David, I like what you said about voice, and the ability to speak in different voices. Even without portraying different characters, or writing poetry at all, one and the same person in the course of a day often speaks in a whole variety of voices and tones...singing in the shower, shouting at bumper-to-bumper traffic, making a sales pitch at work, telling a joke over drinks, consoling a friend, stammering sweet nothings on a big date, whatever.
I'm curious whether you think the current emphasis on having a unique "voice" tends to limit writers once they're identified with a particular "schtick," i.e., do they get pigeonholed by their readers and critics and not allowed to escape to try something new. ("Too bad about so-and-so's new book...seems to have lost his way, lost his voice!")
For example, might Frost's success as the philosophical farmer (certainly not the whole man, and an odd persona for a San Francisco boy) have kept him from trying some completely different things? Or can Kim Addonizio ever write now about something other than alcohol, sex and depression, without someone saying she's lost her edge? (I'm not criticizing either writer, both of whom I like.)
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