attempt to be "daring."

[aliseadae]

Very true. I liked the quote as it felt inspiring and it made me feel urges to do something that mattered a lot to me and that felt like it meant something which isn't the same as not using cliches but apparently it is what the latter made me think of. I do think you have a very good point, especially since I have no real idea of what exactly I'm being inspired to write.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am not against inspirational rallying cries, but I think they should be recognized as such. Doing something that matters a lot to you is a good idea! It just also matters what.

[aliseadae]

Yeah. I like it when the poems I write say things that mean something to me but I can't just grab something that is meaningful out of a hat or out of the air. It usually comes from somewhere specific.