THE GREAT AMERICAN PINUP: ON PINSKY: THE GREATEST ANTHOLOGIST OF THE MODERN ERA and THE FORTHCOMING SLATE COLLECTED OR SELECTED EDITED BY ROBERT PINSKY

At first I thought this guy was joking. No. How about Jerry Rothenberg? Wouldn't he be a wee bit "greater" as an anthologist than Bob Pinsky? How about Ron Silliman? Maybe a "tiny bit" more interesting an anthologist than Bob Pinsky? Donald Allen, with his groundbreaking 1960 anthology? Even Paul Hoover's Norton Postmodern book is "slightly" more innovative than anything Pinsky's ever done.

One characteristic of Pinsky's anthologies is that they include only poems ALREADY IN ANTHOLOGIES. That means he's not really even an anthologist but a plagiarist of other anthologies, a popularist of the already popular. Great anthologists make us see poetry in another light; they are acts of the imagination, not vulgarizations. Doing another Quiller-Couch 100 years later does not qualify you. Hell, I could probably even predict what poems Pinsky would select about any given topic. Would that make me the second greatest anthologist? Who's number 3, Garrison Keillor, Harold Bloom, or Billy Collins?

Sorry, too much caffeine today. I felt some righteous indignation coming on. A good rant clears the pores. Nothing personal against David's otherwise praiseworthy blog.

[UPDATE: David was a good sport about my excessive sarcasm. Jordan posted a link to this post as well.]