-
Primary Values
I just ran across one of the most idiotic sentences that I’ve ever read: “There are 15 or 20 better poets in America than Tony Hoagland, but few deliver more pure pleasure.” (This the first line of Dwight Garner’s review of Tony Hoagland’s Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty.) What, I wonder, are we to think about those “better poets” who deliver less pleasure? (Perhaps some of these better poets deliver no pleasure at all.) Is Garner really going to argue that pleasure is a lesser value than … what? Edification? Mystification? Philosophical profundity? No no no.Read More