security camera and plastic owl

"These matters require what I think of as the Shakespearean cast of thought. That is to say, a fine credulity about everything kept in check by a lively skepticism about everything."

Friday, May 05, 2006

Why I Love Auden


"Of course, one can be wrong about what's good or bad. Taste and judgement can differ. But one has to be loyal to oneself and trust one's own taste. I can, for instance, enjoy a good tear-jerking movie where, oh,an old mother is put in a home--even though I know it's terrible, the tears will run down my cheeks. I don't think good work ever makes one cry. Housman said he got a curious physical sensation with good poetry--I never got any. If one sees King Lear, one doesn't cry. One doesn't have to.

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I suppose I should also mention how the auden looked as an old man was one of the primary reasons I wished that I was a poet. He looked, towards the end, like the bust of a frog sculpted out of horse diarrhea, topped with marjorie perloff's wig. she just set it there to dry it out after getting caught in the rain. I mean, we should all have such a face.

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