telophase: (Mello - bite my ass)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2008-09-09 02:33 pm
Entry tags:

The way to do it

If you've been under a literary rock for a while, you might not know that a British exam board asked schools to remove a poetry anthology from the exam curriculum because it contained a poem they thought glorified knife crime.

The poet's response.


(ETA: The original article with the original poem.)
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)

[identity profile] estara.livejournal.com 2008-09-09 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
What I didn't understand was how that Schofield woman actually got to be an external examiner for literature or poetry and can say that "the poem is a bit weird". I think it's one of the most clearcut ones I've ever read, showing that Shakespeare had lots of violence in his poetry, too, and no one is taking him off the syllabus.
I guess what with the Big Brother video cameras everywhere and calls for being able to throw you out of your contract as a children's book author if you behave in a way they're unhappy with, the UK is now going for authoritarian world view.
I haven't been back there since 1997, and I'm not sure I want to anymore, and that's such a shame.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
HOW CAN IT BE POETRY? IT DOESN'T EVEN RHYME!

I love the response poem. :D
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)

[identity profile] estara.livejournal.com 2008-09-10 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Verily XD

[identity profile] lady-ganesh.livejournal.com 2008-09-13 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I noticed that too. That's a lot of fail there.