Hi Alison--thanks for the good words. I thought the gender issue
interesting, too. I noticed here in scanning the recent messages that
there was some talk on Camille Paglia'a new (weak and weird) book--it
was a quote from her intro, along with the opening line in Alyssa
Lappen's article that caught my attention--Lappen's line is "Poetry is
a window on the soul," and Paglia echoes that assumptive (and in my
opinion, romanticist crap) notion. I paired up the two and wrote a
couple of sentences taking issue with their notion of poetic
"soul"--who's soul might it be, I wonder, and who's notion of "the"
soul?--on my blog. That seems to be what irritated this _American
Thinker_ editor, since he tried to reaffirm the notion by starting his
own 'hateful' editorial by requoting it with great reverence. Sheesh!
Now we cannot even debate historicized notions of what poetry might be
with coming under right wing ridicule and attack.
But then, too: it's good to clear the air somewhat with these crackpot
thinkers, so, yeah: let's just call what they're trying to pass off as
defensible, reasonable argument, just plain old, same old, *bullshit*.
:)
best,
c
-----Original Message-----
From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:36:39 +1100
Subject: Vitriol
Hey Chris - fantastic! So heartened by the myriad responses -
especially,
I've noted, by women - to that Campus Watch bullshit. And all so
funny. Go
you dangerous poets.
All the best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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