Thursday, January 28, 2010

what cellists know

the cello is like a dog
it knows when you are afraid

-thomas schonberg

2 comments:

J said...

Speaking of fear, your blog-palsie Kirby-the Klansman's recent Falwellian rants should upset literary-blogdom like, taken as a whole. It's amazing he's still allowed to teach.

Note KO's vast, stupid generalizations: all democrats hate western Civ. Complete bullsh**t. He hates western civilization, as far as it pertains to Reason.

Then his predictable attacks on Ginsberg-the leftist straw-man. Few people read beat poesy anyway (though Kirby-O supposedly specializes in it). I suspect many democrats and leftists don't care for Ginzo, or beats (I'm not a big fan of the beats, though On the Road an entertaining book--and somewhat profound). He doesn't even bother criticizing the literary works themselves.


It's just pure hick WASP paranoia and flagwaving--, not even say William F Buckley-like witty, cynical conservativism. He's ...uno pedazo de blanca-basura.

jh said...

kirby's intention is to keep a cyberconversation going
and by any standard he is quite successful
he can boast blog comment streams in excess of 200 by people from quite varied backgrounds
he sees the importance of humor
and he believes that people can be civilized and polite and he's willing to accept a lot in terms of volitility too

when i first went over there i was well what should i say tending toward some incendiary rhetoric
but as i danced along i became rather enamoured of his style of poking fun and instigating reactions and playing it all pretty cool...he believes it is possible to be intelligent and funny and serious and faithful all at the same time
i applaud his effort

so much of what i read in the open exchanges in the blog world descends rather quickly to anger and hateful rhetoric

and interesting phenomenon
but i don't have time for it

kirby knows what he knows and he continues to read and entertain other points of view

if you'd like i could send you his doctoral thesis on gregory corso
...he looked into the beats with a seriousness that few others broached

he also wrote a crazy novel

politically i think he is a centrist leaning to the right
he's read his homework
he knows locke he knows madison
he knows the cultural strengths and delusions of USA

i suspect the indentured literary lit world sees him as a troubled but innocuous birdbrain

i see him as a real gentleman
crazy as a friggin loon
but a real mensch

lighten up on the judgement pal
this is a place for some fun

i find your comments on my blog rather cryptic at times
but you're still welcome

feliz de pasqua amigo

jh