When they wanted to put a camera on the end of my street , I objected. Like Janus it would be looking two ways , along the busy main road , but also up the street , seeing who left early and came home late and from whose houses… More than one person told me that if you’re not doing anything wrong , you’ve nothing to fear…
This was long before the EU referendum , which Ian Pople sees as the root cause of “ Citizens” .
The easy acceptance of the surveillance society was well under way at least a decade earlier.
For me Ian Parks’ poem is more about trying to outrun this trend , which follows him all the way to the sea , where the cameras are already watching from the edge of the beach.
In this sense, “free agents” is as much about being enabled and allowed to make up our own minds about things , after weighing up the pros and cons of everything from tea or coffee , through ribbon development and agricultural policy , to political affiliation…and the really big things , like are the girls waving , or am I drowning…
and thusly I get to appreciate his style; although I'm not one for such forensic scrutiny unless some issue conscious or unconsciously included is worthy of note. I'm with Breton on childlike enjoyment. Intellectual poetry that makes one frown - is that entertainment or propagandist? Oh eck two quadripeds in a sentence having a dig at intellect (snigger).
I so appreciate the keen analysis provided. It raises my childlike enjoyment of Parks' work to a level of juvenile-like apprehension. Well done.
When they wanted to put a camera on the end of my street , I objected. Like Janus it would be looking two ways , along the busy main road , but also up the street , seeing who left early and came home late and from whose houses… More than one person told me that if you’re not doing anything wrong , you’ve nothing to fear…
This was long before the EU referendum , which Ian Pople sees as the root cause of “ Citizens” .
The easy acceptance of the surveillance society was well under way at least a decade earlier.
For me Ian Parks’ poem is more about trying to outrun this trend , which follows him all the way to the sea , where the cameras are already watching from the edge of the beach.
In this sense, “free agents” is as much about being enabled and allowed to make up our own minds about things , after weighing up the pros and cons of everything from tea or coffee , through ribbon development and agricultural policy , to political affiliation…and the really big things , like are the girls waving , or am I drowning…
and thusly I get to appreciate his style; although I'm not one for such forensic scrutiny unless some issue conscious or unconsciously included is worthy of note. I'm with Breton on childlike enjoyment. Intellectual poetry that makes one frown - is that entertainment or propagandist? Oh eck two quadripeds in a sentence having a dig at intellect (snigger).