Verlaine – arts & fetters

On form.

I once asked James Tate what he thought of writing in form. He replied that one can’t write like a romantic anymore because it’s inapplicable. I think Paul Verlaine and Leonard Bernstein would disagree. Says Bernstein: “Form is not a mold for Jello, into which we pour notes and expect the result automatically to beContinue reading “On form.”

drama: Aristophanes: the Clouds (419 BCE)

The most important thing Meredith taught me was that I should shut the fuck up. Meantime, I have no regrets about the scene I just made in an Applebees in the middle of the Maine woods, in which I got into a very angry debate over French/American political relations, which always comes down to theContinue reading “drama: Aristophanes: the Clouds (419 BCE)”