tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post5315741073009040024..comments2023-10-29T07:54:36.000+00:00Comments on georgiasam: Down With Poetsputhwuthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05606399161863289851noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post-30893490911259333012011-02-07T10:45:07.958+00:002011-02-07T10:45:07.958+00:00What do you make of Paterson's recent riposte ...What do you make of Paterson's recent riposte to Fowler in the TLS letters page?Mark Granierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09899629187771913398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post-60202398235801949162011-01-16T11:15:18.703+00:002011-01-16T11:15:18.703+00:00Hughes’s magnum opus is a slightly different case....Hughes’s magnum opus is a slightly different case. It’s such a bizarre book – undigested and indigestible – and probably more revealing about Hughes than it is about Shakespeare. But its flaws are born of over-zealousness rather than homework-failure. A heroic folly rather than a piece of skimping and blagging, then. It was assassinated when it came out, I remember, by John Carey. There is a letter about this in Christopher Reid’s edition of Hughes’s letters, in which the dying Hughes tried to patch things up with him while still standing his ground. The book has also never been reprinted, btw.puthwuthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05606399161863289851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post-30085561702294046912011-01-15T15:43:39.882+00:002011-01-15T15:43:39.882+00:00Is this a rule that extends to Hughes's book o...Is this a rule that extends to Hughes's book on Shakespeare too? I haven't actually read it so I ask out of curiosity more than anything. I saw a snippet from wor Don's book in The Guardian I think, and couldn't help thinking much the same thing. I daresay I wouldn't even consider dipping a toe into the shark infested critical waters of Shakespeare without at least familiarising myself with something of the mountains of work on him already. Maybe Paterson thought his relative poetic fame bought him exemption from the homework?<br />I always actually found it quite odd that scholars/critics with no creative work themselves could hold forth so convincingly, like eunuchs writing a sex tips column. But then, maybe they just have the good sense and humility not to try, having realised that scholarship and critical faculties aren't necessarily the same thing, something Harold Bloom's attempt at fiction might well attest to...Convectuosohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03637431598078348228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17085938.post-54914129423312075832011-01-13T23:50:05.848+00:002011-01-13T23:50:05.848+00:00Thanks for telling me about Corcoran’s book, sound...Thanks for telling me about Corcoran’s book, sounds brilliant. Unfortunately, it's over 55 Euro, at the cheapest, on Alibris (far more on Amazon). Maybe Ruth will have a reduced copy on her bargain table one of these days, or maybe I'll just give in and fork out.Mark Granierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09899629187771913398noreply@blogger.com