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I, Too, Dislike It

2019-09-24 · letter vlog · John, Julian Randall · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, guest or collab, civic or action cta

Starting from Marianne Moore's 'Poetry' ('I, too, dislike it'), John explains that he quit poems because he felt too dumb for them, but now loves poetry as a place for the genuine and language for hard experience, and launches Ours Poetica, a poetry channel with the Poetry Foundation.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Moore's 'Poetry' and why John long disliked and quit reading poems, then found a place for the genuine

  • ★★★ John says Marianne Moore's poem 'Poetry', which begins 'I too dislike it', is more or less how he felt about poetry for much of his life. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Poetry seemed dead to John because all the poets he could name were dead, so it had no present tense. — 00:00:13
  • ★★ John never felt smart enough for poetry: he thought reading well meant decoding symbols (the howling wolf as the poet's dead father), so he judged himself bad and mostly quit. — 00:00:22

  • ★★★ It turns out John loves poetry: as Moore writes, one discovers in it a place for the genuine, and he is desperate for places for the genuine. — 00:00:37

    “one discovers in it after all a place for the genuine”

00:00:58 — Poetry as language for experience that resists language: Paige Lewis on anxiety

  • ★★★ Poetry gives John language to understand the overwhelming worlds within and without him; much of his experience resists language, which makes it hard to understand. — 00:00:58

  • ★★ John found his anxiety hard to describe until he read Paige Lewis's lines about air hissing from a spacesuit on the moon and being vice president of panic. — 00:01:10

    “I'm the vice president of panic and the president is missing.”

  • ★★ John found it hard to describe how depression feels like reality falling out from beneath him until he read Emily Dickinson's lines about a plank in reason breaking and dropping down and down. — 00:01:27

00:01:40 — Poetry helps imagine others complexly; launch of Ours Poetica with the Poetry Foundation; Julian Randall introduces his poem

  • ★★ John also needs poetry because it helps him imagine other people and their experiences more complexly. — 00:01:40 · imagine others complexly
  • ★★★ With Paige Lewis, they have started Ours Poetica, a YouTube channel with the Poetry Foundation featuring a poem read every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. — 00:01:47 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ours Poetica's readers include poets like Paige Lewis and non-poets like Shailene Woodley. — 00:01:58
  • ★★ John thinks many people love poetry without yet knowing it, and the channel is for them. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ John plays Julian Randall's poem from the previous day's episode for those who think they don't like poetry. — 00:02:10
  • ★★ Julian Randall introduces his poem 'On the Night I Consider Coming Out to My Parents', written in the aftermath of the Pulse shooting. — 00:02:15

00:02:27 — Julian Randall reads 'On the Night I Consider Coming Out to My Parents'

  • ★★ Julian Randall: In the poem Julian names himself black, Dominican and bisexual, afraid of banishment and of worrying his praying mother, and stays quiet. — 00:02:27

00:03:23 — John thanks the readers and asks viewers to check out and subscribe to Ours Poetica

  • ★★ John says he just loves that poem and thanks Julian and everyone who has taken part in Ours Poetica. — 00:03:23
  • ★★★ John asks viewers to check out Ours Poetica via the link and subscribe, hoping they find in it a place for the genuine. — 00:03:30 · doobly-doo

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment John says his uncut vlogbrothers videos run 45-60 minutes and are boring and repetitive; without jump cuts he would have quit long ago. — creator comment · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ In a comment John says poetry, the Microcosmos and The Anthropocene Reviewed are the kind of projects they are trying to focus on. — creator comment · Journey to the Microcosmos, The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★ In a comment John tells viewers not to let anyone ruin their enjoyment of art because they enjoy it differently. — creator comment
  • ★ In a comment John recommends Paige Lewis's book, Space Struck, as extraordinary. — video description
  • ★ The description lists the poems mentioned: Randall's (also in his book Refuse), Moore's, Paige Lewis's 'On the Train, A Man Snatches My Book, Reads' and Emily Dickinson's 340. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Julian Randall · Marianne Moore · On the Night I Consider Coming Out to My Parents · Ours Poetica · poetry (concept) · Poetry (poem by Marianne Moore)

Also: People: Paige Lewis · Shailene Woodley

Organizations: YouTube

Terms: doobly-doo · imagine others complexly

Concepts: anxiety disorder · bisexuality · coming out

Events: Pulse nightclub shooting

Only in the description or credits: Emily Dickinson · I felt a Funeral, in my Brain · Journey to the Microcosmos · On the Train, A Man Snatches My Book, Reads · Poetry Foundation · Refuse · Space Struck · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Also centred on poetry (concept): The Road Less Traveled By · Does Anyone Else Have This?

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