OCTOBER 10th has been designated National Poetry Day in Britain and Auberon Waugh, for one, isn't happy about it: he feels that instead it should be observed as a national day of mourning.
Never one to mince his words, he explains why in the latest issue of his magazine, Literary Review. In July, he tells us, "inspired by rumours of a Great Poetry Revival throughout the country", an event called the Poetry Olympics was held in the Royal Albert Hall. At this, "the same old gang of exhibitionists went through the same old routine in front of the same collection of open mouthed groupies". In fact, he estimated, there were less than a hundred people in an auditorium that holds 5,092: "So much for the Great Poetry Revival." That such a "revival" was being mentioned at all he blames on the British Arts Council, which had issued a press release to newspapers announcing that interest in poetry had increased markedly in recent years. However, the Arts Council report argued that "initial public definition of poetry is narrow" and that "broadening definitions of poetry to include rap, music lyrics, football chants and verses in greeting cards leads people to be more supportive of poetry".
Well, it would, but these are not the people who turn up at any poetry readings I've ever attended. By the British Arts Council definition, Noel Gallagher may be interchangeable with Yeats, and Dolores O'Riordan with Emily Dickinson, but their fans seem to have much better things to do with their night when an R.S. Thomas or a Carol Ann Duffy or a Seamus Heaney or a John Montague gives a reading.
What the British Arts Council is up to, of course, is recycling that tired old twaddle about art being for everyone and poetry being the same as pop. The same nonsense is also peddled regularly in this country by people who ought to know better but who insist on trying to convince everyone that there's nothing mysterious or difficult about the arts and that we can all be arts practitioners or arts lovers at a moment's notice.
It's a nice notion and I'm sure the Gallagher brothers have a word for it, if the editor would only let me print it.
STILL, it has to be said that there was an impressive turn out bin Waterstone's in Dublin when Seamus Deane read extracts from his Booker tipped novel, Reading in the Dark. Not too many Oasis fans, as far as I could see, but perhaps they were in mufti, passing themselves off as Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney.
The latter, an old friend of the other Seamus, was off the next morning to resume his day job in Harvard, and indeed the reading novelist himself was preparing to board a plane a day later on his way back to his teaching job in Notre Dame.
He confessed himself thrilled by the critical acclaim he's received (not one begrudging review), and I'm sure he was also thrilled by the buzz in Waterstone's: if the success of such occasions can be judged by the numbers of copies of the book sold on the night and by the numbers of people who want the author to sign it, then the long and patient queue of people waiting for his autograph must have been a cheering sight.
HAVING read and admired Colm Toibin's The Story of the Night, I'm not surprised to find it included in the longlist of 15 books being seriously considered for the Booker, and I won't be surprised to find it on the short list, either.
However, Edna O'Brien seems not to be in contention (perhaps the judges recoiled from all those recent gushing interviews with her), and apparently Roddy Doyle isn't being considered, either, even though The Woman Who Walked In to Doors received ecstatic reviews from nearly all the British critics. Still, Roddy can console himself with the thought that A.S. Byatt and Barry Unsworth are among other distinguished novelists who didn't make the cut.
INCIDENTALLY, Colm Toibin, Mao will be reading in Waterstone's in Dublin on October 17th, is among the writers taking part in Scriobh, the Sligo Literary Festival, which runs from next Thursday until tomorrow week.
The overall line up is impressive. The renowned Czech poet Miroslav Holub will be reading on Thursday night, Dermot Healy will be launching his book of memoirs, The Bend For Home (very fine), on Friday night, Mary Morrissy, Aidan Mathews, Carol Rumens and Ciaran Carson will be reading on Saturday, while Edmund White, Colm Toibin and Mike McCormack are among Sunday's participants.
If you want to know more about these readings or about the workshops attached to the festival, contact Ann O'Dea in Sligo's Model Arts Centre (071-41405). Alas, as far as I know, Blur or Oasis aren't scheduled to attend, but I suppose you can't have everything.