Larkin

How many poets does it take to change a light bulb?
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Ros
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Sun Aug 21, 2011 11:36 am

Rosencrantz: What are you playing at? Guildenstern: Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
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Nash

Sun Aug 21, 2011 2:31 pm

Excellent article Ros, thankyou.
Nash

Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:17 pm

Forgot to mention, I had no idea he wrote a couple of novels too. Anyone read them? I bet David has............any good David?
David
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Sun Aug 21, 2011 4:36 pm

Nash wrote:Forgot to mention, I had no idea he wrote a couple of novels too. Anyone read them? I bet David has............any good David?
Sorry to disappoint, Nash, but I haven't. I think somebody here has, though. Is it k-j?

I thought it was a good article too, and what MA says about the memorability (is that a word) of the poems is absolutely right. I often think about the lines he quotes from The Whitsun Weddings, and there's another passage (from a different poem) that he does mention that I have never forgotten:

Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
Crouch in the fo'c'sle
Stubbly with goodness, if
It weren't so artificial,
Such a deliberate step backwards
To create an object ...


And we already know how we all (or many of us) feel about For Sidney Bechet.
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twoleftfeet
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Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:23 pm

Very informative - especially about the sub-text of "Lucky Jim" . Thanks, Ros.

"Not a poet's poet" ?
- that implies that "real" poets only write poetry for other "real poets", surely? 8)
Sounds like green-eye to me!
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Tue Aug 23, 2011 2:48 pm

Good article Ros.

"Achieved art is quite incapable of lowering the spirits. "

Oh, I like that very much!

Regard his fiction, I confess to owning one of the few remaining (? pure speculation!) original copies of A Girl in Winter: a shite piece of juvenilia that I stupidly hope might be worth a few bob some day . . .

B.
k-j
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Wed Aug 24, 2011 2:40 am

No I've never read any of his prose and from what I've heard I'm not inclined to! Although I've had a rotten run of luck with novels lately so it couldn't be much worse.
fine words butter no parsnips
JohnLott
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Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:38 pm

k-j wrote: I've had a rotten run of luck with novels lately
Reading - or writing?

Larkin was probably a World Series Footballer waiting for a touchdown. He was probably fresh in his time in his demographic but I mostly find it hard to return to him. However I'm in the basement and he made the first floor, at least.

J.
Before you shave with Occam’s razor - Try epilation or microlaser
David
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Sat Aug 27, 2011 6:56 pm

k-j wrote:No I've never read any of his prose and from what I've heard I'm not inclined to! Although I've had a rotten run of luck with novels lately so it couldn't be much worse.
Strangely enough, I was just thinking about recommending a novel to you - Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy. It's set in contemporary Donegal. The worlds of Joyce, Beckett and O'Brien are not far away.
k-j
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Tue Aug 30, 2011 12:48 pm

David wrote:
k-j wrote:No I've never read any of his prose and from what I've heard I'm not inclined to! Although I've had a rotten run of luck with novels lately so it couldn't be much worse.
Strangely enough, I was just thinking about recommending a novel to you - Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy. It's set in contemporary Donegal. The worlds of Joyce, Beckett and O'Brien are not far away.
Thanks for the tip Ros!
fine words butter no parsnips
David
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Tue Aug 30, 2011 7:48 pm

k-j wrote:
David wrote:
k-j wrote:No I've never read any of his prose and from what I've heard I'm not inclined to! Although I've had a rotten run of luck with novels lately so it couldn't be much worse.
Strangely enough, I was just thinking about recommending a novel to you - Long Time, No See by Dermot Healy. It's set in contemporary Donegal. The worlds of Joyce, Beckett and O'Brien are not far away.
Thanks for the tip Ros!
Ahem. Me actually.
JohnLott
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Tue Aug 30, 2011 9:42 pm

Make sure you have a thick vest on when they pin the medal, David. :lol:

I spent the afternoon reading Larkin (and playing Golf) - he gave me a headache. My wife says I'm menopausal because I polished my gold medallion and brushed out my chest wig before I settled down with his Collected Verse.

I guess he went to Oxford to learn to put words around the wrong way. :oops:

J.
Before you shave with Occam’s razor - Try epilation or microlaser
k-j
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Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:33 pm

David wrote:
k-j wrote: Thanks for the tip Ros!
Ahem. Me actually.
I have no idea what happened there!

Sorry Geoff.
fine words butter no parsnips
Nash

Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:32 pm

Back to Larkin's novels, I just finished reading 'Jill' and it wasn't half bad, quite enjoyable actually.

I was going to say that it wasn't ground-breaking, but according to the introduction it contains "the first example of that characteristic landmark of the British post-war novel, the displaced working-class hero". Sort of interesting innit?
Mercurygirl
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Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:54 am

I've loved Larkin's poems since I studied him in school. I,too, was unaware that he had written novels as well. I'm definitely going to get one and curl up with a cup of tea. Might start with Jill since you seemed to like it!
Last edited by Mercurygirl on Tue Jun 26, 2012 12:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
lemonstar
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Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:35 pm

JohnLott wrote:..before I settled down with his Collected Verse.

I guess he went to Oxford to learn to put words around the wrong way. :oops:

J.
Just bought a copy of that for £2 in a charity shop after seeign his name at the top of the Times best British writers list. I've never read any! 5 mins flicking through and I've not found anything that's really caught my eye yet but thought it was worth the punt.
The rest of you...keep banging the rocks together.
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