May 26 2011: Shouldn't "poetry" include drama, tv and cinema, prose fiction, musical lyrics and so on? That's to say, arts that use language and/or narrative. If you include these, then it's clear that poetry changes the world every day. Here in South Korea, a popular song begins with the phrase, "It's my life!" This is the opposite of Korean traditional culture and 120 years ago would have been an inconceivable lyric here... In a very real way, this pop music "poetry" is playing a role in the transformation of modern South Korea, in this case spreading formerly Western notions of individualism. But of course poetry is also changed _by_ the world... politics, science, technology. "It's my life!" is spreading an attitude, but it's also reflecting a change that's already occurred. The relationship seems complex and difficult to parse with clarity.
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A comment on Conversation: Can Poetry save the World?