Monday, January 26, 2009

Ron (Silliman) and Me

I couldn't help but notice that Ron Silliman and I had nearly identical responses to the inaugural poem and Alexander's style of reading it.
Among the overlaps of taste and syntax, the notion of the "three poems of the inauguration.

Even certain sentences: From my blog posting: "Alexander's poem was not and is not a miserable failure, but I hoped for more; her reading style, however, the "MFA style" of slow-down.to.every.single.word. felt stilted and worlds away from the way in which we speak and speech." Ron's sentence from his (subsequent) post:"One of my sons, tho, who has heard quite a bit more poetry than most of my suburban friends, was more interested in Alexander’s stilted delivery which paused. After. Every. Word."

Why?

1) Ron Silliman is an outright plagiarist, the likes of which haven't been seen since T.S. Eliot and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
2) Ron Silliman and I think alike.
3) Ron Silliman and I are the same person.
4) Ron Silliman and I are heteronyms of Kent Johnson.
5) There is one poetry mind, and we plugged into the same cortical area.

The one that pleases and vexes me most is #2: Ron and I think alike. I can deal with the others.

2 comments:

Glenn Ingersoll said...

I bet neither you. Nor. Mr. Silliman. Was. The. First. To notate according to Alexander's reading style. I did it, too. Before I saw Silliman do it. Who was first? That, I couldn't say.

Philip Metres said...

Glenn, great minds think alike.