The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction by Dean Young
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Art of Recklessness (2010) by Dean Young (his first book of prose criticism on poetry) is a breath of fresh air for any who wants to read books about the art of poetry or the craft thereof. The portable book offers some wonderful advice to any writer. One I enjoyed: “At every moment the poet must be ready to abandon any prior intention in welcome expectation of what the poem is beginning to signal. More than intending, the poet ATTENDS!” (p 4)
And later: “Meaningless results not from too little but too much meaning” (p 91).
One of the great things about this book, and its writer, is that Young makes it clear that the writer at many times in the process of writing must let go and enjoy the act of creation through writing, and not to get hung up on too many rules (although he asserts throughout that certain rules do indeed dictate the craft), but to allow the message to flow through unfiltered and for the writer not to wheedle the message or the art/craft too much that it becomes stale, boring, unoriginal. Originality is clearly one message the book promotes.
The other message is Surrealism and how it can be achieved and its usefulness, and necessity among the current art forms (or genres) of writing, and how surrealism (authentic surrealism) to often abandoned and disrespected far too quickly.
“If there is divinity in us,” writes Young, “it is in the process of allowing ourselves to unmake and remake ourselves” (p 125).
The reader will not be disappointed with this guide to recklessness, for all its sage and witty remarks make this an insightful and pleasurable read. A strong recommend for those who read craft workbooks.
CG FEWSTON
The American novelist CG FEWSTON has been a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome (Italy), a Visiting Fellow at Hong Kong’s CityU, & he’s a member of the Hemingway Society, Club Med, and the Royal Society of Literature. He’s also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) based in London.
He’s the author of several short stories and novels. His works include A Father’s Son (2005), The New America: A Collection (2007), The Mystic’s Smile ~ A Play in 3 Acts (2007), Vanity of Vanities (2011), A Time to Love in Tehran (2015), Little Hometown, America: A Look Back (2020); and forthcoming: Conquergood & the Center of the Intelligible Mystery of Being; A Time to Forget in East Berlin; and, The Endless Endeavor of Excellence.
He has a B.A. in English, an M.Ed. in Higher Education Leadership (honors), an M.A. in Literature (honors), and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Fiction. He was born in Texas in 1979.
You can follow the author on Facebook @ cg.fewston – where he has 440,000+ followers
Very nice article, totally what I was looking for.
At this time it sounds like BlogEngine is the preferred blogging
platform out there right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what
you’re using on your blog?
Asking questions are actually fastidious thing if
you are not understanding anything completely,
except this paragraph provides good understanding yet.
It’s impressive that you are getting ideas from this post
as well as from our argument made at this time.
Having read this I thought it was extremely informative.
I appreciate you taking the time and energy to put this article together.
I once again find myself spending a significant amount of
time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!
Why people still make use of to read news papers when in this
technological globe the whole thing is presented
on web?
My brother suggested I might like this website.
He was entirely right. This post truly made my day.
You can not imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
Greetings! Very helpful advice within this post! It’s the
little changes which will make the biggest changes.
Many thanks for sharing!
I am really impressed with your writing skills as well
as with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize
it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a
nice blog like this one today.
Hey! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I truly
enjoy reading through your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with
the same subjects? Thank you!
Remarkable! Its truly awesome post, I have got much clear
idea concerning from this paragraph.
Hi, I do think this is a great site. I stumbledupon it 😉 I
may revisit once again since i have saved as
a favorite it. Money and freedom is the greatest way to change,
may you be rich and continue to help other people.
Pingback: Myths to Live By (1972) by Joseph Campbell & the unMasking of ISIS and the Great Debate: Evolution vs Creationism | CG FEWSTON