Cultural Criticism

The Battle of the Brain

By: Anonymous

the revolt is revived

a decade of woolly wars

...  all lost

defeated by the infiltration

of drug warfare

scatter bomb capsules

toxic terminators

first-aid, ‘pill-boxes’

‘anti-improper gander’

parachuted in by leaflet dropped prescription.

a reduction in brain border

forces and fodder

allows a ‘theatre of opportunity’

the level playing field

atop the brain roof.

potent drug arsenals are depleted 
the underground resistance begins to swell

auto pilots are shot down

the bug-bandits are shell shocked.

nerve endings are repaired 
roads to reason are re-built

the un-elected benzo-bullies

are on the retreat...

to the margins of the mind

and the deserted, long dead                                                     labyrinths of hollow cells. 

ANALYSIS

Cultural criticism is what is practiced by cultural critics, the formerly known as moralists and publicists, before those became dirty words. That is to say, they are those who have taken it upon themselves to describe the conduct of their fellow citizens to their fellow citizens, taking conduct in a very broad sense, including prominently that part of it which concerns ; to judge whether and how that conduct is wanting; and to suggest more desirable states of affairs. No principled distinction can be drawn between cultural criticism and the writing of newspaper editorials, just as there is none between book reviewing and ; the main social difference is that people who say they engage in "foo criticism" are now more likely to be university professors than the op-ed writers and reviewers.

There are differences between cultural criticism and  apart from the merely conventional ones made by publishers, tenure committees, etc. Sociology is not (overtly) normative, and at least claims to prefer statistics and data, and logical and methodological rigor, to personal impressions and arbitrary or conventional generalizations appeals. In reality, of course, much sociology is just disguised cultural criticism, and much cultural criticism is just conventional wisdom --- that is to say, prejudice --- in distilled form.

Imagery. Metaphor, simile, symbol, simple description. All poetry relies in conjuring up ideas through imagery. Literally speaking, of course, imagery would be about representing pictures in words, but in reality, it is about creating pictures or sensations in the mind which go beyond the factuality of words. In My last Duchess, the imagery is almost exclusively dramatic—Browning puts us into a fully imagined situation, but it is a situation largely without flowery language. To Autumn, on the other hand, uses ever poetic device to conjure up a completely sensual recollection of Autumn. The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock uses elaborate similie, describing the yellow fog as if it were a cat, and powerful metaphor, but its fundamental imagery is the symbol of the women talking of Michelangelo, a symbol whose meaning is hinted at but never explained in the poem. A poem which is entirely built around one image is called a ‘conceit’.

 Versification. Does the poem have a rhyme scheme? Is it presented in stanzas on the page? Are there a particular number of stresses per line? Versification is the most mechanical thing you can write about in a poem. You should be able to name the common verse types hexameters are six stressed syllables per line, pentameters are five stresses. Iambic verse is where the stresses typically (but almost never invariably) fall as unstress-stress. Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be. That is the question” can be read as an iambic pentameter with a weak ending (ie, and extra unstressed syllable), although most readers will put the emphasis on ‘that’ rather than ‘is’. Heroic couplets are iambic pentameters which rhyme in pairs. A sonnet is a fourteen line iambic pentameter with a very particular rhyme scheme. Iambic pentameters without rhyme are known as ‘blank verse’, and are the main verse form in Shakespeare’s plays. Very few poets will stick to a rhythm or rhyme scheme slavishly. It’s also worth commenting on whether the punctuation comes at the end of the line, or the phrases run-on from line to line.