Leaving It In

7 Responses to Leaving It In

1. Michael says:

   May 9, 2004 at 9:25 am

   This quote reminds me of the poet Stephen Dunn, who’s been strongly influenced by Frost. Dunn wrote somewhere that he’s come to prefer and to or — not love or hate, but love and hate, for example. If you haven’t read Dunn, you should try him. This poem, “To A Terrorist,” is a typically good one.
2. Michael says:

   May 9, 2004 at 10:12 am

   Though I don’t, as Dunn does (or did), consider the U. S. “smug.” Some of us, yes, but not most of us.
3. red says:

   May 9, 2004 at 2:15 pm

   Michael – I will check out that poem when I have a second – I don’t know Dunn.

   May I say, though: congratulations for not throwing out the entire author because he makes one statement you disagree with. I love that. So many people miss entire books/authors/etc. because they can’t get past that disagreement.
4. Michael says:

   May 10, 2004 at 12:16 am

   Some writers I can’t forgive — totalitarian-worshippers Neruda and G. B. Shaw come to mind. I don’t renounce them deliberately. Once I learn about their lives, their work repels me. But small differences are no real problem.
5. red says:

   May 10, 2004 at 9:56 am

   I cannot give up Shaw. He’s too good.

   “Gentlemen, light your fires.”
6. Dave J says:

   May 10, 2004 at 1:30 pm

   Shaw was an abominable, inexcusably inhumane and unsympathetic person. But that says nothing about his work which, you’re right, is too good to pass up.
7. Michael says:

   May 10, 2004 at 4:52 pm

   Let me analogize:

   I meet a beautiful woman. I talk with her and learn she’s a nitwit. From then on, though I can see her beauty, it doesn’t stir me.

   That’s pretty much the story of my feeling about Shaw. I didn’t choose to stop enjoying his work. It just happened.

   Incidentally, someone, Yeats I think, said Shaw was the only man he’d ever met who spoke in complete paragraphs.

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