Thursday, October 13, 2005

Random

A slow time for blogging, mostly for reasons similar to what Eric (briefly poking his head up) details here.
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A very readable new interview with Ron S., in which doesn't quite manage to avoid that John Housman tone... But Ron, please – "Alexander Pope, who may deploy all the exoskeletal features of verse, but whose tongue is prose indeed..." You are channelling T. S. Eliot here, rather than reading Pope.
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RS: "The key figure in the evolution of the Bay Area scene proved to be Kenneth Rexroth, in large part because he actively sought out that role. Before he arrived, the Bay Area literary community had consisted of the likes of Ina Coolbrith, George Sterling – who I think passed away the week Rexroth arrived – and Witter Bynner, who had the first creative writing professorship at Berkeley, but had already left for the Southwest. By the time the scene began to expand at the end of the Second World War, it was Rexroth’s venue." Another reminder that I gotta read Rexroth one of these days.
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John Latta in a new guise: reviewer of poetry readings. And in this case (Jeff Clark & Andrew Joron), JL's polished ironies work splendidly.
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The real Nobel Prize in Literature goes to Harold Pinter. Literature Nobels for me come in two flavors: You've Gotta Be Kidding, & I Guess I Can Live With That. This one is the latter, though I'm still waiting for Susan Howe's trip to Stockholm.

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