Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
This weekend I finally made it to the 200th page of Clarissa, the book is good (as in it holds my interest) but I find Clarissa absolutely annoying, her best friend Miss Howe grating, and her entire family dumber than dumb. In fact, I am having serious issues with myself because I find Lovelace -- Clarissa's seducer and future rapist -- the most intelligent and sensible of characters. Thus in the novel Clarissa has been told that she is to marry the vile Mr. Solmes. As a result Clarissa cries and pleads and her family acts like total douchebags. And this goes on and on and on. I'm looking forward to Clarissa's future death because she will shut the hell up and after all, this is one chic that totally digs dying for that purity.
The Persistence of Objects by Richard Garcia
Richard Garcia kicks ass. I really don't know what else to say. When he came to my University to read, he discussed how lucid dreams are where he writes most of his poetry. He says that you can train your mind to stay in a lucid dream state longer and not wake up and then viola, better poetry. He attributes this to eating ice cream before bed; perhaps I should give that a go? Anyhoo, his poems are quite lyrical and dreaming, yet he doesn't fall prey to that writer faux-pas of employing "fancy words" and "cleverness." He is still very much an imagist and leaves me feeling like I'm in a state of poetic zen.
The Best New Poets 2006 edited by Eric Pankey and Jeb Livingood
Geez...talk about making me feel like a poop on the bottom of a sneaker. This anthology of the best new poets of 2006 are just that ...damn... good. Check out their site here.
Sir Francis Drake: the Queen's Pirate by Harry Kelsey
Any of my friends will tell you that since childhood I have had a fascination with Sir Francis Drake. In fact, he was my first crush. I remember being about 10-years-old and reading a Drake biography for children. I thought him dashing and that bad boy vibe was appealing to me even at that young age. Now, I'm reading a grown-up biography of Drake. Although I think that I would totally be trying to hook-up with the privateer if I was a wench back in the day, I now realize that Drake was really kind of a scary dude. He is randomly beheading people, manipulating folks, abandoning knocked up slaves on islands, and lying his ass off to his crew, but still, there is something hot about that general bad boy-ness and the fact that he gets away with it.
* yes, I know it is technically Monday, but not even a half-hour into Monday!
2 comments:
Glad to see you in the Salon. I love the quote from cummings , who is definitely my favourite poet.
OK, totally off the subject, but I have to ask. You're the only poetry lova I know else I would spread this question far and wide.
What do you think of Geoffrey Hill's work? I remember reading his work in Brit Lit in college, and I was reading a piece in the NY Times yesterday about his notorious dislike of readers, etc. Just wondered. :D
I remember disliking his work then for how hard it was to discern (the very reason he dislikes readers) but once I had some guidance from a kickass prof I really liked it, and it's stuck all these years, so I guess that has to count for something!
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