No way, Peter, no way. Are you joking? Hugo
Williams would never have written the lines
by Soares about Roy Fisher having learned nothing
from Cambridge poets of the last twenty years,
nor made any references at all to Melanie Klein
(certainly not the three Soares makes: it is these
that make it John Wilkinson for me); Williams
admires Pessoa, I know, from a conversation I had
with him ten years ago; but it has far too many
tolerances of interesting poetry for Williams,
and I doubt Williams would make the critique of
Keston that Soares does: that Keston is taking
the risk of pariahdom, and thus perhaps playing
into the hands of a favourite game of dons, watching
the bright spark burn out; Williams would never
mention the sexism in the way Soares does, nor, indeed,
the astute praising comparison of Keston's powerful
reading skills and textual weave to Hopkins'.
But perhaps I'm missing your joke, or am
about to be proved horribly wrong.
Ira
On Thu, 14 May 1998 19:21:01 +0000 Peter Riley wrote:
> From: Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 19:21:01 +0000
> Subject: Soares Revealed
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> The identity of the infamous "Bernardo Soares" author of
the objectionable
> review of CCCP8 (taking one of Pessoa's minor heteronyms
for the purpose)
> can at last be revealed. All along I knew it reminded me
of something and
> at last I tracked it down.
>
> A different vocabulary, a different position, but the
identical attitude,
> the identical tone--- The same smugness, even snobbery /
the same reliance
> on self-evidence / the same vaunting of circumstantial
tourism.... The
> same assumption of "authority" behind snide refusal to
listen...
>
> The same "weary smile", the same "satisfied with my
dissatisfaction"...
>
> "She was followed by Rod Mengham, a more than usual
raspberry-like member
> of the group."
>
> A review of the "Conductors of Chaos" reading at the
Pompidou Centre in
> Paris, printed in TLS April 11th 1997, and signed by one,
"Hugo Williams".
>
>
> /PR
>
>
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