a review of the new Sun O))) album

[kleenexwoman]

after hearing the new Sun O))) album played at various volumes throughout the house for the past day or so i have concluded that

the new Sun O))) album is music which is designed to make you not feel good in any part of your body or brain or soul ever
the new Sun O))) album is the discordant, wordless wailing that emits continuously from the fires of a hell more horrible than we can ever imagine
the new Sun O))) album was made by lowering a microphone into the padded cell of a man who has seen the bottomless depths of eternity and whose mind has not survived and then you give him three electric guitars and tell him to just play whatever comes to mind
the new Sun O))) album is the three-dimensional echoes of the pleading of the angels who have been chained to the earth for all eternity. the kind of angels who have giant burning wheels for heads, i mean
the new Sun O))) album is the sound of the death of humanity as it is scooped into the maw of the apocalypse machine
the new Sun O))) album is the perfect representation of rage and frustration in musical form

it can make milk sour, make eggs explode, make bread crumble, and make rabbits die

the person or people who created this probably also enjoy electroshock therapy and derive sexual satisfaction from being stretched out on a rack

Comments

[sir-dave.livejournal.com]

I don't see that anyone is using rhythm at all today - rather, it appears that they don't have the faintest idea what it is. They speak of rhythm, and do not know it. The boundary lies with something like Coventry Patmore's "The Toys", where rhythm exists for a couple of lines or so in strict terms and more widely in general terms, but despite not having one pervasive rhythm, it is clear that rhythm is at the core. In modern poetry I don't find it anywhere at all.

Words do not become meaningful by being put in a grid; in rhythmical poems, the grid exists to define the rhythm, and all the skill is in making the words meaningful whilst still retaining the advantages of the grid. Not to maintain meaning and rhythm at the same time is, in that form of poetry, to fail. If the grid were arbitrary, and conveyed no particular benefits, then I would agree, but in my view that's exactly what modern poetry is - all grid, and neither rhythm nor meaning.

I remain convinced that modern poetry is a cult of self and mutual hypnosis, in which enough people gathering together to praise the Emperor's clothes can see them even when they are not there, but in this answer you have at least given me a better idea of how that arises ;)

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Most professional poets do know what rhythm is, and many of them have either chosen to use forms that they find to be pleasing, or rejected it as not suiting their needs, much in the same way Picasso ended up using a form of perspective and anatomy that he found to be pleasing and that suited his needs, and thus risked people looking at his paintings and saying, "That dude does not know how to draw." Poetry doesn't always require rhythm, believe it or not.

in rhythmical poems, the grid exists to define the rhythm, and all the skill is in making the words meaningful whilst still retaining the advantages of the grid.
See, this just seems arbitrary to me. I mean, there's no doubt that the results can be pleasing, but it's just another gimmick or poetic parlor game that doesn't necessarily convey any layer of meaning. I know there's a tradition of oral poetry that relies on rhythm and rhyme in order to allow the illiterate population to memorize it, but we do have cheap paper and ink now, so...it's not strictly necessary, and we can find new ways to make words mean things.

I remain convinced that modern poetry is a cult of self and mutual hypnosis
That's pretty much how I feel about a lot of older poetry, although you haven't given me any idea of why you think rhythm is a necessary part of poetry. I guess it's another thing on which we shall have to agree to disagree ;)