Comments on: Me, The Etymologist

By: lori

lori — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Pauly, it’s soooo funny that you write about this today because I JUST had this conversation with a friend. I am taking the, obviously unpopular, stance of just saying NO to haiku. I know I will be mercilessly attacked by haiku-junkies everywhere for my lack of artistic sophistication or some other hoo-hah, but I HATE haiku. To me it is the logical answer to…Art is to Craft as Poetry is to XXXX? And here we arrive back at my original question of “what makes art art?” And my exclusion of haiku from my “Things That Are Art” list is troubling being the big reception theorist that I am…oh well.

By: lori

lori — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

To try and make peace with the haiku people, I wrote one. Don’t know that it’s the olive branch I was going for, but I offer:

How I hate haiku
Not art, But sometimes clever
Crap, But fun I guess

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

You soil, Haiku
Your hatred eats you alive
Not fun, destruction

By: Meh

Meh — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Here’s one I rather like…

Three Men On a Hill:
Jesus and Two Thieves or
Am I Crucified?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Jack Kerouac loved the haiku but hated the restrictive nature of the form. He mostly came at it from a William Carlos Williams’ stance; in other words, no ideas but in things. Kerouac called his works Western haikus, saying “Western languages cannot adapt themselves to the fluid syllabillic Japanese. I propose that the ‘Western Haiku’ simply say a lot in three short lines in any Western language.” An example from him:

In my medicine cabinet,
the winter fly
has died of old age.

Sorry, didn’t mean to go Lit prof. on you.

By: Pauly D

Pauly D — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I’m confused. Where can I download the syllabus?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Heh! Sorry again. Next lesson: the villanelle.