This item is taken from PN Review 270, Volume 49 Number 4, March - April 2023.
Letters to the Editor
Martin Caseley writes: Poetry should not necessarily require explanatory footnotes. A bad example might be Eliot’s original notes to ‘The Waste Land’, originally supplied to bulk out the book, rather than aid the reader. Nevertheless, having read and enjoyed Joseph Minden’s ‘Headstones’ sequence in PN Review 268, I feel compelled to offer one to aid readers.
Whilst references to Tyne Cot, Portland stone, Poperinge and other WWI battlefields can be worked out, the casual reader may be flummoxed by ‘Reality Checkpoint’, referenced in the final section. Anyone who has ever lived in Cambridge, however, would notice Parker’s Piece also mentioned. This square green space at the north end of Mill Road, is on the ‘alternative’ side of the city, not far from what used to be Cambridge College of Arts and Technology: in the middle of this popular open space, where two footpaths cross, there stands one flamboyantly-carved cast-iron lampost, identified by graffiti as ‘Reality Checkpoint’ in whose ‘lemony glow’ (in Minden’s phrase) many, including this writer, have stood and walked over the years.
The name may refer to the idea of those from the University entering the ‘real world’ if they proceed any further towards the Mill Road area, and it has become a well-known local landmark with its own informative Wikipedia page. It is not simply metaphor: the unofficial name has been painted over and renewed several times over the years.
Anthony Barnett writes: A Basil Bunting anecdote, funny at the time. While working at the Better Books New Compton Street store in the mid 1960s an opportunity arose to go for lunch with Bunting. I asked many innocent or ignorant or both questions, among which, what did Bunting think of e. e. cummings? ‘I don’t know whether he is coming or going,’ he replied.
Mark Dow wrote to Five Dials, to which he had contributed in 2011, to ask whether he could submit again. He received this reply dated 7 February 2023.
‘Hi Mark - lovely to hear from you and apologies for the delayed reply! We’ve been on winter hiatus. Since 2011 we have changed our editorial focus to publishing early career writers from underrepresented communities (eg POC, queer, working class, disabled). If this applies to you, great! Do shoot me over your pieces at [e-dress] and one of us will come back to you with our thoughts. If not, I’m sure the pieces will find good homes at other publications, I’m sorry we’re not the right space for them. All good wishes, Hermione’
He replied, “Hi Hermione - It’s disappointing to hear the formulaic categorizations from Five Dials but thank you for replying. Mark’
Whilst references to Tyne Cot, Portland stone, Poperinge and other WWI battlefields can be worked out, the casual reader may be flummoxed by ‘Reality Checkpoint’, referenced in the final section. Anyone who has ever lived in Cambridge, however, would notice Parker’s Piece also mentioned. This square green space at the north end of Mill Road, is on the ‘alternative’ side of the city, not far from what used to be Cambridge College of Arts and Technology: in the middle of this popular open space, where two footpaths cross, there stands one flamboyantly-carved cast-iron lampost, identified by graffiti as ‘Reality Checkpoint’ in whose ‘lemony glow’ (in Minden’s phrase) many, including this writer, have stood and walked over the years.
The name may refer to the idea of those from the University entering the ‘real world’ if they proceed any further towards the Mill Road area, and it has become a well-known local landmark with its own informative Wikipedia page. It is not simply metaphor: the unofficial name has been painted over and renewed several times over the years.
Anthony Barnett writes: A Basil Bunting anecdote, funny at the time. While working at the Better Books New Compton Street store in the mid 1960s an opportunity arose to go for lunch with Bunting. I asked many innocent or ignorant or both questions, among which, what did Bunting think of e. e. cummings? ‘I don’t know whether he is coming or going,’ he replied.
Mark Dow wrote to Five Dials, to which he had contributed in 2011, to ask whether he could submit again. He received this reply dated 7 February 2023.
‘Hi Mark - lovely to hear from you and apologies for the delayed reply! We’ve been on winter hiatus. Since 2011 we have changed our editorial focus to publishing early career writers from underrepresented communities (eg POC, queer, working class, disabled). If this applies to you, great! Do shoot me over your pieces at [e-dress] and one of us will come back to you with our thoughts. If not, I’m sure the pieces will find good homes at other publications, I’m sorry we’re not the right space for them. All good wishes, Hermione’
He replied, “Hi Hermione - It’s disappointing to hear the formulaic categorizations from Five Dials but thank you for replying. Mark’
This item is taken from PN Review 270, Volume 49 Number 4, March - April 2023.
