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ABM
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 02:18 am: | 
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Cynique,
I am directing this in response to something you have said in the link below:
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/4/739.html?1075182915#POST7684
I am posting this here to avoid incurring the broiling rancor of that other site's monitor. And although this was inspired by what you wrote, I suspect that others might benefit from considering the following commentary.
"Why doesn't ABM just speak in his own voice?" Gurl, you clearly ain't been listen.
How can you presume to know what my "own voice" is? My "voice" is a colorful amalgam of several dialects/styles. I can be "country", "street", "scholarly", "ironic", "vulgar", "humorous" (I hope.) all within the same posts...heck...sometimes within even the same sentence. If you clearly read my writing, you would find that to be true. And, whether you believe it or not, I regularly speak/behave in person in as I do here (which I am sure for some of you are frightening thought, indeed.).
Why should my being Black limit what I utter, here or anywhere else? I am not an 18th Century Austrian composer. Should that preclude me from performing a Mozart concerto? Should I not perform the part of Shakespeare's' Romeo because I am not a lovesick, medieval Italian teenager?
Of course not!
An artist, no matter their experience and quality, should embrace as much/many sources of potential inspiration as are available to them, no matter from where and whom they may derive.
I have even observed that some of the most popular Hip Hop tunes have been inspired by Classical, Jazz and even East Indian Bangla rhythms and melodies.
Check it: The melody of NYC rapper extraordinaire Nas' very popular and inspiring 2003 hit "I Know Can" is EXACTLY the primary chord of Mozart's immortal concerto "The Magic Flute".
I am not trying to be Dali or Eliot. I am scantly aware of what that would even entail. When I write anything, especially something as ephemeral as a poem, I am just riding out a moment's esthetic inclination, which is borne from what I know, feel and enjoy.
Your (an apparently others) being "distracted" by my mimicking an Old English vernacular in a poem is more an indictment of your placing frivolous limitations yourself. I "Milady" am, however, not bound by such baseless proscriptions.
For I am as proprietary of the English language as ANYONE, that includes anyone here, Eliot, MLK, Toni Morrison...HELL...even Queen Elizabeth. And I'll tolerate no one placing fallacious limits one what I write/say. Because words are power. And a fine (Black female grade school) teacher once told me that the greater command one garners over the lexicon, the greater the power one will wield in life.
I have mostly certainly discovered that to be true. |
ABM
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 02:21 am: |
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Of course I meant for the title to read "How "2 Be OR Not 2 Be"...An Artist?"
Just when I think I'm being clever, dang dyslexia kicks in.  |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 12:25 pm: |
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You can write in any vernacular you choose, ABM, but I will continue to regard your attempt at being a latter-day Shakespeare as prententious - unless you do it in a parody style that resonates with wit and humor ala Ogden Nash. I think you might benefit from a class in English Lit since you are so enamoured of this genre. I suspect that your teacher would tell you, that you are stuck in a "purple" prose mode, working within the parameters of bathos instead of pathos. You ought to experiment with "haiku" because I think that might be what you have a talent for. BTW, unless you have morphed into Aragorn from the mythical place of Middle Earth, don't refer to me as "Milady." |
ABM
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 03:59 pm: |
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Cynique,
You are redundant! Of course I am pretentious. And LORD blesses me for being thus. Someone has got to have enuff intellectual freedom to say what he or she wants to say, in the way/how/why they want to say it.
I pity you for being too afraid to do the same.
I am alive. Shakespeare, Eliot, Ellison, Baldwin, Dali, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Tupac, Biggie, etc. are all dead. And unless they are going to come back here and slap me with copyright infringement suit, I am going to incorporate their genius into my own repertoire as creatively as GOD might bless me to be able to achieve.
And in my so doing, I’d make you and your precious Ogden Nash piss your uppity pants.
I am no more "enamoured" with one literary genre than I am any other. I embrace, then transcend such enfeebled prohibitions. And if you have REALLY read my posts - poetry and no - that would be brilliantly clear to you.
I don’t mind criticism. Actually, I invite and often even enjoy it. But I find it intellectually convenient...no LAZY...of you to cavalierly dispense with your highbrow criticism without you YOURSELF ever joining the artistic fray.
Actually, the ONLY thing you really offer around here is acerbic criticism of the efforts of those who have more artistic wherewithal and daring than yourself.
You got some poetry, spoken word, free verse, provocative essays, witticisms? ANYTHING? If so, then let a brothah who is hopelessly stuck in "’purple’ prose mode" (And, really, what the @#$% is that?) see a lil sum’ sum’. Baby Girl, get off yer ("purple") tusher off the bench, strap on, and let’s do this!
But I suspect you are a living example of what my mamma always said: "Baby! It is ALWAYS easier to SAY what’s wrong than it is to DO what’s right."
So hey! I’ll let you continue to enjoy your cozy/protected, though uninspired little nook of "cynicism"(I hope you can stay warm in there.).
Because, although you may not go very far, at least it is (regrettably) clear to me that is indeed where you will always be.
But I’ll try to be fair. So, whenever you wanna step outtah your comfort zone and partake of a literary scrapping with Yours Truly, jus’ let a brothah know. Cause trust me...I’ll instruct you on what "vernacular", "poetry", "pathos", "bathos" and...HELL...even "haiku" is REALLY all about.
Anytime, anyday, anyhow...
<<drawing-a-line-in-the-sand>>
Sorry, Carey. I let the OTHER ONE slide, in part for the sage reasons you prescribed. But forgive me. I ‘spec I dun fell offah dah personal maturity wagon. |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 04:35 pm: |
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Wassa matter, pumpkin? Did um lil feelings git hurt? I know you have a crush on me and that's why you won't let the subject drop. Why don't you write me a love sonnet, my own widdle precious Lord Byron. |
Chris Hayden
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 04:41 pm: |
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Cynique:
You never talk babytalk to me like that. |
ABM
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 04:51 pm: |
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Dat's cuz yu gottah check'em first, Playah.
YEP! YEP! |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 04:55 pm: |
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Chris, that's cause you're a grown-up, darling. |
Curious
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 06:41 pm: |
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ABM said:
I don’t mind criticism. Actually, I invite and often even enjoy it. But I find it intellectually convenient...no LAZY...of you to cavalierly dispense with your highbrow criticism without you YOURSELF ever joining the artistic fray.
and said:
But I suspect you are a living example of what my mamma always said: "Baby! It is ALWAYS easier to SAY what’s wrong than it is to DO what’s right."
Does this mean that those of us who have never written a book or poem should not offer an opinion? |
Cynique
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 06:48 pm: |
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Guess ABM never heard the old axiom that goes: "those who can, do; those who can't, teach." (So, I guess that means he oughta teach. LOL) |
Carey
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 09:17 pm: |
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ABM
(LOL) I knew somebody was going to get unloaded on, I just knew it. While I was ready the post I thought it might have even been designed in part for someone else.....in part?
But hey, I agree, sometimes you gotta puttem in check. Otherwise, they have a tendency to take kindness for weakness....know what I mean.
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Cynique
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 10:04 pm: |
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Who's putting whom in check around here? This has really degenerated into a battle of the sexes, with men thinking they're getting over while women dismiss their pouting as the "sound and fury of an idiot saying nothing". (From Shakespeare's "Macbeth" for those of you who are into that type of thing. heh-heh) |
Carey
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 11:04 pm: |
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Hey Cynique
What's up with the little note under your name? Are you having any diffulculties posting in other areas? |
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