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Style VS. Structure
There's a point to this, so stay with me. It all relates back to writing in general and poetry specifically even though it sounds, initially, as if I am going off on a wild and self-congratulatory rant.
In the way back of the 1980's I was involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), a medieval based recreation group and I fought sword and shield. I was in my very early 20's and I was quiet good. Aside from mixing it up with four (4) brothers most of my life I was tough to panic and had extremely fast reflexes and excellent hand-eye coordination along with good body movement.
At one point I attended an event consisting of camping and feasting and fighting and I was sitting around camp, fixing my shield, when our Seneschal came up and asked if i was busy. A Seneschal is the elected leader of a local SCA group. Jay, the Seneschal, had just gotten trounced in a pick-up fight and wanted me to step up and defend the honor of our Shire.
OK, what he really wanted was for me to kick ass because he sucked at fighting and I did not. I finished up edging my shield and walked over to the pickup area where I witnessed a person around my age with a two-handed axe (wood and foam construction). People would step up with their swords and this guy would take one pass to put them on the defensive and another to deliver a killing blow. He'd then look out over the crowd and sneer "NEXT!"
I stepped up at the "NEXT" and was told "You'll have to wait. First I'll take care of this guy then I'll take care of you" to which I replied, "Fine." The axeman, let's call him Todd, dispatched his opponent with the same move and ease, looked at me and sneered "NEXT!"
I stepped up, acknowledged I was ready, waited for the first pass, stepped in, met it with my shield, turned it back on him causing him to lose his balance and snapped my sword up at an angle to hit him with a killing blow to the chest. I looked at him and said "Next."
What ensued was fun, for me. I fought 4-5 different folks several times each. They were all part of Todd's shire and were convinced I was using a trick of some sort. I was, I was using practice. One of the guys, in response to continued shouts of, "try it again, you can take him easy" after I'd beaten him 3-4 times said. "No, I can't, he's just too fast." He was half right, for while I was fast what really mattered was that I had practiced techniques that allowed me to spot openings and extend a shot without thinking.
So Todd made his way around again. He'd tried several different things and weapons and finally hit upon the idea that I was using a shield and that was my secret so he borrowed a shield to give me what for.
The classic way to use a shield is in a modified karate stance with the shield at a slight angle in front of you and the sword held ready to strike at whatever height is most effective for the fighter. Todd decided none of this made any sense and he faced me in a fencer's stance with the sword nearly fully extended and the shield held behind him.
Take a moment to think about this. Firstly, with the sword held nearly fully extended he had to use his whole body to attack me so it was easy to see things coming. Secondly, with the shield held behind him all it did was to throw him off balance and make me laugh. When I mentioned to him that it was not effective he responded with:
"Hey, it's my style."
It didn't work.
Style is something you add to an effective process or technique. Style cannot make crap shine, all it can do is show people you like trying to shine crap.
When you are choosing a type of poetry, be it classically derived with more rules than lines or be if free form with no rules at all you still need to be competent at it before you add style. People who use the excuse "that's my style" are only hoping to fool themselves because the rest of us see that it just plain sucks.
And that's not horrible, it's just an indication of the secret of writing in general and poetry specifically, practice.
Rare are the people who can define a new style and have it work seamlessly. Picasso, after all, studied classical painting techniques and thus knew what rules to bend and break while still creating art.
So, if you have a great stylistic idea, you may want to apply it to an established technique first so you can see what the effect is before you go off on a tangent and call the rest of us names and question our ability should we find your style lacking.
As for Todd, he spent the rest of the event promising to teach me a lesson not knowing he'd already re-affirmed one I'd learned long ago:
Practice plus style is more effective than style without structure.
See, I told you it would all make sense.
In the way back of the 1980's I was involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), a medieval based recreation group and I fought sword and shield. I was in my very early 20's and I was quiet good. Aside from mixing it up with four (4) brothers most of my life I was tough to panic and had extremely fast reflexes and excellent hand-eye coordination along with good body movement.
At one point I attended an event consisting of camping and feasting and fighting and I was sitting around camp, fixing my shield, when our Seneschal came up and asked if i was busy. A Seneschal is the elected leader of a local SCA group. Jay, the Seneschal, had just gotten trounced in a pick-up fight and wanted me to step up and defend the honor of our Shire.
OK, what he really wanted was for me to kick ass because he sucked at fighting and I did not. I finished up edging my shield and walked over to the pickup area where I witnessed a person around my age with a two-handed axe (wood and foam construction). People would step up with their swords and this guy would take one pass to put them on the defensive and another to deliver a killing blow. He'd then look out over the crowd and sneer "NEXT!"
I stepped up at the "NEXT" and was told "You'll have to wait. First I'll take care of this guy then I'll take care of you" to which I replied, "Fine." The axeman, let's call him Todd, dispatched his opponent with the same move and ease, looked at me and sneered "NEXT!"
I stepped up, acknowledged I was ready, waited for the first pass, stepped in, met it with my shield, turned it back on him causing him to lose his balance and snapped my sword up at an angle to hit him with a killing blow to the chest. I looked at him and said "Next."
What ensued was fun, for me. I fought 4-5 different folks several times each. They were all part of Todd's shire and were convinced I was using a trick of some sort. I was, I was using practice. One of the guys, in response to continued shouts of, "try it again, you can take him easy" after I'd beaten him 3-4 times said. "No, I can't, he's just too fast." He was half right, for while I was fast what really mattered was that I had practiced techniques that allowed me to spot openings and extend a shot without thinking.
So Todd made his way around again. He'd tried several different things and weapons and finally hit upon the idea that I was using a shield and that was my secret so he borrowed a shield to give me what for.
The classic way to use a shield is in a modified karate stance with the shield at a slight angle in front of you and the sword held ready to strike at whatever height is most effective for the fighter. Todd decided none of this made any sense and he faced me in a fencer's stance with the sword nearly fully extended and the shield held behind him.
Take a moment to think about this. Firstly, with the sword held nearly fully extended he had to use his whole body to attack me so it was easy to see things coming. Secondly, with the shield held behind him all it did was to throw him off balance and make me laugh. When I mentioned to him that it was not effective he responded with:
"Hey, it's my style."
It didn't work.
Style is something you add to an effective process or technique. Style cannot make crap shine, all it can do is show people you like trying to shine crap.
When you are choosing a type of poetry, be it classically derived with more rules than lines or be if free form with no rules at all you still need to be competent at it before you add style. People who use the excuse "that's my style" are only hoping to fool themselves because the rest of us see that it just plain sucks.
And that's not horrible, it's just an indication of the secret of writing in general and poetry specifically, practice.
Rare are the people who can define a new style and have it work seamlessly. Picasso, after all, studied classical painting techniques and thus knew what rules to bend and break while still creating art.
So, if you have a great stylistic idea, you may want to apply it to an established technique first so you can see what the effect is before you go off on a tangent and call the rest of us names and question our ability should we find your style lacking.
As for Todd, he spent the rest of the event promising to teach me a lesson not knowing he'd already re-affirmed one I'd learned long ago:
Practice plus style is more effective than style without structure.
See, I told you it would all make sense.