The Hermit Poet

Links updated 8/26/2005

There’s been a lot of talk in the Blogworld about the New Sincerity and somehow I feel that I’ve missed the boat.

Interestingly enough, “New Sincerity” is actually a term already used in relation to “Post-Conceptualism” in this index of new “poetries” in the Russian post-Soviet era. In Mikhail Epstein’s Catalogue of New Poetries, the New Sincerity entry reads:

Post-Conceptualism, or the New Sincerity
– is an experiment in resuscitating ‘fallen’, dead languages with a renewed pathos of love, sentimentality and enthusiasm, as if to overcome alienation. If the absurd dominates Conceptualism, Post-Conceptualism moves in the direction of nostaligia: a lyrical intonation absorbs anti-lyrical material, comprised of the wastes from the ideological kitchen, errant conversational cliches and foreign loan-words. (Timur Kibirov, Mikhail Sukhotin).

In Matt Hart’s online review, An Accidental Appreciation: A Few Pieces on Gregory Corso with a Nod Toward a New Sincerity, at Octopus Magazine, Gregory Corso’s work is suggested to be a precursor to the current New Sincerity movement.

This is an early post from Anthony Robinson which begins with a discussion of craft and moves towards proposing the New Sincerity movement — read it here.

Here are a few critical links which should provide an overview of the discussion:

Joe Massey:
The New Sincerity Manifesto
Summary of the current discussion

Ginger Heatter:
“Sincere or Insincere”
“(In)Sincerity and Myth”

Charles Jensen:
“Response to Ginger”

Seth Abramson:
“The New Sincerity: Is It and Does It Matter?”

Anthony Robinson:
“A few notes from a New Sincerist”
“Jonathan’s talking irony with Jordan”
“Response to Paisley Redkal”
“Some More Notes on the New Sincerity”
“Response to Seth Abramson”

Jeannine Hall Gailey:
“This morning I watched the internet news” (another take on irony and the New Sincerity)

Reb Livingston:
“Slipping on My NS Sweater”

Jenni Russell:
“But the blanket is really brown!”

Steve Mueske:
“Some thoughts on the NS movement”
“My Response to Tony’s Response to my NS post”

Rik Roots:
“New Sincerity?”

Kristy Bowen:
“Last night terrible storms” (some thoughts on the New Sincerity)

Scoplaw:
The New Sincerist Movement

Pamela Johnson Parker:
The New Sincerity — Waxing with Odysseus