Oops. My copy came in with a huge conspiracy theory stamp covering it.
Sorry for any unnecessary duplication. Trying one more time:
Have to disagree, CR, strongly. Poetry is an account in fancy words?
Really? It's all confessional since R. Lowell. Really? All poets
know...and blah blah blah, from start to finish. Lehmann reads like a
high school senior almost cleverly churning out sob sister journalism:
"They were married in 1915. She took his poetry on as a project to
focus her mind. He went about becoming one of the greatest poets in the
English language. Over the next twenty years, doors were opened for
him, publishing opportunities arose from no where, invitations flowed
like water, and introductions, appointments, poetry readings and such
materialized."
Wow. Doors just opened, invites flowed, publications arose from no
where, readings and such materialized -- all that from Viv's focused
mind!! And then, the ultimate revelation, "Vivienne catapulted his verse
to the forefront of British poetry" -- OMG! Who knew! Sorry, CR, what a
bill of goods. The whole thing is a crass attempt to manipulate a
reader's emotions. Fueled in part, one would have to guess, by jealousy
(he should have aimed a little higher than the "forefront of British
poetry"). It indeed ingloriously employs the engine of "affect" for its
"effect," and while an adolescent might get a pass for the flourish of
his emotions, a grown-up ought to get an "F" for dishonesty and for
holding on to his embarrassingly adolescent emotionalism.
Mr. Lehmann clearly has good reason to be envious. Let's hope he doesn't
try to cure it by going out and finding himself a Vivienne. Even with
one invested with the magical powers he's dreamed up, it wouldn't work.
Ken A
|