Your work means?

Hello people,

I'm reading a great book right now about T.S Elliot, who you know, could write a bit some say. It's basically a collection of essays by the man himself and a few others writing about him.

One of the things that stuck in my mind was a sentence where Elliot was talking about the purpose of good writing, and how that changes with the times, particularly when social oppression is rife. However, he went on to sat that no matter what period a writer, poet or otherwise comes from ;

"The great writers, in writing themselves, write also their times"

Meaning that if your writing is good, it will give a feel, a sense of the era you live in, socially, culturally even thought you may not being writing about these thing directly etc.

Do you feel your writing does that?

Do you think Bob, that if somone a thousand years from now were to read over a selection of your work then would get a feel of the times we live in now, and would they actually be able to guess the era?

I think it takes an exceptional writer to infer the times without making reference to anything time specific, like the internet for example.

If you look a poem....no....if you read them in some semblance of order...then yes...it reflects values...society....and what is happening in the world. It does this not in a direct, in your face way (a few do), but through the poetry itself.

Although an era can be an indefinite span of time

“The Common Era (CE), sometimes known as the Current Era or as the Christian Era, is the period of measured time beginning with the year 1 on the Gregorian calendar. The notations CE and BCE (Before the Common Era or Before the Christian Era) are alternative notations for AD (anno Domini, Latin for "in the year of the Lord") and BC (Before Christ), respectively. The CE/BCE system of notation is chronologically equivalent to dates in the AD/BC system, i.e. no change in numbering is used, and neither includes a year zero. The abbreviations may also be written C.E. and B.C.E”

I have written contemporary poems.

I remember when the song from the ‘Fifth Dimensions ‘let the sunshine in AGE OF AQUARIUS’ in the late sixties was popular I had not really begun to think of the technological advances that would bring the world closer together, or farther apart depending on the harmony and understanding of the times

If peace is to guide the planets and love is to steer the stars mankind must advance spiritually to improve the times that we record

I usually get my news on the comedy channel from Jon Steward. but seriously believe I understand that quote

No way Micheal! You like Jon Stewart!...wow we have something in common!....Oh my.

ha only jesting. I'm not sure you guys exactly get what I'm saying, though that is maybe because the idea is a subtle one and i'm not explaining it very well..

Bobs idea of a poem about history isn't what I was getting at. I'm not sure how to put this across except by example using my own work.

I wrote a poem about sitting on a bus [the bus wasn't mentioned] and seeing an old lady staring out of her living room window, and you know she was like a ghost...alone, disconnected by a thin pane of glass from the outside world. Now, this kind of poem speaks of a social exclusion that just didn't exist 50 years ago in this country...the speaker would have waved and chances are the old lady would have been surrounded by her family or would have known me etc etc...so just with something as simple as that it places the poem in the modern period whilst also mentioning at the end, the plight of old people who are in many ways socially excluded, again another modern issue....

does that make sense? It's poems that are socially relevant without being blunt or directly mentioning issues which they infer. Love poems are the exception becuase that is a timeless thing, unless it's given some modern twist.

i just wrote an essay about Ralph Waldo Emerson's lecture on "the American Scholar." he said something like "men should write from and for their times," but also "some authors from the past have the ability to write in a way that connects to all times, and instill the feeling that 'one nature writes and the same reads.'" That's a definite paraphrase, but maybe you get the idea.

Aw come on Bob, you got me pegged as some kind of intellectual stoner, and I'm really not...and all good natured jokes aside, despite the fact I'm reasonable smart and articulate, and I like getting into a good discussion. and really going for it..I hate being boxed in mentally, particularly when it means topics are shut down because anything I say it sectioned off to my wacky reasoning and idiot savant logic.

This thread was going somewhere until you signed me off as a genius....damn you.

Is "depthness" even a real word? It should be. But then distabulate should, too. But isn't.

I believe you are saying that I am a fake internet Intellectual, who forces useless depth into discussions that do not require such fathoms in order that I might prove my shallow brainpower.

Or something like that.