tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post6474305226692529775..comments2024-02-11T12:24:26.294-08:00Comments on The Compass Rose: CA Conrad and DIFFERENCECurtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-26469308148891893582012-05-25T13:37:37.569-07:002012-05-25T13:37:37.569-07:00Dear R.M. O'Brien:
Thanks for the comment.
T...Dear R.M. O'Brien:<br /><br />Thanks for the comment.<br /><br />The first response to this is to ask "have you read the book?" <br /><br />Book reviews typically are intended to send someone to the book, or to present an opinion or judgment about it for someone who is familiar with it. It's a combination of criticism and possible recommendation.<br /><br />CM Conrad's reputation was, until quite recently, an underground rumor. He was frequently mentioned on Silliman's Blog as an important up-and-coming poet in the Philadelphia area. Mr. Conrad himself makes no bones about his agenda, which is front and center on his own website, and in every comment or statement of his that I have seen online or in print. <br /><br />I was frankly curious to know what his work was like. As I mention, Jargon Press had been rumored to be going to publish his Frank Poems, but then it got delayed, and eventually came out under a different publisher. So I thought: Alright, I'll give it a shot, to see what the hoopla was about.<br /><br />My review is a frank response to his work, unclouded by any personal animosity or prejudice. I've never met the man, and it may well be that if I knew the man, my opinion of him--based solely on his work--my be somewhat different. But I was reviewing the book, not the man. <br /><br />In Conrad's case, however, the "man" is very much a part of the poetic persona the work presents. He (the author--the authorial voice--demands to be taken on terms which are radical, and in my view, somewhat confused. <br /><br />Any review copy which one finds in a bookstore is, by definition, discarded. If a reviewer finds s/he wants to keep a review copy, that would suggest that it's been retained. If sold within days of publication, I would venture to conclude that it's been discarded, perhaps just one more in a batch of such copies. <br /><br />Review copies--those issued as such by publishers--frequently do have value on the secondary market, despite their typical posted warning that they're not to be sold or traded. I would be the last person to suggest that they're somehow uniformly without value, or that going to used bookstores is a waste of time. I am, after all, an antiquarian bookseller myself.<br /><br />If you disagree with my assessment, then read the book yourself and offer a contrary opinion. <br /><br />Thanks.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-58552474976453900332012-05-21T07:45:34.637-07:002012-05-21T07:45:34.637-07:00This review is unfortunate. Too dismissive and jud...This review is unfortunate. Too dismissive and judgmental -- just plain mean in a personal way -- to be a real investigation of Conrad's poetry.<br /><br />So you found "a discarded review copy at a local used book emporium." Was it really "discarded"? Are you sure it wasn't sold? <br /><br />When I worked at a used book store, reviewers came in frequently, selling boxes full of review copies of books of every quality.<br /><br />Do you consider all of the books at a used book store to be "discarded"? Should I never even check those stores for good books because every book is bound to be bad because only "discarded" books wind up there?R.M. O'Brienhttp://youtube.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-17941362448064226352012-03-28T09:38:09.403-07:002012-03-28T09:38:09.403-07:00one of these days
I'mmmmmm
gonna be
come one...one of these days<br />I'mmmmmm<br />gonna be<br /><br />come one of ten<br /><br />Ecentricks<br /><br />&<br />burst full blown<br />upon the seen (scene)<br /><br />maybe even again<br />visit Philidelphia<br /><br />ring that Liberty Bell<br /><br />however, I wouldn't want to<br />die there.<br /><br />as for this Eileen Myles...<br /><br />what the hell does she know about Surrealism ?Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-42791321253490628812012-03-25T11:53:14.083-07:002012-03-25T11:53:14.083-07:00Fastest man on the draw!Fastest man on the draw!Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-56068741698996468172012-03-25T11:44:04.843-07:002012-03-25T11:44:04.843-07:00"The "Frank" of the poems is a pers..."The "Frank" of the poems is a personification without any specificity..."<br /><br />I'm tempted to see "Frank" in Frank Samperi whose theory of "difference" had been long articulated in Samperi's "Lamentations" (1964-65 unpublished diurnals), and is a primary principle of his entire poetics, and whom I know CA Conrad had not too long ago exuberantly praised.<br /><br />There is, of course, no nexus between CA Conrad's hilariously gay exuberance, almost too stale and overused these days to get much serious attention, and Samperi's own essentialist Dantean beliefs.<br /><br />As for CA Conrad's poetry, bloated, and just screaming for attention.Conrad DiDiodatohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312831623791642286noreply@blogger.com