DC Burnside wins TS Eliot prize in year of controversy

[camus]

http://www.channel4.com/news/john-burnside-wins-ts-eliot-prize-in-year-of-controversy

[Nash]

Funnily enough, I was just about to post something about Burnside so I might as well do it here.

I've been reading Black Cat Bone this week and I think it well deserves all of the accolades it's been getting, a truly inspiring piece of work, one of the best things I've read in a while.

I was wondering if anyone's read any of this novels? Any good?

[lemonstar]

I'm interested but faintly recall looking at it in a bookshop and not being moved enough to buy which is quite unfair, I know - 5-10mins isn't really enough.

Here's a link I've posted a couple of times - John Burnside's "The Asylum Dance" (from a Forward collection about 10 years ago) - I really like this:-
http://twitpic.com/440dja

[Antcliff]

Thanks for link Lemonstar.

Good read. Description of the patients and interactions is terrific isn't it? (Though rather runs out of steam after he begins to view scene from above?)

Certainly makes me want to read more.

Ant

[Antcliff]

Just got this (Black Cat Bone) after people praised it? Anyone got any favourites in it?

[Nash]

I like this book......I may have mentioned it before! I think it's difficult to select individual poems as favourites from a book like this, when they all hang together so well as a whole. Sort of like choosing a favourite track from a concept album or a favourite chapter from a novel.

Having said that though, I think that the first part, The Fair Chase, is the section that has remained with me the longest.

I seem to remember reading a review that suggested that the Black Cat Bone section was the weakest of the four, I'm sure it said something about Burnside not tackling macabre subjects well. I can't see that myself, it's what he's best at if you ask me.

One of my favourites at the moment.

Nash.

[David]

I haven't read Black Cat Bone. I have read The Hunt in the Forest, which I can remember not being greatly impressed by, but I shall give it another go now and report back.

I bought A Hundred Doors by Michael Longley yesterday. Good, so far.

[Antcliff]

I have been only dipping so far....with the great Graves on the bedside table on other side.

I can see something of the appeal of The Fair Chase. In fact Nash am I wrong to detect a slight influence of that in your most recent?

On the downside I am not liking..in others...some of the pseudo-religious references thrown in for rather Hammerish reasons. The author of "Transfiguration" deserves a few minutes on the rack.

On the upside again, I do like "A Game of Marbles".

Coming back in a while...

[Ros]

http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2012/04/poetry-angus/

This is mostly about Burnside, and how he wins prizes.

Ros

[Ros]

Just been to a reading by John Burnside. Not easy poems to concentrate on when hearing for the first time, but he seemed like a very nice chap, if that's any help.

Ros

[Antcliff]

From article Ros posted (citing Burnside)

To opponents of this kind of writing, the indulgence in a hinted mystery of natural process – with magical or fantasy auras – never openly divulged as belief but part of the figurative decor attached to the authorial self, is highly diagnostic of ‘mainstream’ allegiance, typically flirting with the transcendental without espousing it.

I don't object to flirting..quote the opposite...but I object to such things being used merely as a kind of atmospheric fog.

The Fair Chase begins with a biblical quote in latin. Why? Could he not get the King James translation? It has been out a while.

I can see how if you have a fondness for gothic/horror/atmosphere the book might be great fun. But, from my viewpoint, I have yet to run across anything that hints at genuine understanding/engagement with the religious quotes that litter the pages. In parts it is feeling (to quote the great Nash, our resident horror king) a little too..

"Ia! Ia! Shub-Niggurath! Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young"

Seth.

[David]

The Fair Chase begins with a biblical quote in latin. Why? Could he not get the King James translation? It has been out a while.

Made me laugh!