I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. 'Poet' covers it all for me.
Tony HarrisonRead
For me, there is a paradox in poetry, which is like the paradox in tragedy. You have the most terrible subject, but it's in a form that is so sensually gratifying that it connects the surviving heart to the despairing intellect.
Interpretation
Poetry can capture deep despair while also providing beauty and pleasure, creating a connection between emotion and intellect.
Tony Harrison highlights the paradoxical nature of poetry and tragedy, where the most painful subjects can evoke profound beauty and sensory pleasure. This interplay allows a deep emotional connection between what is felt by the heart and what is understood by the mind, bridging the gap between despair and aesthetic experience.
In practice
In a literary discussion, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexity of emotional experiences in literature.
I hate being called poet/dramatist/translator/director. 'Poet' covers it all for me.
Theatre has to be theatrical. It has to draw attention to itself, like poetry.
There's a kind of despair about whether art can really do anything, but you have to incorporate that despair into the way you work. I try to soak my work in my sense of futility and fury.
Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.
To be a film-maker, you have to lead. You have to be psychotic in your desire to do something. People always like the easy route. You have to push very hard to get something unusual, something different.
When I go to the cinema, I'm often frustrated because I can guess exactly what is going to happen about ten minutes into the screening. So, when I'm working on a subject, I'm always looking for the element of surprise.
Writing is almost a place of dreams for me, and I don't have to give up anything to do it.
Music has got to be useful for survival, or we would have gotten rid of it years ago.
I've still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa, can say, 'You know, that's the truth. I wasn't there, and I wasn't a six-foot black girl, but that's the truth.'
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