Great post. It reminds me of Housman’s “The Name and Nature of Poetry.” For Housman, the poetic is independent of sense, though it can be (intermittently) combined with it. It’s probably no accident that the literary value of a certain type of nonsense has been maintained by fantasy writers, as they rely more than other novelists on a sense of poetic grandeur, antiquity, other-worldliness, etc.
Another vessel that I don't think I mention is, say, Chris Morris's uber-nonsense News. So authentic that the 'real thing' has been playing catch-up for the past 3 decades.
Great post. It reminds me of Housman’s “The Name and Nature of Poetry.” For Housman, the poetic is independent of sense, though it can be (intermittently) combined with it. It’s probably no accident that the literary value of a certain type of nonsense has been maintained by fantasy writers, as they rely more than other novelists on a sense of poetic grandeur, antiquity, other-worldliness, etc.
Nice rec, thanks. I'll have to follow that up.
Another vessel that I don't think I mention is, say, Chris Morris's uber-nonsense News. So authentic that the 'real thing' has been playing catch-up for the past 3 decades.