Quote:
Originally Posted by William A. Baurle
I destroyed my poem Contra Inferno (which you critiqued on Metrical, and didn't like), which talked about that section, but I wish like hell I hadn't.
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Hey Bill (or do you prefer William?), I didn’t mean to trash that poem outright. You should resuscitate it.
Quote:
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Reminds me of Dante's character who uses his 'arse' to blow the trumpet. What the hell was his name?
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Barbariccia, "Curly Beard," and their boss's name is Malacoda, "Evil Tail," or "Evil Rump" in this case.
The comparison is apt. A defining feature of Dante’s hell is that it has lost "il ben de l’intelletto," the good of the intellect. The Inferno is a pig-pile of social chaos, a city that has lost its way because people have ditched the understanding they might measure their speech and actions by.
The Administration’s trashing of the media is a way to crush independent thought--the good of the intellect. So is their budget proposal’s plan to cut the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AmeriCorps, and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities.
Trump is the anti-intellectual's anti-intellectual.
Like William C. Williams’s introduction to Ginsberg’s
Howl says, "Hold back the edges of your gowns, Ladies, we are going through hell."