Chris, I think he does have a habit of repeating himself.
At the only reading of his that I attended, he was late in arriving. A poet named Jame Reiss nonethless proceeded with the introduction, and in the course of his introduction he mentioned that he had introduced Dickey before in such flattering terms that Dickey said, "That sounded more like a eulogy than an introduction." At that point, Dickey arrived and went up to the podium. He hadn't heard the introduction, but he pretended that he had been there all along. Going up to the podium, he said "That sounded more like a eulogy than an introduction."
He then proceeded to act like a complete jerk throughout the reading. His novel "Air" had come out, and he spent a long time telling us that it did for the sky what Melville had done for the sea, but the comparison wasn't fair because his book was far better than Moby Dick.
This was my first date with the woman who became and remains my wife, and we bonded over thinking Dickey was a pig and an asshole.
|