Kate Clanchy - poet - is 'cancelled' by her publisher

[ArabellaScott]

Picador are unpublishing - ceasing to distribute - all of Clanchy's books. The article says 'by mutual consent', but it's not a good thing to hear a poet/author being 'cancelled'.

Literature/poetry is not in a healthy state right now.

unherd.com/thepost/picador-cancels-poet-kate-clanchys-books/

In case you missed the brouhaha - Article from last year:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-58151144

Article in Guardian about Kate Clanchy

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/23/the-hounding-of-kate-clanchy-has-been-a-witch-hunt-without-mercy?

I'd dearly like to bring back the acidic teacher remarks.

What good would that do? Why foster resentment in children and young people? Teaching isn't about bringing kids down a few pegs; it's about treating them like human beings so they feel valued and can thus reach their potential.

There's also a wee bit of a difference about being acidic in a school report to be read by a pupil and their parents and being acidic about more or less identifiable pupils in a high-profile book that you can get your mates to review in the broadsheets for your own personal profit.

I read the book and thought it was inspiring when I read it - and deeply humane. I didn't notice the descriptions at the time but looking back it seemed to me that it was part of Clanchy's writing technique to show the children as 'other' as seen through the eyes of the white middle class woman she is at pains to make clear that she is. But then in all cases she upends these expectations by showing how talented, thoughtful and creative her pupils are. I don't know why she didn't defend her writing on this basis but maybe there was no point if no nuanced discussion was possible.

If the children were composites or disguised in other ways, I think the complaint that she's being mean or failing in duty of care is completely unfounded and ridiculous. Are we really saying that writers can't describe people and things they observe without being "nice"?

@ariel333

I read the book and thought it was inspiring when I read it - and deeply humane. I didn't notice the descriptions at the time but looking back it seemed to me that it was part of Clanchy's writing technique to show the children as 'other' as seen through the eyes of the white middle class woman she is at pains to make clear that she is. But then in all cases she upends these expectations by showing how talented, thoughtful and creative her pupils are. I don't know why she didn't defend her writing on this basis but maybe there was no point if no nuanced discussion was possible.

I'm afraid that level of thinking tends to above what you get from the prooftexting types.

@NickiMinajerie

Hopefully, the anthology* due in March can still find an audience, even if it is self-published or released online. *Friend: Poems by Young People Clanchy talks about her ostracisation here: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society-and-culture/ostracised-disinvited-rescinded-what-its-like-to-get-cancelled I bought the memoir on the back of the Guardian excerpt the pp posted. I was surprised at the tone - it came across as patronising - have you started reading it yet OP?

Not got it yet! It was a different nonfic book of Clanchy's I had. Ordered SKITAWTTM.

By the by, her poetry is very good.

I also found this passage from the introduction, on the subject of privacy:

That suggests that these are composite portraits, she's changed names and has made 'occasional very extensive blurring of identity'. She notes 'children have the right to privacy'. So she's certainly well aware of potential effects of writing about her students.

She has been rude and disrespectful, then (arguably) about partly fictionalised or unrecognisable children.

“I have included nobody, teacher or pupil, about whom I could not write with love.”

I re-reading the intro. It’s very clear she knew what sort of book she was writing, how it could be perceived and she outlines her perspective well.

“it is me, not the children, learning the lessons here. I am in each story, clearly delineated, so that you will know what sort of person is doing the listening and filtering, and, I hope, be able to put my views aside and see the kids more clearly. I want to show you us, children and teacher, ‘Kids’ and ‘Miss’, both in groups, as if in a long school corridor, and then close in, so you can see the stuff we have brought with us from home, so you can hear some of the things we say.”

I think she’s absolutely explicit in acknowledging that she brings a perspective shaped by being a white ‘Miss’ in a position of power. She even asks the reader to put her prejudice aside if they see it.

I think she was misguided - -allowed emotion to take over - by challenging the Goodreads reviews. But most of what has transpired since is not at her door personally. She (perhaps, arguably) could have mitigated it sooner/better/not fuelled the flames -but I absolutely cannot condemn her. I do think an awful lot of people on both sides of this debate haven’t actually read what she wrote as a whole work.

I quoted bits of Ulysses competently and constructed an argument to write an essay to get a grade at 20. But I understood fuck all about what James Joyce was doing when he wrote it.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and this whole shitshow illustrates it.

[quote whiteworldgettingwhiter]Check this out on why it's not good to describe people as if they were food - writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/post/95955707903/skin-writing-with-color-has-received-several[/quote]
Just on this.

That's a perfectly understandable opinion from someone who has decided to try and educate themselves on historical and cultural use of slurs. But it is just that, an opinion. You could know all that and yet also know that often when someone describes someone's skin colour by reference to food that they are just evoking an image not being racist. You might decide that it is not necessary to stop other people using normal modes of description to communicate. You might worry that expecting all other people either to know the matters talked about in this Tumblr (or to share the same cultural history and reference points) and agree it is "not good", or to censor all their speech in case they say something that is "not good" is unreasonable and divisive.

We have to let people be not racist without fear.

she was misguided - -allowed emotion to take over - by challenging the Goodreads review

Fwiw I believe she has just lost both of her parents to covid.

Sorry, had.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and this whole shitshow illustrates it.

Yes. This.

There's a meme seen around a bit which I'm quite fond of - it seems applicable to so much of this stuff. Not labelled right for this topic, but I think you'll get the point.

Article in UnHerd today by Kate Clancy

"You can’t cancel poetry
My students' piercing work will never be erased"

about the book of poetry of her immigrant pupils and the state of literary criticism today.

Eye-popping stuff.

unherd.com/2022/01/you-cant-cancel-poetry/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=a71c60fea8&mc_eid=31e133b3a4

Clanchy

[quote Abitofalark]Article in UnHerd today by Kate Clancy

"You can’t cancel poetry
My students' piercing work will never be erased"

about the book of poetry of her immigrant pupils and the state of literary criticism today.

Eye-popping stuff.

unherd.com/2022/01/you-cant-cancel-poetry/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=a71c60fea8&mc_eid=31e133b3a4[/quote]
An excellent and moving article, I thought. Some of the comments underneath though! 😡

In 2016, a young boy just arrived from Syria, Mohamed Assaf, tumbled into an Arabic poetry workshop I was running with Oxford University and wrote a short poem, apparently off the cuff. It took weeks to get it translated, then printed in a book I was making. It ran:

“The Word Ummi,
My beloved mother,
When I go to my house the pain of missing her
Arrives before me.”

That poem is amazingly evocative of how you can't outrun grief.

That is an interesting article. I used the term proof-texting earlier in the thread to describe how it seemed people were using quotes without looking at the larger shape of the text and the role they played within it, so it was really interesting to me to see that she talked about the same idea, and that it has become the think in criticism. I think that's true, now that I think about it. Which makes sense since it's part of a type of fundamentalist secular religious ideology.

I agree the comments were a little much, though I also think it's worth considering where the Unherd readers are coming from, which is a suspicion of the widespread assumption by progressives that western culture is inherently evil and needs to be deconstructed for some kind of multicultural decolonized vision (which doesn't include any of the embarrassing viewpoints of the natives, of course.)

'Once, the word ‘trope’ indicated a system of language and imagery traceable through a whole, lengthy text — a semantic field or underlying narrative shape. Now the word has shrunk to mean a single metaphor or even word.' - yes, good point she makes here, I'd noticed that shrinkage, too.

Thanks for the article.

Mohammed's poem is beautiful and heartrending. Glad I got to read it. I wonder if KC can't sell these books direct?

' There is a world of difference between someone who actually works with disadvantaged young people and actually gets their words published – and some private school educated university professor who thinks that destroying the society who elevated her is noble. I truly believe that universities are the root of many of societies problems. We have to stop subsidizing these negative destructive activists.' - this comment was astute, too.

When did academic critique and criticism become corrosion and dismemberment? Is this still the hangover of pomo dismantling of everything; with no understanding that one has to rebuild and work on alternatives rather than just tearing everything down? Or even work with nuance and thoughtfulness to help to engage in the conversation, rather than smear, cancel, and silence everyone else?

I have the feeling that working in academia does tend to create these kind of reactive attitudes. Being removed from the swings and roundabouts of the daily grind and the hoi polloi means one can easily lose sight of what is proportionate and necessary for getting along in society, living with different groups, bumping against others and wider views. Sort of cultivating corners, instead of having them knocked off you.

There is something incredibly meanspirited about academic today. There's no joy in the modern cultivation of knowledge, in the exploration and expansion of a discipline. Instead, there's a mere determination to show that everyone and everything, other than one's close associates and their work, is "problematic"; indeed, one might come to the belief that this is the pre-determined end point of their work, even before they start.

I have a fair few reservations about Kate Clanchy and her work, but it's clear that she has a desire to help others, and a sincerity in her approach. And I sometimes think that sincerity is almost the most objectionable trait in the modern world of academia...

I don't think it's quite fair to condemn academia. Trust me, academia is just as split as Twitter when it comes to these debates.

I'm an academic who has a great deal of respect for Kate Clanchy and who thinks the way she's been treated is abominable.

It's the endpoint of that kind of activist-academic, where the whole point of study is about furthering an ideological position.

@JohnRokesmith

There is something incredibly meanspirited about academic today. There's no joy in the modern cultivation of knowledge, in the exploration and expansion of a discipline. Instead, there's a mere determination to show that everyone and everything, other than one's close associates and their work, is "problematic"; indeed, one might come to the belief that this is the pre-determined end point of their work, even before they start.

I have a fair few reservations about Kate Clanchy and her work, but it's clear that she has a desire to help others, and a sincerity in her approach. And I sometimes think that sincerity is almost the most objectionable trait in the modern world of academia...

You’re really only talking about a very narrow section of academia though, specifically people working on race, gender etc from a critical theory perspective.

Sorry if it’s been mentioned earlier and I’ve missed it but did she genuinely dox the good reads reviewer?

There are lots of tweets saying the articles in support of her are all failing to mention her heinous threatening and doxing of this reviewer.

I know she drew attention to the review and attempted to get it removed but did she actually obtain the reviewers personal info and harass them? It’s hard to see how that would have been possible without hacking into the good reads site

The reason I ask is that her supposed harassment of this anonymous woman keeps getting cited as a reason nobody should have any sympathy for her. And it’s unclear whether she simply threw a tantrum and called the reviewer a liar without knowing her identity or actually did engage in harassment of someone whose name etc she knew.

I saw somewhere she contacted the Goodreads woman's employer to complain. Not sure if it's true.