Sunday 21 September 2014

#iCoruscati or #iCoruscanti - the public decide

  The Harry Hill solution would, of course, be "Fight!" But after our recent outburst of democracy (let's forget about some unruly scenes the next morning), the only way is a referendum. Which should it be? 'iCoruscanti' gets some of the idea of cognoscenti, an elite group of knowing people, but does 'iCoruscati' also suggest a nice Italian wine?

 I refer of course to the Twitterati (oh, that's where I got the idea) reaction to the Poet Laureate's Thistle poem.  I found it quite moving, if rather sentimental. But then I have, like a lot of people, mixed feelings and allegiances about the Scottish Independence vote, or #indyref.

 Or did I just find the "pilgrim Keats" lines moving? They seemed to me based on truth - Keats did make a sort of poetic pilgrimage to Burns' (Burns's?) cottage and then had to go home, very ill indeed. So, there seemed some truth there and beauty, too. Hence #TruthBeauty.

 But the Twitter reaction was very mixed, to put it mildly. A bit soppy but nice, with some very good bits, can't be bad for an official poem, can it? I wondered if the iPhone and Twitter make it difficult to be anything but clever and flip? Coruscatingly, sparklingly witty, perhaps but also sometimes unnecessarily flaying or excoriating? [Do these word still exist as separate, different things? Ed]

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