tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4468338187993270672.post8082020924049865778..comments2023-08-16T07:24:48.610-07:00Comments on Alexis's blog: Purveyors of tripe, literary and otherAlexishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14733333815866525002noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4468338187993270672.post-53589018488749562602010-09-30T02:26:11.973-07:002010-09-30T02:26:11.973-07:00Du calme Alexis! Really! I worry about such intemp...Du calme Alexis! Really! I worry about such intemperate ire. Take a beta blocker, have a fag or a large snifter. Were this a mere creative effusion, one among the increasing tide of instantly degradable detritus washed up on the literary littoral by the expanding ocean of little mags (two of which I know you read) then there’d be nowt to shout about. Nor do you rage at such as you pick delicately, and fruitlessly, amongst that jetsam like an oyster catcher in search of a whelk. But this, I recognise, is lit crit – a different matter – a matter of record and reputation. However, remember de gustibus non est disputandum (as they say in Latin America). I’m sure your distinguished tutors at King’s would agree – Leavis, Tanner, Steiner and Williams. Er..well actually now I think about it they wouldn’t since they all made a living out of arguing about taste…but moving swiftly on.<br />Crass hyperbole is the defining attribute of the aspirant journo and one can hardly blame poor Lesley for her slight lapses of judgement. She’s just making her way in the world. I’m sure she has a very respectable degree in meeja studies from Salford or Swansea and I would certainly agree that her assertion that ‘Elizabeth Smart was "author of one of the greatest works on love ever written"’ betokens an ignorance of say Les Liaisons dangereuses, Le Rouge et le noir, Wuthering Heights, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina and Albertine disparue. (I’m inclined to add Charles Bukowski’s Women but feel this would be a little de trop) Her course was most likely devoted to works from the publisher Molls and Baboons. <br />I feel also that the image you conjure of this poor girl is somewhat uncharitable. I don’t see, as you do, a flat chested, four-eyed, ugly beanpole. Rather I imagine a ravishing nymphet, like, say, the young Leslie Caron (after whom she has no doubt been named). If she did trek down to Exeter I’m sure you’d be enchanted and after a chinwag and a couple of glasses of NZ sauvignon you’d be joyfully jogging together (vertically) on your neighbour’s trampoline.<br />Where’s that famous King’s charm and politesse – the kind of thing the Fellows at Cantab used to bewitch Frank Kermode and enrich his declining years? You have often, litotically, “drawn my attention to..” and professed “you may possibly be right Ken but have you considered..” while correcting my egregious solecisms and I’m grateful for such consideration but surely poor Ms McDowell deserves the same. <br />I suggest a little more Christian clemency (or, in your case, Greek Unorthodox). It would indeed be a tragedy if this silly cow’s …er…unfortunate lady’s…errors resulted in a cerebral aneurism in an artery already thinned by five decades of haikus. A great loss to your many friends and even, dare I say…. to the world.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11822990834486017183noreply@blogger.com