Preface - Electronic Poetry Center

Marketing strategies to Web Poetry
From: Maria Damon
Subject: Re: "marketing strategies"
rachel writes:
> It seems to me that theory, not form, is the real marketing strategy, in
> literature at least. In science a theory is used to test a hypothesis, but in
> literature theory is used, far too often, to carry a whole school of writ-
> ers–the bad along with the good–into prominence. It is used as an
> excuse to stop thinking, to stop reading widely, to circle the wagons. It
> is, essentially, fear, in an intellectual form. Rather than testing a
> hypothesis, and breaking new ground, theory in literary hands seems to
> be used as an instrument of enforcement, prescribing the sorts of
> poems (or fictions or whatever) which are to be written.
rachel, it seems to me that anything can be used this way becuz face it,
academia is not full of original, intellectually adventurous sorts, and
categorization can be used as intellectual shorthand for not dealing with ideas.
"theory" is, i think, just a word, when u think of, say, the differences between
lacan, deleuze and stuart hall, it seems incongruous that the same word is used
to either fetishize or dismiss them. but i agree that labels and categories more
often stultify than enable thinking and engagement. i never read the
"objectivists" before this summer, when i saw carl rakosi read at naropa and
was captivated, because i was put off by the category and terminology of
"objectivist" –i thought one had to be really smart to read them, so i never did.