The Point Is to Change It: Poetry and Criticism in the Continuing Present

STUDENT: I wonder, is the professor embarrassed by that essay of his from 1987—“Contemporary Poetry, Alternate Routes”?¹

PROFESSOR: Should I be?

STUDENT: Well, it seems pretty dated, no? And dare I suggest that it also seems wrong.

PROFESSOR: Why?

STUDENT: It sets up a distinction between experimental writing and, well, everything else. That’s bad (let’s say, loose) enough. It also buys into Barrett Watten’s idea about how to “test for a ‘politics of poetry.’ “Worst of all, it decides that L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing, that exemplary experimentalism, has passed the test. ANGEL: It did pass the test.

STUDENT: Really?

ANGEL: No, surreally. According to Watten, “The test of a ‘politics of poetry’ is in the entry of poetry into the world in a political way.” Poetic action is successfully political when it executes “a self-conscious method.” For Watten, surrealism exemplifies such a method.

STUDENT: You’re joking.

ANGEL: Just trying to be literal. Surrealism succeeded, Watten succeeded, the project of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Writing has clearly succeeded. The professor himself succeeded.

PROFESSOR: I did?

STUDENT: How?

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