9 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 9 hours ago by RiverNotch.)
hello, pot
interest and attention are overrated, i think. plenty of great works are boring when one's not in the right mood, when one doesn't possess the right mindset, and so on. have you tried reading the bible from genesis to the apocalypse? leviticus is boring as hell, yet as a whole, the bible works. have you seen how many people scroll off a brilliant yet long form youtube video? how many people have fallen asleep to the movie andrei rublyov or the miniseries fanny och alexander?
milo's answer, while it seems rather dismissive, is kind of the bull's eye for this. another one is how pope, when he talks about all his rivals being "dull", means much more than simply "boring". he means dreadful, stupid, self-inconsistent, which are all criteria that can coexist quite well with "interest"---see the fast and the furious movies, unless you think millions of people go to the movies to get bored. the poet who's actually interested in being a poet has "interesting" in terms of holding people's attention be the last thing on their mind---except, that is, for dramatic poets, where a consistent mindset amongst one's audience is assumed. and not every poem, in fact not even the majority of poems, is supposed to be a drama. milton wrote to justify the ways of god to man. plath wrote to express her inner anguish. unless you're writing for the stage or for the screen, "attention" should only come into play, not as you are writing, but as you are editing, deciding whether or not your piece can survive its boredom.
(11 hours ago)matsunosuperfan Wrote: Brilliant insight Milo, is water also wet in your view?
interest and attention are overrated, i think. plenty of great works are boring when one's not in the right mood, when one doesn't possess the right mindset, and so on. have you tried reading the bible from genesis to the apocalypse? leviticus is boring as hell, yet as a whole, the bible works. have you seen how many people scroll off a brilliant yet long form youtube video? how many people have fallen asleep to the movie andrei rublyov or the miniseries fanny och alexander?
milo's answer, while it seems rather dismissive, is kind of the bull's eye for this. another one is how pope, when he talks about all his rivals being "dull", means much more than simply "boring". he means dreadful, stupid, self-inconsistent, which are all criteria that can coexist quite well with "interest"---see the fast and the furious movies, unless you think millions of people go to the movies to get bored. the poet who's actually interested in being a poet has "interesting" in terms of holding people's attention be the last thing on their mind---except, that is, for dramatic poets, where a consistent mindset amongst one's audience is assumed. and not every poem, in fact not even the majority of poems, is supposed to be a drama. milton wrote to justify the ways of god to man. plath wrote to express her inner anguish. unless you're writing for the stage or for the screen, "attention" should only come into play, not as you are writing, but as you are editing, deciding whether or not your piece can survive its boredom.