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Unread 03-04-2002, 02:30 AM
Caleb Murdock Caleb Murdock is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: New York City
Posts: 797
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There is someone out there who doesn't like Alicia's book? Amazing!

Salemi is primarily interested in Salemi. Although he puts down Gioia, he fancies himself to be a straight-talking, no-nonsense Dana Gioia type, imparting the hard truth to a poetry world in denial -- but what he really seeks is notoriety as a literary pitbull. He's an exhibitionist who doesn't realize how small his intellectual "manhood" is that he's displaying to the world.

I don't meant to suggest that he is totally useless. If the U.S. would put him at the base of those mountains in east Afghanistan and tell him to criticize the al Quaeda, he'd have them running from their caves in no time.

Below is the letter that I just sent to Mortensen, who publishes the site:

Dear Mr. Mortensen:

I don't visit your site very often specifically because of Joseph Salemi, who, in my view, is little more than a crackpot who seeks notoriety by attacking people. That you give this terrorist a safe harbor is a discredit to you and your site. Nonetheless, because Rhina Espaillat is dear to me, I read his review of her most recent book, "Rehearsing Absence".

It is not a good review. Salemi doesn't examine the quality of Espaillat's writing as much as he attacks her philosophy and personality. It is not the role of a reviewer to pass judgment on such things. Salemi can't see the evolving maturity of her work because he himself is so immature. He doesn't even understand her work, as he misses the point of many of the poems he criticizes. He is too self-consciously pushing his own image as a literary "bad boy" to comprehend what he reads with anything resembling objectivity.

Espaillat's poetry is elegant, well-crafted and insightful. It isn't "nicey-nice" as much as it is subtle and compassionate. There is a great deal of wisdom in it, much as there is in the woman herself. To label her a representative of the bourgeoisie is to politicize a body of work which is essentially non-political.

If Salemi insists on throwing stones, let him find someone less accomplished and capable. His arms must be tired from aiming at a talent so much taller than he is.

Caleb Murdock
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