Email me at jmayhew at ku dot edu
"The very existence of poetry should make us laugh. What is it all about? What is it for?"
--Kenneth Koch
“El subtítulo ‘Modelo para armar’ podría llevar a creer que las
diferentes partes del relato, separadas por blancos, se proponen como piezas permutables.”
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3 ago 2006
I've been described by one prominent Spanish poet as "tan norteamericano como desorientado..." [both North-American and clueless, or as clueless as I am American] Not by name of course. He wouldn't stoop to acknowledge me by name. A useful footnote in the article where I found this quote helpfully identifies me as the culprit. Of course, I don't mind. It's nothing personal on either side. He's just the Spanish equivalent of Official Verse Culture and I criticized him for it.
I wouldn't translate "desorientado" as "clueless", though. I agree with what you posted above, about it being an aggressive, racist remark. But, still, maybe what he meant was not that you were "clueless", but that you were somehow "lost", "in the wrong path" or plainly "confused" because you happen to be North American and not Spanish? Impossible to know without reading the phrase in its context, of course.
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