Read aloud and poetry discussion of Students at Bertorelli's by Rosemary Tonks. #booktube #poetry #readaloud #poetrythursday #poem #poems #rosemarytonks
I have the Tonks book and I've read it a few times - I like it a lot without understanding it much apart from atmospheres and images - it feels like a grubby immersion into a bohemian London scene. Your analysis is great. As for Paris.... fantastic! I wish Mirrlees had written more in that vein.
An enigmatic poem for sure. It seems like she's creating a slightly sleazy and cynical atmosphere or attitude--maybe that she's feeling nostalgic about? The cabbage banknotes and green diction suggest to me that the latest, cool, intelligensia-signaling words buy you a place at the table. In Great Britain do you have the phrase "10 dollar words" or something similar that denotes big words that are rarely used or not everyone knows the meaning of? I recall that it was practically obligatory for graduate students to drop the name Foucault and/or Derrida to let it be known they were coolly on top of their literary criticism.
I don't know if I am familiar with such a term as "10 Dollar words" (although I think I've heard that phrase before from Hemingway about Faulkner, or the other way round). I think you'd just describe them as sesquipedalian (if you wanted irony) or simply good ol' fashioned pretentious.
I have the Tonks book and I've read it a few times - I like it a lot without understanding it much apart from atmospheres and images - it feels like a grubby immersion into a bohemian London scene. Your analysis is great. As for Paris.... fantastic! I wish Mirrlees had written more in that vein.
An enigmatic poem for sure. It seems like she's creating a slightly sleazy and cynical atmosphere or attitude--maybe that she's feeling nostalgic about? The cabbage banknotes and green diction suggest to me that the latest, cool, intelligensia-signaling words buy you a place at the table. In Great Britain do you have the phrase "10 dollar words" or something similar that denotes big words that are rarely used or not everyone knows the meaning of? I recall that it was practically obligatory for graduate students to drop the name Foucault and/or Derrida to let it be known they were coolly on top of their literary criticism.
I don't know if I am familiar with such a term as "10 Dollar words" (although I think I've heard that phrase before from Hemingway about Faulkner, or the other way round).
I think you'd just describe them as sesquipedalian (if you wanted irony) or simply good ol' fashioned pretentious.