The Elegant Variation: BIRNBAUM v. PLOTUS

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December 19, 2006

BIRNBAUM v. PLOTUS

Robert Birnbaum interviews our Poet Laureate, the great Donald Hall.

Robert Birnbaum: How does one address the Poet Laureate?

Donald Hall: PLOTUS. Poet Laureate of the United States.

RB: As in the acronym for the President of the United States, POTUS?

DH: Yeah.

RB: The position is described as "a lightning rod for the poetic impulse" in the country—what's your take?

DH: You are a figure for poetry for a while; while you are at the Library of Congress, you get asked to speak, and actually I think you have something to do with the readings that will take place at the Library of Congress.

RB: You haven't been told what you do?

DH: Not very much. There are a couple of fellowships that I can award, I believe small ones. And I have to choose judges for a prize—and I am going to find out.

Posted at 12:30 AM in Interviews | Permalink

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But Birnbaum wasn't at the top of his game here...the interview feels so chatty and unfocused; it comes off as meaning that there is very little at stake in the field of poetry these days. I've a copy of The Paris Review from '97, now, in which Seamus Heaney is interviewed, and the result is so dense with ideas and exhiliratingly sharp on the topic of 'the word' as a technology, that, while (re)reading it, I never fail to feel the urge to chuck it all and hit the road as a mendicant bard. Heaney does poetry a great service with his unflagging professionalism. I'm not saying that Birnbaum and Hall do it a disservice here, but...this interview depressed me a bit.

Posted by: Steven Augustine | December 21, 2006 at 05:44 PM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

December 19, 2006

BIRNBAUM v. PLOTUS

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

December 19, 2006

BIRNBAUM v. PLOTUS

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism