(no subject)
I have only this to say about Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry: it is as emo Peter Parker's haircut in Spider-Man 3. Not as greasy, though.
What, you think I'm joking?
Sorry to you die-hard fans out there. And it isn't like he didn't know what he was doing with the words, it's just...the sentiment. I imagine him scribbling this stuff in a high-school bathroom. Or, like, standing outside woefully in the rain...and being sad.
Ahem:
Whoever now weeps somewhere in the world,
weeps without reason in the world,
weeps over me.
Etc. So maybe it's just his being European, and I'm used to reading Latin stuff, which frankly bursts with vibrancy and fury and life, and I suspect Pablo Neruda standing outside in the rain would have a natty white suit and the good sense to carry an umbrella. And it's not that Rilke's a bad poet, just that he tends to go on, and on, and on, in the same vein and I kind of think that if someone tried this same stuff today, it wouldn't get the same sort of regard. But because his stuff is, y'know, old that must mean it's good.
The same principle applies pretty much to all art--someone else says something is a masterpiece, everyone goes along with it, and therefore it's a masterpiece.
People are funny.
What, you think I'm joking?
Sorry to you die-hard fans out there. And it isn't like he didn't know what he was doing with the words, it's just...the sentiment. I imagine him scribbling this stuff in a high-school bathroom. Or, like, standing outside woefully in the rain...and being sad.
Ahem:
Whoever now weeps somewhere in the world,
weeps without reason in the world,
weeps over me.
Etc. So maybe it's just his being European, and I'm used to reading Latin stuff, which frankly bursts with vibrancy and fury and life, and I suspect Pablo Neruda standing outside in the rain would have a natty white suit and the good sense to carry an umbrella. And it's not that Rilke's a bad poet, just that he tends to go on, and on, and on, in the same vein and I kind of think that if someone tried this same stuff today, it wouldn't get the same sort of regard. But because his stuff is, y'know, old that must mean it's good.
The same principle applies pretty much to all art--someone else says something is a masterpiece, everyone goes along with it, and therefore it's a masterpiece.
People are funny.