Intro Post from snowynight

[snowynight]

I am snowynight and I will be your host this week.I love poetry because something about how it plays with the language and condense idea and image fascinates me. I have read poetry since I was very young, and they still catch my imagination to this day.

This week I 'd like to share about China and its literary theory about poetry. I remember in one Chinese literature lesson, my professor shares with us about the famous Nineteen Old Poems, 古詩十九首. They have been regarded as influential in the development of poetry in Ancient China. Interestingly, some poems contains theme that are quite amoral considering their historical context, such as 青青河畔草 – Green, Green, Grass on the Riverbank, where the female narrator entertains thought of adultry. Or 今日良宴會 – Today we hold a splendid feast, where the narrator shares his ambition of striving for richness no matter the cost. These however didn't lessen their literary value in ancient Chinese's eyes because they 're honest to what the poets feel, and the honesty resonates with the readers even today. Honesty 's the baseline how a poem 's evaluated. To those interested, I find a translation to all 19 poems here.

Discussion: When you read or write poetry, what does honesty mean to you, and how does it factor into your appraciation or creation?

Comments

[jjhunter]

Intriguing distinction, and one that aligns well with what I discussed in my comment in the other thread. You did a better job of articulating it, methinks.

[lnhammer]

Is that a mustache and goatee on Ms Lisa?

---L.

[jjhunter]

Yes! It's a color version of L.H.O.O.Q., aka Duchamp's modified Mona Lisa. Good eye -- not many people notice the subtle joke.

(I like it because it's an onion of an icon. At the first level, people assume it's the straight Mona Lisa, and conclude that I like art history (true). At the second level, my fellow art history nerds recognize me for one of them, and even those who don't necessarily get the context still recognize that I have a working sense of humor and a playful, subversive bent that generally flies under the radar. At the third level, the really geeky art history people who are familiar with the 'L.H.O.O.Q.' joke start wondering why I'm smiling through the icon and then they subsequently start making flattering assumptions about my appearance that I will neither confirm nor deny.)