I now want to read Jorie Graham, because I haven't and she sounds
interesting; but that's not what I wanted to say - what I wanted to say
was that I was tickled by the juxtaposition of these two "clinical"
terms - "narcissism" and "masochism" - because it struck me that a lot
of what people try to say about poetry runs up against the difficulty of
distinguishing between the two. Is Bukowski's self-abasement /
self-aggrandisement before the reader a masochistic performance or a
narcissistic one? Is masochism collaboration in one's own subjection
(the short answer is: yes), or is it a ruse of narcissism ("attack me so
I feel important")? Is narcissism the royal road to pathos ("my need to
feel important ultimately leads me to abase myself")? It seems to me
that a lot of poems, and one or two poets, are (=can be read as being)
all about this question...
- Dom
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