Something about that asthma inhaler... Soon after taking a bike ride and needing some albuterol I read that Dan Chiasson comment and the blood rushed to my head. I felt totally enraged. As enraged as when dealing with the Kent Johnsons of the world. I vowed to spend my life bringing down Dan Chiasson. A polite letter to the New Yorker will have to do, I guess.
Seriously, rants are very fun. There's something cleansing about invective. One important aspect is that the invective has to be out of proportion to the triggering event. It is no fun to underreact. But it must be controlled, with simmering anger, not outraged victim-like emoting. Focus on the absurdity of what was said, not on the idiocy of the person saying it.
I was probably too mad to do a really good rant. I'll try to do better next time.
3 comentarios:
Despite the inaccuracy of what Chiasson says, I think he was trying to be complimentary. He likes O'Hara. I just found an old article in Slate in which he says, "We read O'Hara to experience an aesthetically viable joy, an honest joy, without equivalent in American poetry."
What's additionally infuriating about the Chiason bit you quote is the whole "most poets" trope. It's just so intellectually laxy as to be not just meaningless, but corrosive to the very possibility of meaning.
I don't really care that he likes O'Hara. After all, if someone really didn't like Frank O'Hara, I couldn't really say anything. The Frank O'Hara he thinks he likes does not exist.
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