The Weekly Atticus (06/23/2018)

What We Want (and Need) is Elucidation | The Weekly Atticus

A recap of the week at Atticus Review, along with some extras.

Dear ,

A couple weeks ago, I was giving a reading at a small community college in northern Illinois. Coincidentally, maybe two or three hours before the reading started, I had been talking on the phone with a friend of mine, lamenting the fact that so few people seem interested in literature these days—which is, I’m sure, a complaint voiced by every writer in human history. 

What I’ve been thinking about lately, though, is the fact that my audience for that reading—mostly young college students, many of whom had probably never been to a reading before—was pretty much the exact opposite of everything I might have expected, given the cynical conversation I’d been involved in just before. They were friendly, attentive, and above all, interested. They lined up to ask questions afterwards, and a couple were so excited that they were talking over each other, anxious to get the words out.As much as I’d like to think their enthusiasm was because of my reading, I think there’s a better answer: today, as much as ever, people crave the unique blend of intellectual challenge and instinctual entertainment that literature has always been the best vehicle for providing. So why, then, are people not standing in lines outside bookstores, or waiting hours in lecture halls to spend a few scant minutes small-talking with their favorite author or poet? Well, for one thing, they are—maybe not as often as we’d like, but it does happen. Still, several people asked me this question after the reading, in one form of another: Why isn’t poetry more popular? There are many likely suspects: the dumbing down of our educational system, the shortening of our attention span, maybe even certain high school teachers who are afraid of assigning material that might offend their students’ parents. All of these play a part, to be sure, but I think the primary issue is a lot simpler: they don’t know it exists.I don’t mean that literally, of course. I read plenty of poetry in high school: Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Dickinson, etc. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. But I was a naïve and hormonal mess, and the fact that nothing I read was written after 1901 created an added obstacle when what I really wanted—needed—from literature was elucidation. Luckily, once I got to college, I had a few superb teachers who introduced me to the work of Marie Howe, C.K. Williams, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, William Carlos Williams, and others who opened my eyes to the vast range and accessibility afforded by a modern school of writing that I didn’t even know was out there, waiting patiently.Here’s something else I’ve been thinking about lately: at the same time that I was learning about modern poetry and prose, I was also searching online for ezines (especially after those first few creative writing classes whetted my appetite). I’d like to think that even now, there are aspiring writers and readers stumbling across Atticus Review and thinking to themselves, Wow, I didn’t know writing could do that! To them, I’d simply say: Yes, it can. And so can you.Thanks for reading. We’re glad you’re here.Michael MeyerhoferPoetry Editor

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

FERAL TOWN by Adam Gustavson

BOOK REVIEW: HARMONIC CHAOSA review of HUNGER FOR SALT by Elaine Fletcher ChapmanReview by Barrett Warner"To create music around such heavy feelings (music to lift the spirit), that music must either be technically flawless or else very original. Chapman is both."READ ON

FICTION: TWO STORIESby Meg Pokrass"All About the Stone Age" and "Saul and the Queen of the Jungle""Once a year, right on his birthday, Saul’d threaten to become a lion tamer. I’d laugh. He said it again on his 50th. I guess I was tired of hearing it. 'Then just do it,' I said. 'It’s never too late.'"READ ON

JUNE FEATURED POET:Catherine Abbey HodgesFive Poems: Soft Shoulder, Title Envy Cento, For My Mother, Dying, I Heart You, Goodbye Thistle"Catherine’s stuff is amazing, meticulously crafted but brimming with wit and vulnerability." - Michael MeyerhoferREAD ON

CNF: ENTANGLEMENTby Marion Agnew"Sometimes, a group of subatomic particles interacts in a way that makes it impossible to determine the quantum state of the individual particles."READ ON

MIXED MEDIA: IN THAT WATERA film by Joe JohnstonA film about "the dangers of nostalgia and the courage to create."WATCH FILM

FILM REVIEW: VILLANELLE, DON’T BREAK MY HEARTA Review of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s KILLING EVEReview by Allyson Larcom"...a totally addictive masterpiece of a TV show and one that I’d recommend to almost anybody—even people who aren’t really thriller fans."READ ON

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