Hi David,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, someone sent the footnote that O'Farrell was the original source of the "sexy" remark about Padel, which I should have included in my first post on the matter. I did include O'Farrell in my post's "pro or con," since I'm not in favor of praising a poet's work on the basis of her sexiness. So, yes, I guess O'Farrell started it, though I would have hoped the error of marketing would not become the continuing folly of a review.
Also while you are probably right that the look of some men may help sell their poetry, I don't think I have read many reviews of a man's poetry collection that so hinge upon the discussion of his sexiness or sexuality.
>two, the key point seems to me to be the comparison with New Labour,
>implicit is a notion of tokenism, homage can be paid to notions of sexual or
>racial equality while the same old abuses of power go on in redesigned garb.
I think this is an interesting point and with considerable merit, but why not write an essay on this particular point, since it was the point of the article, rather than having the review be a kind of stalking horse for one's views? In my view ignoring the work in favor of making a point upon society or to take the measure of the poet has the result of endorsing those very assumptions which dismiss and erase poetry from the culture. The review in this sense says who cares about the work? the particular poem? the particular book under review? What matters are the social/political issues involved or the quality of sexiness.
Sometimes I have taken a sort of perverse hope in listening to the discussions of evangelical right wing Christians because they have so adopted the jargon of their times. While they mean to war with a secular society, it permeates their language and their thought. I think perhaps they have lost without knowing it. So in this matter of paying attention to everything but the poem it seems to me that those who are fighting about many things in the name of poetry have perhaps lost, without knowing it, any faith in its independent value at all.
Best,
Rebecca
Rebecca Seiferle
www.thedrunkenboat.com
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