I get the impression that Padel is one of those people who thinks, more
or less, that all's fair in love and war: that there are certain
situations where people's basic interests are in conflict where it's no
use worrying about common decency and reasonableness because you'll just
get walked all over. Lots of people do think that; I think I don't, but
I may be fooling myself. She's also one of those poets for whom "being a
poet" entails a certain shamelessness and egotism, not terribly
admirable in themselves but necessary to the profession as she conceives
it. I'm not sure Walcott is much different. Good luck finding a poet
with a high public profile who has a different notion of what it is to
be a poet, or a human being.
Dominic
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