Sunday 25 August 2013

The strength of Poetry – James Fenton 2001


“But for a productive life, and for a happy one, each failure must be felt and worked through.” (Fenton, 2001, p.6).

 “But in poetry there is really no equivalent for these intermediate disciplines. The way to learn to write poetry is: to write poetry. So we pass directly from the aspiration to the activity itself, and that leaves us at first vulnerable, because, looked at in a certain way, we have no right to be writing poems at this stage.” (Fenton, 2001, p.14).


“These are our first steps in poetry, and, surprisingly enough, we tend to want those first steps to be giant strides. We do not, as poets, start with humble studies, aiming to work our way up towards the grand canvas. We start with the large gesture.” (Fenton, 2001, p.23).

“In the writing of poetry we may say that the thing we predict will not happen. If we can predict it, it is not poetry. We have to surprise ourselves. We have to outpace our colder calculations.” (Fenton, 2001, p.43).

“But Lawrence is not describing a turkeycock – he is dramatizing the contemplation of a turkeycock.” (Fenton, 2001, p.181).

“It is the fleeting nature of beauty, Auden says, that makes it moving to others and ‘One should take it as a momentary thing. To become preoccupied with it means neurosis.” (Fenton, 2001, p.207).

“Readers of poetry divide into two kinds: those who, confronted with what appears to be like a code insist that they must crack it, and those who are happy to listen to the spell.” (Fenton, 2001, p.234).

“Auden believed that though we are under the illusion that we live and act, we are in fact ‘lived’ – unknown and irrational forces work through us.” (Fenton, 2001, p.245).

“The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. I do not know if such increased awareness makes us more moral or more efficient. I hope not.
I think it makes us more human.” (Fenton quoting Auden, 2001, p.245).

“’To be conscious but to refuse to understand, is a positive act that calls for courage of the highest order.’ For him, Rilke was the writer to whom to turn, ‘for strength to resist the treacherous temptations that approach us disguised as righteous duties.” (Fenton quoting Niebuhr quoting Auden, 2001, p.234).

Sunday 11 August 2013

Eugen Onegin – Alexander Pushkin 1833


„Darf ich einmal genau beschreiben,
wie unser Held allein. Verwöhnt,
für sein gesellschaftlicher Treiben,
der Mode seiner Herrin frönt?“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.22).



„Um jegliche Kritik zu meiden,
und nicht an seiner Welt zu leiden,
war unser Held ein rechter Fant,
in seiner Kleidung ein Pedant.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.23).

„Nein, früh schon waren die Gefühle
In ihm erstarrt, die Große Welt,
die Damen, ihre Liebesspiele
fand er durch Alltagsbrauch entstellt;
ihn langweilen die kurzen Freuden.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.29).

„Ein Leiden dessen wahre Gründe
sich noch der Aufklärung entziehn,
das ansteckend als Modesünde
sich überträgt, fast wie ein Spleen
aus England, kurz das Trübsalblasen
verfolgte ihn auf allen Straßen,
so daß er jede Lust verlor
und sich schon fast dem Tod verschwor.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.30).

„Wer lebt und denken kann, der findet
die Menschen keiner Achtung wert;
er fühlt, wie uns die Zeit entschwindet
und das Erträumte nicht gewährt.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.32).

„Das Gut, wo mein Onegin weilte,
sich langweilte, war zauberhaft“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.43).

„Ihn lächelte die Morgenröte
im Land von Schiller und von Goethe;
beseelt von ihrer Poesie
war er fast selber ein Genie.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.47).

„Doch öfter ging es meinen beiden
um das Problem der Leidenschaft.
Gewohnt, sie prinzipiell zu meiden,
gedenkt Onegin ihrer Kraft
mit einem spöttischen Bedauern.
Wohl dem, der sie in Angst und Schauern
Gekostet – und vergessen hat;
Noch wohler dem, der vorher satt,
bereit ist ihr zu widerstehen,
der weder Haß noch Liebe kennt,
den nicht die Eifersucht verbrennt,
dem Weib und Freund zur Seite gehen,
der sein geerbtes Kapital
mehr liebt als eine Lottozahl.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.51).

„Wieso ist denn Tatjana schuldig,
wenn sie so aufrichtig sich zeigt
(...) ja im Dienste
der Liebessehnsucht einfach liebt
und dem Geliebten weitergibt,
was ihr der Himmel mitgegeben
an Gesiteskraft und Phantasie,
an Sinn für zärtliche Magie,
an Güte und an Lust zum Leben?“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.76).

„Sie sagt sich nicht: ich will ihn prüfen
und meinen Einsatz erst vertiefen,
sobald ich seh, daß es sich lohnt;
bis dahin wird das Herz geschont.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.77).

„Ich schreib an Sie – was soll ich sagen?
Ist das nicht schon genug gesagt?“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.80).

„In früher Jugend trieb es ihn,
sich schnell und blindlings zu verschenken;
er gab sich seinen Lüsten hin
und ließ vom Leben sich verwöhnen.
So lernte er schon früh zu gähnen:
Ob ihm ein Liebesspiel gelang,
ob nicht, er sorgte sich nicht lang,
ihn lockten neue Abenteuer,
und so vergaß er nach und nach,
was seine Seele zu ihm sprach,
und lachend fühlte er sich freier.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.92).

„Er konnte sich nicht mehr verlieben,
er suchte nur den leichten Flirt;
ein Korb? – er läßt sich nicht betrüben;
Verrat? – er läßt sich nicht verstört.
Er hält nichts mehr von Liebesschauern
Und spürt im Herzen kein Bedauern,
wenn mal ein Flirt zu Ende ist.
So nimmt am abendlichen Whist
Ein Spieler teil, um ein paar Stunden
des Lebens, das sich dehnt und dehnt
von Tag zu Jahr und zu Jahrzehnt,
am Kartentisch zu überrunden.
Er fragt sich anderntags erneut:
Wo laß ich heute meine Zeit?“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.92).

Onegin zu Tanja:
„Ich liebe Sie – nicht als Ihr Mann,
nein als ihr Bruder. (...)
Sie werden wieder lieben, nur ...
- ich sag das Ihnen nicht als Spötter –
Sie müssen sich in Freud und Leid
Zu fassen lernen – jederzeit.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.95).

„Doch Onegin war indessen
nur ihr, Tatjana, zugewandt,
nicht jenem Kind das selbstvergessen,
verliebt vor ihm im Garten stand,
o nein: der Fürstin, die, gelassen,
in ihrer Schönheit nicht zu fassen,
ja, göttlich-unzugägnlich war.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.204).

„Mich in Gesellschaft sehn zu lassen,
vermögend, angesehn zu sein,
 die höchsten Kreise nicht zu scheun,
ja, einem Ehemann zu haben,
den man am Hofe schätzt und ehrt –
das macht mich Ihrer Achtung wert,
nicht wahr?“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.214).

„daß Ihre dreiste Leidenschaft
mich härter als Ihr Vorwurf straft:
(...)
Was liegt mir denn an diesem Leben,
an dieser eitlen Modepracht?
Wie gerne würd ich alles geben,
all die gesellschaftliche Macht
(...)
für ein paar Bücher, einen Strauch
in unserm Garten, für die Stelle
wo ich zum ersten Mal Sie sah.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.215).

„Das Glück war damals ja so möglich,
so nah! ... Doch ist das Schicksal nun
für mich entschieden.“ (Puschkin, 1833, p.216)

Saturday 10 August 2013

The case for Creativity - Hurman, 2011





Great book, building a case for creative advertising by analysing the business effect of creative vs. Uncreative advertising based on a quantitative analysis of IPA and Effie winning campaigns vs. Campaigns represented in the Gunn report.

“Our objective is effectiveness. Our strategy is creativity.” BBH” (Hurman, 2011, p.24).

According to the IPA 1/7000 campaigns wins a creative award. (Hurman, 2011, p.19). At the Effies 1/5 campaigns that win an Effie also received a creative award. (Hurman, 2011, p.19).

““Everything that’s wrong with the advertising business can be encapsulated by the fact that we have separate awards shows for creativity and effectiveness,” said Deutsch L.A. Chief Creative Officer Eric Hirshberg to Creativity in 2008. “It’s hard to imagine what the analogous award shows would be in other creative industries. It would be like the journalism industry giving out one award for prose, and another for accuracy.” (Hurman, 2011, p.28).

“However, what these findings suggest is that, by and large, if an agency does well at creative awards shows, it’ll also be doing well in terms of effectiveness; that there is a much stronger correlation between high creativity and high effectiveness than there is between lower creativity and high effectiveness.” (Hurman, 2011, p.40).

“advertising isn’t just about producing original, engaging and well-crafted ideas; and that the real trick of advertising is doing so in a way that solves the problem of selling a client’s product.” (Hurman, 2011, p.52). “for creativity to be effective, it needs to be an amplifier of sound strategic thinking, rather than a replacement for it.” (Hurman, 2011, p.54).

 “Social psychologists in the late 1970s found that as people were repeatedly exposed to a ‘persuasive message’, they developed ‘counterarguments’.” (Hurman, 2011, p.74). “Likewise, an unoriginal argument is likely to suffer defeat at the hands of our cognitive immune system.” (Hurman, 2011, p.74). “an original argument has a better chance of persuading people because they haven’t yet developed cognitive immunity to it.” (Hurman, 2011, p.75).

“What this implies is that less creative campaigns are not only less efficient, but also less predictable than creatively awarded ones.” (Hurman, 2011, p.91).

 “”So the suggestion is in fact that creatively awarded campaigns are more reliably effective than non-creatively awarded ones. (…).” (Hurman quoting Peter Field, 2011, p.91).


To sum up: “They generate more large business results than less creative campaigns. They’re more efficient – they produce better results on much lower levels of media spend than less creative campaigns. And what’s more, highly creative campaigns are more certain to produce those results than less creative campaigns.” (Hurman, 2011, p.97).

“the ones that we call ‘fame’ campaigns – they’re the most effective of all.” (Field in Hurman, 2011, p.132). “it is about creating perception of being the brand that is making ‘the waves’” (Field in Hurman, 2011, p.132). “This encourages brand usage by creating perceptions that the brand is bigger and ‘more important’ than before.” (Field Hurman, 2011, p.132).  “The most significant different between creatively awarded and non-awarded campaigns was in the scale of fame effects they generated, i.e. online and offline buzz.” (Field in Hurman, 2011, p.133). “uncreative advertising is very rarely ‘interesting’ to anybody. And while awareness can be bought, awareness doesn’t translate into conversation.” (Hurman, 2011, p.149).

“A recent UK study found that 40% of the top 50 UK brands’ Google pages feature negative PR. (…) That’s a scary fact when, for many companies, Google is their homepage. In 2010, 30 times more people Googled ‘Ford’ than visited ford.com. Their heavily sanitised corporate website full of positive messages is all a bit academic.” (Hurman, 2011, p.138).


 “”The real benefit of these camapigns (…) is not just in the volume sales result, but in the price sensitivity and price elasticity of brands. (…) An extra percent of volume, only a small proportion of that is profit. Whereas if you raise your price by 1%, essentially all of that is incremental profit.” (Field in Hurman, 2011, p.149).

“What makes the case all the more compelling is the absence of contrary research. If there is a case against creativity, it’s extremely difficult to find.” (Hurman, 2011, p.154).

“creative advertising made people conclude that the company had gone to a greater effort for them (52% higher for creative advertising), that the company was smarter (69% higher), that the company developed more valuable products (50% higher), that the company was better at solving problems (83% higher) (…) that the company was worthy of their interest (88% higher) and that the company’s products were worth purchasing (37% higher).” (Hurman, 2011, p.160).

“The theory that taking a less creative approach is more likely to produce a business result is wrong. There is simply no evidence to support that notion, and plenty to disprove it. It’s true among the hundreds of thousands of campaigns produced worldwide each year, examples exist of creatively awarded campaigns being ineffective. But while w earnestly try to lessen those instances, it’s important to remember just how uncommon they are. The research shows that for every 50,000 camapigns, just one will win a creative award without producing a business result. By contrast, just shy of 15,000 uncreative campaigns will deliver no return to their advertiser.” (Hurman, 2011, p.165).

“Highly creative but ineffective work is extremely rare, but very noticeable because it wins awards. What’s less noticeable but without doubt far greater cost to the business community, is the amoun of uncreative advertising that creates little return on its investment.” (Hurman, 2011, p.165).

Sunday 4 August 2013

The Last Amateurs – de Rond 2008


 “There is a respectful hate for the opposition.” (Redgrave in de Rond, 2008, p.xiv).

Rowing  “it is the unremitting quest for rhythm and flow.” (de Rond, 2008, p.7).

The Boat Race is “a vehicle for exploring the outer limits of human performance, where the two crews will row alongside each other until one of them decides it can no longer win.” (de Rond, 2008, p.9). “the attack is commitment, with no thought to eventual sustainability. We’ll make it happen by being willing to do what the crew next to us is not.” (de Rond, 2008, p.51).

There is a constant battle between competition and team spirit: “On one level – a higher one, in a moral framework – I wanted him to win the time trial, because no one likes to fail. However, on another level, I wanted him to lose, because I know he would be a unifying force in my boat and would add to the lightheartedness that we have now and certainly had last year in our boat.” (de Rond, 2008, p.35).



 “Be that as it may, it remains though to lose, tougher even to get back on your feet. (…) the necessary shame of defeat, always public, without the reassurance that ultimately all will be well. (…) That honour will ultimately come to all who deserve it. Because it doesn’t always, does it?” (de Rond, 2008, p.89).

 “They appear less concerned with Dan’s technical prowess than with his ability to gel the boat socially. (…) they seem to get a better performance out of the other seven oarsmen. By helping them to gel into a single rhythm, he adds considerably to boat speed. (…) sociability can trump skilfulness.” (de Rond, 2008, p.129).

“’Yesterday they looked like a crew set to lose the Boat Race,’ mumbles Donald,’ yet now it looks like they might actually win it.’ But of course the crew know the ball is now squarely in their court – that they were right and the coaches wrong. Dan O’Shaugnessy is their cause, the one thing the oarsmen collectively care about and have taken responsibility for; the one who seems to supply that key ingredient that cements them into a crew as opposed to a band of eight outrageously talented but conjointly dysfunctional individuals. What a note on which to conclude the training camp.” (de Rond, 2008, p.141).

 “what you need to do to get back on track to make the Blue Boat, it would be incredible tough mentally as well as physically. (…) “Can I really do this?” “What am I worth?” What if I were to discover that I wasn’t good enough, is that something I could live with? And it’s so much harder to show everything you’ve got and put all your cards on the table than to say fuck this, and I don’t really care, that you care very much, and that’s probably the biggest hurdle.” (de Rond, 2008, p.144).

“And then seeing the guys after Banyoles was really tough – particularly when you know that everyone talks about you behind your back and everyone’s watching to see how you will respond (…). I felt a lot of animosity towards the guys. (…) it’s hard to try and believe in yourself if no one else is believing in you. (…) but it fills you with anger to look around at each of your team-mates and think you probably don’t think I can do it … and you don’t think I can do it either … and you don’t think I can do it – and even though they were all making a rational call based on the evidence, the only way I could respond was by saying fuck you.” (de Rond, 2008, p.145).

“Believing in yourself is the hardest part, because to do that you have to reject everything else that coaches and team-mates and results are telling you to believe.” (de Rond, 2008, p.146).

“I did feel badly about this, because I like Colin and Oli.” (de Rond, 2008, p.148). “A shame really, but what do you say to the people you are training yourself to hate? I wish I could train without cultivating such negative thoughts, but anger is the only thing that works for me.” (de Rond, 2008, p.148).

“The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.” (de Rond, 2008, p.150). “We are in charge of our attitudes.” (de Rond, 2008, p.150).

 “the race plan is not so important to you, just that we find a rhythm that is unsustainable for the other crews and keep moving.” (de Rond, 2008, p.156).

 “If someone is strongly disliked, it’s almost irrelevant whether or not they are competent.” (de Rond, 2008, p.169).

coxing: “an ongoing negotiation between empathy and assertiveness – having to understand what the crew are still capable of doing in a race and daring to make bold decisions and to take responsibility for them.” (de Rond, 2008, p.177).

“One of the keys I think to handle the pressure is to be loving every minute of it. If you are visibly enjoying yourself and the boat’s going well it will rub off. It’s a bit like the idea that people can tell if you’re smiling down the phone.” (de Rond, 2008, p.179).

“Listening to Seb’s rant, I’m reminded of how fragile relationships are, of how even after six long months the crew are still swayed by suspicions of hidden agendas and ulterior motives, seeing the worst in everyone and everything.” (de Rond, 2008, p.181).

Kieran: “I never asked to stroke this crew and this close to the Race I don’t want the stroke seat. Maybe back in January but not today … Actually I’m pissed off we’re having this meeting at all. The only thing that should matter at this point is how we can make this boat go as fast as possible, not who sits where. (…) ‘For goodness sake, it really isn’t just up to stroke to set the boat rhythm; it’s up to each and every one of us, so at the end of the day it makes fuck all difference whether Thorsten or I sit at the front.” (de Rond, 2008, p.186). “So Thorsten sits at stroke I’m at six, we all stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and fucking well concentrate on our individual jobs!” (de Rond, 2008, p.187).

“Duncan and Donald (the coaches) never do get a chance to contribute any closing statement. Nor are they any longer expected to make any decisions. The crew have effectively taken things into their own hands. The boat now belongs to them.” (de Rond, 2008, p.187).