Robert Hass graciously took time out of his uber-busy teaching and lecturing schedule to speak with me about the impact of poetry on society, and whether or not such art can influence the public's viewpoint on war. This interview was conducted April 26th, 2007, from Missoula MT, in anticipation of his April 30th talk at the University of Montana, “Study War No More.”
Robert Hass is an outspoken poet, reflecting on world affairs, environmental issues, and most recently, the war in Iraq. Currently serving as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, he was our US Poet Laureate from 1995 through 1997, under the Clinton administration.
Though best known for his poetry, Hass teaches literature at UC Berkeley, calling it his "paying job." "Every artist has two full time jobs," he said. "One that earns them a living, and thier art. Inevitably, you must do something (other than writing) to pay the bills."
Hass is now on the lecture circuit, speaking about art's influence on consciousness and war. The progression from artist to activist happened early for Hass, who was a grad student during the Vietnam War.
Married with children, he was deferred from the draft, and became active in the Sixties antiwar movement. Hass remarked on our current war: “I don’t think there’s apathy about it; I think people are very worried about it.” Yet he noted students aren’t actively campaigning against the US involvement in Iraq as they did against Vietnam “because there’s no draft.” With no disincentive, they can be blasé.
Hass emphasised the full impact of the war is not being felt by the American public because “people aren’t asked to foot the bill for it.” He said our current increase in gas prices would have happened anyway, due to the scarcity of the resource, and that the real cost of US involvement in the middle east will not be felt for a generation, just as happened with Vietnam. "It wasn't until the mid-seventies, in the Carter administration, that society felt the impacts of the cost" the government had borne to fund Vietnam.
"Suddenly we had seniors living on fixed incomes from social security who were eating dog food, because it was all they could afford," Hass said.
Another barrier to emotionally involving the public in what Hass called the "true cost of the war" is a ban on taking or running photographs of deceased soldiers, he said. “The government will not allow anyone to take pictures of the dead Americans coming home,” nor does it “keep track of Iraqi civilian deaths.” This artificially cleanses the war, making it no more real to most people than a TV show.
Hass said as long as the real costs of war - both economic and social - are hidden from the public eye, the war will continue. And once it ends, Hass believes society will feel the impact of the government's current budget deficit through the loss of social programs, coupled with commodity cost increases.
Still, Hass isn't necessarily trying to make a particular statement through his poetry. When asked if he writes about the war in order to change society's thinking, Hass replied “I find myself writing about war for the same reason I write about divorce or nature or my children growing up. It’s there to be dealt with and thought through and felt through.”
“I’m not trying to reach anyone,” he said, “I’m making something.”
Poetry is an art form of the educated middle class, Hass said, and most poetry is a reflection of the world. Yet, “there are poets who are profoundly talented, like Shakespeare, who generate new ideas.” Some, he said, are able to “crystallize a whole society around an idea.”
“Writers come to this in different ways. All artists need to say things in public. In my own case, it comes down to growing up in a household with alcoholics. I have a strong impulse to (reveal the truth) if I think it’s there unspoken.”
Hass doesn’t believe writing will lose ground as an art form, but the medium which is popular at any given moment is the medium which shapes that moment’s heroes. At one time, he said, it was newspapers, and writers were held in esteem. Now, he said, visual media dominate, creating Hollywood's version of celebrity and importance.
With most young people more concerned about Paris Hilton than great literature, Hass said he doesn’t “have any illusions about the reach of poetry in the short run.”
As for poetry impacting society on a large scale, Hass said he’s always held that poetry works by the trickle-down effect. "It takes about a hundred years in the economy of the industrial period," he said, "for a poet to influence government."
Still, “the world is changing and as it does the role of poetry is going to change.”
“Mass literacy is a new phenomenon” which could broaden poetry’s reach, said Hass. With a college education becoming common, and access to publishing one’s work more readily available, “more people are writing than ever before.”
“Emily Dickenson said, tell the truth, but tell it slanted.”
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