friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
None of the corrupt and vain emperors of history exacted of the sycophant poets in their retinues anything like the discipline imposed upon the poets of Procter and Gamble and Ford Motors. The copywriter is immeasurably more restricted in his choice of subject-matter than a court poet ever was. Moreover, the merit of his poetry is not measured by the pleasure it gives a single patron ; it is measured by its influence on sales statistics. Like the court poet, the copy-writer must praise not only his patron, but also the entire socio-economic system which keeps his patron rich and powerful. Milton, attacking the system of literary patronage of his time, was eloquent in his contempt for the 'trencher fury of the riming parasite.' A contemporary prophet able to look into the twentieth century might well have said to him, 'You haven't seen anything yet. Wait until you see the institutional ads of the great corporations during World War II!'


-- S.I. Hayakawa "Poetry and Advertising"

- mediaeducationlab.com/sites/de…
- poetryfoundation.org/poetrymag…

#SIHayakawa #PoetryAndAdvertising #CorporatePropaganda #VenalPoetry

#SIHayakawa #PoetryAndAdvertising #CorporatePropaganda #VenalPoetry
in reply to Brian Small

fedibird - Link to source

bsmall2

> It is difficult to become inspired by those facets of American life familiar and dear to all of us without sounding as if you were leading into a message from the National Association of Manufacturers on the necessity of maintaining the free enterprise system. Indeed, it is even difficult to speak reverently of the courage of our soldiers and the debt we owe the dead without sounding as if you were shortly going to remind the reader how much he also owes to Nash-Kelvinator's contribution to the war effort.
#VenalPoets #SellingFreeEnterprise
@bsmall2@nerdica.net
#VenalPoets #sellingfreeenterprise @Brian Small
in reply to bsmall2

fedibird - Link to source

bsmall2

🧵
Paul Goodman said thoughtful approaches were "swamped"...
> For every one person reached by...authors, advertisers and publicity men and economic propagandists with goods or ideas to sell reached tens of thousands. The distrust of words does not come from reading writers who honestly state their feelings and convictions, even if those feelings and convictions are extremely gloomy. The distrust arises from long experience with an unending stream of venal poetry, venal speech, venal writing..
#VenalWriting
@bsmall2@nerdica.net
#VenalWriting @Brian Small
in reply to bsmall2

fedibird - Link to source

bsmall2

🧵
> ... ... restoration of poetry[words, the internet!??...] to its traditional state as one of the most important of the communicators and creators of the values a civilization lives by awaits, therefore, a time when something less than 98 percent of radio time and 85 percent of space in mass-circulation magazines is devoted to selling something...
@bsmall2@nerdica.net
@Brian Small
in reply to Brian Small

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Brian Small

🧵

People are hardly to be blamed, when they encounter so much of it[venal word use], if they begin to wonder if there is any other kind. The preemption by the venal poet of the common value-symbols of our culture, the symbols of courage, of beauty, of domesticity, of patriotism, of happiness, and even of religion, for the purposes of selling, that is, of advantaging the speaker at the expense of the hearer, has left the disinterested poet with practically no unsullied symbols to work with other than obscure ones hauled up out of The Golden Bough or the Upanishads, and practically nothing in common human experience to write about except those negative moods that the ghastly cheerfulness of the advertising pages of the Ladies' Home Journal has no use for.


#AdvertisingCorrupts .. #SymbolDrain #RisingTideOfInsignificancy

I. A. Richards put a similar writing in _Speculative Instruments_.. and he praised Irving Babbit for good work in a similar vein.. I haven't found anytthing on advertising and tacky word use in general from Babbit though..

#AdvertisingCorrupts #SymbolDrain #RisingTideOfInsignificancy
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