As the sixties were drawing to a close a number of poets of Finlay’s generation were becoming increasingly unhappy with the way their poetry was progressing and in a letter to Finlay, Norbert Green, who could express himself well only about matters of.... put forward his depraved idea* for rebranding their poetry.
Dear Vern,
I’m coming round to the idea we’re all fucked. I wouldn’t have said that eighteen months ago, after The inner Self* came out, but I’m saying it now. What do you think? Are we fucked? Is that a reasonable assumption? Don’t you feel as if most of the time we’re talking to a fuckin brick wall? The world’s got zilch to say back; that’s the way i see it. The world is so fucking indifferent, yet we’re supposed to just merrily fuckin carry on churning out the same old pap year after year..
apropos, bumped into the high priest* yesterday on Hampstead Heath, squatting half-drunk in the bushes. He asked me if I thought his upcomming coming out* would militate against his popularity. I advised him it shouldn’t, if properly handled. We both laughed at that one. He passes on his regards by the way...
*the high priest: Dermot Lamont (1938-1976) novelist and screenwriter, including, Chocolaty and A Room With A Sink.
*Coming out: the Kenneth Tynan interview in the..... in which ..
*The Inner Self:
*Depraved idea:
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Vernon Finley
Notes for a piece on the poet and social philosopher Vernon Finlay.
Today, no one I'm acquainted with knows the poetry of Vernon Finlay. All his poetry books are out of print and what there is circulating on the Internet now seems stale by comparison with his 'Group' contemporaries. On the other hand, Keeping Still and The Origin of Movement, the two books he wrote in the early seventies in collaboration with the social critic Edward Blunt are still very influential among...
Who was Vernon Finbar Finlay?
In a recent memoir the painter Sara Spapo, who for a time in the early sixties fell under his spell, remembers him as ‘the most perplexing person i had ever known; everything about him from beginning to end was odd; no one can imagine how strange that fellow was, and while it's true he exerted a fascination I had never experienced with any other person no one realised better than myself he was at heart a fraudulent person. I first came across him in the national gallery. He was dozing in a chair beside Whistler’s mother. Taking him for an attendant...
In any obituary, tradition requires it to proceed in the prescribed order of beginning, middle and end, or birth, work, death. It’s a sensible convention and from the reader’s perspective the least the author can do for his investment of time and money. However, for the sake of.... I intend to start around the late sixties.
Finlay’s Ghost/
Hang on jug ears, that makes no sense whatsoever; let me as follows refresh your memory; from 'Keeping Still’ chapter 4: Verisimilitude, and how to achieve it.
‘The centrifugal forces attracting the blood to a body’s circumference act as well upon the brain, such that one perceives its increased weight but only relative to a world spinning out of control’
Today, no one I'm acquainted with knows the poetry of Vernon Finlay. All his poetry books are out of print and what there is circulating on the Internet now seems stale by comparison with his 'Group' contemporaries. On the other hand, Keeping Still and The Origin of Movement, the two books he wrote in the early seventies in collaboration with the social critic Edward Blunt are still very influential among...
Who was Vernon Finbar Finlay?
In a recent memoir the painter Sara Spapo, who for a time in the early sixties fell under his spell, remembers him as ‘the most perplexing person i had ever known; everything about him from beginning to end was odd; no one can imagine how strange that fellow was, and while it's true he exerted a fascination I had never experienced with any other person no one realised better than myself he was at heart a fraudulent person. I first came across him in the national gallery. He was dozing in a chair beside Whistler’s mother. Taking him for an attendant...
In any obituary, tradition requires it to proceed in the prescribed order of beginning, middle and end, or birth, work, death. It’s a sensible convention and from the reader’s perspective the least the author can do for his investment of time and money. However, for the sake of.... I intend to start around the late sixties.
Finlay’s Ghost/
Hang on jug ears, that makes no sense whatsoever; let me as follows refresh your memory; from 'Keeping Still’ chapter 4: Verisimilitude, and how to achieve it.
‘The centrifugal forces attracting the blood to a body’s circumference act as well upon the brain, such that one perceives its increased weight but only relative to a world spinning out of control’
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